your religion?????

[skyhawk 2]

just wondering what religion every one is seens its easter, and no i dont want any arguments or mine is better.
me born and raised anglican schooled a roman cathlic now an athiest [smile}
Opinions are like a-holes everyone has one, the only one that does you any good is yours and all that comes out is shit

[Lindsey 0]

Religion, religion, religion.....I, personally, have a hard time with organized religion.....though I sometimes go to church with my dad....Methodist. For me, it has been much more helpful developing my own spiritual life and beliefs outside the church.
Eve was framed!

[skygeek 0]

I belong to the "Church of the Rising Cessna" We meet every weekend all are welcome.....
IItywybmab?

[diverds 0]

Church of the Rising Cessna. I attend at least 3 days a week.
-Dave
"Gas...Undercarriage...Mixture...Prop...Beer"

[diverds 0]

Dammit skygeek...you beat me to it by like 3 seconds....bastard!
-Dave
"Gas...Undercarriage...Mixture...Prop...Beer"

[skybytch 259]

Quote

I belong to the "Church of the Rising Cessna"

Funny... I belong to a sister church of yours - "The Church of the Blue Sky". We have services every weekend, at 12500 and below...
To be serious, I was raised semi-Catholic - parents were very Catholic when they were younger (Dad was an altar boy back when Mass was said in Latin; they were married at the San Gabriel Mission), I did Catechism and first Communion, my brother went to a Catholic elementary school for a couple of years. By the time I was 9 they'd stopped going to Mass other than on Christmas. Then in high school I did the "born again" thing. That lasted a couple of years.
Today... organized religion isn't for me. I believe you create your own reality.
pull & flare,
lisa
"But our reality is in fact entire illusion!"
-Gregory Benford

[skygeek 0]

copy cat hehe
IItywybmab?

[Iflyme 0]

I jump religously whenever I can!
"There's nothing new under the sun"

[jfields 0]

Uh oh. I predict a threadlock in our future, even though I don't plan to contribute to it....
Ok. I don't really like organized religion. I was born Jewish, and went through Bar Mitzvah and confirmation. I spent grades 7-12 at a Quaker school. It was better educationally than public, yet didn't conflict like a Catholic school would have. I respect a lot of values of both religions, yet have difficulty considering myself a part of anything.
One of my problems with Judaism (and some other religions) is the concept of a "Chosen People". It seems silly. They can't all be right. Perhaps none of them are.
Then there is the whole issue of a supreme being. I don't believe in that either. To me, religion is the art of attributing things you don't understand to a friendly yet intangible abstraction called "God".
If you go back far enough, people didn't know why the sun rose in the sky. So they decided that God did it. I think we know better now. Scratch God from that one. The origin of mankind? Once again, God did it. For many people, that concept has been supplanted by evolution. Scratch God again. Same thing with biology, cosmology, physics, etc. As we know more and more, the realm of unknown that people attribute to God gets pushed back further and further.
It is a lot more open and honest to me to simply admit something like, "I don't know the ultimate origin of the entire universe" than to attribute it to some supreme being. It is like a science experiment comes out wrong, but always wrong in the same way. Rather than make a fudge factor constant, just admit that you don't really understand the principles behind the experiment.
Religion has been the catalyst of much of the art and literature of history, as well as the cause of much of the conflict. It is a toss-up whether I consider it worth it or not. I can think of lots of groups of people that are killing each other over differences in definitions about this abstraction called God. If Catholics and Protestants in Ireland walk by each other on the street, are they really so different? Why kill each other. Part of me thinks we would have a better world if we were all atheists.
One thing I can fully guarantee is that we won't solve this problem in this forum. We can discuss it and (hopefully) peacefully agree to disagree, but solutions will elude us.
Just my $.02, of course....
Justin

[freeflir29 0]

Raised Methodist....quit going to church when I was about 5 or 6. Went to a Catholic church with a friend a lot as a kid. My Mom laughed when I told her I liked it cause the services were short.....and they always had free doughnuts and cokes!!!! Went to church during basic training cause it sucked if you didn't. Don't like "organized religion" too much. I have a good story I'll tell ya over a beer if you doubt the existence of something higher....."I only have 145 jumps so I always carry a JM so he can pull for me."-Clay

[favaks 0]

I was raised semi Buddhist, became a religous Christian at 13. Turned to Atheism at 17--I was searching for the meaning of life. Now I'm none of the above--just a skydiver favaks

[GrumpySmurf 0]

I believe in Markism - The Worship of Mark, where the holy trinity is Me, Myself, and I.
Actually, I don't have a religion, I have a Tao.

