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Post by foinikas on May 20, 2014 15:31:56 GMT -6
Yeah but...the same way you could have so many other choices too  By the way Armenian,Syriac etc. Orthodox are not the same as Greek/Russian/Serbian/Romanian/Georgian Orthodox.The countries in the map I posted are the ones that are Eastern Orthodox. |
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Post by Liv the Librarian on May 20, 2014 15:42:42 GMT -6
I know the difference, I was Greek Orthodox myself for a while =).
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Post by foinikas on May 20, 2014 15:55:06 GMT -6
You were?When?How?
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Post by Liv the Librarian on May 20, 2014 15:57:39 GMT -6
There is a tiny Greek Orthodox church in my town  |
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Post by foinikas on May 20, 2014 17:21:09 GMT -6
Oh nice
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Post by SellennaeAlara on Jun 7, 2014 1:25:14 GMT -6
I hate the term 'religion'; I have no religion, I am how ever of the Christian faith. I hold to no church or group, as long as I do not feel the urg to beat the preachers over the head with his bible; I pretty much get along with them all.
And I have known, several preachers and Christians that need to be smacked....... Jesus would have smacked them.
My beliefs also differ from the 'Religion of Christianity.
I do believe there is more then one God (many Christians actually do) and it is biblical to believe so. Ten commandments says "No other God BEFORE me'; after and others existing are true.
As such I believe most major religion deities are real and of a lesser power and as such I show them respect.
I am active in more of a 'spirit' faith; not exactly astral planning. I believe in aura's and spirit fire colors, I believe in spiritual realms. I have seen and spoken to (call me as crazy as you like);plenty of demons, angels and dead people. Taking me to a cemetery can be a very interesting event.
I believe that the bible is the word of God; but also remember that it has been translated, time and time again by mankind and do question translations in passages.
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Post by Cascador on Jun 23, 2014 13:45:47 GMT -6
Bold statement to claim there's more than one God. It's not unusual, after all look how many Gods the ancient Greeks had. Though I am curious who would these other Gods be then?
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Post by SellennaeAlara on Jun 23, 2014 17:25:19 GMT -6
The majority from major religions such as the Greeks; Norse, Chinese, Japanese, Egyptians, Hindu and others. They can't have made such an impression on such a large group of people and been completely fictional; even if they where not 'gods' they where beings of great power one way or another.
In my personal opinion.
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Post by raoh on Jun 24, 2014 1:03:12 GMT -6
I'm agnostic and I share a similar stance as Firiath. In my mind there is a sliver of chance, I'm not going to invest any effort into finding out or soul searching but I don't have the nerve to outright deny the chance that there was intelligent design.
I'm still horrible though. I think about the nature of God/Gods like every religion says not to and then kind of reinforce my biased thinking through it.
Also equating fame to godhood means The Beatles were right and I can't live with that. You're dead to me Paul McCartney. I have more spite for The Beatles than the God I was raised to believe in.
All that said as far as cosmic enemies go I'd put Paul McCartney ahead of any Deity/Demon/Spirit.
ROT IN HECK PAUL
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Post by Liv the Librarian on Jun 27, 2014 3:06:44 GMT -6
Bold statement to claim there's more than one God. It's not unusual, after all look how many Gods the ancient Greeks had. Though I am curious who would these other Gods be then? How is it bold to say that there is more than one god?. As a Hellenist, I think it's more bold (and offensive depending on how it's being put lol) to say that there is only one god, because to me that's illogical (and obviously I believe in more than one existing). I can respect whatever religion a person is as long as a) they aren't clogging my facebook newsfeed about it, b) they aren't constantly talking about it, and c) they don't try to convert me. Nothing is more annoying than someone trying to convert another person. And, as a previous Catholic who made it her life mission to convert people, I stand on good authority on how annoying it can be  |
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Post by Cascador on Jun 27, 2014 11:15:38 GMT -6
Bold statement to claim there's more than one God. It's not unusual, after all look how many Gods the ancient Greeks had. Though I am curious who would these other Gods be then? How is it bold to say that there is more than one god?. As a Hellenist, I think it's more bold (and offensive depending on how it's being put lol) to say that there is only one god, because to me that's illogical (and obviously I believe in more than one existing). I can respect whatever religion a person is as long as a) they aren't clogging my facebook newsfeed about it, b) they aren't constantly talking about it, and c) they don't try to convert me. Nothing is more annoying than someone trying to convert another person. And, as a previous Catholic who made it her life mission to convert people, I stand on good authority on how annoying it can be I guess I said it because I live in Europe and Christianity is the largest religion as well as in America. The largest religions do only worship one God. And I knew SellennaeAlara was of Christian belief, so I was surprised that she does believe in more than one God. |
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Post by SellennaeAlara on Jun 27, 2014 11:36:11 GMT -6
