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Only Judeism

Only Islam

Yes to both Judeism and Islam

[Caz]

I have never had prayer really do anything. Like, any success I could have attributed to it is inconsistent enough to simply be coincidence. I never had God speak to me, and would be severely disturbed if I did start hearing divine voices.

Well, from personal experience prayer can be comforting... until you realise that no one's listening/cares. After that it's not very helpful at all.

[smeeprocket]

I have never had prayer really do anything. Like, any success I could have attributed to it is inconsistent enough to simply be coincidence. I never had God speak to me, and would be severely disturbed if I did start hearing divine voices.

Well, from personal experience prayer can be comforting... until you realise that no one's listening/cares. After that it's not very helpful at all.

yea, after 50 or so tries, you have to come to the conclusion that you are just not getting heard. But there's sort of a problem where if you question it all and expect to be heard, you are not being faithful.

If I'm going to pledge my everlasting soul to a god and her or his rules, I expect some sort of personal interaction or benefits.

[smeeprocket]

noting the unvotable poll up top... Why aren't judaism and islam discussed here. I could use to learn more about them.

[Baffler]

They were around but got removed. There was a separate thread for them but...

Spoiler: artist's rendition (click to show/hide)

I have never had prayer really do anything. Like, any success I could have attributed to it is inconsistent enough to simply be coincidence. I never had God speak to me, and would be severely disturbed if I did start hearing divine voices.

Well, from personal experience prayer can be comforting... until you realise that no one's listening/cares. After that it's not very helpful at all.

yea, after 50 or so tries, you have to come to the conclusion that you are just not getting heard. But there's sort of a problem where if you question it all and expect to be heard, you are not being faithful.

If I'm going to pledge my everlasting soul to a god and her or his rules, I expect some sort of personal interaction or benefits.

To put it bluntly, if you expect to be rewarded by God for prayer you're doing it wrong. I'll be a bit lazy here though and refer you to this short, demonstrative anecdote.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Mother Theresa was once asked about her prayer life.
The interviewer asked, “When you pray, what do you say to God?”
Mother Teresa replied, “I don’t talk, I simply listen.”
Believing he understood what she had just said, the interviewer next asked, “Ah, then what is it that God says to you when you pray?”
Mother Teresa replied, “He also doesn’t talk. He also simply listens.”
There was a long silence, with the interviewer seeming a bit confused and not knowing what to ask next.
Finally Mother Teresa breaks the silence by saying, “If you can’t understand the meaning of what I’ve just said, I’m sorry but there’s no way I can explain it any better.”

Genuine or not, it sums up the general idea pretty well.

[TD1]

noting the unvotable poll up top... Why aren't judaism and islam discussed here. I could use to learn more about them.

I kicked up a fuss on the flammable nature, Cryxis decided to make a different thread to be on the safe side, and then we all got to sit back and toast marshmallows over it

[smeeprocket]

ahh yes, I am imaging it was something like the comments section for Al-Jazeera's online articles.

Lots of hate and racism thrown from both sides (or all three in this case.)

God any articles on Palestine or Israel are like a warzone (not that there isn't, in fact, a literal warzone they relate to, of course.)

[TD1]

To be fair, it was mostly civil. Only one notable flamer present that I could see.

[smeeprocket]

oh that's a shame, seems like extracting the flamer would have been better.

[Rolan7]

They were around but got removed. There was a separate thread for them but...

Spoiler: artist's rendition (click to show/hide)

Yeah I almost mentioned this earlier, it's the main reason I'm suggesting chillness here.  Well, that and chill discussion tends to be more persuasive...  Less fun, though.  And sometimes important issues don't get brought up simply because of controversy.  But, there's plenty to discuss here without being any more controversial than necessary  .

[Bohandas]

Going back to the whole punishment aspect, it's striking that the god of Christianity and the other western faiths is actually less far less merciful than the largely deleterious deities of the Cthulhu Mythos. The Great Old Ones never judge and never condemn, even if only due to the fact that they simply don't care, "As well might a mammoth pause to visit frantic vengeance on an angleworm."

[TD1]

One would assume that with greatness would come a lack of compassion for those lesser than you, but that wouldn't make very many people follow the faith, now would it?

[smeeprocket]

Going back to the whole punishment aspect, it's striking that the god of Christianity and the other western faiths is actually less far less merciful than the largely deleterious deities of the Cthulhu Mythos. The Great Old Ones never judge and never condemn, even if only due to the fact that they simply don't care, "As well might a mammoth pause to visit frantic vengeance on an angleworm."

in the Lord's defense, seeing him won't cause you to go irrevocably insane, though.

[Rolan7]

Nah, you just die.  Or don't.  Exodus:

33:20 And he said, Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live.

Slightly earlier in Exodus:

33:11 And the LORD spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend.

[Arcvasti]

Going back to the whole punishment aspect, it's striking that the god of Christianity and the other western faiths is actually less far less merciful than the largely deleterious deities of the Cthulhu Mythos. The Great Old Ones never judge and never condemn, even if only due to the fact that they simply don't care, "As well might a mammoth pause to visit frantic vengeance on an angleworm."

in the Lord's defense, seeing him won't cause you to go irrevocably insane, though.

I'm pretty sure he either causes you to burst into flames or breaks your mind.

...

I'm not helping my case anyways.

The maiden/mother/whore trilogy I mentioned. How does that fit into your view of Catholicism?

That is a large part of my beef with Catholicism. Now, if you ask how it fits into my view of CHRISTIANITY, that is a BIG difference.

One of the things Jesus was known for was his fairly egalitarian attitude towards that. He was often criticized for treating prositutes and, really, women in general as equals, even by his own followers.

[Cryxis, Prince of Doom]

I was a bit sad that thread got the ban hammer

Right when the discussion was actualy picking up and one of the forum Muslims spoke up to answer questions
(Or he knew a lot about Muslim faith, not sure which. I don't remember well)

I'm not speaking on judgment since I've already talked about it here a billion times