[cloud9 0]

well I started life Episcopal but have attended Lutheran, Methodist, Baptist and several others. I settled on Nazarene. I won't start any debate, so I'll just say Happy Easter and may God Bless, reguardless of your beliefs

[n2skdvn 0]

grew up sothern babtist currently dont attend just worship in my own wayi have found a good church
"coven of the casa"
if ya can't dodge it RAM IT !!!!!!
click me

[SpeedRacer 1]

Quote

If you go back far enough, people didn't know why the sun rose in the sky. So they decided that God did it. I think we know better now. Scratch God from that one. The origin of mankind? Once again, God did it. For many people, that concept has been supplanted by evolution. Scratch God again. Same thing with biology, cosmology, physics, etc. As we know more and more, the realm of unknown that people attribute to God gets pushed back further and further.
It is a lot more open and honest to me to simply admit something like, "I don't know the ultimate origin of the entire universe" than to attribute it to some supreme being. It is like a science experiment comes out wrong, but always wrong in the same way. Rather than make a fudge factor constant, just admit that you don't really understand the principles behind the experiment.

This is what I used to think. But it seems to me that the purpose of a belief in God is not to displace a belief in scientifically describable mechanisms. Science does not displace religion or vice versa. Instead, science is an exploration of the physical aspects of reality and religion is an exploration of the spiritual aspects of reality.
In my own Bible there are prefaces written by various bishops, etc. And they make the point that the Bible isn't the place to look for scientific facts. They point out that the science of the Bible writers was primitive, so that the story of Genesis, for example, was framed within their particular cultural understanding. For a Christian (or a Jew or a Muslim for that matter) the point we get from the Bible is that whatever the mechanism used, it is God who is ultimately responsible for everything that lives.
I am a Christian and I believe in evolution. I do not consider my belief in evolution to compromise my faith in any way, in fact, I believe it strengthens it. I believe God created everything that lives, and evolution is a scientific description of the physical mechanisms of that creation.
As a matter of fact, I found that learning science strengthened my faith, because when I was learning about enzymes, DNA, etc.. I found it very difficult NOT to believe in God after studying God's works so closely.
Try reading Teilhard de Chardin. He was a Catholic priest & philosopher who died in the 1950s. He wrote The Divine Milieu in which he talks about how evolution demonstrates the unfolding of God's plan to create higher and higher levels of organization through time.
This is going on despite the trend for entropy to increase. alright I'm not gonna summarize the whole thing here.
My point is that the modern day development of science in no way causes a belief in God to become an anachronism.
Speed Racer
"Fill your hand, you son-of-a-bitch!"

[GrumpySmurf 0]

A short way of explaining it would be:
Science tries to explain how.
Religion tries to explain why.
?
They compliment each other.

[PLFXpert 0]

