Jamba

The hospital she was at after the car crash she was in let her go into the care of people who weren't her family. And I'm not excusing them, I just think that they seem to be a lesser evil than other things that I have to worry about. Totally a personal choice.

Ok some of that stuff is indeed awful, the kidnapping and stuff is espcially worrying. But in essence a lot of this stuff has happened due to Scientology praying on the stupid and weak willed. Religions and other organisations (not to mention governments) have been doing this for centuries and still are. For instance, my flat mate told me how the 2nd to last Pope was murdered because he wanted to give the Vatican's money to charity. Praying on the weak is bad but then again I think that blame can be layed elsewhere for some of these situations happening. The hospital for instance in the case of Lisa McPherson. It all seems very black and white but I don't think that much of what is on these websites is imparshally reported and it is also very easy to omitt facts as well as colour them. I'm not going to make a judgement yet, I will view this subject from a distance with an amount of suspicion but to be frank there are many other issues that I think are worth my time.

There's a pill to stop your boobs sagging?! Pray tell....

But you will have to do this when you leave home as well. What you will find is that they have been able to become their own person while being away from home. I understand your reasoning though.

That's a very narrow minded view of religion. There is plenty of room for science and Christianity (not all of religion as you so smearing put) all you have to do is look so far as Darwin to know that. God could still be present in the form of fate and destiny not to mention the big bang. I finished a degree in Biology in 2005 and the main thing that I learnt in that time was that science is just as bullshit as religion, just as contradictory and full of individual's agendas. What I think you're trying to say is that logic and reasoning make religion invalid but I disagree. I think that in many ways it surpasses religion in the fact that it is so meticulous that most of the world subscribe to it as they can have faith in something that is so thorough. But to just mix things up, I have had a really good handful of discussions with people about there being something that will one day surpass science, logic and rationalising, in the same way that they did religion. Now it's a bit hard to get your head around but it is a possibility especially when you just think about the fact that science and religion are just ways of us understanding the world around us and ourselves as entities.

Is this it? I mean, the death of a person is awful but I was expecting something more substantial. To be honest this sounds like the biggest hype and bandwagon fest in ages. The way you guys are talking about it reminds me of E3...

There are somethings that don't go south on a guy... and if they do then there's always viagra. In short, everything stays where is should apart from your hips apparently :p

First of all, the illegitimate stuff that has been happening is terrorism. Plain and simple. I appreciate that they are trying to stop that but I would be suspicious of any organisation born out of such methods. I am glad that they are trying to do it though to protest against the unethical part of the religion rather than it's beliefs but the cynic in me can't help but think those are just words. Just seems too convenient with Scientology being such a popular subject. Can someone tell me some of these unethical practices?

You don't know how much trouble I'm having not texting that to her right now. Ah bless... yeah you would put your back out. I mean, I can hardly touch my toes now and I'm in my 20s!

Hey Advima! Good to see you posting (and what a bloody post! It's huge and brilliant! Now lets move away from the double-entendre...) Ya'see, i get the whole shark thing and I really appreciate that they are doing this because they care me but what they need to understand that, for me, THERE IS NO SHARK! As an agnostic I try to be a good person in all that I do that, Advima knows me well enough to know that, so isn't that good enough? I like many of the morals from Christianity and used to listen to them frequently when at school because I found the philosophical side of it interesting. But I don't have to believe in God or read the Bible to have a sense of morality because I can reason these issues. Maybe the thing that gets to me is related to what Advima was saying: God moves in mysterious ways. Seriously, WTF? The faith wide scape-goat of Christianity that gets used frequently, so much so that from an agnostic PoV when God or the Will of Christ is used as any reasoning behind any kind of advice or thinking, we just switch off and completely disregard that information. It makes it invalid. If I went to my Aunty for advice about something, I would get given a short piece punctuated by the fact that it was from this verse and blah blah. Now that makes me switch off. But if she talked to me about some real life situations where she applied her faith then I would be willing to listen. Now isn't that a better way of spreading the word? Being a good example of a Christian, showing how faith works in reality not just on paper? I mean cmon... most of my respect and liking of Christian people has come from my Aunty's family. *Coming next post - Jamba talks about his recently Christian sister!*

Getting away and surviving and studying on your own is one of the most important lessons that uni will teach you. I'd definitely suggest taking that option is there are no other factors.

