Religion: What it means to you

Maybe it has been said already in the thread, but I'm curious about what kind of Christian LordsSword is, and what you people are targeting exactly when talking about "Christianity".

I mean, even beyond the Catholic / Protestant schism, differences between Protestant sects can be huge. I know it's not a strict theologists discussion (lol), but still, I think it would be interesting to know what everyone has in mind when they use the word "Christian". It is, after all, a rather complex thing to define, don't you think?

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Originally Posted by kinkymagic

My definiton is anyone who thinks Jesus is 'magic'.

Well, the thing there are a lot of dissensions among the people who do. Do you make any difference between them, or are all *religious* people the same, regardless of their religion ?

What of someone who doesnt actually believe Jesus was the son of God, but takes inspiration of his sayings to lead his everyday life ? Is he still religious, or can he be regarded as someone who would live by some philosopher's words ?

Jesus' words are hardly condemnable, especially in our western societies that, let's face it, are heavily influenced by the Christian philosophy, at least morally. If you reckon Jesus' teachings are good, in the end, why does it matter that someone elevates his beliefs to the notion of sacred or not ?

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Yeah, that sounds pretty reasonable. I guess I'm too used to those crazy Atheists out there.

I'll try to answer the initial thread question. I'm a Catholic. I am a strong defender of the feudal system as you could find it in French early to mid medieval times, at least on a coherency level. I believe that judging the Catholic dogma, and thus part of every Christian dogmas, out of this particular historical context is a nonsense, because Christian Catholicism was designed not only as a religion, but as a complete model of society.

The King is the messenger of God, and as such he must command and protect the people according to Christ's and God's sayings. The Clergy both serves the people and command the Kings according to Christ's and God's sayings. The people place their physical and spiritual salute into the King's and Clergy's hands and as such owe them part of their labor.

From this comes the justification of what we consider today silly dogmas. Christian religion, unlike others, can be seen at several levels, depending on your education and spiritual development. The uneducated peasants need their imagery of heaven and hell, and the Christian thinkers (one would be amazed at the incredible intellectual activity of those times) need it equally, at different levels. What's beautiful is that the peasant, the exalted noble and the wise clergyman all join together in this sacred imagery of Christianity in some sort of spiritual harmony, despite the classes.

After this, we can argue on the theory of the system and how it was actually applied (eventhough it's far to be as horrible as people have it pictured in school history books), but all I'm saying is that judging Christianity by today's standards alone wihout being aware of it's history is absolutely pointless.

As for me, then, I do not live in Feudal times, and as such am influenced by everything that happened in between and by my own times. I am by no mean a very devout person, in that I rarely go to church, read the bible, or even pray. I reject most of the first testament and consider hardcore creationists like somewhat confused children.

However, I indeed have Faith. The sacred imagery and spirituality of Christianity has a great place in my life, but then again, I believe it has for most of us westerners, even those criticizing it. My inner reasonings are paved of historical and religious references and I actually believe they are indeed indissociable from another.

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Originally Posted by Magi

I was raised as in a family that is Taoist/Buddhist/ and Confucian hybrid, which later slowly taken over by a new generation of Pentecostals, but mainly because the older generation of the family has die off, but a lot of those values and philosophy remains. But what I have encounter in my upbringing neither lacks depth nor lack of history, and it also does not lack of people who believe in those belief systems. It makes me chuckles whenever westerners talks about their religion, which often horribly lacks introspection whenever it is compare to likes of Hindu or Buddhism, and held it as something of pinnacle of religious or spiritual experience.

I didnt mean all others. I have a great respect for Taoism especially, and actually thinks it's the one that has the more in common with Christianity.

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Originally Posted by Lizardcommando

Religion doesn't really mean a thing to me. Yes, I do believe in morals and what's right and wrong, but I just don't believe in this God thing or Jesus or anything of that nature. My parents say that we're Buddhist though and we do follow some Buddhist traditions. Heck, when my grandfather passed away last year, the funeral and memorial services were done in a traditional Buddhist way (at least, as far as I can tell), but aside from that, I just disregard the Buddhist religion as following morals and knowing what's right and wrong. My sister's a born-again Christian who swears that her finding faith changed her life. I just think that maybe she's found people who are just really nice and caring (they all seem like real nice people though).

As for the afterlife, I'm not sure what to believe in for that. I used to believe in the concept of Heaven and Hell, but I've had another idea of what happens when you die for a while. I believe that once you die, depending on whether you killed a person, you're given two choices: you can either be resurrected or stay in an infinite "dream world". Maybe it's some kind of heaven. The only place Hell is reserved for are people who kill other people.

There is no simple way to talk about Buddhism either. In fact, being "Buddhist" can mean different things depending on where you or your ancestors live/lived.

About the born-again Christian thing, I heard about the huge work protestant evangelists are doing in eastern Asia nowadays. One of my best friends spent a year in Japan and became good friend with a Korean born-again girl. He is himself son of a French Protestant preacher but isn't really practicing himself eventhough he has a good knowledge of religions.

Anyway, he hanged out with that girl for a couple months and soon met her friends who were all part of her religious group. They would gather and do all those stuff modern Protestants do, hold hands and sing to Christian pop songs and shit. He felt uncomfortable in that vision of Religion though, and soon stopped attending the meetings.

From then, everytime he would meet with that Korean girl, she would try and bring him to some religious gatherings in the middle of a casual date. He eventually frankly told her he wasnt interested, and never ever saw her anymore after that.

Just to say, yeah, your sister's friends surely are nice people, but I do think it's a bit more complicated than that, heh.

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Originally Posted by Lizardcommando

So... What if there really is no such thing as a God? Will any of those scripture quotes mean anything if the truth about the nonexistence of God is actually true?

That's a silly question to ask, really, but many scriptures contain philosophical reflections and "truths" that can be appreciated even from a non religious point of view, yes.

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Originally Posted by Denicalis

Your God is the basis for the Catholic religion, which was fine with Nazi Germany and the slave trade.

Deni, for someone who condemn highschool philosophy, you should be more careful with what you say about such complex issues.

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