Religon?

[Corva]

Just curius to what that particular axis of demography is.

[Ersska]

I am a Christian. I'm non-denominational, though.

[Pandora]

funny, I was just having an argument on the issue on a blog.

[vampirehunter42]

On that note. Let's keep it clean and remember to accept the choices of others. Even when they are not yours. So when it flames up I lock it.


I am Lutheran, it was the first "official" breakoff from Catholicism. The founder had a number of "problems" with the Pope at the time.

[alondor]

Methodist is what i am

no idea on the history

[Falconer]

Baptist

Dragonrider, I'm surprised you didn't include Hinduism, Islam, or Buhdism (Buuhdism- Bhudism- whatever, that chinese religion). They're pretty common in the US, more so, I think, than Wicca.

[Tempest]

There is a 10 choices limit so if you want you can add a few more to the list. It will reset the vote, however.

I'm an atheist...

[Silentiea]

Baptist

Dragonrider, I'm surprised you didn't include Hinduism, Islam, or Buhdism (Buuhdism- Bhudism- whatever, that chinese religion). They're pretty common in the US, more so, I think, than Wicca.

It's Buddhist.

And I'm Catholic.

[Blue Tiger]

Honestly, I dont know what I am. I suppose I was brought up as christian in my first school, so that would mean Protestant, But then again, Ive gone trough various stages of atheism, then I am very interested in the Budhist religion and my mom is Wiccan, so I have interests there. Yes very confusing, but I suppose its between Budhism, Wiccan, and a mixture of other things... and atheism, lol.

[Corva]

Baptist

Dragonrider, I'm surprised you didn't include Hinduism, Islam, or Buhdism (Buuhdism- Bhudism- whatever, that chinese religion). They're pretty common in the US, more so, I think, than Wicca.

I don't think they're that common on this forum though. I could be wrong, but from reading posts since I got here it seemed to be predominantly Christian and Wiccan. That and I couldn't be bothered to add anymore options.


Suprising how many Christians are here. So much for the 'the Bible says Dragons are evil' malarky. I'm Christian, by the way. I go to a Free Methodist church, but I don't really consider myself as having a denomination. Evangelical, probably.

[Silentiea]

Bible says 'The Dragon' is evil as he specifically is an allegory for Satan. But it also says that doctors are bad sometimes, so...

[Falconer]

It doesn't say dragons are evil. Where'd you get that? It says the Great Dragon (thinly veiled reference to Satan) is evil. Dragons are pictured as just another great predator- in fact, God hold up Leviathan, who is obviously a dragon, as an example of one of the greatest works of creation.

[Blue Tiger]

I went through the bible not too long ago just to see if I could find anything interesting on dragons. Heres a few, but most are really long so I will cut them down...

OT: Isaiah 28
27:1 On that day the Lord will use his powerful and deadly sword to punish Leviathan, that wriggling, twisting dragon, and to kill the monster that lives in the sea."

NT
Revelation 12.
"There was a huge red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and a crown on each of its heads. With his tail he dragged a third of the stars out of the sky and threw them down to earth.
The huge dragon was thrown out - that ancient serpent called the Devil, or Satan, that decieved the whole world. He was thrown down to Earth, and all his angels with him"
13
" It had ten horns and 7 heads...on each of its heads there was a name that was insulting God."

Theres a few more, really long one, all stuff about the 7 headed dragon, and the beast, and people who worshipped it being marked with the mark of the beast which is 666, etc.

[Silentiea]

Ah, revelations. So much fun to read about how everything will be reduced a third several times.

[wut2say]

It's a good thing that fractions were invented....otherwise we would be even more confused with that last book.

[Pandora]

all evil depictions of the dragon in the bible are of the devil, which for the record I don't really think should count. Furthermore there is a chapter of the bible that is not included in the kings james version of the bible that has a dragon in it. Which because the poor thing was being worshiped by the twits that lived near it, the prophet in the book fed it wax, and some other stuff and made it explode. The dragon is mentioned in a few other places, including a small verse in which it is paired with owls, which for the life of me I can't remember what book it's in but I know it's in there.

