What are some misconceptions about your religion?

[Srassy]

Well, yes, because there's no evidence to support it. Credible science magazines wouldn't print such a thing.
I know what you're getting at though, i.e. that sometimes scientific bias can be as dogmatic as religion, and I agree with you there (our prof told us of such cases in molecular genetics, unfortunately I can't remember the details to give them as examples).
Dogma (no matter whether it's religious, scientific, political or whatever) is generally hindering progress and should be done away with.

That may be true but I don't think there is enough evidence in the world to convince a narrow-minded zealot (such as myself. ) that what I believe is false. I don't think there is anything else we can discuss but I thank you because I quite enjoyed talking to someone over the internet without it being a large flame war.

First impression of site = pretty darn good.

Keep staying awesome Skeleon.

 

[Bored Tomatoe]

That I hate all other religions because I don't believe in a God or Gods. I personally love the philosophies of Buddhism and Taoism, and find most of theology fascinating from a cultural standpoint, I just don't think that it has much of a practical application if followed literally.

 

[Skeleon]

Well, I'm not trying to change your faith, after all.
That's the beauty of belief, it works without evidence in its own right and it has its own strengths.
I just wish people made the distinction between it and science more clearly.

Keep staying awesome Skeleon.

Well, thanks, the same to you.

 

[Superhyperactiveman]

Christianity-

We do not take a large chunk of the Bible literally. Unless we're fundamentalist, which most of us aren't, we accept a lot of it, especially the stuff in Genesis and Revelations, as being figurative: a metaphor. So, Creation, Noah's Ark, the Tower of Babel... most of us admit that things didn't exactly happen this way.

We do not reject evolution... Let me say that again... WE DO NOT REJECT EVOLUTION!!! Except for, again, the fundamentalists. What we reject is the idea that Humans evolved out of monkies. Because, this implies that humans are not spiritual beings created in the image of God, but that we're a random accident like all the other animals.

Okay...I don't even know how to word a response because I'm so taken aback...

This man is wrong. That's all that needs to be said.

I don't know if you're saying I'm wrong because you're Christian or not, but I assure you that the only people who believe in the Bible literally and completely reject evolution are fundamentalist: people who base their understanding of God entirely on faith, without reason. Most of us will admit that doesn't make sense when confronted with that, and we accept it.

If that is what you believe, then you are not Christian. There is no picking and choosing which parts of the Bible you want to believe if you are truly Christian.

Yes, I am a Christian. I follow Jesus's teachings, and believe he is the incarnation/avatar of God. That maens I'm a Christian. But, I base my view of the world on a combination of reason and faith. What you're describing is fundamentalism: basing your view of the world on faith alone. That's not to say you don't have or use reason, you just don't use reason to decide what you believe. You use reason to explain your view of the world based on faith.

If you think logically, a lot of the stuff in the Bible makes little to no sense if it's interpretted literally. Look at the Tower of Babel. All the world's languages exist because God didn't want people to build a tower? If that's true, why are there native languages? Wouldn't the languages be dispersed through the world evenly, rather than culminating in and being spread out over specific areas? That would defeat the purpose, because the people could still understand each other. On that note, why did everyone get their language messed up? Why wouldn't God just tounge-blast the people building the tower? And a lot of languages are EXTREMELY similar to each other. Even with different languages, the people could've understood each other enough to have finished building the tower. And why doesn't God tongue-blast us whenever we try to build something bigger than a small hut? And how did we learn each other's languages if God didn't want us to? That story didn't really happen. It's a metaphor about not being prideful. If you take everything in the Bible completely literally, you miss a large number of its key points. I'm not trying to insult you, I just want to prove a point. I'm sure you're a very good and holy person, and that you will not be insulted by this, overreact, and start a flame war of proportions most epic.

 

[Superhyperactiveman]

As a good rule of thumb, if you ever find yourself typing about a religion you don't follow, you're doing it wrong. Only type about your own religious beliefs.

