re: Poll: Americans moving away from religion

quote:

---

. I will just take my chances here, by his blessings and positive things that have been happening in my life, I dont want it any other way.

---

So if those "blessings" are a sign that you're being rewarded for your good faith, then to be intellectually honest you must also recognize tragedies in the life of a good Christian as a sign that God is not looking out for them. A good friend of mine is a devout Christian who goes to church every Sunday. A couple of months ago, his 7 year old daughter died in her sleep from an unknown heart defect. Based on your faith/reward system that would seem to suggest that there is in fact not a God blessing the lives of those who worship him. But let me guess, you think that his daughter dying was somehow a part of "God's plan" and "God works in mysterious ways".
So when something happens that makes you happy, it's obviously God blessing you
But when something horribly tragic happens, God is just being mysterious.
So literally ANYTHING could happen and it will always reinforce your belief that God exists.
That kind of thinking is intellectually dishonest but it's very understandable why it's so prevalent because it makes you feel good

quote:

---

But see it didn't stop there. They(the people pushing this agenda) were not OK with just court houses. They want this blanket ruling to trickle to the alter as well. This is in violation of the constitution. They also wanted punative damages in forcing churches to lose their tax exempt status. Gay marriage shouldn't have anything to do with the latter, or forcing churches to perform them.

---

Let me see proof of this happening on a large scale. All the stuff I've seen is gay folks fighting for the right to get married legally.

This will never happen to churches FYI. So you can stop worrying.

I was raised Catholic, but now hold to other beliefs. I did not stick with what was taught to me... As a teenager I though about it, doubted, even doubted the existence of God, but came to my own personal conclusions and beliefs over a period of time.

Was she a virgin?

quote:

---

religion, for the most part, is a man-made sham.

---

It took two paragraphs to express my thoughts. You wrote it all in half a sentence

Not everyone has extremely low points in their lives.

Why should someone like myself (upper middle class, white, college educated, from a stable household, etc. "find Jesus?"

quote:

---

When someone tries to say my close gay friend and his partner

---

Gross

quote:

---

I was raised Catholic, but now hold to other beliefs.

---

I was raised Catholic as well. My issues with the church are not on a belief level as much as it is that I was force fed the religion by my parents. I stopped attending church in my 20's when I left home, and still don't go. But mainly because mass does absolutely nothing for me. Now with that said, my wife claims to love mass, yet she is too lazy to go. My son goes to a catholic school. I support what they teach to some degree, and when he's older, if he want's to go in his own direction spiritually and religiously, I am fine with that. If my parents knew I didn't attend mass with my family, they'd disown me. And I think that is pretty shitty. But I can't blame them, that is the way they were raised, and what they believe. So I just let them believe what they believe. As long as it's peaceful, then I am all good.

roll information and education roll!

Personally I believe in Christianity. I however recognize the putrid ability of modern Christians to explain their beliefs and where they come from. Most simply spout clichés that even Christians find to be quite uninspiring and often cheesy.