Praise The Lord?

Soooo..... As an agnostic, I am open to all...... Those that say there is no afterlife, or no god, or gods, or spirits I find just as retarded as those who demand THEIR god is the only god..... There's no shame in saying "I don't know"..... It can be quite liberating...... And I don't know.... Charles Darwin, battling with his faith and his discoveries came to the conclusion that the only rational thing to be was agnostic.... So if it was good enough for Charles, it's good enough for me....

Looking at the abrahamic religions, there's just too much grey... Too much hypocrisy... Look at all religions, really..... All flawed... The bible stories are part fact, part fiction.... Yes, Jesus did exist... Yes he was one cool dude.... Bit of a heretic really..... He'd go to jail in nsw for 7 years if he was around now... Fuckn hippy chaining himself to a csg mine on some farmers land..... But as far as ascending to heaven on a cloud, or walking on water, or Mary's virgin birth, well that's just like the little additives to make to story a ripping yarn over a meal in the year 1741.... No tv's ... No facebook... Pretty fucking boring times..... And a story about some "a" grade dude sticking up for the battlers then being crucified need a bit of a tweek, just like some fishing tales and surfing trips.....
So when you strip the bible down, it's just a bunch of fables telling people how to live in a tribe - don't fuck ya mates wife, don't fuck around on your wife, be nice, be generous to your tribe, don't nick anything, ffs dont kill someone, respect your parents..... blah blah blah....... Pretty basic shit, really..... It's just that a bunch of nutjobs have twisted and changed the words to suit their own agenda...... And there's nothing shocking about that.... That crap happens all the time.....

I agree Sheepdog in a way i think it would be nice to be able to believe it would give you that something extra to live for (or maybe die for) but common sense just doesn't allow me too.

I think religion can have some positives like prayer, its pretty much positive thinking and focusing on a goal, and religious people can be pretty positive no matter what happens its gods will good or bad.

All the answers to everything can be found at http://www.venganza.org/
And its free, plus it offers beer volcanoes

indo-dreaming wrote:

I
I think religion can have some positives like prayer, its pretty much positive thinking and focusing on a goal, and religious people can be pretty positive no matter what happens its gods will good or bad.

Religion is a great thing syria cory bernardi muslims jews christians kiddy fiddlers

BAN RELIGION..... calm down religions can exist..................... but taxpayers will not fund them any more

true indo, prayer is a bit like meditation on a question.....the answer comes from within. so it makes sense as does any reflection on an issue. but at at the same time religious people can also be very ignorant of the facts surrounding them.....you know, the old "well it is gods way". climate change is one.

a smart person would recognize the benefits of certain religious practices, keep them, and discard the other 95% crap. but instead religious people are historically taught not to think, just do. thankfully, Australia is much better educated and so even people born into religious families at least have a chance these days.

Well atheism has paradoxically become a religion, a belief system... And it shuns believers or agnostics... It has become what it despises.. "You're either with us, or you're against us".... And I bet there are just as many pedo atheists as there are christian pedos.... But that's another story..
In essence, the religions have become a bunch of fables and fairy tales designed to scare adults into "goodness and obedience"... Take Adam and Eve.. In my opinion, they were not "the first created by god".... I've got another take on that fable...... It is a fable about adultery.. One of the first stories written about what jealousy can do to one's heart.. hear me out.....
When you first fall in love, which most of us have, the initial rush to your heart is like pure bliss... They write of being struck by cupids arrow...... So the way I take it is "the garden of eden" is one's heart when one falls in love... So pure.. So nice.... But eve gets tempted into an affair, hence the phallic snake.... She tastes the forbidden fruit so to speak.... Feeling guilt, she talks adam into "squaring up"... So he goes and tastes the forbidden fruit too..... The guilt and jealousy sets in...... The once eden like love is shattered... It can never be like it was..... The trust and innocence gone forever..... The eden in their hearts replaced with desolate toil, a harsh and unforgiving place... The garden of eden they had is gone......
That's my simple take on that bible classic..... No, god didn't mould adam out of clay and then snap a rib to make eve..... That's just an ad on to the story by some drunken tribesman over a tagine meal a few thousand years ago.....

Just started watching touched by an angel 10am on channel 11...true stories...

