Religion

[Shadow]

One of the most popular debates. I, personally, am an atheist. I'm looking into all of the religions to see if I can find one right for me. Right now, I think Druidism is the best for me.

[Tncowgirl]

Druidism ????? Whats that??

I'm a christian, Baptist on paper I guess you could say. But really bapticostal. :D Its like Baptist and Penticostal mixed. Oh well, but yea. Thats me:D

[Shadow]

Druidism is basically the religion of the Druids. It looks good but I don't know it in-depth enough to become a part of it, yet.

[Shaun]

Hey Shadow, was your intention to have a debate or simply just discuss one another's views and beliefs? If it's the latter, I want to move it to the common room.

[Shadow]

I had thought it would turn into a debate, but it's rather like a discussion at the moment. I ask that if it doesn't get anywhere near a debate in about 2-3 days, then move it to the common room, please.

[Shaun]

Oh okay.

As for me. I'm a staunch anti-organized-religion person. Hence why I invented my own religion, which imposes no immoral values on other people. It's called Shaunism, and in it you are allowed to believe whatever the hell you want as long as you follow these rules:
1. You cannot force your religion in any fashion on someone else.
2. Your beliefs may not, at any point, be used to justify harming someone else--meaning no sacrifices, killing animals, no discrimination against color or sexual orientation, etc.

As long as you follow those, you're in :). You all probably already know how I feel about religion from my stuff at TW...

[Shadow]

I don't. I just stopped debating on TW after CS and Hypo on the marijuana thread. It was from then they started dogging me, so I gave up debating. Tell me of your religious feelings now. :)

[Shaun]

Well the brief version is:
I have nothing against Christians or any member of a particular religion until they start using religion as an excuse to discriminate against someone else. And I find it laughable that Christians--the bad ones, not the ones that are actually nice--go about making laws and rules that oppress and discriminate against people based on religious values--many of which are actually lies put into the Bible--and then claim that they are loving people. No, telling someone you can't be married because your Bible says it's wrong and then making laws that says you can't do it is disgusting.

I mean, that's the brief version. Like I said, I do not have anything against individuals. I have a LOT of friends who are religious who are awesome. Andrew is Catholic, I didn't know this until recently, and I think it's really cool because religion never was an issue between us as friends, and never will be. He's pretty cool about his religious views too I learned. Eva is another example of someone who is very religious but is cool about it.

So yeah, that's what I feel...

[Shadow]

I considered being Catholic, but I think it imposes too many rules. As I said, I'm studying lots of different religions and deciding which is right for me. If I can, I may even create my own cult, but when I have free time and when I'm much older.

[Shaun]

Or you could simply be Shaunist. That way you can believe anything you want and pull all the stuff you like from other religions :). Technically anyone, even Catholics can be Shaunists. It's easy. Plus, nobody goes to hell unless they're actually bad. If you steal a candy bar you aren't going to hell...

[Shadow]

Well, if I became President of the US (highly unlikely), then I'm hardly going to stand before the world and say, "I'm a Shaunist!". No offence. :)

[Shaun]

You should, it would be hilarious :D

[Nyx]

I'm a muslim and so far I'm happy with my religion but of course that could all change...

[Shaun]

Well that's very interesting.
Out of curiosity, are you living in the States or another place like Canada or England? I ask only because I would like to know if you feel any animosity towards yourself because of your religion from peoples from those countries. With 9/11 and a lot of extremists going around, it would be interesting to hear your side of things, to know how you might feel threatened, if at all, or if things are just going as normal. You don't have to answer if you don't want, but I'm just curious. It always amazes me how quickly people can jump on another people when one person from that group does something wrong.

[Nyx]

Actually I live in Vancouver, Canada. And well yes after 9/11 things have been weird. In school they are some comments that are hurtful about my religion, especially by people who are ignorant and love to gullibly believe that all Muslims are terrorists. I have a friend who is Muslim and therefore his classmates used to call him Ben Laden! Fortunately though Canada is very multi-cultured and so you could say that "things are going as normal" or close to normal anyways;)

[Shaun]

