God vs. Gay

[kitschcamp]

I don't suppose we'll see the lovely kitschcamp for a while since he is busy relocating, but he was referring to Richard Dawkins' brand of rationalism explained in his many books including "The God Delusion".

Indeed.

As for the relocating.... sheez. I'm ready to scream. 1 year on, and not a day further on. To say things are going slowly...

[Gilbert]

The Protestant religion I belong to accepts gay people and doesn't condem them. In fact, over the last 10 or 15 years our denomination has lost a number of members, because the demomination is accepting of homosexuality. Our denomination does not take everything in the Bible "literally". It looks at it more as a book of faith.

The passages that seem to talk about homosexuality are interpreted in relation to the time they were written, and are said to reflect the social norms of that society which influenced much of what was put into the Bible. Let's face it, the Bible can be a very confusing book. In fact, according to Biblical scholars, many of the words that are part of the Bible do not have the same meaning as they do today.

[kitschcamp]

Ok, so your church "accepts" homosexuality. The neighbouring one doesn't. There's supposedly one god, and you both follow the same one. How does that work?

[fredv3b]

In exactly the same way there are Churches with radically different views on far more theologically important points e.g. requirements for eternal salvation.

[kitschcamp]

And you're missing the point - they can't all be right. Sorry, it's impossible. If there is "one god" and "one set of rules", it means most of you are wrong and going to burn in hell anyway.

I've forgotten who it was that said it, but the only difference between me and you is that I believe in one less god than you do.

[fredv3b]

And you're missing the point - they can't all be right.

On the contrary, my point was that the issue that someone must be wrong applies to far more important issues (from a Christian perspective). In fact it is a problem that has existed since the Apostles first differed from each other.

[Beaux]

Love God. Scared of his fan clubs.

[jbrowder24]

Nice Beaux

I think I believe in a higher power. I'm not sure. I've had moments of aethiesm and moments of great faith, raised in a Christian background. But my struggle relates to kitsch's point - how can so many people believe they are right? I can't help but wonder what I would think if I had been born in India or Iran or China or heck still in Iowa but to parents who were athiests or Wiccans. And sure people point to ancient texts as proof, but each major religion seems to have its own texts and a lot of it is open to interpretations. Certainly, as I've mentioned before, I do believe that the texts in the Bible used against homosexuality today didn't refer to it at the time but rather to other issues such as molestation, affairs, etc. And the concept that someone like Jesus might come and die for our sins certainly is a noble concept. But when it comes to it, I just can't reooncile how much boils down to what we are taught. So, I'm a non-practicing agnostic.

There is one common tenet in faiths, and that is a variation of the Golden Rule - do onto others as you would have them do onto you. I think that's all we can really do, is try to be good people. Unfortunately there are those that would say being gay does not make us good, which is a shame, as we all know that's not true... we aren't doing onto anyone as we'd have them do onto us, but they are judging when they wouldn't want us to judge them.

My own faith aside, I often struggle to be honest about it with friends and family. I'm afraid they'd look down on me or judge me more for the whole faith issue than even the gay issue, or think it's because I'm gay that I don't share their faith, though really the two issues were separate struggles for me at different times of my life.

And all that said, I certainly can appreciate how faith can be used for good at times, and I know it helped my mom as she struggled through cervical cancer a few years ago. With so many loved ones having faith, I am not one to hate on faith... just on certain sects like Westboro, right-wingers, etc. for their judging in a very un-Christian-like manner.

[Cardiganwearer]

There’s a very real reason I actually feel sorry for people of faith, not in a patronising way. We all struggle to find meaning in life, when their might not be any , except as jb says, the golden rule. I would argue that people of some faiths are the least likely to follow that. I’ve never made prognostications about the post mortem consequences of anything anyone else has done.

In a world where we might as well concede we are each a fabulously unlikely accident, people of faith get to believe they are special, they were created for a purpose. While the rest of us just get on with it until old age and decrepitude finally make us shuttle off this mortal coil, people of faith get to deny death itself, according to no less an authority than Benjamin Franklin one of life’s certainties. The other of Franklin’s certainties was taxes and people of faith have also denied them and done prison time for it, Kent Hovind springs to mind, I’m sure he’s not alone. As an aside, would you trust the judgement of a man who flies kites in thunderstorms?

Now despite my feeling sorry for them people of faith are very welcome to their faith, as long as they don’t expect it to confer any privileges. It is ironic that the only country in the world that tried to enshrine this in it’s constitution gets most grief from the very people that provision was meant to protect.

Anyway, I’m off out now proselytising, I like to spend my evenings knocking on people’s doors asking them if they’ve ever thought of letting a middle aged predatory homosexual into their lives. Wish me luck.

[fredv3b]

how can so many people believe they are right?

Surely it's absurd for people (few or many) to believe that they are wrong?