Mountain man , jesus was a jew was he not, christianity did not start with jesus death, your tripping dude.
raised from the dead witnessed by heaps, ok ok now back to fantasy island
de plane , de plane

With all due respect to all whom has entered this debate it needs to be reinforced that mere Religion which is man made has nothing to do with it. Whether you die in some misadventure or otherwise or holding a Bible or the Koran or any other religious book at that time makes no difference. A book will not save anyone from their appointed time. When your time is up, man it is up. Age, Gender, Alternate Sexual oriantation, Colour, Creed, Jew or Gentile has nothing at all to do with it. We are all equal in God's eyes. God examines the Heart as what is in the heart and soul of each of us is expressed through the lips, or these days even the fingers on a keyboard. The past posts are reminiscent of the discussion amongst the religious leaders, the the academics and the philospers in the days before Christ was crucified. It has gone on for centuries so nothing new. They incited the crowds at the time. Even Ceaser was faced with this senario so sent Christ back to the Head Priest, Ciaphus. You only have to read about the lead up events which religion was the pivotal issue. The persecution of the prophets of 4,000 years prior and the persecutions that are carried on to this very day are no different. You only have to watch the news. Syria alone is a good example along with many other war torn countries today. The Bible warned us of this long before Christ existed. It also foretold what Christ was to endure. Although a Nazareen he was not even accepted by his own people on his return to his home town. What is in your heart belongs soley and respectfully to you and including your held beliefs however we all will die in our alloted time and will face God according to the scriptures, the God whom created us including all that which is around us for our pleasure and for those with no self control the known guilty pleasures which were created by the corruption of mere man. This can be found not only in the bible but also other manuscripts. Everyone on earth from the inception of time has the freedom to choose. Many will search but never find as they find themselves with hardened hearts. As for the comment re Charles Darwin. Search deep enough and you will find that he denounced his philosophy and accepted Christ upon his drawn out death bed. Much of that literature was known to be destroyed for obvious reasons as in it did not suit most. Darwin tho was still a mere man like all of us. At least he died knowing the end truth. For all the responses in this debate it still highlights how Religion in man's eyes like 2,000 years ago still blinds today's mere mortals on earth from the actual truth beyond religion. Not much has changed over the last 6,000 years. Most if not all wars are over religion or idiologies. It even caused the Catholic Church to fall after 1,260 years only to rise again some 300 years later. That in itself was prophesied in Revelations almost 1,300 years prior to the event. The heart in each of us is what counts and not the book someone holds when dying. As where the heart lay in a persons life is evident from that which the mouth speaks from within. The choice in life remains with all of us. That is why Christ died and rose again which was clearly prophised and written of in Isiah chapter 53 some 2,500 years earlier. Remember no one on earth can judge you nor should you judge others no matter what they believe. What you do in life is soley up to you. Good or Evil. God gave you that freedom but also gave us a sacrifice that costs you nothing providing religion does not steal it away. Anyway enjoy the waves.

Politics = religion

This is probably the wrong place to get up in the pulpit Mountainman. Believe what you like but if you claim, as you seem to do, some form of absolute truth then that is offensive to those of us with different beliefs. So you know the truth. Your God is the only God. You know what is going to happen when we die. Can you imagine how insulting that is? How narrow minded? How narcissistic? Probably not. Self-awareness is pretty rare over there in jesusville.

"Religious people will forgive god for fuckin anything!"

First Christian turning point historically was in A.d. 325 when that pagan thug Constantine reportedly had a vision splendid of this natural phenomenon .

The times were a changing and for Constantine to hold power Christianity was politically expedient to become the one true religion, Rome was made untouchable and Jesus was rejigged to a divine man...all for power, not for the good of humanity.

Then the next Christian historically significant moment happened on June 18, 1452 with the Papal Bull issued by Pope Nicholas V to Portugal...the Dum Diversas (Until Different). This gave dominion to all land to Portugal that had no flag...really just a land and resource grab, including human resources .i.e the slave trade.
This led to Spain, England and any other independent European nation who wanted to jump on the wagon of colonization in the name of the Christian god...nothing to do with saving souls...all about taking as mush as possible and giving back as little as possible.
With Dum Diversas came Manifest Destiny, actually a concept from the deep Bible Belt of the USA in late 1700s, early 1800s, but without DD, MD would never have come about...MD is probably the worst symptom religion can offer..."My god is the one true god, therefore I can take what ever I please with giving nothing back, afterall, my one true god put the earth and all that inhabits/provides for my religious and personal ab/use".
Just look at all the shit we're in right now...there are very real comparisons now with the behavior of the US as with Portugal in the 1400s and beyond.

In a nut shell, religion is the most selfish system ever devised by man...all depends on what side of the fence your on I guess.

Anyway, that's my 2c worth, not that 2c is worth anything these days.

Great post Green socks;)

So true. IMO.

I guess this thread is a good excuse to post some Bill Hicks.

When did we start using After Death years on our calender?
edit- Just read on a few sites it was between 525 AD and 800 AD and AD doesnt mean after death it means Anno Domini. The birth of Christ.

"I'm watching the news And my dAughter walks in and chooses to ask... dad, why are all those people on the floor sleeping covered in red. I told her they were looking for God but found religion instead"
De la old.