That is very good (referring to things going back to normal). There was a lot of anti-Muslim-ism (whatever you call it) here in the States, and I'm sure you know that having read about it or seen it on TV or on the net. I think the disgusting thing about people is that they don't educate themselves. When 9/11 first happened and they placed the blame--accurately I believe--on Bin Laden, I never once made the assumption that all Muslims shared the same view. Why? Because I educated myself on Muslims. I don't know everything about your religion, or your history, but I can make the distinction between extremists and non-extremists. Terrorists are extremists and most Muslims don't share the same view as them--the idea of killing all the infidels (I.E. Americas, Brits, etc.). Most Muslims are actually rather like Good Christians. They want the same freedoms we all do, they want to be left well enough alone, and don't push their religion on others or make efforts to oppress or hurt others for personal, political, or religious gain. They're, all-in-all, good people. Most Muslims are that way. But, we, as a society, seem to not pay attention to that aspect, and it does make a lot of sense that we don't do this. You see Terrorism all over the TV, in the newspaper, on the net, everywhere. Some places call them Islamic Extremists, others call them Muslims, and others call them Turban Heads and whatever else (another ignorant statement I believe...I don't think Muslims wear turbans...). And, sadly, most of us are rather lazy and would rather believe what O'riley (sp?), Michael Moore, Hannidy, etc. are saying than take the few minutes necessary to learn the truth. I can do a search on Google and know in two minutes that most Muslims are not extremists who do suicide bombings or go around blasting people away for no reason.

[Shadow]

*slaps head* I feel so stupid now. I've been thinking Bin Laden was Islamic for the last few weeks. I completely forgot about the Muslim religion. :rolleyes: Stupid me. Anyway, yeah, there are a lot of anti-Muslim things going around our school, at times. There aren't any at our school (I don't thing there's any other religion except Protestant Christianity here).

[Shaun]

Umm, Shadow...it's the same thing...
Muslims are members of the Islamic religion. Perhaps Nyx can term it better, but as far as I can understand it's sort of like a piece of the religion in the same sense that Catholics are part of the Christian Religion.

[Shadow]

Ah, right... now I'm even more of a fool. Still, the Islamic religion is cool. I've read about a bit of it, and it sounds perfectly good.

[Shaun]

Well, like any religion, bad people can make it bad. Christianity isn't really a bad religion, in fact, it has a lot of wonderful lessons to teach. But, there are a horribly bad Christians out there, which we see on a daily basis. It's just the way it is...

[Tncowgirl]

THere are TERRIBLE christians out there, and that is coming from a christian. Now I ain't saying (Sorry for the grammer, its me talking :D) I'm a good christian, cause that would be a lie. I'm not bad.....any way moving on. There are always bad Christians, Islamic (Sorry if I spell them wrong), Shaunist :P (sorry had to put that), Butist (how do you spell that?), etc...... That just comes with it. But still, it happens but the bad thing is the good religion people (So i don't have to list them all agian) are sterotyped as if they are the bad ones. That is the same with teens.

[Shadow]

It's Buddhist, not Butist. :P

[Nyx]

Muslims are members of the Islamic religion. Perhaps Nyx can term it better, but as far as I can understand it's sort of like a piece of the religion in the same sense that Catholics are part of the Christian Religion.

Well...here's my attempt at explaining it:
Islam is the religion and Muslim is the adjective, same as how Christianity is a religion, and a Christian is somebody whose religion is Christianity.
But they're different kinds of Muslims although they all follow the same basic concept and they all follow the Quran.
I myself am a Shiet Muslim.

[Nyx]

Well, like any religion, bad people can make it bad. Christianity isn't really a bad religion, in fact, it has a lot of wonderful lessons to teach. But, there are a horribly bad Christians out there, which we see on a daily basis. It's just the way it is...


That's true but the way I see it, "bad Christians" aren't really Christian or bad Muslims aren't really Muslims. A good religion (or perhaps any real religion) is supposed to help a person become a better person and live a better life. If someone's not a good person then really they have defeated the whole purpose of their religion. So, could a terrorist really be Muslim? Or Christian? Or a part of any other religion? Yes, they could be labeled by a religion in theory, but by being something/someone bad then you aren't really what a true Christian/Muslim or Shaunist (?) is.

[Shaun]

Well, you could try to say they are not of that religion, but since there are so many bad Christians or bad Muslims or bad Hindus or whatever, it's hard to tell them "hey, you're not really in this religion" and have it stick. So, you might just call them extremists that don't understand their religion (which is the case for all those bad Christians for certain).

And nobody who is bad can be a Shaunist. Period. You have to be a relatively good person to be a Shaunist :)

[Nyx]

Oddly enough I just noticed this: is this really a debate? We all are mostly just agreeing about everything!

[Shaun]

No, it isn't, we talked about that in the beginning. I'll move it to the Common Room.