So it doesn't say that dragons are bad, just that they have something to do with owls and get punished for people worshiping them, which I feel is soo unfair to the poor dragon, it's not like he asked them to worship him.

Besides depending on who you speak to the bible could be taken word for word or just as a simple guild set of guild lines.

While we're also on the subject I'd like to point out that the only part of the bible that is actually written by god, and not inspired is the ten comandments, so anyone who had a thing against dragons could have just added that in there to keep people from liking them.

[flege2]

Well I'm an Agnostic confirmed Catholic who goes to a Nazarene church (mostly just Wednesdays now though). I actually have my own belief which encompasses all religions and other beliefs.

[Falconer]

Ah, someone else who read "Bel and the Dragon" from the Apocrypha. Interesting story, and most likely true.

The devil is also referred to as a serpent, and we don't see snakes in general being exterminated by armies of fanatics - in fact, I know several good Christians who have pet boas. (Fascinating creatures, by the way.)

And Pandora, the whole point of "inspired", is that God agreed with everything written down, which is barely a cut below actually writing it. And it was more than the ten commandments; if you take a look, practically the entire book of leviticus was written as being dictated word for word by God himself, in addition to most of the major and minor prophets of the Old Testament.

*prepares fire extinguisher for flame war*

[Dragon444]

I study and practice a wide mixture of religions.
I may be missing some here, but I have studied...
Paganism, Wicca, Christianity, Pastafarianism, A tad bit of Satanism, and Buddhism

[Silentiea]

The point of inspired is that God told the writers what to write, but their puny little human brains couldn't keep it all in their heads long enough to get it right.

[Falconer]

Where do you get that? I find no proof of any such problem.

[vampirehunter42]

Well the same can be said for the other way around. There is no proof anything in the bible is word for word "god’s thoughts. For the pure point there are a number of unused books of the bible, some of which have more than one version. Like the copy of Genesis that openly talks of the incest of the first couple of generations of man. Or the unused book of Mary's life.

The problem with the Christian bible, is that the priests who put it together pick and chose the “correct” books they felt was right in their teachings.

[Falconer]

Must... control... tiny... fists... of... fury...

Here's the long and short of it. Either the bible is a load of garbage, made up by a bunch of preists, etc, and none of it is true, or it is divinely inspired (meaning written by God through man) and its all true. Any attempt to pick and chose books is merely an attempt at self justification.

@Silentiea: I thought it over, and the reason why I believe that to be false is that I don't think God is incompetent enough to allow mistakes. You'd think if he went to the trouble of writing the book by which a religion centered around him would work, that he'd go to the trouble of getting it right.

[alondor]

I believe that the bible is corrupt do to the fact that it is written by the corrupt creature called man. The entire thing could be use as a partial history book but I do not think god wrote it for then he would be corrupt and self centered

[Pandora]

Firstly I know I'm not a mod, but this goes for everyone, there is no reason that we can't have an open discusion about this without flamming at each other. We are after all reasonable people who can act like we have some common sense! In other words it you need to take everyone opinions on this subject as their opinions, and not a personal blow at you GOT IT? GOOD!

Falconer:Bad! suggesting that anything said here is making you angry is exactlly what causes arguments faster. Even if it was a joke you've got to remember how touchy of a subject this really is.

Anywho,
there are books from the bible that arn't included in the bible, the biggest proof of that is that you have openly addmited to reading one of them. That's proof that we as human being have more than tampered with the bible on more than one occasion. Also god gave man free will so if the bible isn't as acurate as it should be it wouldn't be his flub up it's ours. So it's more than possible, and human nature isn't exactly on our side.

Vampirehunter: I'd love to find a copy of the bible with all the books included and translated straight from the books themselves.