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Are you religious?

Discussion in 'Off-topic Discussion' started by Blackenglish2017, May 26, 2017.

  1. AlienOverlord

    AlienOverlord Fapstronaut

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    My view on this is that baptism is a personal commitment to follow Christ. To be baptized by water is an outward expression and testimony of this. If a child who is baptized doesn't understand it, then how is it valid? They are still innocent, their soul is not in peril.
     
  2. Mr Eko

    Mr Eko Fapstronaut

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    I'm religious and sober because of my faith. To be religious is for me to be sober. Nothing helped me to regain soberness besides of God so if anybody asks me why I am a believer I will answer - because I don't want to be a PMO addict.
    I regained my soberness without psychologists, therapists or any other people or support groups so the day when I lose my faith will be the day when my addictions come back.

    So you know now that I have no choice.
    Or in another words - I have choice to lose all through losing my faith.
     
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  3. johnsmith12345

    johnsmith12345 New Fapstronaut

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    No,all religions are same.
     
  4. skydragonroar

    skydragonroar Fapstronaut

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    I am fine with my religion. It's the people that can make you lose sight of what you believe. Once I realized that humans are imperfect I don't expect much. I do understand how someone can come to reject it though.
     
  5. Of course I am religious! It gives me strength, calmness and courage. My faith has helped me numerous times, it has made me take the right decisions. I am not letting it go.
     
  6. Buzz Lightyear

    Buzz Lightyear Fapstronaut

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    I am more interested in how people have come to disbelieve religion more than anything else. Personally, I believe that when we take a closer look at what we think we know, only then do we clear a space for religion to flourish. Until then, we're largely self-imprisoned by systems of our own making. The unexamined life is not worth living.
     
  7. thatoneguy123

    thatoneguy123 Fapstronaut

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    I say fuck all religions. How the flying fuck did existence come to exist ??????? 0_0 .. That's beyond any religion
     
  8. Nymeria

    Nymeria Fapstronaut

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    I believe in science and stardust!
     
  9. Bob Snider

    Bob Snider Fapstronaut

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  10. The purpose of baptism is not simply to make an outward sign of commitment, but to have one's soul freed from the guilt of original sin. Thus it is necessary for unbaptized adults and babies alike. It is not a matter of whether the child understands it. Children not yet having attained the age of reason are innocent of having committed any personal sins, but the same cannot be said concerning original sin, which is inherent in the human race.
     
  11. Alexhexvans

    Alexhexvans Fapstronaut

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    Im not religious BUT i wish i was and i think one day i will become a christian. Why? Well beacuse in my oppinion its great! You believe in something that will always save you from bad things, the culture! Do you like historycal movies/books? Well i do, i like "Vikings" and the serial is amazing, theres all about religion, i think its amazing.
     
  12. AlienOverlord

    AlienOverlord Fapstronaut

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    May I ask what denomination, if any, you follow? I'm non denominational myself.
     
  13. Spiff

    Spiff Fapstronaut

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    I respect your opinion, but this is too legalistic for me. We are redeemed through faith by grace, not by any ritual.
     
  14. _soul

    _soul Fapstronaut

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    I am a Catholic on paper, yes.

    No, I don't personally worship any supreme being or whatever.
    However I do believe in mother nature.
     
  15. Catholic, although the church is not a denomination. It preceded any denomination, and will be around when all sects have passed away.

    It would be better to use the word, 'definite.' If God instituted a religion on earth that did not set clear guidelines on how to save one's soul, then we would have cause to be dissatisfied. Tell me, who teaches that we are redeemed by faith alone? Our Lord did not found the church for no reason, and he himself underwent the ritual of baptism.
     
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  16. Spiff

    Spiff Fapstronaut

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    Paul teaches that we are redeemed by faith alone.

    Romans 3:21But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, 23for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.

    We are justified freely by grace through faith in Christ apart from any works or rituals.

