2006-06-20 [Maelthra]: i hope you weren't suggesting that i was condeming someone for what their religion says cause i could care less if they like me for what i believe anyways.

2006-06-20 [windowframe]: Really? Your previous comment seems to suggest that you feel anyone who doesn't share you views is closed-minded. :o How closed-minded. And since it seems pretty much everyone who read your comment drew that interpretation, maybe you should consider purchasing a dictionary to help you express yourself more clearly.

2006-06-20 [Linn Scarlett]: *can as always not resist the urge* I hope I can do some ugly judgements on you via your believe. I just can't take the shit that playgans go like "Oh but don't you no what the Christians did to US". It's what they did to 'people in ancient times that believe the same as me, which is possible, since I am an asatru and not a wicca'. And then I usually tell them that they'd favor what the christians did to them to what I am going to do to them if they don't stop pretending right now -_-

2006-06-20 [Linn Scarlett]: Making the Christian people to blame is just pathetic. Some people just suck and some are very kind, goes for all people, yes for Christians too.

2006-06-20 [Delladreing]: I wrote this wiki and many others like it, to stop people hating on Christianity and calling them close minded for having utter faith in their religion. I've been studying the theology for longer than that of pagnism, people that say "oh well they are close minded because they cannot accepy my view" tend to be clode minded.

2006-06-20 [Linn Scarlett]: *nod nod* It's funny how most people think they are always right... it must be a flaw in evolution or something

2006-06-20 [Delladreing]: Its human nature to err, only the divine can admit to their mistakes and still be great ;)

2006-06-20 [Linn Scarlett]: Hmm I feel so divine right now ;)

2006-06-20 [Delladreing]: *pets* :P

2006-06-20 [Linn Scarlett]: *grins slightly while obediently standing in Dela's mighty shadow* ;)

2006-06-20 [Delladreing]: *lmao*

2006-06-21 [Maelthra]: i did not say that anyone who does not share my views is close minded. what i was TRYING to say since you all think i need a dictionary, and probably do, is that anyone who downs anothers religion because they do not understand it is close minded because they have not taken the opportunity to learn what they are downing before they do so.

2006-06-21 [Delladreing]: That is still irellevant to the Chritian faith which is my point, they may acknowledge other religions existances, but theoretically they are not meant to accept any other religion as the truth in accordance with their scripture. Which was the point I was trying to make.

2006-06-21 [Linn Scarlett]: It is, to explain what Dela probably means: in their docterine to NOT accept other religions than their own, so any good christian, you would call "close minded", which is, in my opinion, tha biggest shit I ever heard O.o'

2006-08-22 [BarleySinger]: I would say that there are people in the world who like to "pick and choose" which pieces of various religions they like. In fact this is very common. I do have a bit of a problem with this approach, partially I like calling an egg by its actual name. I would rather not deal with people who want me to call all of the bananas in the world, eggs, just to make them feel better. 

See, in some cases there there really is an existing name for the religion or religious philosophy that a person esposes and they are just not using the right term. Some people insist on calling themselves by a name that does not really fit due to comfort with the other name, and others just do not know any better. Sometimes people keep a name that they know does not really fit in order to gain social acceptance from the peers. There are a huge number of people who call themselvs christians who are actually Deist (nearly all of the founders of the US nation were Deist, not christian - and said so repeatedly and vocally). 

In "pagandom" There are a huge number of people who call themselves "Wiccan" who are actually more like "eclectic pagans", or "non-theistic pagans", or even "animist pagans".

I know, I know, labels and splitting hairs and all that...bla bla bla....It isn;t all that incredibly important all of the time - but - personally I like to be accurate whan I am talking so that people can tell what I am talking about.

Then there is the further problem of denominations or sects within religions, which really messes things up. Some denominations are really out there as to how far they depart from standad teaching. Often this has to do with major changes in "main stream theology" that happened back a long time ago. For instance Trinitarianism was not a part of mainstram christianity until at least the 4th century woith the occurance of the Council of Nicaea (which was not wel attended by the way).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinitarianism

After a specific denomination broke off from the religion, the religion coulds undergo major changes that left earlier departures in other denominations with much older ideas.

