Pigg said

Sean Law said

TJlette said
So anyways, wtf happened with this God thread? I was enjoying the discussion…

Well hello. I’m Sean law. I’m the resident hunk. Are you familiar with emails? And nsfw?

She’s been a member longer than you. And do you let your wife get nsfw emails

from dudes on forums she visits? Fair is fair.

i hope so. i have a thing for asian women. 

sup sean. can i get yo wifes email?

RobTidwell said

TJlette said
So anyways, wtf happened with this God thread? I was enjoying the discussion…

sorry, my bad. I only meant to emphasize how good American Gods is. 

I was really enjoying the religious talk, too. So where do you stand on the issue of God?

What exactly is an american god? I remember reading earlier that you went to church, i didnt know there were churches (forgive my rudness) that accepted gay people. i mean if you hide it from your church then that seems like your going against the grain of the whole thing. but if your church is accepting of it, well im curious about your church.

I believe that (i havent read fuck all of the thread, tldr you know) religion is central to like 90% of the evil in the world. i beleive in god, but i dont believe i am a sinner and i dont believe i need to goto church every sunday to pray to god.

i leave him alone and he lets me keep on keepin on. we have a good relationship. 

I always used to get religious people (the ones that pester you uin the street or come to your door) about going to hell with this little anecdote.

So there is a little chinese man in provincial China who grows rice for a living. he has never heard of religion nor of god, the only thing he knows is rice. he has a wife and 4 children who help him tend his rice fields. he is a good man, he never cheats anyone who buys his rice, is always good and kinds and treats his family very well as well as providing for them and always making sure they have food and shelter.

One day this man is struck dead by a snake bite while he is harvesting rice. where does he go?

He has never been given the chance to believe in god. he doesnt worship god. so does he goto hell by default because he never worshiped something he never understood?

yeah most religious people stumble over that. because i say what ahppens if i dont know about god. hahaha

i love it.

Pigg said
My mics busted so I wouldn’t even be able to defend myself. It’s like taking NSFW pictures from a college girl. Or candy from a baby. Or NSFW pics of a baby… But I digress.

I’m not taking the bait. But it makes me smile that you try

Pigg said
I’m sorry, I can’t say “I hope your wife and kids get killed” because I know that if it happens, even though I wouldn’t have actually caused it, I would feel like shit.

Oh,   nevermind. Its off.  Ya had you chance to be famous

Pigg said

Sean Law said

Pigg said
I’m sorry, I can’t say “I hope your wife and kids get killed” because I know that if it happens, even though I wouldn’t have actually caused it, I would feel like shit.

Oh,   nevermind. Its off.  Ya had you chance to be famous

My conscience is more important to me.

its like calling out of work, saying you had a death in the family, and then it becomes reality.

Novocaine, That Aussie Asshole said

Pigg said

Sean Law said

TJlette said
So anyways, wtf happened with this God thread? I was enjoying the discussion…

Well hello. I’m Sean law. I’m the resident hunk. Are you familiar with emails? And nsfw?

She’s been a member longer than you. And do you let your wife get nsfw emails

from dudes on forums she visits? Fair is fair.

i hope so. i have a thing for asian women. 

sup sean. can i get yo wifes email?

 

RobTidwell said

TJlette said
So anyways, wtf happened with this God thread? I was enjoying the discussion…

sorry, my bad. I only meant to emphasize how good American Gods is. 

I was really enjoying the religious talk, too. So where do you stand on the issue of God?

What exactly is an american god? I remember reading earlier that you went to church, i didnt know there were churches (forgive my rudness) that accepted gay people. i mean if you hide it from your church then that seems like your going against the grain of the whole thing. but if your church is accepting of it, well im curious about your church.

I believe that (i havent read fuck all of the thread, tldr you know) religion is central to like 90% of the evil in the world. i beleive in god, but i dont believe i am a sinner and i dont believe i need to goto church every sunday to pray to god.

