To keep the US Election thread on topic, I'm creating this new thread for the religious discussion.

^^^^^^^^^^ This message was supposed to be at the top of this thread, oops lol

that nazi/white supremacist remark is another observation. uncalled for? hardly. the truth is ugly. those hate groups claim to be christians.

I also live in the bible belt, and there are a lot of bigots here. there's no denying that.
Nowhere in my posts did I call all religious people bigots, you're basically putting words in my mouth. I was referring to religious people who are extremists.

Religion should be something personal and private--or shared with those of similar beliefs. It doesn't belong in politics (especially in the modern, secular world) because...

...If you're trying to impose your religious RULES onto people who don't share your religious BELIEFS then you're just...a thug. You're not living your religion anymore, you're just trying to push others around.

"I also think it is hypocritical that you state that "you can't generalize this", only to follow it up by making a generalization."

No I did not. I made it clear that I was referring to a portion of mainstream religion and that you cannot generalize that in relation to ALL of religion. I dont get how that makes me a hippocrite? You just have to actaully read what I wrote. I never said this was true of ALL religious peoples.

Look you can all sit back and believe some pretend some fairy tale bullshit all you want..in reality mainstream religion has proven itself intolerant and often racist, predjudice against gay people, against pagans, against women..anyone who is not them. I dont really get what you people are complaining about. Religious dogma is what it is because it often extends out into the world effecting everyone else by the way it is pushed by all these zealots into federal policy etc.

I could not care less what people believe, as long as they keep that paradigm from impacting other people in a negative way..which the church has the worst track record of I can possibly think of.

I am not talking about christ himself..or the origional gnostics or the origional teachings of any religion. I am talking about the weird cult of the roman catholic church with it's long history of intolerance, racism, murder and genocide that far dwarfs any atrocities of even the nazi regime. The same chuch that still exists that people are still supporting. I would rather just call it what it is that pretend it is just another belief system minding it own business.

People want to sit back and live in lala land pretending anyone who mentions this is a hippocrite or a biggot and does not want equality or peace. Get a grip. Wouldn't it be nice if things were so black and white?

My whole point is this, in a group conscience such as what we have with the Nexus we have to leave our prejudices at the door. I'm not saying your entirely wrong Jamie but the general air in your statements toward Christianity are negative. I myself am Christian, the last church I was a member of was LGBTQA because of the very judgement you express distaste for in the church. I have however seen all my life very good hearted accepting Christians and i find it unfair to make statements about mainstream religion like it is a beast when a lot of people involved would agree with much of what your saying if it was a little more balanced. We all have prejudice and that is not always a bad thing, it is bad however when we are unwilling to admit they are just that. I for one have prejudices against some esoteric stances such as that of Crowley, but I don't rant about him when he comes up in topic, because I understand that people are entitled to their own opinions, I leave that at the door out of respect for people here who express interest in him. I do however adopt and agree with many esoteric and gnostic thought and would never include my view of crowley in a discussion of esoteric craft as a whole as it would be just plain biast and unfair.

"People want to sit back and live in lala land pretending anyone who mentions this is a hippocrite or a biggot and does not want equality or peace."

I agree entirely that mainstream religion has some F'd up problems, but even Christ himself wouldn't argue that. The thing is I honestly see it changing everyday and I believe with all my faith that the times are changing for the best. We have to be on board as well and be willing to accept people as they are and not inhibit this change with more judgement.

There is certainly no good to come of us expressing our distaste for one another, that brings us to eye level with them and is not progressive. Like a wise man said, be the change you want to see in the world.

well like I said..when ever I speak about religion I am speaking to the contemporary mainstream. I am not talking about the origional gnostic paths or the true teaching of christ or any other figure.

"I myself am Christian, the last church I was a member of was LGBTQA because of the very judgement you express distaste for in the church"

All this tells me is that you likely feel the same way..that what is taught in mainstream religion today is somewhat of a bastardization of the origional teachings. I have nothing against people who follow the teachings of christ, people who follow a path similar to the origional gnostics or kabbalah, sufi's or followers of the Quaran..all these paths have truth at their core IMO but that truth has largley become shrouded in dogma.

There has been so much pain and suffering inflicted upon this world due to people blindly following this dogma that has nothing to do with the origional teachings of Jesus. I highly doubt Jesus would even associate with any aspect of the church at this time..so I would hesitate to even call much of it christianity.

I never said either that christians are bad people. Behind whatever belief there is always a person there. All I said was that the catholic church came into it's power durring the dark ages by inflicting war upon anyone who stood in it's path, and intigated multiple genocides against other ethnic groups. The Catholic church maintains it's poition today because of it's history..which was not at all rooted in peace, love or tolerance in the slightest. I would think that people who are seriously devouted to following the path of the teaching of christ would want nothing to do with the Catholic Church and would never support it, financially or otherwise. The pope sits where he does becasue he still has followers..would Jesus be supporting the pope if he walked around today?

He certainly wouldn't, I don't think he would stand idly by either. There is need for distinguish though, and certainly we should cast our view toward the solution and not the problem. If all we see is the past mistakes, the atrocities of people doing in the name of religion how can our differences be solved? Jesus taught to love those who hate and murder, that they need it more than our fellows, geez Paul his apostle was first ravenous a murderer who would feed godly folk to lions or burn them alive, he Hung out with prostitutes drunks and people the church would view as scum. So while I distance myself from these so called Christians, I can't hate them or I become them in a sense.

All I have to say about this, is the original comment I made about Mittens was a JOKE, and therefore by definition, NOT TO BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY!

IMHO, anyone getting bent out of shape by that really needs to lighten up. Mormons and their magic underwear are just plain funny. But that doesn't mean I don't respect their right to believe whatever they like. There are as many paths as there are people, and no path is wide enough to accommodate everyone.

To the people in this thread:

I see some people here throwing around some of their beliefs and ideas in a very disrespectful way. I hope that you understand that this is non-constructive and that this will only work to divide our community.

When you have an opinion then please state that in a respectful way, and think about how the other person will perceive that. If you want your idea to come across you might find out that
it will help to be more respectful.

And last but not least: picking out single events and regions to generalize a bigger part of society is not considered constructive (and even not scientific).

So please people, constructive: yes, dogmatic: no.


Kind regards,

The Traveler

I know this thread is old, but I wanted to get something off my chest.

First, I want to sincerely apologize to both Crazyhorse and Jamie for calling them hypocrites. At the time, I thought I was acting in a way to mitigate what I perceived to be negative posting activity/energy, and it completely backfired on me. The irony is that I ended up being the true hypocrite, as my actions blatantly conflicted with my goal.

Crazyhorse, I wanted to thank you for the great book recommendation you gave me in another thread: "the Universe in a single atom".

Jamie, I wanted to thank you for the wealth of knowledge you consistently take the time to contribute. I look forward to attempting your new Chaliponga extraction tek.

Second, I would like to apologize to the nexus community as a whole for facilitating this thread. I love this place, and it has had such a positive impact on my life. The last thing I intended was for my actions to result in a thread that contained so much negativity.

I wish you all much love

It's all good friend, just an example of what we're all here to do: Learn, Share, and Expand!

Glad you like the book, it's a favorite of mine for sure. Check out the tao of physics as well if you get the chance, the theme is very similar but coming more from the science side.