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What is your religious belief?
Christian 49%  49%  [ 21 ]
Atheist 28%  28%  [ 12 ]
Other 23%  23%  [ 10 ]
Total votes : 43

Sailon
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02 Sep 2023, 6:41 pm

How many others here are Christians?



blitzkrieg
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02 Sep 2023, 6:43 pm

I consider myself a Christian.

I don't go to church however, and I am not part of any Christian community.

I have an internal dialogue with God.



IsabellaLinton
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02 Sep 2023, 6:47 pm

I was baptized in The Church of England.
I used to go to nursery school.
I still go to church sometimes, mostly for the sensory.
I've never read the Bible.


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TwilightPrincess
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02 Sep 2023, 7:01 pm

I was raised an evangelical Christian. I’m currently an atheist.



GadgetGuru
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02 Sep 2023, 7:23 pm

IsabellaLinton wrote:
I've never read the Bible.
Take Patton's review of that weighty tome into consideration, when deciding whether it's worth a deep dive...



Darron



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02 Sep 2023, 7:30 pm

^ I read it all the way through a couple times. I’ll never get those hours back… :cry:



naturalplastic
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02 Sep 2023, 7:44 pm

"Christian" in the new narrow American usage of the word...to mean "not Catholic, not Eastern Orthodox, not even mainline Protestant, but just born again Evangelical"?

There used to be a quite a few. One still drops in occasionally but rarely discusses religion related stuff.



TwilightPrincess
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02 Sep 2023, 7:46 pm

naturalplastic wrote:
"Christian" in the new narrow American usage of the word...to mean "not Catholic, not Eastern Orthodox, not even mainline Protestant, but just born again Evangelical"?
I’ve never heard that. “Christian” is an umbrella term to refer to Catholics and Protestants (both in their various forms).

Leaders in my former religion taught members that they were the only true Christians. :lol:



Last edited by TwilightPrincess on 02 Sep 2023, 7:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.

blitzkrieg
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02 Sep 2023, 7:48 pm

I am technically a Catholic by association, but I prefer to identify as Christian. As TwilightPrincess has said, the term Christian is an umbrella term for any Christian denomination, including Catholicism & Protestantism.

I have read the King James bible all of the way through (once) and have read the Book of Mormon, also, as a related note.



Last edited by blitzkrieg on 02 Sep 2023, 7:51 pm, edited 1 time in total.

TwilightPrincess
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02 Sep 2023, 7:50 pm

I read parts of the Book of Mormon. It was hilarious. I’ve read some of the Qu’ran - not funny IMO. Of course, maybe I just wasn’t in the right frame of mind.



blitzkrieg
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02 Sep 2023, 7:53 pm

TwilightPrincess wrote:
I read parts of the Book of Mormon. It was hilarious. I’ve read some of the Qu’ran - not funny IMO. Of course, maybe I just wasn’t in the right frame of mind.


I also thought the Book of Mormon was silly in some parts. As I think the bible is, also, in parts. But the framework of morality for Christianity has a lot of influence even today, in non-religious ways, and I like that fact.

I have never read the Qu'ran.



TwilightPrincess
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02 Sep 2023, 7:59 pm

The Book of Mormon was written for Mormons by John Smith. It’s not relevant outside of Mormonism. No other Christian religion follows it. It has nothing to do with the framework of Christianity. It was written in the 19th century. Much of it borrows from the King James Version of the Bible, but some of it gets pretty far out there.

NonChristian societies often have similar values in terms of what’s considered right and wrong, as do many other religions.



blitzkrieg
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02 Sep 2023, 8:09 pm

TwilightPrincess wrote:
The Book of Mormon was written for Mormons by John Smith. It’s not relevant outside of Mormonism. No other Christian religion follows it. It was nothing to do with the framework of Christianity. It was written in the 19th century. Much of it borrows from the King James Version of the Bible, but some of it gets pretty far out there.

NonChristian societies often have similar values in terms of what’s considered right and wrong.


It was published by Joseph Smith in 1830.

It does take a lot from the King James bible in terms of its structure and narrative, and the Latter Day Saints, who The Book of Mormon is for, follow the idea of Jesus Christ as a saviour, so I don't see how it doesn't share some of the framework of Christianity? At least the new testament part of the bible, anyway.

I would say the religion is an off-shoot of traditional Christianity, updated for 19th century North America.



blitzkrieg
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02 Sep 2023, 8:12 pm

^ There was a rivalry between The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints (formerly known as the Church of Christ) & other traditional Christian churches who saw them as threat to their own Christian denominations, in the early days of it being established.

My old buddy was a Latter Day Saint.



Last edited by blitzkrieg on 02 Sep 2023, 8:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.

TwilightPrincess
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02 Sep 2023, 8:12 pm

On the Book of Mormon:

Quote:
The Book of Mormon is a religious text of the Latter Day Saint movement, which, according to Latter Day Saint theology, contains writings of ancient prophets who lived on the American continent from 600 BC to AD 421 and during an interlude dated by the text to the unspecified time of the Tower of Babel. It was first published in March 1830 by Joseph Smith as The Book of Mormon: An Account Written by the Hand of Mormon upon Plates Taken from the Plates of Nephi. The Book of Mormon is one of the earliest and most well known unique writings of the Latter Day Saint movement. The denominations of the Latter Day Saint movement typically regard the text primarily as scripture (sometimes as one of four standard works) and secondarily as a record of God's dealings with ancient inhabitants of the Americas. The majority of Latter Day Saints believe the book to be a record of real-world history, with Latter Day Saint denominations viewing it variously as an inspired record of scripture to the lynchpin or "keystone" of their religion. Some Latter Day Saint academics and apologetic organizations strive to affirm the book as historically authentic through their scholarship and research, but mainstream archaeological, historical, and scientific communities have discovered little to support the existence of the civilizations described therein, and do not consider it to be an actual record of historical events.

According to Smith's account and the book's narrative, the Book of Mormon was originally written in otherwise unknown characters referred to as "reformed Egyptian” engraved on golden plates. Smith said that the last prophet to contribute to the book, a man named Moroni, buried it in the Hill Cumorah in present-day Manchester, New York, before his death, and then appeared in a vision to Smith in 1827 as an angel, revealing the location of the plates and instructing him to translate the plates into English. Most naturalistic views on the origins of the Book of Mormon hold that Smith authored it, drawing, whether consciously or subconsciously, on material and ideas from his contemporary 19th-century environment, rather than translating an ancient record.

The Book of Mormon has a number of doctrinal discussions on subjects such as the fall of Adam and Eve, the nature of the Christian atonement, eschatology, agency, priesthood authority, redemption from physical and spiritual death, the nature and conduct of baptism, the age of accountability, the purpose and practice of communion, personalized revelation, economic justice, the anthropomorphic and personal nature of God, the nature of spirits and angels, and the organization of the latter day church. The pivotal event of the book is an appearance of Jesus Christ in the Americas shortly after his resurrection. Common teachings of the Latter Day Saint movement hold that the Book of Mormon fulfills numerous biblical prophecies by ending a global apostasy and signaling a restoration of Christian gospel. The book is also a critique of Western society, condemning immorality, individualism, social inequality, ethnic injustice, nationalism, and the rejection of God, revelation, and miraculous religion.


https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Mormon



blitzkrieg
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02 Sep 2023, 8:15 pm

Does anyone really want to read a whole bunch of what you just copied/pasted? I mean, summarizing is a thing. I have adhd personally so wouldn't even bother with all of that unless I was researching it formally.