"The kingdom of God, is just something for christians to hope for in the future" (Page 5) Lucifera: Paul became the first heretic when he no longer recognised the leadership of James and went solo.  Crocodilia: One can possibly say that Paul developed a branch of Christianity that provided the Catholic Church with most of its ingredients, but he lived 300 years before the term "Catholic" (Universal) was used. (Edited by Crocodilia) (Post deleted by staff ) Byakuya: with all the different religions that have been invented shows how false religion is, its like chinese whispers where the last person never really hears what the first person said. in religion terms one religion was founded first and other people thought that looks like fun and changed a few things and called the religion there own and got people to follow them through upbringing of kids xapim: once there was this empire called rome. who started a church because of jesus and the apostle's , paul was a biblical prosolyte. xapim: so on i thought.., human history prehistoric 8000-5000 bce, egypt began along the nile around 3000bce.., religion was something believed and hoped for in the lives of many. preist and preistess were from earliest times til'.., rome was from 700 bce ? til' 1300ce ? and a papacy successed st.peter.., til' today's pope. paul called these "godfear's" christians for example rome turned byzantine..,and along came huns,vigorgoths, vandal, ostrogoths, franks, anglo-saxons .., the old world of 476ce , and the early eurpopean renaisance, mean while there were the 4 great inventions, islamic golden age, and india mathmatics..,into 18th century of world trade. and cival wars. combat: The big question is: Are religions more different than similar? Has there been conducted any serious research around this fascinating topic? FROZEN_in_time: Many religions are more similar than different. But the differences are big enough to cause problems between them. Last year, we debated ecumenical co-operation between Christian denominations here on Wireclub and if I remember correctly, the conclusion was that it is futile as long as some of the leaders, foremost the Pope, claim supremacy over all Christendom and show arragonce where one should expect humility. shreya372: Religion is really a fight to convince a biggest possible audience that one particular faith is the only valid one, while all the rest are false and "the devil's work".  LilMissAlexandria: Islam actually also sees Jesus as a prophet Judaism uses the bibles old testament wingding: Unfortunately, that is not enough to avoid bitter conflicts and wars over religious issues. The rational part of my brain finds it hard to believe that people can actually become fanatical enough to fight each other over whether a legendary character was god or prophet and other abstract phenomena, when their teaching commands them to forgive their neighours and turn the other cheek. LilMissAlexandria: wing as a south african u know about christian men who rape lesbians to "make them real women" thats another flaw in religion the discrimination and hate ppl face the only religious figure i have the greatest respect for is mr tutu a truly great man LilMissAlexandria: thats not what was implied look up corrective rape its something practiced by some men of christian faith in south africa  Coffrey: It still exists, byakuya. Hell, it's better than the Muslims, where they literally dress up their women in heavy robes and veils and masks, thinking that if a man sees the tiny bit of skin, he'll lose his shit and HAVE to rape her. shreya372: It's all about men not being able to restrain themselves and their lust, not about women behaving immorally. Byakuya: yeah true it is better than being muslim where the men pretty much have the women under there control besides not all rape is down to men. women do it aswell its not as common and doesnt get reported much because if a guy says a woman raped him who's actually going to believe him Coffrey: Let's not forget the main objection that Alexa brought up. Christians think that gay people are "defective" or somehow wrong, ignoring the fact that if there was a God, he made them like that. I remember there was a coworker I once had who told me (he was a Christian obviously) "A homo is a just a guy who hasn't met the right woman yet"  now translate that into lesbians and yeah, it's pretty fucking dangerous and in a place like SA, where there is more fundamentalism, it happens Byakuya: i think people have there own views on gay people the thing is with that people assume that if you dont support gay rights then you live in the dark ages which means there judging people for having an opinion Coffrey: Yeah, you're right, everyone has their own views and do I think that someone read a few passages of the bible that talks about hating gays and suddenly they now hate gays? Probably not, they probably had that opinion beforehand. But the fact that it is biblically correct, it can be used as a legitimate pretext for oppression by Christians. I think the gay rights issue is exactly the same as the civil rights issue of 50 years ago. People couldn't stomach interracial marriages, for instance, in the same way they can't stomach gay marriages now. Would you call someone who is vehemently opposed to interracial marriage a racist? And if so, why can't you apply that same standards to people on this issue? Steffi Farmgirl: At all times, people have abused religious scriptures by trying to find support for their own opinions, like slavery, opposition to interracial marriages and now the gays' rights issue. Somehow, they seem to be on safer ground if they pretend to have a higher authority behind them. This is just another reason why I steer as far away from religions as I can, although I respect religious individuals and their choices as long as it's not detrimental to my own health. LOL | Religion Chat Room 23 People Chatting Similar Conversations |