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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

[Egan_BW]

Getting nailed makes you a God.

not that any of us here would know

[Frumple]

No, I'm pretty sure some loitering around do. By pretty much any usage of the word you care to use, actually. Whether the process(es) involved actually deified them is a different question.

[Egan_BW]

This requires empirical testing.
Anyone who wants to get nailed, raise your hand.

[tonnot98]

I've got a bit of a question.

So for boyscouts, you need to believe in a higher being. I don't exactly believe in a higher being, but I still wish to be a part of this fucked up community for various reasons. I was wondering if anyone knew if I could just pass off my belief as me worshiping the sun, and I can pull some good arguments for that, too. I will lie and say I'm a good christian boy if necessary, but being able to openly say I worship the sun, as it really is what I'd be most comfortable with, would probably be the most bearable during the whole "boyscouts experience."

Another question,

Are boy scouts even good for getting jobs anymore?

[TheDarkStar]

1. Some people interpret the sections about God as following their own consciences. afaik it's similar to the US pledge of allegiance.
2. Being an Eagle Scout looks good on college applications because it shows that you can lead other people, that you've done a lot of service, and that you can follow a code of conduct (basically, you're a conventionally moral person to some degree or another - you have integrity, don't steal, are nice to others, etc.). As you get further down the line in life, I suspect it gets less important, but it I have heard stories of people getting hired because they were an Eagle Scout and it established their moral character.

[Arx]

Depends how badly American Boy Scouts are watered down. In South Africa, being a Springbok Scout looks really good on a job application because it implies you're a slightly inferior Bear Grylls with madd leadership skills. Each tier of achievement is less useful as you go down, of course, but badges remain a demonstration of skill in an area that has been independently tested.

If you seriously say you worship the sun, you may get some teasing/mocking. Bear that in mind. However, if you want to say that that's the higher power you believe in, there's not really anything they can do.

Praise the Sun.

[TempAcc]

Oh, religion thread, you poor, poor thing.

[Arx]

[DERAILGUN INTENSIFIES]

[Dozebôm Lolumzalės]

Or you could say that you worship Cthulhu. It's strange that they accept Cthulhites and not atheists.

[TempAcc]

Mind you, in order to become a mason, you're required to believe in god in a way or another, though not any god in specific. So ye, they prob do take in cthulhu cultists, but not atheists :v

Thats true for DeMolays, at least.

[Rolan7]

I don't know if it's changed, but I needed to be able to find my religion on a specific list of faiths.  Buddhism was on the list, IIRC, but specifically deistic Buddhism.  I'm still pretty proud that I walked away without Eagle.  Not as a "take that, organized religion!" (which was how I felt as a teenager) but as an honesty and integrity thing.  The scoutmaster had offered to help me lie about it and I think he was impressed that I declined.

Apparently they only started allowing gay scouts in *2014* but I didn't know that about myself.  What an odd group.  They teach a lot about survival, cooperation, and integrity...  but they're inherently pretty conservative.  I don't regret the experience.

[Telgin]

A surprisingly large proportion of the company I work for are former Boy Scouts, and I think some of the founders even met each other through the system.  So, there's some small anecdotal evidence that it can help in your career.  I was never a member, but that didn't hurt my chances of being hired anyway.

Incidentally, the large population of former scouts also means I got to hear a fair bit about the gay scout ban thing a few years ago.  I was quite surprised to hear about it at the time since I didn't realize the boy scouts were such a conservative organization.  It probably shouldn't have come as a surprise since it's all about old fashioned morals and everything.

Still, at least I could avoid the conversations since I wasn't ever a member.

Mind you, in order to become a mason, you're required to believe in god in a way or another, though not any god in specific. So ye, they prob do take in cthulhu cultists, but not atheists :v

Thats true for DeMolays, at least.

This is true, but in practice you'd probably be "blackballed" if you tried to join most chapters as anything other than a Christian.  I'm not a Mason, but my father is, and he described the process as effectively being an informal background check where a committee of people get together and investigate potential newcomers.  At the end of the process they anonymously stick a bunch of colored marbles in a bag, and if anyone doesn't want you to join they stick a black one in.  If any black marbles are in the bag, you don't get in, no questions asked.  As a result, you pretty much have to match status quo in the area, which is unlikely to contain many Cthulhu sympathizers.

I'm sure it varies by chapter though, and while the local chapter is predictably Christian and includes Bible readings in their meetings, there are probably less strict varieties.

Apparently the Masons can't ever directly ask you to join either, which is something I'm thankful for.  It was clear that my dad wanted me to join, but since the Masons do require the belief in a higher power thing I couldn't in good conscience join it and really didn't want to fake it.

[Teneb]

On the sun-worshipping thing: say you worship Sol Invictus instead. Or go full mesoamerican.

[hops]

Okay, I've probably asked this question before, but I can't be bothered going through my post list to find when I posted in this thread.  For any actual religious people on this forum: what does faith feel like?  Is it possible to describe the feeling of belief that goes beyond the intellectual and maybe the emotional, or whatever other definition you have for faith?

I've always always always been curious about this, the definition of faith and what constitutes it has always bothered me.  For all I know, I'm setting far too unrealistic standards for belief in a higher power, by other people's standards my acceptance of the teachings of religions might already make me a believer.  Personally, I think I still have a lot of doubt, and that doubt doesn't just go away from a feeling, it has to be mentally worked over, which really reinforces the idea that I've always had trouble believing in things I can't see.

I practice some occult, and for me faith is just not bothering to fact check things because it makes me feel better and it's not hurting anyone.

[The Beast]

Comon as good as this threads contents go its great alas its owner is banned and has no power to lock it if needed.
The new thread, while filled with nonsense has an owner that is quite active.
Let this beauty die and fill the new one with interesting conflicting content.