That's a pretty lousy rule of thumb, since it implies that if you don't believe in the religion in question then you're not allowed to speak of it.

I know more about christianity and the bible than most christians do, yet by your reasoning I should refrain from saying anything about christianity.

That's a bit anti-intellectual, and therefor a lousy rule of thumb.

So did you mean this as an advice for this thread only, or as an advice in general?

No, you misinterpretted the rule a little bit there. What I mean is, don't state opinions about other religions. You can talk about other religions, but only if A. It's a FACT (I.E. something that is emphatically true, has been proven so by studies or is a direct quote from the religion's scripture) and B. It is necessary to explain the misconception about your own belief.

Basically, it's just a rule for the forum. It's to keep the people immature enough to start a flame war if left unchecked, but mature enough to recognize the rule and respect it, from starting a flame war. So, you could say,

"Christians, in my experience, think that because I don't believe in God, I hate religion, but that is not true. I just don't care for it"

but you couldn't say

"Christians are such idiots for thinking that I hate religion just because I don't believe in God. Man I hate those intolerant assholes!"

Understand now?

 

[Hexadecimal]

I'm a Muslim. And God knows how many misconceptions people hold against us, seriously.

Let's start with the suicide bomber notion. I know that most of the people here aren't morons and therefore understand that most of the Muslim population believes that strapping a bomb to yourself and running into a crowd is extreme and pretty un-Muslim.

Allah tells us to protect human life and take good care of it, including our own. It's a gift from God that I'm alive today. This is why we are not permitted to drink or eat pork, because the Quran dictates that these things are bad for your body. Suicide bombers are effectively destroying this rule by killing themselves in order to 'cleanse' the world of 'heretics'.

Um. Feel free to ask questions? I don't know how these things go.

Not out of disrespect or anything other than pure curiosity, can somebody explain the whole 'Pork is evil and bad for your body' thing?
Because there are loads of people out there with that view (or any other that prevents people from eating delicious, delicious pork), including my spiritual kinsmen (although they'd probably look down on me as the most failed Jew ever), and I've never really got it. I doubt it's a medical thing, because that would be retarded (no ill effects in anyone that eats pork, including myself, except maybe obesity from overindulgence but that's from everything else too anyway, so that's kind of a null point), so what is it?

To be honest, I'm not sure. My mom tells me that pork is just generally considered bad for you because it has some kind of worm in it. I never really looked into it. I've also heard some people justifying the no pork rule by saying that pigs are considered filthy animals because they roll around in their own crap or something like that.

Either way, I don't mind not eating pork because I've never tried it before.

The worm thing is bullshit (or, more topically, pigshit). Agreed, rolling around in your own crap is disgusting, but that's what washing is for. Also, you're missing out. Pork is delicious, and I couldn't live without it

Eh. I don't really care. It's just easier to avoid it and thus avoid scrutiny from my parents or whatever. Plus, I've always been taught that pork is filthy so I just automatically stay away from it because I've been warned against it so many times. It's become like a reflex.

It does get annoying when I go to Europe, though, because I have to constantly make sure that whatever I'm eating has no pork in it.

 

[Nigh Invulnerable]

but I'm all for homosexuality.

fag...

sorry :O just had to say that

Dont be sorry just dont say it, that is extremeley offensive. You should simply edit your post to say otherwise.

It's a joke. Chill. People taking things too seriously is what is truly wrong with the world. My personal utopia is a place where people can think different things and make fun of each other without fear of someone crying, "Political Correctness!"

 

[Nox......]

I was raised a cradle brethern (meaning I was taught the belief of that denomination but never went to church) then my father remarried and I started going to a catholic church and I remember my stepmom telling me that women were the source of all evil because eve ate the forbidden fruit and so on and so forth so that was the final nail in the coffin for my christianity

The problem is never the Bible, but rather that the everyday person reading it, well, they're almost always wrong and not thinking about it. If Eve and Adam weren't supposed to eat the fruit, why the hell would there be a fruit even there? Simplest solution? They were always meant to eat it.

