I am with you, MadMax. I am a baptised Christian, but I do not consider that religion. I have a big problem with the Chinese translation of Christianity - the religion of Christ. When in Chinese, I always call myself a Christian - someone who believes in Christianity. To me, religion always turns faith of the mass into some power for a group of people, which is very anti-Christ.
if we're talking semantics, i'm much more comfortable with the term, "Christ-follower" than "Christian." maybe that's cultural baggage about what Christian has come to mean to so many people.
I believe in the Church of Baseball. I've tried all the major religions, and most of the minor ones. I've worshipped Buddha, Allah, Brahma, Vishnu, Siva, trees, mushrooms, and Isadora Duncan. I know things. For instance, there are 108 beads in a Catholic rosary and there are 108 stitches in a baseball. When I heard that, I gave Jesus a chance. But it just didn't work out between us. The Lord laid too much guilt on me. I prefer metaphysics to theology. You see, there's no guilt in baseball, and it's never boring...which makes it kinda like sex. ....I've tried 'em all, I really have, and the only church that truly feeds the soul, day in, day out, is the Church of Baseball. - Annie Savoy
if you follow JC, then why wouldnt you forgive Vernon Maxwell? A player who was obviously loved by his teammates, but had a tough issue with pride and anger management. i forgive him! JC is a Vernon fan, he's wearing #11. Those amazing game winning shots were assisted by the man above!
We've had this conversation before. The difference is I belive I am the concious organic machine . Yes, my physical components came from stardust and will return to stardust after I cease to function but if my particular conciousness no longer perceives, I don't exist. To me, nothing will exist, or not exist because I don't perceive. Stardust may seem like it is forever but without a concious entity perceiving it, it doesn't exist. Religions always have a creation myth about how gods created the Earth but they rarely have a myth about why gods create. That would be my reason, God realized that without an outside observer he couldn't confirm his own existence.
you have this crazy idea that if i disagree with something someone did, that i hate them. that's nuts. it's not my place to FORGIVE vernon maxwell. ask his teammates if they forgave him. that's their fight, not mine. clearly i loved vernon....his nickname is my freaking moniker. i own a vernon maxwell jersey that i wore to EVERY playoff game in 1994. this is easily the strangest continued conversation i've ever had on this message board. and i've had quite a few, for better or for worse. my only beef with anything about this, really, is the suggestion that, because my opinion differs from yours, it MIGHT be racism. you threw that out there very irresponsibly without knowing me or anyone else you were talking to, on any sort of personal basis.
i know you arent a racist, else you wouldnt name yourself mad max. i just threw that word out there to reel in the real racists!
Yes, but in the stand-by mode. My body is still exchanging eletro-chemical signals with my brain; poke with a pin and I'll jump. A better question would be did Mary Schiavo exist. She existed to us but she did not exist to herself. Her stardust was observed by a conscious entity but Mary Shiavo didn't exist.
I didn't vote.. If we use the definition of religion that necessarily includes an organised system of faith and worship, then you can put me down as having no religion. I'm anti-religious, even, when I see the scars that man-made belief systems have inflicted on the world. There may or may not be a higher supernatural power, that may or may not be sentient, and may or may not reward the "good" while punishing the "evil" - but the likelihood that mankind is anywhere close to the truth on this topic doesn't strike me as particularly overwhelming, and so I eschew all forms of organised religion If we use a less rigid definition, equating religion simply with one's philosophy or way of life, then I will say the Buddha's teachings resonate most closely with my own observations, because that's what I feel I should base my belief on - observable evidence. It also means I don't necessarily have faith in whatever he says, just because I agree with him on most counts. It is when we fall into the trap of professing to believe what we do not believe, thereby winding up believing we believe it, that goes against my innate sense of how life should be lived My faith, if you want to call it that, is in the scientific method, and logic, and reason.. because everything I've ever experienced tells me they work. All the time. And that surety - while not comforting in times of need, or illuminating in times of uncertainty - is as important to me as religion is to any one of you guys
Wrong fourm. I am appalled as such a post from an experienced poster. Moderator, please send to the Texan, Astros and Comets Forum or perhaps the Hangout.
Hell isn't going to be much easier. (I know, I know. Bad joke. But somehow, I find it hysterical) I'm Episcopalian, myself.
This topic reminds me of a song I like . . . . Heard a lot of talk about this Jesus A man of love, a man of strength But what a man was 2000 years ago Means nothing at all to me today He could have been telling me about my higher self But he only lives inside my prayer So what he was may have been beautiful But the pain is right now and right here