"I'm watching the news And my dAughter walks in and chooses to ask... dad, why are all those people on the floor sleeping covered in red. I told her they were looking for God but found religion instead"
De la old.

Then the next Christian historically significant moment happened on June 18, 1452 with the Papal Bull issued by Pope Nicholas V to Portugal...the Dum Diversas (Until Different). This gave dominion to all land to Portugal that had no flag...really just a land and resource grab, including human resources .i.e the slave trade.
This led to Spain, England and any other independent European nation who wanted to jump on the wagon of colonization in the name of the Christian god...nothing to do with saving souls...all about taking as mush as possible and giving back as little as possible.

sounds like the history of Australia , bunch of white blokes turned up and colonized the local savages and still trying to work out what to do with them , possibly send them to narau?

Last comment on this debate. It seems everyone is fixated on religion and the damage in the name of the church or otherwise in which I fully agree with. What I talk about is a relationship between myself and Christ. This has nothing at all to do with religion or any church. Please don't get hung up on religion as religion will only let you down. This is evident through out the world since religion raised its ugly head. What you all beleive in if anything is up to you. You are responsible walk in life. No religion can help you in that. I chose my walk is deep in my heart many years ago found what I know is truth. That truth is not from any chuck but comes from a spiritual rebirth some 45 years ago. Whether you agree or not is up to you all in following your beleifs but please don't mix up faith with worldly religion of any label. This was the only reason I made the initial post. Mr Pell is responsible to God and not the other way round. Don't blame God for the actions of man including past and present wars. Enjoy your day. I will along with a nice cold beer later.

it must be lovely to live in delusional bliss.....believe in God if you will, I can respect that, but moment you start quoting the bible as your "source of truth" in this day and age you lose credibility on this topic. widen your mind.

Mountainmain - you say not to fixate on religion but mention your relationship between you and "Christ"

Honest question - what if you welcomed the essence of god into your heart, without naming or associating it with the Christian concept of Christ? Would the channel to god be the same or do you believe strictly in Christ as the path to a relationship with God?

I am agnostic and was raised a-religious. I have my own spiritual-humanist leanings like most people i imagine but I never had the channel of Christianity or any other religion, yet I don't see my own feelings as being any less sacred than those codified by a structured religion and always wonder about a religious persons feelings if the religion was striped away. I am specifying feelings here, not beliefs :)

Due to my upbringing as a complete outsider to religion, it does fascinate me. Interested in your thoughts.

Don't believe anything you read, believe half of what you see, religions a tool to control the masses

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_calendar

http://www.unrv.com/fall-republic/caesar-the-god.php

http://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/jesus-was-caesar-new-book-by-p...

ah the delusion of the illusion. every conclusion is a delusion because of the illusion. the physical realm is a contextual field for the spiritual realm to actually experience it's conceptualisation of its self.
nothing has any meaning cept the meaning you give it which is how a creative being expresses life, whereas a reactive being has beliefs based on other beliefs that are formed from a conclusion from within the illusion-that physical life is actually real- sorry my friends, physical life is a VIRTUAL REALITY- your body and mind are avatars that You- the part of the ONE SPIRIT- is using to experience yourself answering the only question the ONESELF ever has/had-WHO AM I? and of course as it expresses itself as all things it ever imagined itself to be, it is purely I AM THAT I AM- in other words I am all things that arises out of No thing- the eternal circle of life, have fun, it's a game, when this game is over you can play it or another version of it again- all is well.

GUILTY

Jeez, the first page of this thread is interesting re: Pell.

I wonder what Bolt's (and Abbott's for that matter) take is now?

Oh hang on...

https://www.heraldsun.com.au/blogs/andrew-bolt/on-tonight-what-i-think-a...

The Betoota is on fire today

https://www.instagram.com/betootaadvocate/

I repeat my comment from page one. How can any sane person place their child in a school run by an institution that has been exposed as an international paedophile racket? I mean seriously why would you want your name in anyway associated with them. If there was any justice their property would be resumed by the government and sold off to pay their victims compensation.

Because BB, people are more concerned that their kid gets the best education and money is ripped out of public education at times and private schools have more extracurricular programs on offer. It's just a sad fact.

So basically as far as I'm concerned it's the governments fault.

happy, numerous studies show that, comparing like with like, there is no difference in the results between public and private schools. They look good because they are either selective, or they exclude "difficult" students. They also manipulate their candidates subject selections in ways that public high schools would not tolerate. So yes it is the government's fault but a fault that is shared with every family that puts their kids into the hands of the paedos. You think this is history? Read the papers. It is still happening.

I agree with you but it does depend where you live. Where I grew up there's no way in hell my parents were sending me to the local public on account of the proportion of disadvantaged in the area. I'm glad they didnt tbh but don't mean that in a nasty way or anything.

