JCC Arena The Theist/Atheist Thunderdome™

My god is Crom. He laughs at your gods, strong in his mountain.

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Ah, but my God is the 4 winds. He is the everlasting sky. Your God lives beneath him.

 

Yo Jedi Merkurian, just wanted to say I have some respect for the Baha'i faith, for your faith. I don't think I ever even heard of it before I saw you mention it. Seems like every time you mention it my respect for it goes up. So thanks for introducing me to it.

Religion isn't my thing, but I can respect and easily get along with your faith.

 

It's like every time Merk posts something about Baha'i I'm all "Man this is some chill stuff and Merk is a swell fellow, this seems like something I can be totally fine with" annnnnnnnnd then I remember the **** I read on the "Homosexuality and Baha'i" Wikipedia page.

 

I agree completely. The Baha'i faith is really a perfect example of how religion can be a good thing if it is done in the right way. Any faith that teaches tolerance, understanding and universal kindness has my support.

edit: I read that wikipedia page as well and thought it was OK - disapproves of homosexuality but doesn't promote exclusion and persecution of homosexuals like other religions.

 

Meaningless honeyed words not backed up by facts. People in same-sex marriages are not permitted to join the faith and there's a belief that "homophobia" shouldn't be a word because it "unfairly" suggests that discrimination against gay people is appalling. I refuse to give that a free pass and I am not going to pretend it doesn't grossly offend me just because it's better about it than, say, Catholicism is.

 

Hmm. Did not know that. Rather disappointing.

I actually made sure to say "your faith" when talking about Merk, because I wasn't sure what the Baha'i faith was really about, because I didn't know much about it. Merk seems to support homosexual marriage in the USA, IIRC. So I put the emphasis on Merk's faith, because maybe his faith is better than the Bahai' faith in general. Sorta like how some Christians sorta rise above the hatred involved with their religion and the Bible.

 

Fair enough - dammit, this is what happens when I try and defend religion, I'm invariably wrong and have my facts messed up!

 

I guess it's an important object lesson. Religions have their particular ethical codes. The point is not that one or all of them should accept or disapprove of all the same things an individual might. That's part of what makes them distinct. Rather, the goal is to find a way for religions to be humane to even those that are outside its circle of belief--or, worse, firmly inside its heresies and offenses. I think that if we're talking about merely barring membership, that's actually quite reasonable in terms of compromises with the public space.

 

To be fair to Merk I distinctly recall him mentioning that he did not necessarily agree with everything the Baha'i have to say on the matter of same-sex relationships.

Actually, let me not undersell him, here's an old quote of his from the archived Senate Baha'i thread:

I guess the point I was trying to make (Angrily, because... I was angry, dammit ) is that I find the version of Bahaism that Merk practices to be a very agreeable one, just as I find the version of Christianity that Rogue-1.5 practices to be a very agreeable one. But blanket pronouncements are dangerous things.

 

I was introduced to Baha'i in high school. I don't live too far from Evanston, IL which is where their North American temple is, and checked it out with a friend of mine who was a Baha'i. He even dragged my ass to their youth conference at IU one summer too. It never took but they were really nice normal people who even in their religious conferences never once tried to push their religion on me and I enjoyed my time there.

Edit: He wasn't pushing it on me either, he just wanted someone to go with him.

 

Why? This is a multi denominational thread. No reason why it shouldn't be discussed here.

 

.... and religion.

 

http://io9.com/8-scientific-discoveries-that-prove-evolution-is-real-1729902558

... discuss?

 

lies planted by Satan in the fossil record and elsewhere specifically designed to deceive us? Where there's intelligent design, there's always active counter-intelligence.

 

COUNTER-GODINT...

 

Let me explain the mid set as I have seen it first hand. My nephew says to me that he was reading about evidence showing that a large body about the size of Mars hit the Earth and the debris that settled prodeuced what would still be Earth and Earth's Moon. A family member sat smiling in doubt says, "Phhht, God made it and put it there."

So no matter what the evidence is that evidence will be ignored and in fact scoffed upon.

 

That's *******s. darthviper_81 invented the woolly mammoth.