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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

[Frumple]

First Church of Misaka, huh. That probably actually exists somewhere. One of those small ones, hosted more in individual residences than dedicated buildings.

[Rolepgeek]

PTW. 
Edit: oh shit, I thought this was the railgun and spirituality thread, my bad.

It is now!

[Egan_BW]

So, there's no way to describe the trinity that's not a heresy in some way? Or is "It's a paradox lol" pretty much canon?
Where did the idea of the trinity come from, anyway?

[MetalSlimeHunt]

The need to explain the relationship between the Father, Jesus, and the Spooky Ghost. Many explanations were raised, and after a few centuries of spirited genocide the Chalcedonians emerged victorious by virtue of making the least sense.

[Orange Wizard]

So, there's no way to describe the trinity that's not a heresy in some way? Or is "It's a paradox lol" pretty much canon?

A Divine Mystery™ is the official canon, which basically means "fuck if I know"

Where did the idea of the trinity come from, anyway?

St Augustine coined the term AFAIK, although the idea behind the doctrine has been floating around since the Arian heresy started to be a thing.

[Teneb]

Where did the idea of the trinity come from, anyway?

St Augustine coined the term AFAIK, although the idea behind the doctrine has been floating around since the Arian heresy started to be a thing.

All catholics secretly arians. Heil Mary.

[BorkBorkGoesTheCode]

All catholics secretly arians. Heil Mary.

I know you study history; This is for the benefit of those who don't: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arianism
[EDIT: broken quote]

[MarcAFK]

The holy trinity is the Capacitor, the Rail and the holy projectile, and that is cannon.
The council of gauss was heresy and followers of coilgun will be expunged.
Velocitas Eradico!   

But seriously this is as bad as heli-kin taking over the sexuality thead.

[hops]

The holy trinity is the Capacitor, the Rail and the holy projectile, and that is cannon.
The council of gauss was heresy and followers of coilgun will be expunged.
Velocitas Eradico!   

But seriously this is as bad as heli-kin taking over the sexuality thead.

That was just an #eggmode heli-kin thread.

[MarcAFK]

All catholics secretly arians. Heil Mary.

I know you study history; This is for the benefit of those who don't: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arianism
[EDIT: broken quote]

I think somebody needs a name hangs to BorkBorkLinksTheWiki

[Rolan7]

Again, even if I had some reason to believe... I don't think I could accept that.

A deity who demands perfection but creates imperfection but then offers unconditional forgiveness, but only if said imperfect creations believe in a certain thing with no evidence?
That just seems so bizarre to me.

The fickle whims of the fey at least admit their non-rationality.  Playing a fey game might offer some boon.  Probably a tricky one, but that's a boon in itself right?  A spice to life.

Maybe I'd feel differently if I had dependents.  I'd bet with the ""sure"" religion which offered safety.  But since I don't, so I'd rather have an interesting life.

And more importantly than what I'd want, fey-trickery makes infinitely more sense than some absent father-analogue creator offering forgiveness for the despicable way it made me.
Read into that all you want, but under a fair reading of judeo-christian texts I'm not actually responsible for what I am.  I had no choice, and I'm suffering the quote-unquote "sin" of some ancient greatX-grandfather.
And my only chance is to circumstancially adopt a redemption belief system from the most recent 0.5% of human history?

I don't believe I *deserve* absolute salvation.  I sinned against my morals, and I regret that.  And if I still get infinite perfection as a reward despite my unresolved shame, if I say sorry, I guess God is someone who values apology over reasonable morality.

If there's any justice, I belong in some analogue of purgatory (at least for some finite time).  But that's not how common US Christianity works.  The apologetic are saved, the confused burn eternally.

If I do join any Abrahamic denomination, it will certainly be Catholicism.  It resonates with me.  I need some punishment for what I've done, or I cannot feel clean.  Like karma.

But looking at reality, I'm more likely to keep believing in fickle, blue-green-morality aliens who play with us.

Edit:  Or the Cathars, actually.  In fact Catharism over Catholicism. 

[TD1]

I agree to some extent. Not about belief in the fey (though I'd certainly choose it over Christianity by a large margin) but in their fickleness. For instance, the Greek gods. They're often cruel, even human, and that this fickleness be reflected in nature, including the human nature which they made.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

I need some punishment for what I've done, or I cannot feel clean.

Kinky, but we have places for that now other than churches.

[Dozebôm Lolumzalìs]

Can't you just punish yourself?

Unrelated to previous sentence: I've discussed religion with my formerly-agnostic father and Catholic mother. It was quite interesting.

Spoiler: story (click to show/hide)

Backstory: So my father's technically Catholic, but he has beliefs quite contrary to several teachings. My mother is similar, possibly to a lesser extent. (My father tends to discuss philosophy and religion and science with me more than my mother does, so I understand his religious beliefs more than hers.)

So I'm also Catholic. I go to religious ed, and unusual for someone my age, actually participates and thinks hard about things. However, I disagree with many "modern-day applications and teachings" of Catholicism. Whenever something like abortion or euthanasia or such is discussed, I tend to take the liberal/"shades of grey" stance, while Pam, the sort of "head" teacher of religious ed, teaches a more "black and white"/somewhat conservative view. (No hard feelings; she enjoys the conversations we have, while I understand that she's pretty much required to teach "black and white" stuff to us.)

But more than just disagreeing with modern, conservative applications of Catholicism, I've recently started rethinking central tenets of Catholicism, like "Jesus is both the literal Son of God, and he's fully divine, and he's fully human, DEEP HUH." I've also re-evaluated my belief, and found none. I don't believe that a god or God exists. (Not that I believe that no god exists; I'm agnostic, not atheist.) Everything can be explained by science, as far as I can tell. There's just no evidence for God. (And the Bible doesn't count. Here's a possible holy book: "This book is true, the sky is blue, I wear antiparticle shoes." Obviously, a book stating that it is true... could be FALSE!)

So I talked with my mother about how I was pretty sure I was agnostic, and was reconsidering doing Confirmation. And I ended up deciding that I was going to stay.

I'm going to continue being Catholic, because a possible application of the Bible and other Catholic stuff agrees with my own ethics. It's not the Catholic God I believe in, nor the Pope, nor the church authorities. It's the ethics I derive from what I believe to be a mainly fictional book. And I only believe in them because I agree with them. Mostly.

[TheBiggerFish]

I wonder what a survey of self-professed Catholics would turn up as compared to official church position.  Especially, whether they knew it was or not.