BS: What am I

Subject: BS: What am I
From: selby
Date: 24 Nov 13 - 06:06 PM

Whilst at a religious function when asked to recite the lords prayer I couldn't and did not want to so my questions is am I agnostic or atheist or.........?
Keith

Subject: RE: BS: What am I
From: Wesley S
Date: 24 Nov 13 - 06:18 PM

That's up to you. Not us.

Subject: RE: BS: What am I
From: GUEST
Date: 24 Nov 13 - 06:20 PM

A turnip?

Subject: RE: BS: What am I
From: GUEST,Musket
Date: 24 Nov 13 - 06:28 PM

Just to be on the safe side, try and dodge thunderbolts for a while.

Subject: RE: BS: What am I
From: pdq
Date: 24 Nov 13 - 06:30 PM

If you did not want to be at the "religious function", why did you go there?

Subject: RE: BS: What am I
From: Phil Cooper
Date: 24 Nov 13 - 10:56 PM

Good question. I recall a bumper sticker I saw that said Fundamentalist agnostic: I don't know and neither do you. Or some variant. When I have been to church lately, I do what you do. I also don't say grace with family at holiday functions. I have been asked by my nephew, why don't you go to church, uncle Phil? My spouse and I actually do Unitarian/Universalist services, but we are not doing them from a christian angle. So I guess I'm spiritual but not Christian. I can go on further, but only will do so if asked.

Subject: RE: BS: What am I
From: GUEST
Date: 24 Nov 13 - 11:15 PM

"Whilst at a religious function when asked to recite the lords prayer I couldn't and did not want to so my questions is am I agnostic or atheist or.........?"

You're Jewish.

Subject: RE: BS: What am I
From: Joe Offer
Date: 24 Nov 13 - 11:58 PM

...you're a person who did not want to recite the Lord's Prayer.

[Do I win a prize for giving the correct answer??]

Subject: RE: BS: What am I
From: GUEST,Guest from Sanity
Date: 25 Nov 13 - 01:55 AM

A.___All of the above.

B.___None of the above.

C.___Most of the above.

D.___Partially scared shitless of below.


GfS

Subject: RE: BS: What am I
From: selby
Date: 25 Nov 13 - 02:04 AM

Guest
I like the idea of being a Turnip but then I would be confused as to being I a swede or not.
Arguably I was what you would call a four wheeler christian before, Christenings Weddings and Funerals and would join in now I don't feel the need and don't believe in the idea of it all.
Keith

Subject: RE: BS: What am I
From: GUEST,Guest from Sainty
Date: 25 Nov 13 - 02:13 AM

selby: "Christenings Weddings and Funerals and would join in now I don't feel the need and don't believe in the idea of it all."

Not so fast....."funerals".....
Hmmm...better think that one through a little more, before being so dogmatic about it!


GfS

Subject: RE: BS: What am I
From: GUEST,Shimrod
Date: 25 Nov 13 - 03:27 AM

If you have to ask this 'question' (sans question mark, I note) you haven't thought deeply enough about it.

Subject: RE: BS: What am I
From: GUEST,Guest from Sanity
Date: 25 Nov 13 - 04:11 AM

Well, as I've noted before, "Down deep all men are shallow."

They usually pair up with those "...women, who down deep, are all inside out!"

GfS

Subject: RE: BS: What am I
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 25 Nov 13 - 05:04 AM

Personally I wouldn't like to be 'asked' to recite The Lord' Prayer. Praying isn't something one is 'asked' to do. I also don't participate in all joining hands around the table for Grace, or The blasted Peace they've introduced in C of E Alternative Service One, where you have to shake hands with everyone and say "Peace be with you," I find that weird. Some folk like to pray silently and non-overtly. So you may just be a private type of person. Or you may be questioning your faith. Or you may be going through sad times and feel unable to speak to God just now (as my widowed friend felt after she lost her husband) Or you may have felt ill at ease with the other people there. If it were me, I'd let it be for a time, then have a think about things and chat to God about it. I'm sure He'd send some guidance to you in one form or another.

Subject: RE: BS: What am I
From: alanabit
Date: 25 Nov 13 - 10:45 AM

I can understand the awkwardness you face selby. I am not sure that I am a true atheist, but I did always feel a little embarrassed about being asked to show deference to "God". In my heart I have always felt that "God" was a made up entity, which some people believe in because they really want "Him" to be there. On the one hand I have no desire to behave insensitively to their feelings. Their sincerity about wanting "Him" to exist is indisputable and I have no interest in insulting them for something they so willingly believe.
For myself, I have always felt a bit of a fool pretending to talk to someone whom I do not believe exists. To my way of thinking, it is no more respectful to feign belief - even if it is at the risk of giving offence.