As a person who was raised fundy baptist and was for a long time a serious bible scholar, and has since those earlier days investigated the teachings of other sects of chrisitianity as well as other religions, I would say that this is a huge problem. When talking about christianity or any other religoin for that matter: which version of the religion do you mean? Most moderate believers in a givern religion ignore all of the frothing and bloodthirsty and outright icks parts of their religion. This is true in Judeism, Islam and Christianity. 

Some versions of a given religion depart so far from the standards of even earlier versions that people question if that sect is even a part of the same religion. Mormons and Jehovas Witnesses are considered by most people in government to be side branches of christianity. In fact a lot of non christiants, and not-so-active christians feel the same way.  However most of your more serious christians do not agree with the idea that their God (Jehovah) is just a transcendent space alien who was given a world (earth) to populate with his "spirit babies" as a reward for being a good mormon. They don't. They do believe in some sort of metaphysical redemption for curing their inherited sin nature, by way of christs death by proxy. Jehovahs Witnesses on the other hand believe that Jesus failed in his mission and was not supposed to die at all.

So the question of how far off of the beaten trail you can go..before you are on another totally different trail, comes to mind. This was actually the reason for the creation of the Roman Churches Inquisition. They wanted to have one and only one theology. At the time they had thousands of them, and a huge number of the local priests seemed to be preaching their own personal version of the religion.

Some religious denominations do not allow for this degree of freedom of personal belief inside of their specific sect. They don't wan't it, and do not allow it, but instead want everybody to believe exactly the same things, which oddly enough is also hallmark of a "cult-like" organisation. The more control is exherted over the people in a group (socially, financially, control of allowable information, claims of being "specially appointed" as a source of information, etc) the more cult tlike the group. A lack of extreme social control tends to go along with more moderate religious beliefs, in which people tend to just ignore those portions of their religions which are not to their ethical taste.

2008-04-22 [Killopkie]: Like how people seem to put labels and images in their minds on words. Like the word "God". To some people it means the divine one. To others it may be offensive because of the labels put on it. Fact is that in one place "fish" might mean "shovel", and in the other "shovel" might have no meaning at all.
Also, how can you say that someone can't make up something in their own mind and call it their religion? Religions are all human made anyway. People just up and thought of them, because the human mind is a great thing capable of creating amazing things, as well as capable of destroying amazing things. But yeah, anyone that makes up their own way of things is completely entitled to it, because it's all made up in the first place. Made up as in from the human mind.
Also, we shouldn't separate ourselves from each other. We are all one identity, we are all part of each other, maybe not by mind or body, but by presents, we are all on the same plane.
ok, no more rambling from me.

2008-04-22 [windowframe]: Your claim that religion is man-made is very obviously simply your opinion, and I'm at a loss as to why you think you can present it as a fact that apparently doesn't even need verification (judging by the lack of it you give). Most theists will object to your view, as rightly they should. They think they're expressing facts about the physical as well as the spiritual world which are true independent of belief in them. You're telling them, with no justification, that it's all in their head.

2008-04-22 [Linn Scarlett]: You know, I could put my glasses on and start this enormous comment about my recent research concerning Neanderthals and 'religion'. But you know, my glasses are too far away. Can't reach them without getting up. So I'll keep it simple, just imagine me telling this whole story about Neanderthals which will come to the point that what I really mean to say is: I agree with Silver. As much as I like quoting one of our dearest (*spits on ground*) philosophers "Religion is the opium of the people", that is just my opinion. Which still means you have no right what so ever to tell people it's all just in their head. Sort-a-rude, you know? So there. *Goes to stand near the mob behind Silver*

2008-04-22 [Linn Scarlett]: Also, this might just be the scientist in me but I have to say this: "OMG WTF YOU USE WIKIPEDIA AS A RELIABLE SOURCE?" Let's just say I trust wikipedia with objective information as much as I trust El Pacino with my life.

2008-04-22 [windowframe]: I find wikipedia a good place to start research, given a random topic, read wikipedia, then go away thinking 'right, I need to find books on x, y and z.' My lecturers agree. Great to figure out what to research, but not for actually researching. :P

2008-04-22 [Linn Scarlett]: You know what I mean *smacks Silvie on the nogging* ;)