Yeah fair point... sorry not feeling so good. Misunderstanding posts. I'll edit my post so as not to look like a retard.

Ouch, sounds like your parents need a slap! What are you doing?

EDIT: This message is here to replace an ill advised rant. *slaps self on the head*

But what about that gap between 30 and 50? It's weird, I just can't even mentally imagine it. Every depiction that you see of sex is with people in the prime of their lives really. Find the idea of having sex with someone in say the around 30 mark quite interesting but only as a one off if you see what I mean. If it were to happen though, I'll probably find out that there's nothing to make such a big fuss about.

Must admit there are no hard feeling when looking at that photo! Eeeeugh. Ok, another topic. Sex and old people. Having sex with older people and so on... your though if you pls.

He's 24 and married. Unlikely. I understand why they do that, that's fine but equally when they constantly try showing me life through christian eyes that I find that offensive. Their relationship with their church has nothing to do with me, they know that I have made a personal decision not start being christian but they keep pushing it on you. For instance, in a conversation when a topic is brought up and they explain it in Christian terms, if you disagree then it becomes a point to them to carry on forcing their point home. Wouldn't it be better for them to just respect my opinion? I respect theirs, even though their explanation is nonsensical to me because the christian explanation is invalid. I understand that as a Christian (especially if you have been brought up one) that it is hard to understand what is like to not be one. But it feels with my family that if they leave us to our own views then they have somehow lost. I'm tired of having conversations with them in which they spend a lot of time and both our energies trying to convince me that a scripture based explanation is a possibilty. The civil answer is that from their perspective it is but from mine it isn't but that answer just isn't good enough for them. Surely the "spread the message" section of christianity would be better regarded as "if someone asks then give them what you've got". Churches are everywhere, Christianity is all over the place. So why must it be a case of taking every opportunity to push the God subject. Almost all of the time all that this leads to is someone being harassed or insulted because they just aren't Christian.

That's the problem though I think, there's a very big grey area between spreading the word and the forceful methods. This is especially the case if you're on the receiving end. For instance, my aunty and uncle's family are all christian. They know that my family isn't christian yet they always seem to bring it up in some small way that makes it feel like they're pressurising you. Bluey will tell you about this but for Christmas my cousin (the one who I have always thought of as the moderate and who repected our views the most) gave me this: Now at first I was ok with this because I thought that it was a compilation of manga as in "the bible of the subject of manga" but no! No of course if was the Bible in manga form and not even real manga but crappy Ameri-manga. So it was rubbish AND condescending. I just find constantly being harassed by my loved ones offensive. And whats worse is that I don't really know how to talk to them about it.

Yeah seems likes creative gallery material to me. But we'll see what the mods say.

Hehe... always like yours, very nice texture. 8/10

Well lets talk... Are you guys part of active Christian communities? Do you find it really difficult then when other do those stupidly steroetypical CoE things like the onstinct to convert people?

Oh whayt?! No!!!! Crapety crap stix Wish we could stop psyching ourselves outta the game.

Quite a big fan of the Greedy Fly Video by Bush:

Well, I like talking to people who are religious because they look at the world completely differently. I always spend some time now and again exploring how I feel about the world but for some reason I have never felt any cohesion with the idea of an omniscient god. I think it requires a very different attitude towards life and as it's such a driving force, I like to understand how people think about it. Not just in theory, like how Gaggle was getting pissed off with everyone stereotyping, but in reality. More recently I have been feeling that i lean towards a polythestic (sp?) belief, not unlike japanese shinto, where gods and spirits walk among us and are just out of sight. I find it more reasonable that gods and spirits are just as fallable as we are so if they do exist, I recon that they are just as human as we and have their own agendas and so on, just like the Greek/Roman gods.

Thought I would give this thread a little bump after Gaggle n Haden brought up some stuff. I don't have any problem with anybody being any religion as such but what I don't like is organised religion. In my eyes, people have their own personalities and issues and so they interpret what their religion means to them. I find it strange that a group of people such as Christians or Muslims regard themselves as having things in common with each other, enough so to label themselves so. But in reality would it not be better for people to say "I believe in God, in the Christian sense" so showing their general orientation to the subject but still leaving them open to have interactions from people from an Islamic background, for instance, and sharing so much. Does anyone else share my view?