    That being said - I believe in the unity of the body of Christ and have no interest in arguing with another Christian. I believe there is far more to be gained by Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant working together than being divided by doctrine. Far too much blood and destruction caused by this Catholic Protestant schism. I should have realized what I was doing when I posted that last comment and stayed quiet.
     
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  17. Buzz Lightyear

    Buzz Lightyear Fapstronaut

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    This is where Erasmus the great reformer, broke with Luther the revolutionary. There is always a dialogue between God and man as after all we are supposed to have a certain dignity being made in His image. The freedom and dignity of human nature is necessary to explain both the fall and a possible redemption [the world is a drama and not a machine]. Without it, God simply preordains and predetermines who is to be saved and who damned.... the horror, the horror! There is much we can not know of God, but there is something we can know of ourselves.

    Luther's view, as a doctor of theology, was the more belligerent and doctrinaire one which ruined Europe. Thanks to the absence of a powerful institution, Christianity has largely evaporated as a cultural force in most countries.

    It's sad to think that modern Christians tend to think in individual terms. It just reflects the world we live in I suppose.

    RE. the rituals of the Church, I do not think it should be set up as faith alone versus the rituals of the Church. The thinking here is one of binary opposition, one which independent, rationalistically minded theologians tend towards [oh, the irony of 'faith alone']. No, it's more helpful to think in terms of imaginative images; take the Jewish temple - at the center, in the holy of holies, would be the new faith, the surrounding holies would be the rituals of the church, and the outer courtyard Judaism itself, and perhaps the outer walls would consist of the Greco-Roman tradition as providentially conceived.
     
    Last edited: Jun 9, 2017
  18. Spiff

    Spiff Fapstronaut

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    I'm not sure if this is a good or bad thing. I'm sure you're aware of the horrors that result from earthly theocracies. The only theocracy I want to live under is the one with Jesus Christ on the throne.

    I'll admit a tendency towards Calvinistic thought, although I am young in my faith and still have much thinking to do. Am I wrong or didn't Augustine teach double predestination?

    Do you believe that without priest led sacraments I am not redeemed by the blood of Christ? I can't help but see the flaws in this reasoning and be sympathetic to the reformation.
     
    Last edited: Jun 9, 2017
  19. Buzz Lightyear

    Buzz Lightyear Fapstronaut

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    Once again this is reflecting a political frame of mind; either the world is secularized or it is a theocracy. You have on the one side a liberal world, and on the other a totalitarian one. In an Islamic state you will see a theocracy, but you never saw it when the Church was at the height of its power. Because there were many various forms of power over-lapping and inter-lacing in the tapestry of Europe. the Church always recognized a distinction between Church and State. What held all the political sates together, dispite their squabbles from time to time [until it all blew up in the 'Reformation'] was a common civilization.

    Of course the Church was never a perfect institution. No earthly institution ever could be. On the contrary, it was the idea of a perfect institution, and an unwillingness to recognize limits, that led to the rise of totalitarian states.
     
    Last edited: Jun 9, 2017
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  20. Buzz Lightyear

    Buzz Lightyear Fapstronaut

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    There may be something in Augustine that points to that. But I'm sure there would be other passages pointing in the opposite direction. Augustine was not a systematic thinker. He was a cultured urbane man with a Christian faith. Once again, I think it has to be an irony that Luther seized on some passages in Augustine, and wouldn't let them go like a dog sucking on a bone for all its worth. And also odd how Erasmus the great reformer modelled himself on St. Jerome, the austere desert monk, and yet would never break with the Church. Unity, after all, was one of the transcendentals next to truth, Beauty and Goodness. These provide for a rich tapestry of thought, next to which Truth alone just seems like the skeleton of a sketch.

    Who are we to know the mind of God? I have to say I believe in Providence, a sacred history through which God has revealed Himself, and the means of Redemption. I'd say the Church is part and parcel of that. It is all so much bigger than me, and my puny mind. Piety not pride is the approach for us to take in these matters.
     

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