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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

[TD1]

He. Brought. A. Person. Back. To. Life.

[TheBiggerFish]

He. Brought. A. Person. Back. To. Life.

Yes?  EMTs do that too.

[TD1]

It was a child who was dead for some time and kept in a shed out back by the parents. Wilfrid went in and prayed to the Lord for him to rise, and wept on his poor broken body. He stood up and went to his parents.

I don't think that's how EMTs do it, haha.

[TheBiggerFish]

No, it isn't.

[Descan]

i think a better way to put putnam's point would be that ascribing to god all that is good, and just going "eh" for all that is bad, is a funky way to look at things

esp. because god, being god, was just as much in charge of the bad thing happening as the good

*your parents cancer goes into remission* "praise jesus!"

is just as valid as

*thousands die to a tsunami* "praise jesus!"

[TD1]

Or one person going "My team won! Thank Jesus!" and the person sitting beside him going "My team lost.  Thank Jesus."

[Arx]

For the people interested in how churches tick over behind the scenes: I just got out of the District Youth Synod for my district.

It's basically like a corporate meeting. A giant corporate meeting with a couple hundred people. Also, you don't get paid to be there. Also, because (this is cultural, not a racist remark) Black churches are very big on ceremony and talking about things, every item on the agenda is dragged out way longer than necessary.

Oh, and you're not all from the same part of the company, and different parts can operate almost completely differently. Some of them don't even know other parts of the company exist.

It's also possibly surprisingly, possibly unsurprisingly, extremely political. In this case, the major point of contention was the Wesley Guild (a youth organisation) vs. the world. This included the chairman (the presiding bishop) having to shut down ad hominems more than once, and telling people they had to step very carefully because they were way out of line.

And of course, because this is church politics, the motion being debated is actually fundamentally pointless. It's half a duplicate of a previous motion, and half the type of resolution that never goes anywhere anyway. As it happened, we had 21-26-50some for-against-abstain, so nothing happened anyway.

Essentially the only really important things that happen are all the reports of district-level organisations and 'departments', like children's ministry and suchlike. This is one of the ways we check that embezzlement isn't totally rampant, or at least make sure that you actually have to put a bit of effort into it to get away with it. There are also elections for the commitees and for the delegates to the connexion conference (like the District Synod, except covering several countries) and the District Synod (which is like the Youth Synod but not Youth).

The whole thing took about thirteen hours. It could probably have been done in two or three. It's great.

[origamiscienceguy]

What kind of church is it? Catholic? Protestant?

[Descan]

IIRC Methodist.

[Arx]

IIRC Methodist.

You do RC.

[Dozebôm Lolumzalìs]

I don't believe in physical miracles. Period. I have actually found ways to explain the Resurrection without physical miracles. (Basically, I think if anybody "saw" Jesus after his death, it was God-induced hallucination. It's not like such a thing hasn't been written about (albeit by crazies) today.) Anything special about the Resurrection (geez how could I write that phrase) came from a combination of spiritual stuff, figurative stuff, and basically showing people "this is what to do."

(what religion am I? To quote the cliche, "it's complicated." Catholic, but more a homebrew than most people's religions, and pretty agnostic at times.)

[Teneb]

(what religion am I? To quote the cliche, "it's complicated." Catholic, but more a homebrew than most people's religions, and pretty agnostic at times.)

Wouldn't that just make you Christian, rather than Catholic? Because what I snipped is literally heresy, ya heretic.

[TD1]

Suppose it depends on how much he trusts the pope

[Teneb]

Suppose it depends on how much he trusts the pope

I guess he could do like the Franciscan order and be sort-of-a-heresy-but-officially-not.

[Rolan7]

Bit of an honest question...  My dad and I visited a Roman Catholic Basilica (of St. Lawrence) when he visited, and he cross'd my forehead with the holy water before we left.  Is that... bad?  Did it mean anything in particular?

Context, he's uh...  vaguely Christian, I think (he's very private about it), and I'm atheist.  We'd spent some time just admiring the architecture and the beautiful stained glass, whispering about the depicted stories.  In other words we were very respectful and quiet, this wasn't any sort of mocking thing.  I think it was more like observing and enjoying the customs of a foreign nation.  Like kissing a Blarney stone, or sitting on the floor at an authentic Japanese restaurant.

I will say that I felt at ease, and in awe.  Catholic church architecture is beautiful, and I loved the depictions of Bible stories in amazing stained glass.  Also apparently it's the largest freestanding stonework dome in all of North America O_O

And the holy water barely burned at all, more like a subtle itch