[Closed] The First STW Religion Poll

Fair enough, Mol. Your perceived context is evidently somewhat deeper than mine. I have a fair bit of trouble remembering who said what. I [i]do[/i] remember that you like Priuses though... 😉

3 to 5. I dislike the hypocracy attached to some elements such ad " be nice" but that only applies if you are nice my way " sort of thing.
I like the stability that moderate religion brings to our world. Just cannot believe as blind faith, is to me, idiotic and the world around can't be proof as that takes faith. See above. I do like the honesty seen in many religions and the way people stick to their guns. What irks me is that many people, religious or not preach the ideas of consideration, care, equality etc for all and show this by being unjust. Eg if you really cared about fairness you won't moan if someone slags off gays or looks at a woman's are.
It can be freaky if you don't have a belief. How the hell do chemical compounds fly aircraft for example?

I do remember that you like Priuses though

Don't mock my beliefs 🙂

I dislike the hypocracy attached to some elements such ad " be nice" but that only applies if you are nice my way "

That's not what religion says though - make sure that you separate the two. If I build a shed in my garden and it falls down, is it the shed that was crap or my interpretation and execution of the instructions?

It's also on the back of years of abuse handed out by a baying majority on STW. Don't forget that bit.

Since I have no idea what you're alluding to, I can't even begin to remember it.

I find it amazing how people can be disparaging about something clearly important to someone, to their face, and then get all self righteous when that person gets upset

I find religious beliefs and stories fascinating, but also I'm repulsed by the sectarianism, the religious hate, the wars, the oppression of women and gay people.

I'd hope everyone would be repulsed by sectarianism, religious hate, wars, and the oppression of women and gay people.

3 or 4. Then maybe 2 or 1. Definitely not 5. Cannot stand the "I'm so clever and much better than you" attitudes of the majority of the vocal atheist types that seem to pop up on the internet

The location & meaning of Santa Cruz is "Sacred Cross"

That's not what religion says though

So well done on your great shed, and I personally respect your semi permenent garden structure building skills. But you'll have to excuse me if I think that's largely down to you being a good erector who knows what's right and wrong when it comes to building tool stores, rather down to those bloody awful instructions from Abe's Sheds. I've seen a fair few people interpret those shed instructions a lot more litterally than you have, and their sheds are terrible.

Cannot stand the "I'm so clever and much better than you" attitudes of the majority of the vocal atheist types that seem to pop up on the internet

I'm offended!

*flounces*

Now that's how you're offensive about religious people...

Yet it is not removed - of course there are no double standards.

@v8ninety BEAUTIFUL

t's also on the back of years of abuse handed out by a baying majority on STW.

Remember Binners vegan thread when he gave a vegan kids meat - you think I liked the STW answer and felt respected?Its what STW does and none of our special beliefs about sky fairies or not harming animals are so sacrosanct that folk wont be "mean" about them

Personally i find you being offended on behalf of folk you disagree with preposterous, irksome and your arguments intellectually dire and woefully argued- trust me i did theology folk who believe are way more convincing and knowledgeable than you are. I assume this view "upsets" you but what you do "upsets" me so we are even.

Yet it is not removed - of course there are no double standards.

It's even possibly quite a justifiable if extreme opinion, in pure logic terms, and there's absolutely NOTHING wrong with having a mental illness anyway, so it shouldn't even be offensive. It's like someone saying; "looks like you've broken your arm mate" when actually an X-ray reveals that you've just it a funny shaped arm. Or something.

you being offended on behalf of folk you disagree with

I'm not offended on behalf of anyone.

I think it's poor behaviour.

but only by ignoring the bits in the instructions that said thing like "burn the heretics" "marry the woman you rape, and pay her dad off and it'll be okay" and "gay people are proper wrong'uns hmm'kay?"

Your lack of understanding would appear to betray you, I think.

and there's absolutely NOTHING wrong with having a mental illness anyway, so it shouldn't even be offensive.

Ah no, you miss the point. It's not offensive to be called mentally ill; it's offensive to have something you have chosen and hold dear described as a mental illness. And yes that has happened to me.

Can't believe I have to explain this. Do you lot have Asperger's Syndrome or something?

because it's an opinion, on a thread asking for opinions. Funny that.

So if someone said being gay is a mental illness that would be fine - or saying the black people are mentally retarded that you be ok too? Afterall, they are only opinions.

Do you lot have Asperger's Syndrome or something?

😀

Can't believe I have to explain this. Do you lot have Asperger's Syndrome or something?

As someone who's been told he's on the Asperger's spectrum, I find that deeply personally offensive.

Only kidding 😉

Do you lot have Asperger's Syndrome or something?

Your lack of understanding would appear to betray you, I think.

5 .
Blokes with beards done sit on clouds creating worlds and all living things , they ride singlespeed bikes and drink beer .

Your lack of understanding would appear to betray you

How many quotes do you want

Ok here goes just for molly
"'If a man has sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They are to be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads.

"If a man commits adultery with his neighbor's wife, both the man and the woman who have committed adultery must be put to death.

to be married and rapes her and they are discovered, he shall pay her father fifty shekels of. ... He must marry the young woman, for he has violated her.

You are lamentably poor at this as your knowledge of the book is risible

So if someone said being gay is a mental illness that would be fine - or saying the black people are mentally retarded that you be ok too?

Not going to touch on the mental illness comparison (because I don't think it's true) but there is an interesting point here which Molgrips also alluded to. You're not born religious, the way you're born gay or black, you choose to be religious.

