Thoughts and Prayers: The Religion Thread

Do you pray to any God? If so, why?

 

Mom sent my sister and me to Sunday school, for which I am grateful because we met the pastor and his wife, the two most Christian people I have ever known. They truly lived their faith.
Despite their teaching, though, when I was nine or 10 the message started to ring hollow. I felt guilty at first, like there was something wrong with me.
Then we learned the story of Job. That convinced me that I needn't feel guilty about my skepticism.
So no, I don't pray to any god. I consider the existence of a creator to be a possibility, but I consider Christianity to be irretrievably corrupted by nearly two millennia of worldliness.

 

I'm not sure what you mean by this, and I'm wondering and curious. Can you expand on the thought?

 

In one of the translations of the Book of Jobs, God was with the other Gods when the accuser, now translated as Satan, begins the discussion or challenge to the God of Abraham Issac and Jacob. There is no Satan in the Torah. That’s a Christian rewrite of the book. There are multiple references to other Gods in the Hebrew texts. The Hebrew Bible is fascinating, that a Semitic religion still stands when its contemporary religions have been dead for 2-4 millennium

 

OK. Well, if you ever do pray to the God of the Bible (praying is done in the OT and NT, so it is not exclusively Christian) you should know God is comfortable with that, wants that, and answers prayer.

 

Fuck you for lying. Fuck you and your fellow scum sucking cult members.
Brought my wife home from the hospital Friday after 23 days in the hospital. The cancer spread to her brain and she had a seizure at work. She didn’t regain a semblance of consciousness for 5 days, and three days after they removed tumors from the back of her brain and another from the front. They cracked her scull in 2 locations during 1 procedure, double brain surgery. A woman who is so far above you as a decent person as Einstein was above ant feces. For 5 1/2 years of suffering from incurable cancer she has led an exemplary life. And for the 50 years prior to that she has led an exemplary life of service to her community. Selfless and caring for people from All over. And With literally 1000 people praying for her regularly. So fuck you scumbag. And fuck all the scumbags like you about there being a god who answers prayers. Feeding these lies to fleece people of money and control their lives for your private benefits. Your fucktard beliefs mean that somehow the best human being I’ve ever known, and the best human being that hundreds of people have ever known is somehow not worthy of having their prayers answers.

I wouldn’t pray or want that what she’s going through lands on you or any of your family.

 

Not directed at you ...

... but I will never fucking understand how people believe this or, at best, hedge their bets by saying they'll consider the possibility of a creator.

 

OK, you don’t understand it. What’s your religion?

 

We're not talking about religion.

 

Sure. Christianity has been a state religion since the days of Constantine the Great. It put Christian leaders into positions of political authority. At that point the church became a tool for the power structure.
As an example. in 325 Constantine called the Council of Nicaea, where Christian dissidents who disagreed with the concept of trinity were banished for heresy -- an early example of Christian persecution. More followed, many with cooperation from the state.

 

When I was a substitute teacher, students would often echo their parents' concerns. If I had a degree, what was it in? Had I worked with children before?
I told them about my BA. They went home and returned the next day to ask what it was and I told them "haints, quilts, monkeys, and dead people." Then the questions started about religion versus science and did I "believe in evolution." My response was that science and religion ask two very different sets of questions. There can be some points where the lines of thinking cross, but they do not negate each other.

 

Very sorry to hear about your wife's condition, heyabbott.