General Chat

Donkey's years ago, when I was receiving RE or RI less than an hour a week, it seemed incompressible that which they were teaching.
With the passage of years little has changed on that subject.

What I do recall is that one Jewish pupil and two Catholic pupils were excused this
period and studied something else, perhaps more profitably

You are a great big spoilsport Dermot my lad.

I presume you went to an Easter vigil which is a wonderful service and the first service of Easter.

It's a liturgy of readings/silences/baptism vows/darkness - it's all part of the whole scenario. Candles lit from the Pascal candle 'The light of Christ' and Christ's light is passed on to everyone present as the resurrection is celebrated.

Amen to you too! :-D

I was nearly 'put off' my religion last night after spending two uncomfortable hours in our local church. Being the evening that it was, the building was packed in a way rarely seen in these parts during any other weekend, except Christmas Day perhaps.

Very little planning was put into what was no more than a mish-mash of prayerful ideas plucked from nowhere. Nobody seemed to be 'in charge' of the debacle which, on occasion, necessitated the church to be in total darkness for short periods. God forbid if any of us needed a quick temporary exit, as all young children naturally seem to want, or even worse, if an emergency evacuation was called for while everyone, young & old, were encouraged to hold lighted candles.

I reassured myself today while sitting comfortably at home that my faith is strong - whatever bit lingers on in me.

Amen!

As an atheist I am not at all bothered about other peoples' religious beliefs.

There are some positively dangerous/unethical/nonsensical decrees that followers are supposed to adhere to. That's all beyond me.

Children should be allowed to make up their own minds and not have hell fire and damnation scaring them witless.

I have friends who follow most religions but it's agreed they don't preach at me and I don't criticise them.

Religion should be taught outside of schools, if parents feel that strongly then they can take their children to a place of worship with them.

When youngsters get to an age when they can understand and wish to follow a particular religion then it's a conscious decision and that's fine.

I have spent months countering "Muslims are killing us" with "NO, terrorists are killing others". I have rarely seen so much hatred and it's not only dangerous but is picked up by people who are so damn stupid you hope they don't contribute to the gene pool.

There is a lesson to be learned from those forums, my religion is better than yours! Well no it isn't actually.....you just spout that to justify your hatred.

Russell Miller

For a complete de-bunking of Scientology and it's founder L.Ron Hubbard, read "Bare-faced messiah" I forget the author's name. It is an eye-opener. How anyone can believe it is beyond me.

I never said children shouldn't be taught about other religions, Dermot, in fact I would encourage it, but being fed false information is dangerous.

Little lies can create big problems.

As for your quote, it's been quoted at least twice before (by you) :-D
Originally from The OBERLIN EVANGELIST , which was a Religious Journal published by C G Finney, at Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio (1839-1862) containing Lectures by Charles G. Finney

'Teachers are bound to do their utmost towards fulfilling the students’ expectations'. (# A quote from somewhere.)

Keep education in schools. Ignorance of the various faiths or any other subject is not laudable, irrespective of opinions.

My point was, there are basic rituals, festivals and celebrations carried out by every religion.
The last thing we need (especially in this day and age) is children being told something about a religion, by a teacher, that is evidently not true, but serves their purpose - this can be (as in the case of G's teacher) because they know no better, and it covers their lack of knowledge. or it could be for more devious purposes.

We all, unfortunately, know how this can escalate :-(

David, you can find d out all you want to know about various religions on line. In fact you can find out just about everything!!!

Would you include Mormons as Christian?
What about The church of Jesus Christ and Latter Day Saints

In the NT only Peter said to Jesus he was the Christ

You HAVE been having fun on here haven't you? :-D

The different denominations must be very confusing to those who want to look at Christ more closely.......

which one is right? Which church should I go to? What is the difference?

Many Christians have 'inherited' a particular denomination whilst others have been drawn to a certain church or a particular style of worship.

According to our friend Google..........

Mainstream Christianity is a term used to collectively refer to the common views of major denominations of Christianity (such as Orthodox Christianity, Roman Catholicism, Anglicanism, Protestantism) as opposed the particular tenets of other Christian denominations.

In the most common sense, "mainstream" refers to the traditions which continue to claim adherence to the Nicene Creed.



I have made my way through three denominations.

Born into a family of Salvationists (no baptism, no Holy Communion).

Aged 6 my father became a Non-Conformist Minister (Congregational - now URC no particular liturgy).

Aged 21 and about to be married to a committed Anglican, I was baptised and confirmed into the Church of England where I have stayed ever since and where I wish to remain.

In my mid-thirties, I became more alive in my faith after reading a book by an evangelist.

One of our closest friends is a Roman Catholic priest - we discuss a lot and disagree on very little. He is, indeed, a Brother in Christ.

Leaving denominations aside.........the important factor is Christ - and where He calls you to be.

Thousands of different denominations claim to be following Jesus Christ. Yet they teach numerous different ’gospels’ & disagree on countless points of doctrine.

Is Jesus the head of all these denominations? Is Christ divided? Or is there one true Church of God that stands apart from this religious Babylon? How can we recognise God’s true Church? And where is God’s true Church today?

(# Excerpt from a lovely easy-to-read Pamphlet written by Roderick C Meredith).

Happy Easter!

:-D :-D :-D :-D Sylvia!!

Dermot ..............

I have met several people who HAVE read the Bible from cover to cover.

My sis-i-law became an Anglican minister late in life, after a previous career. She never ever tried to persuade me to go to church, or "preached" at me. But she had read the Bible form cover to cover

We also have a friend, a scientist and a Baptist, who has read the Bible several times from cover to cover, and spends his spare time finding places that are named in the Bible but are "misplaced" in the modern day.

It is amazing how many places he has found .............. he goes to a site named in tourist books as "the place that such-and-such happened", gets out his Bible, finds the reference to it.

He sees that the Bible says, for example, there is a mountain shaped like a dog to the east and a lake to the north than walk 100 steps toward the lake. Then he looks around ................ errrrrrrrr ....... the mountain is to the west and the lake to the south. :-D

Or Jesus spoke to the people at the site where there is a hill to the north-east and one ot to south-west ................. same thing re wrong geographic placing, or there are no mountains at all at the place that tourists go to :-)

The Israeli government and ancient sites people love him!!

The bible is a book what followers cherry pick over,,

stone to death homosexuals..is glossed over and maybe is a myth.

stone to death a woman who has strayed .

the list is endless.

yet these things arent told to listening audience at a sunday service.


though each to their own,

Recent awful events in Brussels makes us realise how precious a thing civilisation is & how its great enemy - barbarism - is always waiting to destroy it. :-S And that's the Bible truth.

You're quite right Sylvain, all the bible stories came down by word of mouth, and were distorted, biased or sometimes true!!! Once translated it then became as it is today, and that's what we finally have for better or worse!!!

and of course, oral history changes over the eyars as different story tellers put different emphasis on events, or different ways to explain things to their illiterate listeners who didn't know much about life outside the 1 or 2 miles surrounding their home village.

and that applies even today.

I went to Yugoslavia in 1958 ...... that was very different from my life in England, and it was hard, in some ways, to describe the country and the things we saw to my parents who were well-read but had never been out of England

I went to Texas in 1967 ................. my concept of that state was derived from the movies, and I fully expected to see sage brush desert, bad lands, etc etc, everywhere.

NOT true!

I have yet to meet anyone who claims they have read the Bible, cover to cover.