This isn't a Build a Religion store is it?

This is my response to SKLANSKY'S "Only a select few bother me" thread, and i was upset it didn't get any response, so here it is again

[ QUOTE ]
woah woah!!! this isn't a "Build a Religion" shop in the mall is it. I agree that most people fall into these categories, and that the rest are annoying, but most of the believers on your list do not only believe what you had listed as (decent religious people) but also claim to be christians or what not and just pick and choose aspects of belief in... this guy a the son of god, but god doesn't make jews go to hell, but he does make muslims, oh yeah and my all time favorite ------ if you are a good person you can go to heaven even though the bible doesn't say that. (I remind you that this only annoys me when these people consider theemsleves christians)

anyway and all the circumstances that they pick and choose without much thought and claim to be christians. honestly just be a christian or not and stop making up your own religion because you don't like the idea of good people going to hell because according to your religion it doesn't matter........wow i'm ranting..

so maybe you only mean that these people don't annoy you through their actions on a personal basis.. but at least this 15% or so are actually doing their job as a christian and telling it as it is (in their religion) and not building their own religion as they go

why believe the bible as the word of god (which the builders also throw their ideas at) and believe that jesus is the son of god, but not that gays are going to hell....

And I'm an Atheist!!!!!!!

[/ QUOTE ]

Do these build a religioner's bother any of you more than the devout christians for example?? I would agree with DS in that people who believe in his little list of beliefs are less of a bother than very religious people, but the problem is when these people claim to be of a certain religion...

I don't know what the odds are that...Jesus is the son of god and the bible is the word of god, but there are some things are wrong with the bible...but the odds cannot be good.

My mother claims to be a chirstian but doesn't like the idea that you go to hell if you don't believe that jesus was the son of god so she chooses to believe that they do not go to hell as long as they're good people. I didn't realize that you could change whatever you don't like about christianity just because your sense of compassion got in the way [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

And i also think that the majority of DS's 85% are these kind of people

So does this annoy anyone else or is it just me???

[imported_luckyme]

[ QUOTE ]
i was upset it didn't get any response, so here it is again

[/ QUOTE ]

I replied to DS in that thread, taking a position similar to yours. I called them wishy-washies. Mind you, I was detoured into an explanation of the nature of belief. have a look back.

luckyme

[BluffTHIS!]

We conservative catholics call those type of catholics who want to pick and choose among the church's doctrines, "cafeteria catholics".

And the myriad of protestant denominations, which after splitting off the catholic church have continually split off each other, show that "build your own variety of christianity" is very popular.

They say "I don't agree with X", when they are really saying, "I don't agree with the teaching of God and His Church on X".

[Trantor]

[ QUOTE ]
We conservative catholics call those type of catholics who want to pick and choose among the church's doctrines, "cafeteria catholics".

And the myriad of protestant denominations, which after splitting off the catholic church have continually split off each other, show that "build your own variety of christianity" is very popular.

They say "I don't agree with X", when they are really saying, "I don't agree with the teaching of God and His Church on X".

[/ QUOTE ]

It's a good example of specisisation as applied to the evolution of memes. Natural selection as applied to religious belief.

[ QUOTE ]

...And the myriad of protestant denominations, which after splitting off the catholic church have continually split off each other...

[/ QUOTE ]

It is a moot point who split with whom.... Catholicism is still equally as subject to splits.. Peter666 to my help here ... lol

I am sure the protestants feel equally as righteous and that they are "The" church as the catholics.

It's all semantics trying to justify the untenable, whatever its color. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Just another display of very selective and prejudiced observations without any open mindedness at all.

I read your response to his thread and I agree completely

Still not sure of why these people don't bother DS more, since he only seems to pop up to introduce new threads and make little responses that don't give much detail as to his reasoning.

Maybe I'm interpreting his verion of "bother" wrong...I suppose they don't neccessarily bother me, but I just respect them far less because of their complete lack of thought on any subject

[imported_luckyme]

[ QUOTE ]
Still not sure of why these people don't bother DS more, since he only seems to pop up to introduce new threads and make little responses that don't give much detail as to his reasoning.

[/ QUOTE ]

DS's recently mentioned his role as 'traffic generator' and essentially that's how his posts play out. He tosses out some thought, usually without any background structure, and leaves us to sort it out. He rarely comes back in with a major expansion or explanation. Fair enough, a group needs a stimulator.

In this case, he seems to be focusing on the "specific beliefs aren't warranted" angle ( a favorite of his), this time as it relates to going to hell...for some reason. I don't see how that is worse than having 4 specific beliefs, 3 of them in conflict, that you often get from the wishy-washies.

People take their morals to their religion by this 'adopting' process. Some can take a dogma right off the shelf ( it fits their innate morality), others need to adjust their interpretation of the bible to arrive at religion/morals harmony. Some wishy-washies do your " build a religion" and never bother to reconcile the armload of postions they end up with... those bother me for intellectual honesty reasons more than the dogmatic ( off-the shelf or modified) types who have at least put in the effort to make their stance coherent.

[ QUOTE ]
They say "I don't agree with X", when they are really saying, "I don't agree with the teaching of God and His Church on X".

[/ QUOTE ]
This is more than a bit harsh. Since so much of Catholic teaching is extra-biblical it's perfectly reasonable to disagree with many doctrines of the Church without being a "cafeteria Catholic".

I'll list a few:

- Female preists
- married preists
- papal infallability
- marriage as a sacrament

At a minimum, it should be obvious that the Church has changed its opinion on many issues over the years. This means that what is now orthodoxy could once have been called disagreeing "with the teaching of God and His Church". Today's "cafeteria Catholics" may well be tomorrow's conservatives.

[ QUOTE ]
So does this annoy anyone else or is it just me???

[/ QUOTE ]
It might annoy me a little in a academic sense, but at the end of the day I'd rather live with these guys because they don't abandon their humanity when it's at odds with some archaic aspect of their religion

You don't have to be a literalist to be a Christian. It's perfectly reasonable to "pick and choose" so long as you have a reason for doing it. And if it's a slipperly slope that leads them away from "the flock" ... well I have no problem with that either.