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BS: What am I

24 Nov 13 - 06:06 PM (#3578792)
Subject: BS: What am I
From: selby

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


24 Nov 13 - 06:18 PM (#3578795)
Subject: RE: BS: What am I
From: Wesley S

That's up to you. Not us.


24 Nov 13 - 06:20 PM (#3578796)
Subject: RE: BS: What am I
From: GUEST

A turnip?


24 Nov 13 - 06:28 PM (#3578801)
Subject: RE: BS: What am I
From: GUEST,Musket

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


24 Nov 13 - 06:30 PM (#3578802)
Subject: RE: BS: What am I
From: pdq

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


24 Nov 13 - 10:56 PM (#3578836)
Subject: RE: BS: What am I
From: Phil Cooper

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.


24 Nov 13 - 11:15 PM (#3578838)
Subject: RE: BS: What am I
From: GUEST

"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.


24 Nov 13 - 11:58 PM (#3578845)
Subject: RE: BS: What am I
From: Joe Offer

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

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


25 Nov 13 - 01:55 AM (#3578852)
Subject: RE: BS: What am I
From: GUEST,Guest from Sanity

A.___All of the above.

B.___None of the above.

C.___Most of the above.

D.___Partially scared shitless of below.


GfS


25 Nov 13 - 02:04 AM (#3578855)
Subject: RE: BS: What am I
From: selby

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


25 Nov 13 - 02:13 AM (#3578856)
Subject: RE: BS: What am I
From: GUEST,Guest from Sainty

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


25 Nov 13 - 03:27 AM (#3578867)
Subject: RE: BS: What am I
From: GUEST,Shimrod

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


25 Nov 13 - 04:11 AM (#3578882)
Subject: RE: BS: What am I
From: GUEST,Guest from Sanity

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


25 Nov 13 - 05:04 AM (#3578902)
Subject: RE: BS: What am I
From: GUEST,Eliza

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.


25 Nov 13 - 10:45 AM (#3578991)
Subject: RE: BS: What am I
From: alanabit

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.


25 Nov 13 - 10:46 AM (#3578994)
Subject: RE: BS: What am I
From: GUEST,leeneia

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.


25 Nov 13 - 05:07 PM (#3579118)
Subject: RE: BS: What am I
From: Bill D

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.


26 Nov 13 - 08:07 AM (#3579282)
Subject: RE: BS: What am I
From: GUEST,kendall

Thank God, I'm an Atheist.


27 Nov 13 - 06:10 PM (#3579466)
Subject: RE: BS: What am I
From: selby

But is it Thank God I'm Agnostic?


28 Nov 13 - 03:31 AM (#3579532)
Subject: RE: BS: What am I
From: Nigel Parsons

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.


28 Nov 13 - 03:35 AM (#3579533)
Subject: RE: BS: What am I
From: GUEST,Guest from Sanity

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


28 Nov 13 - 03:46 AM (#3579540)
Subject: RE: BS: What am I
From: Nigel Parsons

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


28 Nov 13 - 06:00 AM (#3579577)
Subject: RE: BS: What am I
From: GUEST,Eliza

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!


28 Nov 13 - 12:43 PM (#3579666)
Subject: RE: BS: What am I
From: GUEST,pete from seven stars link

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


28 Nov 13 - 12:49 PM (#3579669)
Subject: RE: BS: What am I
From: GUEST,Eliza

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!.


28 Nov 13 - 12:59 PM (#3579673)
Subject: RE: BS: What am I
From: Bill D

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?


28 Nov 13 - 08:30 PM (#3579779)
Subject: RE: BS: What am I
From: McGrath of Harlow

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

But why post about it?