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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

[hector13]

I know, just generally commenting, but I’m rather distasteful of organized religion.

But what is your stace on disorganized religion?

what’s the difference m81 lil

[Rolan7]

When religion is disorganized, it therefore comes from local community and personal feelings rather than monolithic organizations.  That seems like the optimal way to address feelings about the universe.  It's what has always happened anyway, with local members of widespread religions interpreting said religion through their local cultural beliefs.

Religious leaders hate that, of course, and try to stomp it out.  Threats to their control are "heresy", like Catharism.

Even the most selfless and enlightened religious leaders are trying to invent general solutions for diverse individual spiritualities.  It's an impossible and unnecessary problem even without all the temptations of power.

[smjjames]

Bad pun I thought of a bit ago: Maybe because it wasn't Cathartic?

Off to the terrible jokes thread!

[Hanslanda]

I posed this question to my Christian friend: of all the sects and denominations of your faith... Who's going to heaven? Obviously you think you are, but will Catholics? Presbyterian? Methodists? Etc.

He didn't have a good answer, but I suspect not many would.

[wierd]

I posed this question to my Christian friend: of all the sects and denominations of your faith... Who's going to heaven? Obviously you think you are, but will Catholics? Presbyterian? Methodists? Etc.

He didn't have a good answer, but I suspect not many would.

**Is agnostic, but comes from a strong non-denom christian family.

The answer to this question is not "but OUR sect is the ONLY, REAL, TRUE one!!".  Not if you read the bible.  Jesus is very clear what the requirements for salvation are.

1) Salvation through faith in the Christ.  Nothing else will get you in. 
2*) Demonstration of that faith, through repentance and abstainment from sin. (And even general impropriety.)

So, if your denomination has some strange dogmatic practice, but preaches the core tenets above, Jesus says you get to go to heaven. (he will sort you out when you get there regardless.)  This means Jesus cares precisely DICK about which church you attend, as long as it says "Only Jesus can get you into heaven, so read your bible to read his teachings, and let them instruct your life."  Barring a few very outlandish sects that claim the christian moniker, this is pretty much all of them.

Now, I asterisked #2 there for an important reason.  The second follows from the first, and is the identifier that you have indeed done the former. Jesus is pretty clear on this in the bible. Works do not save you, but yet, "By their fruits, you shall know them."  This includes all the ordinary things, like how they conduct their speech, how they treat other people, etc.  The premise being, that if you have accepted Jesus as the Christ in this fashion, he sends you the Holy Spirit, which then causes personality and mind changes on you, to give you a new nature.  That nature causes you to act a certain way, which is very conspicuous to people that know what they are looking for.  Simply emulating that behavior, without the acceptance of the Christ, will not get you into heaven.

[Hanslanda]

Huh that's good to know. Glad I asked.

[dragdeler]

-snip-

[Telgin]

I posed this question to my Christian friend: of all the sects and denominations of your faith... Who's going to heaven? Obviously you think you are, but will Catholics? Presbyterian? Methodists? Etc.

He didn't have a good answer, but I suspect not many would.

I want to say that if I asked that question the answer I'd get would be "Basically nobody, including most of the people in this very church" but in truth even the most hard line Pentecostal Holiness Christians I know of think that other denominations can be okay.  Methodists and Baptists might be okay, but some have problematic beliefs.

Most think Catholics are deluded, but I actually don't know if they think they won't make it to heaven.  I imagine most think that 99% of the Catholics are out of luck for various reasons ranging from them drinking alcohol to "worshiping the pope," depending on who you ask and how misinformed they are.  And Episcopalians are wannabe Catholics, so they're in trouble too.

[dragdeler]

-snip-

[McTraveller]

I think there's definitely a plurality - and probably a majority - of Christian denominations that believe that the criteria for "who's going to heaven" is "anyone who believes Jesus is the Christ" and the rest is detail.  This collection of denominations believes that adding any kind of "works" into the mix (e.g., it's "believe in Jesus and act this way instead of that way") has added something.

There are lots of Biblical texts to support that view, it's not just touchy-feely stuff.

[dragdeler]

-snip-

[Castlecliff]

Lets all eat some mushrooms and dance around a fire

[Rolan7]

Methodist news: https://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2019/03/04/united-methodist-church-same-sex-wedding-lgbtq-clergy
Spoiler alert:  They ruled against it.  And for action against any minister who defies the judgement, of course.

What makes the decision interesting is the talk about a schism.  Our US NPR report yesterday was largely talking about the divide between African Methodists and other (Western), more progressive, Methodists.  Guests were insisting that this wasn't the stance of American Methodists.  More power to them!

Edit:

Lets all eat some mushrooms and dance around a fire

I do love mushrooms, and have an amorous hatred of fire.  Let's dance.

[smjjames]

They should schism away. They don't have to answer to a pope, and they don't have to answer to some arch-priest of the United Methodist Church either.

[Persus13]

They should schism away. They don't have to answer to a pope, and they don't have to answer to some arch-priest of the United Methodist Church either.

That's not how the United Methodist Church works. Unless you were making a joke.