It's like choosing to buy an Audi, then getting deeply personally offended at people slagging off Audi drivers.

@Mefty
Putting religion in the same category as being being gay or black is patently ridiculous; religion is an irrational (in the strictest, non offensive sense) belief, the other two are unchangeable characteristics that describe individuals.

People change their religious status, they don't change their skin tone or their sexuality.

Mmm, 2.5 probably?

t's offensive to have something you have chosen and hold dear described as a mental illness

It is but the DSMV - the manual for the diagnosis of mental illness actually has to add a caveat or holding of religious beliefs would trigger it and the caveat is " culturally accepted beliefs"
True that

Delusion. A false belief based on incorrect inference about external reality that is firmly sustained despite what almost everyone else believes and despite what constitutes incontrovertible and obvious proof or evidence to the contrary. The belief is not one ordinarily accepted by other members of the person's culture or subculture (e.g., it is not an article of religious faith). When a false belief involves a value judgment, it is regarded as a delusion only when the judgment is so extreme as to defy credibility.

I do not think that all religious folk are mentally ill as that is daft but what do we call folk who "chat or get guidance or feel the presence of a thing that does not exist? If its not religious we call them mentally ill. IMHO its just insulting to bring this up on a religious thread so i add this as information only.

You are lamentably poor at this as your knowledge of the book is risible

you choose to be religious

I guess some people choose to be religious. For others, they don't have the choice.

religion is an irrational (in the strictest, non offensive sense) belief

To be fair I think shagging another bloke is irrational. I wouldn't do it. No offence intended.

How many quotes do you want

None.

Quotes mean nothing without context. By which I mean the interpretation provided by centuries of study.

The Bible is not the whole of Christianity. You are lamentably poor at this...

To be fair I think shagging another bloke is irrational.

I guess some people choose to be religious. For others, they don't have the choice

This is true - I could be killed for being an atheist in a number of countries. But someone brought up in, say, Saudi Arabia could move to the UK and become atheist. They couldn't change their sexual orientation. The lack of choice is an external construct imposed by religious authorities, not something intrinsic to that person.

5.

For those that get offeneded by non beleivers criticisms of their religion, does that not mean you lack faith?For if your faith is true then it doesn't matter what anyone says you will ascend to heaven and they will face purgatory or hell so there is no reason for taking offence whatsoever, you may as be offended by the sound of a dog yapping for all the difference it will make your afterlife. The fact you feel offence means you are either unsure of your belief and you need the reassurance of all around you to confirm your lifestyle bias, or you are a zealot.

The Bible is not the whole of Christianity. You are lamentably poor at this...

4. With egg fried rice.

To be fair though, it's kind of a fact that Christianity kinda, you know, wouldn't exist without the bible.

Disagree. I think it did, at first, didn't it? It's not as if someone sat down and wrote it then circulated it attracting believers? Or are you confusing it with the Book of Mormon...?

4, my MIL is a Jehova's Witness, lovely woman.

Unless we're talking about religious schools, when I'm a 5. I even start swearing about it.

5.

I guess some people choose to be religious. For others, they don't have the choice

This is true...

5.
[i]
What follows is an opinion. It's not aimed at anyone in particular or intended to be offensive but I'm sure it will be taken that way by some.[/i]

I find the concept of religion utterly ludicrous, and I can't comprehend that any intelligent adult would entertain what seems so obvious to me to be rubbish. I'm also of the opinion that religion is far more of a force for bad than good in the world, regardless of whether it's "true" or not. Although it's probably fair to say that in the absence of religion humanity would just have figured out some other way to justify being shits to each other.

I fully support people's right to a religion, you can believe what you want. But don't ask me to respect your beliefs, because I think they're nonsense. Just because you think it's important it doesn't mean it should be elevated to some special status ahead of what other people believe in. I can respect a person but not a belief.

Putting religion in the same category as being being gay or black is patently ridiculous

Yet we have discrimination laws in this country that pretty much do that.

I am also pretty sure that the question as to whether one is born gay is not settled, there are some studies that suggest there may be a gay gene but they are not conclusive. The good thing is that whether it is the case or not, you are protected by the law.

To be fair though, it's kind of a fact that Christianity kinda, you know, wouldn't exist without the bible.

Not true. The bible as we know it was not compiled until the fourth century. Apostolic tradition was the primary authority for the first 300 years.

[b]I can't comprehend[/b] that any intelligent adult would entertain what seems so obvious to me to be rubbish

Their failing or yours?

Semantics. I also can't comprehend why some people like to have sex with horses. Is that their failing or mine? Or should I just respect their beliefs...

This is fun, but I get the sense that my proposed 'number option system' has failed. 😛

yep. It lasted a good few pages though so well done. It's so difficult not to get drawn in

Yet we have discrimination laws in this country that pretty much do that.

Seriously though; if you think about it, that's more to do with historic inertia and the difficulty in arguing against a law that protects any group of people from abuse, than any kind of logic whatsoever. I'd rather they replaced 'religious' with ginger' in that specific piece of legistlation; at least that would be protecting people who had no choice in their genetics.

Semantics

Hardly. The rhetorical form 'I can't understand why anyone would do X' is another way of saying 'X is stupid'. Where as the actual enquiring version is a genuine question and a wish to learn.

I also can't comprehend why some people like to have sex with [s]horses[/s] members of their own sex. Is that their failing or mine? Or should I just respect their beliefs

Yes.

In other words, don't judge what you don't understand.

This is fun, but I get the sense that my proposed 'number option system' has failed.

You've still got time to compile the results before they delete the thread. Not much, though.