What religion/faith are you?

[Timewalker]

Catholics must also do everything the Pope says. I wonder what would happen if the Pope went delirious and started ordering people to do crazy stuff... I mean I have no doubt that he'd be stopped and put away after a while but in the meantime, in one speech he could say a lot of demented things!!!

They already do say a lot of demented things that fly in the face of science, logic, ethics, the law, and human rights.

As for Atheists I really don't know much about them, as groups I mean. I know I am one and it's always nice to see that I am not the only one but beyond that... I don't read books about Atheism, Why would I? I don't need to be convinced. The person you talk about, It's the first time I hear about him or is it her? "Madalyn"? Is it a male first name, female or both? I find it staggeringly funny when people think that Nikita is the name of a female!!! Nikita is male! But I guess in a world where Michael is female, anything's possible.

Madalyn is a woman's name. There is a TV series called "La femme Nikita" that's about a female spy.

As for the rest of your post, there are many different variations on atheism, some of which may have organized themselves into groups or philosophies they identify with. I was accused of being a "follower" of Richard Dawkins long before I had any clue who he was (hadn't even heard of him prior to that).

I've since read some of what he's written and have watched a few of the videos of his conversations/presentations with astrophysicist Lawrence Krauss (if you're going to be accused of being a follower of someone, it might help to know just what sort of person that is, so you can say whether or not you agree with what the person has to say).

There are some atheists who honestly want to burn places of worship to the ground and destroy whatever texts and material may be connected with that religion. When I told the members of one of the online groups I belonged to that I'm not into that sort of thing, that I take the anthropological view of religion, they promptly informed me, "You are not a real atheist."

Well, they're wrong. But it just goes to show that there's no such thing as a monolithic bloc of people who identify as atheist who will agree with each other about everything.

But I suppose the fact that I have a set of Carl Sagan magnets on my fridge is enough to convince some people that I consider atheism a religion; they can't seem to understand that respect does not equate to worship.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Just had a thought. Why is Mormon listed (in this poll) separate from Christian? AFAIK, Mormons ARE Christians.

 

[Timewalker]

Just had a thought. Why is Mormon listed (in this poll) separate from Christian? AFAIK, Mormons ARE Christians.

Not according to some other Christians. There are some who consider it no more than a cult.

 

[PSGarak]

To be a Christian, as I understand it, you just need to accept Christ as the saviour and boom, all sins forgiven, redemption guaranteed.

I haven't seen that to be true of any flavor of Christian I've ever interacted with, and it definitely wasn't true of Presbyterians (non-evangelical flavor.) Accepting Christ as your savior was the beginning of it, but you also had to believe you were sinful, genuinely repent for your sins because you were sorry (not because you were afraid of toasting your toes), and repent with the mindset not to commit sins again. But if you did, you once again had to pray for forgiveness. In Catholicism, you can't pray for your own forgiveness. That's what the priest is for. Going to confession, doing whatever penance he sets you, and letting him intercede with god on your behalf. Last Rites are all about the priest making sure the dying doesn't die with sins on their soul (going back to toasty toes.)

There's that. And, there's a whole strain of the supremacists who are into Asatru, recreated Norse religion. A lot of them are just a variation on Wiccans but there is a strain of them who see it as recreating their racial roots instead of following a cosmopolitan, multiracial mongrel religion created by Jews.

Yeah, this. The ones who get into Asatru, Druidry, and other Western European or Scandinavian belief systems are doing it out of a sense of racial purity. This type views Christianity as the bastard son of Judaism, and they want no part of that. They are doing a lot of heavy recruiting in prisons, particularly in the Pacific Northwest. A Druid acquaintance of mine does a lot of anti-racist deprogramming work in the Washington State prisons. They're easy targets, because the groups start just with the religion side of things, give them a feeling of belonging, and then start turning up the rhetoric when they feel like they've got their loyalty. It's insidious.

 

[StarCruiser]

All forms of organized racism are insidious - religion need not apply...

The whole idea of just accepting Christ and *poof* all is forgiven is a fallacy. That's always been an issue with the Italian Mafia - go ahead and wack someone and then go to confession and *poof* all's good with God again... Yeah - doesn't work that way guys.

 

[Kor]

... I find it staggeringly funny when people think that Nikita is the name of a female!!! Nikita is male! ...

Well... the name Nikita was used for the female protagonist of the famous 1990 French film "La Femme Nikita," directed by Luc Besson (and then a couple TV shows based on the movie).

Kor

 

[PSGarak]

The whole idea of just accepting Christ and *poof* all is forgiven is a fallacy. That's always been an issue with the Italian Mafia - go ahead and wack someone and then go to confession and *poof* all's good with God again... Yeah - doesn't work that way guys.

Yeah. I had to go digging a little. My Bible knowledge is pretty rusty, but a lot of answers to questions about sin and forgiveness are in Paul's letters to the Romans, Romans 5-8, and one of the questions was, "Shall we sin so that grace may abound?" In saying no, he also goes into the whole asking for forgiveness without the intention of not repeating the sin.

 

[PSGarak]

Well... the name Nikita was used for the female protagonist of the famous 1990 French film "La Femme Nikita," directed by Luc Besson (and then a couple TV shows based on the movie).