People read the Bible to meet their needs. The Bible has been used to attack every minority in existence, and usually these passages are ridiculously interpretated poorly. Humans are stupid, end of story xD

i agree with the fruit yes why put it there if you dont want them to eat it

 

[Lexodus]

I'm a Muslim. And God knows how many misconceptions people hold against us, seriously.

Let's start with the suicide bomber notion. I know that most of the people here aren't morons and therefore understand that most of the Muslim population believes that strapping a bomb to yourself and running into a crowd is extreme and pretty un-Muslim.

Allah tells us to protect human life and take good care of it, including our own. It's a gift from God that I'm alive today. This is why we are not permitted to drink or eat pork, because the Quran dictates that these things are bad for your body. Suicide bombers are effectively destroying this rule by killing themselves in order to 'cleanse' the world of 'heretics'.

Um. Feel free to ask questions? I don't know how these things go.

Not out of disrespect or anything other than pure curiosity, can somebody explain the whole 'Pork is evil and bad for your body' thing?
Because there are loads of people out there with that view (or any other that prevents people from eating delicious, delicious pork), including my spiritual kinsmen (although they'd probably look down on me as the most failed Jew ever), and I've never really got it. I doubt it's a medical thing, because that would be retarded (no ill effects in anyone that eats pork, including myself, except maybe obesity from overindulgence but that's from everything else too anyway, so that's kind of a null point), so what is it?

To be honest, I'm not sure. My mom tells me that pork is just generally considered bad for you because it has some kind of worm in it. I never really looked into it. I've also heard some people justifying the no pork rule by saying that pigs are considered filthy animals because they roll around in their own crap or something like that.

Either way, I don't mind not eating pork because I've never tried it before.

The worm thing is bullshit (or, more topically, pigshit). Agreed, rolling around in your own crap is disgusting, but that's what washing is for. Also, you're missing out. Pork is delicious, and I couldn't live without it

Eh. I don't really care. It's just easier to avoid it and thus avoid scrutiny from my parents or whatever. Plus, I've always been taught that pork is filthy so I just automatically stay away from it because I've been warned against it so many times. It's become like a reflex.

It does get annoying when I go to Europe, though, because I have to constantly make sure that whatever I'm eating has no pork in it.

I hear that. I have a ton of vegetarian friends, whom I love to pieces, but it's so difficult to go out together because of all the stuff we have to avoid.

 

[Nox......]

A common misconception about Discordians is that we have to build functional bowling alleys out of hot dog buns on Fridays. That's not true, that is just a tradition that has taken hold with some orthodox Erisians and not an obligation at all.

umm whats a discordian ive never heard of this before you mean as in the greek goddess of discord?

 

[Nox......]

Another intersting fact: Apparently, he could touch his palms to his knee-caps, while standing up, without bending over...

Darn long arms! O_O

or short legs

 

[Nox......]

That I actually belong to an organized religion. I have my own religion. If anyone makes an organized religion out of that, I'll convert.

Im in that same boat

 

[Elexia]

I'm Wiccan, a polytheistic spirituality/religion that involves most practitioners pactising witchcraft. So in essence, I am a witch. Wicca promotes positive actions and our Rede, which is similar to commandments, tells us to harm no one. Still, I understand the misconception of Witches and Pagans in the Western world so unless someone is willing to inquire about my religion, I don't talk about it much.

I work at a high school in an intently christian country town and I'm not allowed to promote my beliefs which sort of puts me in a frustrating position, considering the Lutheran church gave bibles to the kids a couple months ago and taught them about it. Some students I teach have researched Wicca on their own interests and discovered what witchcraft is really like, rather than how it's popularised as in media and Hollywood, through studying Macbeth, The Crucible and the Renaissance in their subjects.

 

[Cakes]

Number 1. What's with the athiests posting here? Athiesism ISN'T a religion, it's the lack of it.

