Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

I am religious and believe in free will

70 (27.6%)

I am religious and do not believe in free will

10 (3.9%)

I am not religious and believe in free will

113 (44.5%)

I am not religious and do not believe in free will

61 (24%)

Total Members Voted: 249

[jipehog]

I consider fundamentalism to be kind of... a separate thing that can be made unacceptable separately from moderate faith. I try and dissociate from them.

I think that in past centuries Religion are become less and less relevant, a reactive force to changes made by others, relying on scripture written by those who had no concept for things to come. In this sense Fundamentalism is a reactionary force, which tries to shoehorn literal interpretation of dated concepts, while moderate faith is just using conservative buffer/filter to social change happening right now.

Personally, I am more concerned about the Railgun aspect of the equation. I think that all people (irrespective of their belief religious or otherwise) have great capacity to believe what they want to believe, rejecting reality and substituting it with their own. More over in hyper-partisans political climate in age of media sensationalism some people start to confuse the political games with reality, and all of that get in the way of science.

[martinuzz]

Apparently holy scriptures aren't unchangeable.
Saudi Arabia removed a verse from the Qu'ran, that described 'christians and jews' as the enemies of muslims.

[Strongpoint]

Apparently holy scriptures aren't unchangeable.
Saudi Arabia removed a verse from the Qu'ran, that described 'christians and jews' as the enemies of muslims.

Citation needed.

I know that Saudi Arabia is doing a major overhaul of their school textbooks, removing much anti-Israel and anti-Jewish (I refuse to call Arabs antisemitic) stuff. I assume they also may have removed some Quran citations from those textbooks but it is not the same as modifying Quran

[martinuzz]

https://www.volkskrant.nl/nieuws-achtergrond/in-saoedische-schoolboeken-zijn-christenen-en-joden-niet-langer-de-vijand-van-moslims-en-dat-past-in-een-trend~b60b3172/

It's in the article, mentioned together with the changing of schoolbooks.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Ook is er een Korantekst verwijderd waarin ‘christenen en Joden’ de vijanden werden genoemd van moslims.
translation: also, a Qu'ran text has been removed in which 'christians and Jews' are called the enemies of muslims

EDIT: Hmm yeah it could be that they mean that the verse was removed from the school books, but then they are writing it in a very obfuscated way.

[Magmacube_tr]

I kinda get that greek gods are fickle, spontaneous and temperamental because they are personifications of larger-than-life stuff

But an in-myth explanation to their emotional incontinence could be that a majority of them are literal incest babies. It is like that whole Habsburg thing.

I present to you; The Olympian Temper Syndrome.

[Loud Whispers]

I kinda get that greek gods are fickle, spontaneous and temperamental because they are personifications of larger-than-life stuff

But an in-myth explanation to their emotional incontinence could be that a majority of them are literal incest babies. It is like that whole Habsburg thing.

I present to you; The Olympian Temper Syndrome.

I always find it funny in hindsight where the hubris tales of Greek mythology were supposed to be lessons in humility for humans who reached for more than they could handle... But some of them are just the gods catching Ls non-stop and the humans can't be blamed for the gods being worse at the things they're supposed to be good at. Like the story of Arachne competing with Athena in a weaving contest; with nothing better to do but torment a poor lowborn Lydian girl who boasted her weaving skill was superior to all - even the gods, Athena challenges Arachne to a weaving contest in the disguise of a mortal.

Athena weaves a tapestry showing the gods punishing the mortals for their hubris. Arachne weaves a tapestry of all the times gods appeared before mortals in disguise, decieving them and ruining their lives just to get what they want. Athena, goddess of wisdom, in her disguise she is using to deceive Arachne to get what she wants, then reveals her disguise (lol) and unable to find any fault or criticism of Arachne's perfect tapestry, grabs her weaving shuttle, smashing Arachne on the head four times. Unable to cope with the pain, Arachne kills herself by hanging - and out of "compassion" wise Pallas Athene uses witchcraft to transform Arachne into a spider

Pallas could not blame that work, nor could Envy censure it. The yellow-haired Virgin grieved at her success, and tore the web embroidered with the criminal acts of the Gods of heaven. And as she was holding her shuttle made of boxwood from Mount Cytorus, three or four times did she strike the forehead of Arachne, the daughter of Idmon. The unhappy creature could not endure it; and being of a high spirit, she tied up her throat in a halter. Pallas, taking compassion, bore her up as she hung; and thus she said: “Live on indeed, wicked one, but still hang; and let the same decree of punishment be pronounced against thy race, and against thy latest posterity, that thou mayst not be free from care in time to come.” After that, as she departed, she sprinkled her with the juices of an Hecatean herb; and immediately her hair, touched by the noxious drug, fell off, and together with it her nose and ears. The head of herself, now small as well throughout her whole body, becomes very small. Her slender fingers cleave to her sides as legs; her belly takes possession of the rest of her; but out of this she gives forth a thread; and as a spider, she works at her web as formerly.

Literally petulant overpowered children losing the argument every time and in their implike seething deciding "WELL I DON'T LOSE BECAUSE I KILL YOU I WIN"

[Rolan7]

I'm sorry- Athena, goddess of war, divine being, hit Arachne FOUR TIMES??

I don't know what the original point of the story was, but I consider this a testament to humankind's resilience.
(on top of Arachne being a master artisan greater than even the gods)

[Magmacube_tr]

Tldr; Olympians are sexy bitches.

[Grim Portent]

I'm sorry- Athena, goddess of war, divine being, hit Arachne FOUR TIMES??

I don't know what the original point of the story was, but I consider this a testament to humankind's resilience.
(on top of Arachne being a master artisan greater than even the gods)

It's generally considered to advise against the hubris inherent in challenging the gods. Even if you win, the gods are still powerful in ways you are not, so don't challenge them out of pride.

IIRC the story comes from Ovid, a Roman poet, though it probably predates him and it's just his interpretation of an existing myth.

[TD1]

In which case, it would be interesting to explore the presence of four-time blows in other Ovidian work/Roman culture.

[EuchreJack]

As I'm reading about "Religious Freedom" being the stick with which to beat the LGBTQ community, I wonder if the following statement would be protected under Free Speech and Religious Freedoms:

Jesus was born a woman, and self-identified as a man.

[MaxTheFox]

Personal freedoms override religious freedoms, is my reconciliation. Abusing children is not, in any case, a right you are "free" to exercise.

[EuchreJack]

The way I see it, if people had to properly detail why their idiocy is justified under "religious freedom", it would be a far harder legal issue to litigate.

Jesus never misgendered anyone. The original bible had no pronouns.

[Strongpoint]

As I'm reading about "Religious Freedom" being the stick with which to beat the LGBTQ community, I wonder if the following statement would be protected under Free Speech and Religious Freedoms:

Jesus was born a woman, and self-identified as a man.

Better try "Mohammed was born a woman and self-identified as a man". And draw a nice picture of sexy Mohammed with tits.

[EuchreJack]

As I'm reading about "Religious Freedom" being the stick with which to beat the LGBTQ community, I wonder if the following statement would be protected under Free Speech and Religious Freedoms:

Jesus was born a woman, and self-identified as a man.

Better try "Mohammed was born a woman and self-identified as a man". And draw a nice picture of sexy Mohammed with tits.

Well, I'm sure that would be protected in American...