It all depends on the country where the name is used. In Russia, it's exclusively male. In Scandinavian countries, it's used as a female name. I've never met a male Nikita here in the states. I've met several girls and women with that name.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Mormons have unique beliefs in addition to beliefs held by mainstream Christians, such as the belief that the Book of Mormon is a sacred text. The consideration of additional text as sacred is one of the key things that distinguishes Mormonism from mainstream Christianity.

 

[StarCruiser]

Even mainstream Christianity has had disagreements over which of the books of the Bible are actually legitimate. There are quite a few that are not included in the King James Bible, and some are a bit different between the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches and so on and so forth.

Then, there's the Orange Catholic Bible but, that's a different story (and a very long one at that).

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Even mainstream Christianity has had disagreements over which of the books of the Bible are actually legitimate. There are quite a few that are not included in the King James Bible, and some are a bit different between the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches and so on and so forth.

This is different.

 

[PSGarak]

It's my understanding, limited as it is, that Mormons very much consider themselves Christians, but many Christians don't consider Mormons Christian, and it largely falls down to Mormons believing in a "living doctrine," as in one that can be and still is added to by living prophets, while many other Christians view the Bible as static and set. The doctrine is what it is and cannot be added to nor taken away from. To do so is heresy. While this view completely ignores the early history of the church, it's still a pretty common modern view. I've also heard Protestants and Evangelicals argue that Catholics aren't Christians and vice versa. Aside from the notion of Christ as a savior and man being sinful and needing saving, I don't think there's much else a lot of the widely divergent branches do agree on.

 

[Timewalker]

Then, there's the Orange Catholic Bible but, that's a different story (and a very long one at that).

According to the Orthodox Herbertarians, only the original six books are canon.

"Thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of a man's mind" is the quote that's most prevalent.

 

[Unicron]

Personally, I consider the Lolcat translation and the Brick Testament (Lego translation) of the Bible to be the only accurate modern ones.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

It's my understanding, limited as it is, that Mormons very much consider themselves Christians, but many Christians don't consider Mormons Christian, and it largely falls down to Mormons believing in a "living doctrine," as in one that can be and still is added to by living prophets, while many other Christians view the Bible as static and set. The doctrine is what it is and cannot be added to nor taken away from. To do so is heresy. While this view completely ignores the early history of the church, it's still a pretty common modern view. I've also heard Protestants and Evangelicals argue that Catholics aren't Christians and vice versa. Aside from the notion of Christ as a savior and man being sinful and needing saving, I don't think there's much else a lot of the widely divergent branches do agree on.

It's more than that. They believe that particular sacred texts were revealed to Joseph Smith and that God chose him to restore the Christian church. One can believe in a living doctrine and still not buy into the particulars of that. Similarly, one can reject that as a tenable belief system for reasons besides skepticism in the idea that in principle God might choose to speak through modern day prophets.

 

[Timewalker]

Personally, I consider the Lolcat translation and the Brick Testament (Lego translation) of the Bible to be the only accurate modern ones.

I've read the Lolcat translation, and there are some words and phrases that are more l33t than lolcat. But it's still quite readable (though I had to explain lolcat grammar to someone I showed it to).

 

[Discofan]

They already do say a lot of demented things that fly in the face of science, logic, ethics, the law, and human rights.


Madalyn is a woman's name. There is a TV series called "La femme Nikita" that's about a female spy.
.....

"Nikita" is not a French name it's Russian and it's for males. If you think that Nikita Khrushchev looks like a woman, you need to have your eyes fixed.*

*(said in a lighthearted humorous way. Don't you guys accuse me of being aggressive or something.)

I don't care about "organized Atheism" whatever that is. To me, Atheism is not an end in itself, it's a component of one's personality. I mean you put salt in your meals but you wouldn't eat salt as a meal unless there's something wrong with you.

 

[Discofan]

Well... the name Nikita was used for the female protagonist of the famous 1990 French film "La Femme Nikita," directed by Luc Besson (and then a couple TV shows based on the movie).

Kor

Well, Luc Besson is an ignorant, no doubt a gifted one, but an ignorant nevertheless. I've seen him talk about things outside of his "filming things stuff". It's appalling of stupidity. Watch the fifth element, I mean it's very entertaining, diverting and all that but it's MORONIC!! Every single word that is said in that movie is idiotic to the extreme.

 

[Avro Arrow]

A little bit of research shows that Nikita is used as a male name in the Slavic countries, and a female name pretty much everywhere else. Since this is really off-topic for this thread, how about we drop it at this point. If there really is the need to discuss it further, please move the discussion to a more appropriate thread.

 

[rhubarbodendron]

May I get us back on course by comparing naming customs from the religious point of view?

I'm curious how naming is handled in different religions and whether there are any taboos or general rules.
A class mate's parents wished her to be christened Heidrun and the (roman catholic) priest pointblank refused on the basis that that was a heathen name and forcibly christened her Adelheid instead. Admittedly, that was almost 60 years ago and nowadays such things don't happen anymore but most Catholics over here are a bit uncomfortable with many christian (and muslim) refugees from the Near East being called Isa ( = Jesus). That name is still a very strict taboo among catholics in Germany even though to my knowledge there was never an explicit ban of the name and it's even quite frequently used in Spain.

Are there similar taboos or dos and don'ts in other religions and how are these justified/explained?