 

i leave him alone and he lets me keep on keepin on. we have a good relationship. 

 

I always used to get religious people (the ones that pester you uin the street or come to your door) about going to hell with this little anecdote.

 

So there is a little chinese man in provincial China who grows rice for a living. he has never heard of religion nor of god, the only thing he knows is rice. he has a wife and 4 children who help him tend his rice fields. he is a good man, he never cheats anyone who buys his rice, is always good and kinds and treats his family very well as well as providing for them and always making sure they have food and shelter.

 

One day this man is struck dead by a snake bite while he is harvesting rice. where does he go?

He has never been given the chance to believe in god. he doesnt worship god. so does he goto hell by default because he never worshiped something he never understood?

 

yeah most religious people stumble over that. because i say what ahppens if i dont know about god. hahaha

i love it.

I think someone else answered it but the gist is that there is no such thing as an American God. America is a land without gods because it is too vast and empty. All the gods come with all the people and they die out. it’s a fantastic novel that mostly focuses on the nordic god Odin but it has egyptian mythology and some others as well.

I attend a Unitarian Universalist church. Most people haven’t heard of us but we’re fairly large and have existed for a long time. Even many of our early presidents were UUs and one UU even ran in the last two presidential elections but was defeated because democrats were like “this guy is nuts and wants to give everybody free money.” We’re staunchly liberal. I would even say aggressively liberal. We don’t have commandments or believe that an afterlife of punishment awaits nonbelievers or evil doers in the afterlife. Our beliefs are in principles by which we live our lives. Our first principle, something I would say we try to believe but is hard to always remember, is that ALL people have inherent worth and dignity. Every single one. Even the ones we don’t like. And we always try to honor that. We are not merely accepting of gay people but we believe that the rich complexity of the human experience is an extension of divinity in a way and that all people, such as the LGBT community, help make the human experience better simply for being part of it. 

The reverend at my church is polyamorous (is in long term, committed but nonmonogamous relationships with multiple people at one time) and bisexual (attracted to the same gender and different genders). 

Oh, and if you asked someone of my religion the question about the Chinese man, you would probably get an answer like this:

Heaven and hell do not exist as physical planes of existence. There is no one or the other. They are at best ways in which we live and how we relate to each other. This man lived a life in heaven and his reward for kindness was the love that he received and the beauty that he saw in life.

Y’all bear with me through this, I’ll try not to ramble too much.

In ancient Hebrew texts, it says the righteous & wicked alike are committed to “Sheol”, a place devoid of everything up to, and including the prescence of God. Later, this place was interpreted as being synonymous with “Hades” due to a Greek translation. It’s highly likely that “Sheol” is your grave, not an afterlife in a physical place. This leads me to believe our concept of God, and afterlife is mostly metaphorical, if not entirely. My dad was without a pulse on an operating table for several minutes, and spoke of the standard out-of-body experience. However, he also said he eventually went into nothingness. A guy asked him “Oh, so you mean it was just black everywhere?” My dad responded with “No, I mean there was nothing. No me, no anything. I was dead.” I do find his awareness of the nothing a bit confusing, but I’ve heard similar stories from others. “It was just… lights on, lights off. Then I came back, lights back on.” said a friend who briefly passed as a child. Some say that the dead remain that way (in darkness, Sheol as it were) until the “second coming” while others say we repeat lives until we get it right, eventually ascending into our purest form. That form is love, and light; the same things God is made from. This could suggest the possibility that “returning to your creator / meeting your maker” is somewhat literal, or perhaps a metaphor for reincarnation.

Regardless of whether you believe or not, the narrative is rife with metaphor, and up to interpretation. Personally, I like the idea that we should make a conscious effort to be kind to each other, and at their cores, I feel that religions tried to teach that before being corrupted by people. If you need a book to learn to not be an asshole, I say read on. Live, and let live as peacefully as possible.