My mom is agnostic. My father was raised Baptist but he never spoke of religion when I was little. My aunt is Mormon and calls me a "rough-necked delinquent." My grandmother, a mathematical genious, solved some equations and determined I was a living angel. Try to figure that family history outAt age 4 my babysitter first told me about Christianity. It made me cry. For some reason I knew it was something I believed in. It may sound silly but believing in God and Jesus got me through some really rough times as a child. My parents divorced when I was six and I stayed with my father, who always traveled. I was alone in the house all the time because I'm an only child and the babysitters stopped when I was 5. I'd ride my bike to the grocery, do all the house chores, ect. I'd get lonely or scared sometimes and praying would always relieve me of being scared.
As a result, today I have no fears. I believe fear is nothing more than a lack of faith. I believe God will take me when he wants to and so until then, I'm going to try everything, do everything I want to do, and never let fear get the best of me.
However, I do not have a denomination. I don't believe in a lot of what some Christians believe in such as preaching to others, going to church, ect. I pray everyday. I don't go to church. I don't feel it's really necessary as long as I pray.
In a sense, I feel that all regligions have an element of truth. No matter which God exists, I believe He is a forgiving God and will accept all people of all color and all religions.
So to me, it really doesn't matter what you believe in as long as you're true to yourself and your own beliefs. I pray to God and Jesus so I feel protected and it gives me a sense of knowing, no matter what, I'll always be okay. I've been through just about everything as a child and believing I'd be okay is what got me through it and kept me sane. No matter what you believe or how you look at it, I don't think believing is a false sense of hope like some people think. I believe whatever gets you through the day, the times, the situation can never me a false sense of hope.
That's my two centsMuch love and blue skies,
Carrie http://www.geocities.com/skydivegrl20/

[favaks 0]

Quote

They point out that the science of the Bible writers was primitive, so that the story of Genesis, for example, was framed within their particular cultural understanding.

SpeedRacer, how do you go about extracting truths from a product that was compiled using primitive science? How do you ascribe attributes to God and his/her intention?
favaks

[Zennie 0]

Bet most people can guess mine.
Seriosuly though, I'm pretty much an agnostic Universalist with eastern philosophical leanings.
"Zero Tolerance: the politically correct term for zero thought, zero common sense."

[wingnut 0]

rasied catholic went throug everything up through confirmation when my parents gave me the choice to make on what i wanted to do.... have been to church maybe 4 times in the last 4 years...ecept like clay, in basic training, and that church was fun, not boriing like back home or elsewhere...i think my problem is i just don't like how the catholic church say i should believe this and not that... i believe what i want and not what i want....... i've been closer to "god" at 12k looking out on the country side and taking it all in than ever in a church...... but.....before each jump i still say an "our father" (lord's prayer) to ask for protection for me and the other jumpers........

"i may not go to heven, i hope you go to hell"-C.C.

[indyz 1]

Raised Methodist. Had to go to church almost every Sunday until Confirmation, after which my parents told me that if I didn't want to attend anymore I didn't have to. I had already spent a lot of time thinking about it, and shortly after my Confirmation I stopped attending. It's not the moral messages of Christianity, or any other religion, that I have issue with, I just do not believe in a higher power.
Update to clarify: I shouldn't say I don't believe in a higher power. I don't believe that any higher power has made it's presence known to man. I believe that ultimate reality is unknown and probably unknowable. So I prefer agnosticism, even though it seems like kind of a cop-out at times.
--
Brian

[Viking 0]

i am a non practicing Presbyterian. havn't been to church since my grandparents died. I never really got anything out of it anyway. I did go to a cathalic high school at which we had to go to a cathalic mass once a month and had to say the lords prayers and all that shit. Only thing i got from that place was somthing resemlbing an education, and a deep hatred for nuns.
I swear you must have footprints on the back of your helmet - chicagoskydiver

[Sebazz1 2]

I pray to big huge ass redwood trees, blues skies, and the ocean.
I did go to an all boy catholic school when I was in highschool. Don't remember much. My folks who were raised in very strict christian homes decided when they moved to the states to let my sister and I make our own decisions about religion and never took us to church. Damn
SEBAZZ.......

