Religion general

I don’t get why so many Pagans act hostile towards Christianity when their religion is just as prone to being misused as Christianity is.

Because most of us grew up in heavily Christian areas that treated us like devil worshippers.

That, and there’s a bit of a disconnect when it comes to misuses. When the Odinists of that one major heathen group went full white supremacist, they were effectively ostracized from the greater North American heathen collective. Meanwhile, organizations like the Christian Identity Movement, a group of white nationalist/Christian nation activists are often embraced by the greater NA Christian community.

We toss our bad eggs in the dumpster, for the most part, while “bad Christians” get more of a pass by dint of being mainstream.

@Zincy
From what I’ve seen, most pagans and Heathens are pretty quick to denounce the people who appropriate their religion as a means to spread hate. But, so are a lot of Christians.

I’m an atheist myself but I think their is good in most religions, be it Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Paganism, Buddhism, ect. I find faith pretty interesting even if I don’t believe in it myself.

The only religion I dislike is Satanism because it basically teaches people to be selfish assholes with no empathy for others.

pah

how do you know I’m not interested in learning about other people’s beliefs also I wasn’t trying to engage in “sophistry” or whatever. I just typed what I was thinking at the moment that’s all; it’s not that complicated.

I’ve been reading the story of Gilgamesh and mesopotamian religion is so fascinating. Since Abraham originally comes from Ur, a land of mesopotamia, you start to get this idea of things being connected.

sorry

It’s okay, I was mad when I made the post didn’t intended for it to come across as hostel.

Tbf it is a valid question. The Christian God does seem a bit of a jealous asshat, more akin to the gods of Greece than his own “Son”. Who was, by all accounts, rather nice.

Fsfmo

@pixel
As long as you’re just a good considerate person I don’t think God would care about the few oddities that people have. Some of the rules that God list aren’t even that hard to do.

I beg to differ. Given that the bible lists quite a few disqualifying reasons. However, let’s analyze this from the perspective of why would hell even have to exist.

Why have hell in the first place? If God is all powerful and all knowing, why create such a place instead of simply creating means to “reach” heaven in a variety of ways. Surely an all powerful God can construe ways to not need hell while also preserving free will yes? If he truly wanted all his creations there he would easily be able to do so, being omnipotent nothing should be beyond his reach.

We are left with two obvious possibilities.

Which leads to the “plan”.

God has a “plan” right? So, if you are hell bound than that is part of gods plan. Because God is both omnipotent and omnipresent, and his plan would be perfect by dint of that. Free will cannot be above gods plan, and no free will can run counter to that plan, as then the plan would not be omnipotent and omnipresent. Because if someone were able to “choose” (in your words) to go to hell, but Gods plan was for them to go to heaven, then that individual would have had the ability to usurp gods order. In order for his plan to be perfect, free will cannot technically exist, as any will that could defy gods plan would render it imperfect. A plan where deviation is possibly by a 3rd party is not perfect.

So we once again have two possibilities.

So, either God is an imperfect being with an imperfect plan, or he is a perfect being who is willing to allow a portion of his creation to suffer eternal damnation.

God “loves you” so much he’s willing to put you in a place to suffer unendingly instead of, idk, making a place where you can just be you?

Let us also consider that several lifestyle choices have been claimed, by Christians to send you to hell.

Do you believe that being gay is a sin? And if you believe so is it a sin comparable to murder?

Are some sins more worse than others? Is it a point system? Is worshipping Jesus a get out of jail free card? If I’m a good person, what’s the sin threshold? If I’m a bad person, whats the good deed threshold? Do I need to do a certain number of acts, or just some nebulous “be good” edict?

If he loves you, why send you to suffer at all? He could easily make a place where people can just be away from him and leave it at that. No, he specifically designed a place for people to suffer. Not to learn, or improve, or be content. To suffer, unendingly, pointlessly. How does that jive with your position on gods love?

These are questions that need answers. And no I will not accept “God works in mysterious ways”. Be able to defend your philosophy or don’t try and pretend it’s the “right” way. An indefensible position is not one worth taking.

Hell as a place of eternal torture for those who oppose God’s law could just be an invention of religious and political hustlers to scare and control primitive people, for all we know. That kind of fearmongering has no place in the 21st century, as far as I’m concerned.

I find it funny that the Bible has it’s own canon story line. Because it’s been edited so much, I’m more inclined to believe the Torah or the Qur’an, even then the Qur’an doesn’t make any sense in terms of the after life. Why would dead people care about having 72 virgins.

meh

Bobbing and weaving with nary a punch, great if your opponent is a swinging ball on a rope but not so good in an actual debate.

Also, that last part, I don’t think it’s quite the hit you think it is. I see what you were trying to do, and it had the potential to be clever, but fell flat due to prematurity. It would have worked if you had challenged my position and then backed me into a corner, causing me to resort to suppositions or fallacies in order to keep my argument afloat. Thus meaning I would have been in an indefensible position. But, you jumped the gun and didn’t even let me actually articulate my actual philosophy outside of socratic questioning of yours. So, we never got to establish the parameters of my philosophical position. One I would have gladly shared, had you actually cared for it. Which you just established that you do not.

Instead, you bitched out because you took my questioning of your beliefs too personally rather than out right try and defend them, or even really try and counter me.

Don’t try and throw around your weight if you ain’t willing to actually debate. You went after me and Hali when we voiced opinions, quite forcefully I may add, and then pussed out when one of us hit back.

Thems the breaks kid, people are going to challange you. Either learn to defend yourself, or stay out of the fray.

Hell, my response was pretty tame to. I didn’t insult you or anything, just listed questions and theories.

Can we talk about how Kami is the shittest god on the DB totem pole?

“Guardian of Earth” that got jobbed in every fight he ever had against threats to the planet.

@Zincy
Kibito is worse.

Aphrodite (aka Venus) is my deity.

WTF

THE BIBLE COPIED THE GREAT FLOOD FROM THE EPIC OF GILGAMESH

.