Subject: RE: BS: What am I
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 25 Nov 13 - 10:46 AM

What are you, selby? You are a person who needs company or wants attention. Get a musical instrument and find some people to play music with.

Subject: RE: BS: What am I
From: Bill D
Date: 25 Nov 13 - 05:07 PM

It is not necessary to have a 'label' to follow your own path. Those who DO believe in supernatural entities use labels... and often fight about them. If you are at a place where such things are happening, you just remain silent until they finish.

Subject: RE: BS: What am I
From: GUEST,kendall
Date: 26 Nov 13 - 08:07 AM

Thank God, I'm an Atheist.

Subject: RE: BS: What am I
From: selby
Date: 27 Nov 13 - 06:10 PM

But is it Thank God I'm Agnostic?

Subject: RE: BS: What am I
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 28 Nov 13 - 03:31 AM

Guest, Eliza:
The blasted Peace they've introduced in C of E Alternative Service One, where you have to shake hands with everyone and say "Peace be with you," I find that weird.

I'm with you on that one. In the standard Eucharist service (currently in use in the Church of Wales) "The Peace" comes halfway through the service. The biblical background for it seems to be 1 Peter 5:
Greet ye one another with a kiss of charity. Peace be with you all that are in Christ Jesus. Amen.
To my mind you greet someone when you meet them, i.e. when you or they arrive at church. To start 'greeting' people when you've already spent half an hour with them seems somewhat bizarre.

Subject: RE: BS: What am I
From: GUEST,Guest from Sanity
Date: 28 Nov 13 - 03:35 AM

selby: "But is it Thank God I'm Agnostic?"

You think??
Well, if 'God' speaks something, it is supposed to come into existence, right? ..and you attribute your resistance to praying in groups, as 'expected' to something like an uneasy 'feeling' within you, right?...but then if 'God' said something in regards to that very topic, maybe it 'created' something within you that might be tangible, right?......Is this a co-incidence?.....or might you be closer than you think?

Maybe 'God' is a reality too close to be named!

GfS

Subject: RE: BS: What am I
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 28 Nov 13 - 03:46 AM

Personally, being in the church choir, I just shake hands with those immediately around me. I then face the other half of the choir, across the chancel, and give the Vulcan salute.
The Vulcan salute is amazingly multi-lingual/multi-faith. The full salute and response:
Person 1; "Peace & long life"
Person 2: "Live long and prosper"
Is similar to the exchange of the Peace between Christians, also to:
As-salam alaykum: Used by Muslims
Shalom aleikhem: Used by Jews

Subject: RE: BS: What am I
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 28 Nov 13 - 06:00 AM

I'm glad you feel the same as me, Nigel. Jilly Cooper in her book 'How To Survive Christmas' wrote that her husband Leo firmly folds his arms like an All Blacks rugby player doing the Haka and flatly refuses to 'Peace' anyone! I reckon Alternative Service Two came out because people didn't like The Peace. We now have a daft menu of services, One Two and BCP. Typical C of E, trying to hedge all its bets! I'm afraid I'm one of those old fogeys who cling desperately to the Book of Common Prayer. I've greeted many Muslims with "As-salaam alaykum" but they don't seem to like it and look astonished. My husband says it's because I'm not one!

Subject: RE: BS: What am I
From: GUEST,pete from seven stars link
Date: 28 Nov 13 - 12:43 PM

you'da thought the attempt at bridge building would be appreciated!

Subject: RE: BS: What am I
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 28 Nov 13 - 12:49 PM

Some I've met don't want any 'bridge-building', they just want us infidels to convert, especially me, as I'm the Christian wife of a Muslim, which probably horrifies the more fundamentalist of them. One couple have actually said several times that I must become a Muslim, to make things easier for my husband. Grrr!.

Subject: RE: BS: What am I
From: Bill D
Date: 28 Nov 13 - 12:59 PM

When you have (at least) two groups whose more fundamentalist adherents 'believe' that everyone should be converted to their particular brand of superstitious mysticism, and that all who do not are fair game for various punishments... why you have a situation that might lead to conflicts & strife! You think, maybe?

Subject: RE: BS: What am I
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 28 Nov 13 - 08:30 PM

I'd be tempted to say possibly a bit arrogant. but there could be a host of other reasons.

But why post about it?