[billvon 2,435]

>Then there is the whole issue of a supreme being. I don't believe in that either. To
> me, religion is the art of attributing things you don't understand to a friendly yet
> intangible abstraction called "God".
>If you go back far enough, people didn't know why the sun rose in the sky. So
>they decided that God did it. I think we know better now. Scratch God from that
>one.
I think there's more to it than that.
We all believe in things we can't see. Mathemeticians working in chaos theory believe that tiny, insignificant events can affect entire storm systems half a planet away. Physicists working on variations of the UFT believe in dimensions we can't ever hope to see or directly observe. Are they believing in a contrived fiction, in friendly, convenient particles thaty happen to do what they want them to? Or because their beliefs have basis in western science rather than ancient history, are they simply open-minded and imaginative?
Religion often gets a bad rap because (like everything else) people have used it to do bad things. The crusades, papal indulgences, and the inquisition were all quite bad, and were at least loosely based on some religious theme. But we shouldn't base judgements of whether something is good or bad purely on how some people misuse it. If we put it to a vote, I'm sure there are a few hundred thousand former residents of Hiroshima and Nagasaki who think western science is the more evil of the two.
I think that religion is one of the major ways people try to make sense of the world around them. There is something fundamental to humanity that wants to believe that the world is inherently fair - and if it isn't, we should try to make it fair. That simple sentiment is the basis for a lot of the altruism and simple humanity that makes this world a better place. It also is the basis for many religions. And people, being people, tend to embellish things, so that we end up with these
complex religions with a plethora of saints, devils, spirits, sins, sacraments, and fancy gold-plated churches.
Lots of scientifically-minded people enjoy looking at the bible (for example) and scoffing at it - "Look at that! A flood that covered the whole earth? That would take more water than has ever been on the earth! Turned into a pillar of salt? Parted the red sea? that's ridiculous!" They equate those statements to the validity of the religion - disprove one, and you invalidate the religion. And that's fine - they can believe (or disbelieve) whatever they want.
I think a lot of that is silly also. I don't really think the earth was created in seven days, or that there's some big guy in a robe who metes out life and death based on some arbitrary criteria. But I also don't think that the universe is as simple as many believe. There's just more to it than we will ever understand. Ivan, a rather colorful poster on rec.skydiving, put it pretty well -
"All of 'em DNAs, molecules, atoms and shit, thwirling around, bumping
each other off, uniting and separating, banging each other all over the
place and creating all of that wonderful chaos that we call Reality, is
as mystifying as God Herself."
So maybe when we finally get the standard model of physics to make sense, and we figure out what makes the Higgs boson tick, we'll know everything. But I have a feeling we won't - that there will always be some fundamental principle eluding us, some deeper layer of understanding as to why the universe acts as it does that we will never completely comprehend. And that, to me, is where god lies. Not in some
book, or in some church, or sitting on some big cloud at some IFR-only altitude, but in the very chaos that makes that cloud look so beautiful, or gives someone a tremendous musical talent, or even breaks a covalent bond to cause cancer in someone we know.
But that's just me. Everyone sees it in a different way. My grandmother believed in the whole shebang - a big church with all those holy days and prayers to memorize and candles to light. She used to pray for things and get them. She used to wake us up at 6 am some mornings because she knew some uncle of aunt had died during the night - and she was always right. So I have to think that whatever she believed in worked for her.
I know a few people who have "found the lord" and turned their lives around, and are now very happy. Something worked there. I know of other people who have based their lives around their religion, and have taken great comfort from it. I also know many agnostics and atheists who are also quite happy, and their belief in the absence of a god works for them also.
Anyway, I certainly don't have all the answers. But i think that everyone sees god (or lack thereof) in a different way. Want to believe that god wants you to pray an hour a day? That's fine. Want to believe that god makes the sun rise and set? Why not? The only people that really worry me are the people who are certain that they are right, that their view of the universe is truly the final and complete one. Because of all the possible beliefs, that's just about the only one guaranteed to be wrong.
-bill von

[SkySurfSnow 0]

Amen, Brother!
I'm not worried about life after death
Only about not wasting this one
'Gilgamesh, where are you hurrying to?
You will never find the life for which you are looking.
When the gods created man
they alloted to him death,
but life they retained in their own keeping.
As for you, Gilgamesh,
fill your belly with good things;
day and night, night and day, dance and be merry,
feast and rejoice.
Let your clothes be fresh,
bathe yourself in water,
cherish the little child that holds your hand,
and make your wife happy in your embrace;
for this too is the lot of man.
That was written thousands of years ago...and it still holds true.
Happy Easter all.