Wow...congratulations. You're one of the few people who actually has some idea what the word "Atheism" means. Usually we go round-and-round in circles trying to get it through. Oh, and we post here, or rather I post here personally, because
a) I have an interest in religion
b) Atheism relates to religion, though not being a religion itself
c) Because why not

Number 2, it's that all Christians are blind, zealous followers of everything they hear from their Bible. Most are, yes, but some aren't, and the stereotypes are incredibly stupid on the internet.

No, I'm aware that reasonable Christians exist. Though, the only observant Christian I know is an absolute tool. As in, a kid who robbed his own house, on the logic his parents wouldn't know it's him. Christ...

I relate COMPLETELY. Half the athiests (99.99999999% of them are the asshat KEEL ALL JOU BASTERD CHRISTIANZ!) don't even know what the Old Testament is.

Really? I didn't know that. Huh. Did you know that 99.9999999% of all Christians are complete dumbasses, who believe in Creationism and blindly follow EVERYTHING in the Bible? Yeah, no. Don't generalize please. I have read the bible actually, as well as the Koran, Bhagavad Gita, Tao Te Ching, all that good shit. I have, however, noticed that a lot of Christians have never read the Bible either, and have very little understanding of the religion they purport to practice.

 

[FallenRainbows]

That it's a religion ~ Atheist.

 

[Megacherv]

Also, because we have a Nazi Pope.

Okay, I've seen the 'Shit Bricks' demotivators, but are you being serious there, or playing on that joke?

 

[Spleenbag]

Wow, this thread sure has grown since I posted up on page one. L'shana Tova to my fellow Jews.

I can't find the post right now, but I'd like to comment on what someone said about "pick and choose theists"--- i.e., it's ridiculous to only support certain parts of the Torah or Bible. Well, what am I? I'm a Reform Jew. I support gay marriage, but am leery of the over-flamboyant homosexuals.

However, I don't keep kosher when I eat! Oh no, I've picked and chosen!

Does this make me a "fake" Jew, or a hypocrite? I don't think so.

HOWEVER! If I were to pick and choose facts, then use those as the basis of an argument (which is where "Fundie" Christians get flak, I believe, and rightly so) you would be entitled to hit me in the face, because that's ridiculous.

TLDR: Pick-and-choosing is only bad if you're using it as fact or the basis for argument.

 

[toapat]

Science is NEVER RIGHT, since it's ever-changing.

The flexibility of science is a strength, not a weakness.

Wait a sec. So you're saying that because science is ever-changing that it is flexible? That means that, if science is changing the results to studies are different, meaning we can't count on science to be right. I don't see how this is a strength.

the fact it hasnt been proven wrong, and has proven so many rediculous misconseptions about religion wrong.

Officially im reconized as Catholic. the major misconseption is that any religion stands for anything positive. last i checked Religion was the largest cause of war, death, and torture ever

i personally am Aethist

 

[FightThePower]

Science is NEVER RIGHT, since it's ever-changing.

The flexibility of science is a strength, not a weakness.

Wait a sec. So you're saying that because science is ever-changing that it is flexible? That means that, if science is changing the results to studies are different, meaning we can't count on science to be right. I don't see how this is a strength.

Science is flexible because of the way the scientific method works. Sciencific theories are ever-changing because they are subject to constant peer review and scrutiny, and this means that theories can be adjusted. This is one of it's greatest strengths; by constantly refining the knowledge we obtain from such theories, we become closer and closer to the truth.

People arguing that science is 'never right' because of this also miss out two important facts - first of all, just because a theory is falsified does not mean the scientists go back to square one and declare any knowledge in that theory 'wrong'. The new theory that replaces the old one has to explain all the things the old one could, as well as the things the old theory couldn't. In this way knowledge obtained from old, falsified theories can still be correct and relevant. Secondly, some knowledge obtained by science has been confirmed so many times it is extremely unlikely that it would be overturned by future experimentation; we're not going to find out one day that blood doesn't circulate around the body, for instance.

A scientific theory that is falsified isn't necessarily wrong, just incomplete.