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I am religious and believe in free will

71 (27.7%)

I am religious and do not believe in free will

10 (3.9%)

I am not religious and believe in free will

114 (44.5%)

I am not religious and do not believe in free will

61 (23.8%)

Total Members Voted: 251

[Orange Wizard]

There's a couple cans of gasoline nearby... one idiot can ruin things for everyone. - Bay12 does politics

This is a thread for discussing topics relevant to various religions and spiritual concepts. Please be respectful of other people's beliefs, even if you think said belief is foolish or blatantly incorrect.

First, some ground rules.
Please read the rules before posting.
If you do not read the rules before posting, I will summon voodoo demons to eat you.

• Make sure you've read the forum guidelines.
• Flaming, trolling, bigotry, and so on are forbidden. No exceptions. No, not even then.
• As much as I hate to put a damper on humour, making jokes about beliefs, etc. in a derogatory manner is forbidden.
• Please do not make moral or ethical judgements on any given belief or practice, or the people who follow it. Everyone has a different set of morals, and this is not the place for it. I encourage you to discuss cultural implications, but stating that someone is a bad person because they do/believe X is forbidden.
• Being respectful of beliefs does not - and never will - preclude stating why you think a given belief is incorrect or inaccurate. If you are liable to get offended by people disagreeing with you, this thread may not be the best place for you.
  Addendum: If someone disputes your claim, please be ready to provide sources. Stating "X is true and it's obvious so I don't need sources" is very close to flaming and only causes arguments. The exception to this is when something is common knowledge, like "the sky is blue". I trust you to understand the difference.
  Addendum Addendum: Wikipedia is not a reputable source.
• Do not post anything solely to see the reaction you will receive. That is almost the very definition of trolling.
• Do not bring up feminism or gender/identity politics. If you really need this explained to you, PM one of the many people who have been banned because of it.
• Necro-smut and other undead erotica is forbidden. Don't ask me how Bay12 keeps managing to derail conversations into this.
• Don't make me (or anyone else) call in Toady.

In essence, play nice, and don't hurt the other children or break their toys.

...

If there's something you'd like to know of another religious or spiritual group, ask away. If you belong to or have some knowledge of an obscure or minority group, feel free to share it with the rest of us.

Finally, polls. I'll be putting polls up periodically on some topics. If you have any suggestions, please PM me.
The purpose of this is to take stuff along the lines of "how many people believe X" out of the thread an into a more quantifiable format. I'll leave the results here so people can review them.

Spoiler: Religion/Faith poll results (click to show/hide)

Catholicism    - 30 (9.4%)
Protestant Christianity    - 30 (9.4%)
Mormonism    - 5 (1.6%)
Other Christian sect    - 10 (3.1%)
Islam    - 3 (0.9%)
Judaism    - 1 (0.3%)
Hinduism    - 0 (0%)
Buddhism    - 7 (2.2%)
SubGenius    - 1 (0.3%)
Wicca    - 1 (0.3%)
Discordianism    - 6 (1.9%)
Mushrooms    - 5 (1.6%)
Animist    - 2 (0.6%)
Paganism    - 13 (4.1%)
Agnosticism/Don't know/not sure    - 46 (14.5%)
Atheism/None    - 122 (38.4%)
Something I've missed    - 36 (11.3%)

[penguinofhonor]

.

[TD1]

Just to answer the above: Obviously the Dalai Lama. Pope Francis dies, he's dead. Dalai Lama dies, he comes back as a younger model and takes on Pope Francis.

Rebirth makes for interesting feuds between religious leaders.

Edit:

PoH must take full responsibility for following conversation, even if he strategically snipped his post out.

Send the mobs to his house in future, not mine!

[Orange Wizard]

There's also that gif floating around of the Lama's laser eyes.

[Cryxis, Prince of Doom]

Christian question answerer every once in awhile

[wobbly]

Just to answer the above: Obviously the Dalai Lama. Pope Francis dies, he's dead. Dalai Lama dies, he comes back as a younger model and takes on Pope Francis.

Rebirth makes for interesting feuds between religious leaders.

Well that's going to be interesting to see what happen there as I'm pretty sure China's made it clear there going to put a political appointment in the position. So 2 dalai lamas perhaps? or zero? multiple?

[Sheb]

I think the Dalai-Lama said he'd accept a Chinese-appointed reincarnation.

[TD1]

One el lama he's a Priest,
Two el lama he's a Beast,
But I'll bet a silk pyjama
That there is no three el lama.

Can anyone tell me what this means? I've heard it once or twice (Heard it, hence why the spelling may be off for the "el lama" bit.

[Orange Wizard]

It's a ditty for remembering how to spell the word.
Lama with one l (hence "el") is a sort-of priest - the Dalai Lama, of course.
Llama with two ls is a farm animal.
There is no such thing as a lllama.

[Sheb]

Actually, it's:

One 'l' lama is a priest
Two 'l' llama is a beast
But I'll bet a silk pyjama
That there is no three 'l' lllama

edit: ninja-ed

[Baffler]

Pope Francis is a year younger than the Dalai Lama, and apparently used to be a nightclub bouncer. I don't know what I expected to find when I tried to find their weights (it was mostly silliness like this) but judging from pictures they seem to be comparable. All that said, they're both in their late 70's. My guess is that whichever of them is able to squarely land a hit on the other first would be victorious.

[i2amroy]

Voodoo demons? Bah.

(Seriously though voodoo and its accompanying forms are pretty interesting if you can cut through most of the new age stuff that has recently been rather randomly placed on top. I wrote a paper on it for a final in one of my recent religions class. )

[ChairmanPoo]

Just to answer the above: Obviously the Dalai Lama. Pope Francis dies, he's dead. Dalai Lama dies, he comes back as a younger model and takes on Pope Francis.

Rebirth makes for interesting feuds between religious leaders.

But maybe Pope Francis would miracously rise from the dead some days later and whoop down respawnLama.

Besides he said something somewhere about punching someone's mother recently. So he clearly has boxing experience.

[TD1]

Nah, after his death a new Pope would be chosen. He wouldn't be Pope Francis anymore, he'd just be Zombie Francis, locked in an eternal battle with the ever-reborn Dalai Lama.

[Arx]

Christian Methodist. Willing to answer questions, debate, quote the Bible as my entire statement on a point, be flamed, etc.