How is it bold to say that there is more than one god?. As a Hellenist, I think it's more bold (and offensive depending on how it's being put lol) to say that there is only one god, because to me that's illogical (and obviously I believe in more than one existing). I can respect whatever religion a person is as long as a) they aren't clogging my facebook newsfeed about it, b) they aren't constantly talking about it, and c) they don't try to convert me. Nothing is more annoying than someone trying to convert another person. And, as a previous Catholic who made it her life mission to convert people, I stand on good authority on how annoying it can be I guess I said it because I live in Europe and Christianity is the largest religion as well as in America. The largest religions do only worship one God. And I knew SellennaeAlara was of Christian belief, so I was surprised that she does believe in more than one God. A lot or people in Christianity conveniently for get that other Gods are named in the bible as lesser or 'fake' Gods; but they are real being's and of real power. As well as the fact that the ten commandments specifically says ' no other gods BEFORE me' Not 'no other Gods than me. Not "I am the only God' Just I am a jealous God and I will come first. So even God in the Old testament did not deny the fact that there where indeed other Gods out there and that you could in fact believe in them. In my opinion; Christians who close off the idea that there could be another God or deity of power are to scared to challange their faith or see the larger picture of spirituality. |
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Post by raoh on Jun 27, 2014 12:46:15 GMT -6
I feel like it is all interpretation based. YHWH could be saying not to have faith in other gods, or to eschew them entirely because he is the one true god. Most Christians aren't in the habit of questioning God and institutions like the Catholic Church push there being one true god.
They aren't scared or come from a lesser faith from not being spiritual, it is their tradition and interpretation that they are steadfast for.
All that being said, multiple deities would explain the chaotic nature of the world. A single deity being responsible for nearly everything leads to some straining conclusions. IE Nature punishing infidels or the concept of God's wrath at all. A forgiving god, or a god that will strike you with a hurricane if you are a gay Muslim? Still I guess that feeds back into interpretations of the nature of God which nobody is allowed to talk about anyway (shhh) but the lack of that discussion seems like a breeding ground for interfaith dissonance.
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Post by Liv the Librarian on Jun 27, 2014 19:12:07 GMT -6
I feel like it is all interpretation based. YHWH could be saying not to have faith in other gods, or to eschew them entirely because he is the one true god. Most Christians aren't in the habit of questioning God and institutions like the Catholic Church push there being one true god. They aren't scared or come from a lesser faith from not being spiritual, it is their tradition and interpretation that they are steadfast for. All that being said, multiple deities would explain the chaotic nature of the world. A single deity being responsible for nearly everything leads to some straining conclusions. IE Nature punishing infidels or the concept of God's wrath at all. A forgiving god, or a god that will strike you with a hurricane if you are a gay Muslim? Still I guess that feeds back into interpretations of the nature of God which nobody is allowed to talk about anyway (shhh) but the lack of that discussion seems like a breeding ground for interfaith dissonance. That was what I liked about being Catholic. I lived at a Catholic dorm when I was 19 in my first year of college and I was surrounded by priests and nuns all day. I was lucky because they were all kind hearted, well rounded, good and down to earth people. They had no fear or apprehension in talking about god or the nature of god or our misinterpretations of the bible (or the fact that we really don't know god's will). I remember asking a nun what happens to gay people when they die since homosexuality is a sin, and she told me that she personally didn't believe that they were going to hell simply for being gay; we all live lives of sin and none of us die perfect, but many of us still go to heaven. It was just really nice and refreshing to hear someone say that. I've had priests tell me the same thing. Now that I'm a Hellenist though, I obviously don't subscribe to the world of "sin" of or heaven or hell. I mean, of course there are the Fields of Torment vs the Fields of Elysium, but even those two places are hard to get into lol. I think that the nature of deities is something very interesting because obviously if they exist, there is no way that we would ever be able to fully comprehend them. That's why part of me honestly believes that some of them may be extra-terrestrial beings. I mean, gods are a thing of men and men's ideas, but aliens, I don't think the universe would operate with truly all powerful beings. That's also part of why I like Hellenism, the universe IS a being, derived out of Chaos (who is also a being), but brought to order. But to think that the gods like Zeus, Hermes, etc could be aliens makes sense to me. So, I'm not exactly a normal Hellenist. I also believe that YHWH is real, and all the other gods that other people believe in. My beliefs are just really odd but I chose to identify as a Hellenist, and with personal experience and weird occurrences, I'd feel wrong not to. |
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Post by sjfaerlind on Jun 27, 2014 20:39:13 GMT -6
The assumptions people make about religious people and their beliefs constantly amaze me. Regardless of what church they do or don't sit in every Sunday, no two people ever have the exact same interpretation of God or Gods. Even two people sitting side by side in the same church don't agree exactly on the nature of the deity they worship. To me it's crazy to assume that we really know anything about another person's spiritual beliefs just because they are members of a religion.
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