My own kids attend public because the local is half decent and for reasons you highlight that include the paedo facto but more generally me being heavily against the Catholic church. Friends of ours went the other way and I still respect them for their decision.

a lot of it is perception to parents too remember..... the old paying vs free so it must be worse. But it's no doubt private schools offer more programs.... you just pay extra for it. Camps, trips away....more music programs etc etc. Parents just want the best opportunities for their kids. I don't think the teachers are any better unless you get into the more exclusive private schools and at high school level which most can't afford anyhow.

I'm my run world all education would be free and public schools would be tops ahead of the rest, so much so no-one would want to go private.

I suppose part of it is how you view education. For me what they used to call the hidden curriculum is really important, that is all the things that you learn at school that are not part of the formal programs. A key component of the hidden curriculum in private schools, by their very nature, is that you are "superior" to public school students. The other really worrying thing is that in religious schools kids learn to be hypocrites. I mean what percentage of students in catholic schools actually believe anything approaching the teachings of the church? 5% would be my guess, but off they all go to church to get the parish priest to sign that they are Catholics. Things might have changed a bit since I last had knowledge of their enrolment systems, but my guess is not. And unless my understanding of Jesus is seriously astray the disadvantaged are exactly who you should be mixing with.

Back to a time before Govt funded Church Schools.
Church had no weekday kiddies to play with so State schools were targeted.

1970
Recalling Priests & Nuns Burleigh Primary School 3 day sex education excursion.
Our Govt / Teachers together endorsed this Holy pedos field trip

Here's how this Mass Pedophilic onslaught play out...

Students knew that all grades were involved...only none ever knew why or what for.
Our class of Grade 4 were called up to wait on the verandah near the port racks.
Boys & Girls were split into separate groups.We waited outside closed classrooms.
The Nuns closed the louvers always guarding the doors when a student entered.

They had us enter on rotation...only ever one student at a time.(No witnesses!)
Once inside we faced a row of Nuns along the wall with Priests opposite us.
There were no School teachers that we knew of attending this religious lesson.
We were asked to strip down to our undies.
Then present silently and still before each pair of hands + Close-up examinations.
The nuns had the first grope at fondling our genitals. Mostly one at a time.
Some would make up a threesome as the'd point & smirk.
The priests as the end game got their look in & then recommend we tidy ourselves.

Once utterly shamed we were asked by God's flock to never tell anyone our secret.
The secret to be kept from all (Parents).This is why no kidz knew of what lie ahead.
After every child was bastardized the God Squad left as saintly as they materialized

This event seemed so normal that I assumed it happened to all state school kidz.
I recently reminded my brother who felt it was just a normal Mass Pedo Event.
This orchestrated Mass Pedo crime played out in the centre of the Gold Coast.
These creeps robbed a school of innocence & naturally all of them got away with it.

We felt our flesh was in the devils hands never a thing we could do to fight off God.
Was this a biblical sized Pedo crime of the century? It sure felt like it to me!

A whole State School of 1,000 kids bastardized by The Church & not one witness!

So bad I feel like the criminal by exposing the crime. That's how it works people!
As you all say it's ever here & now & always right in front of our eyes.

Just as today's victims..As adults you can't share such dark matter without disbelief.

That's heavy Truey, remember though that the roman catholic church does not represent the real Jesus and His church. They only represent themselves and their empire which is an evil and powerful one. Jesus will sort them out on the last day. Nobody gets away with it and they will all stand before the king to give account.

The Drum was great tonight. David Marr kicked the holy shit out of Michael Jensen over Anglican teachings on homosexuality. Well worth a look.

Jeez TBB. Dark stuff.

Nothing to see here.

& Bolt is copping a hiding on his own blog. Even the true believers are off him!

No one can stomach a paedophile or their enablers or excusers.

Could this be the death blow for Andy?

And what about Jones, Devine, Henderson, Sheridan, Kelly, Vanstone...Murdoch and his stable?

Abbott??

The scope and sheer volume of those articles is incredible. Very effective displaying them all in a single graphic.

Such a great technique to showcase Murdoch’s attempts to influence society.

Fucker should be put in the stocks.

Murdoch is the first one up against the wall in my book come the revolution.

tbb can only accept these were standard Church Pedos hit the motherlode.
Hard to believe that a whole school was allowed to be fed to the wolves.

Should i feel relieved if this was normal practice at every state school in Qld.
Then EVERY Senior Qlder has been hiding a dark'er secret similar to mine.

Ask! How any Qld senior could claim they 'weren't' molested by the Church!
Now that is heavy! Plain to see why we join to hide the biggest of secrets!
Let's everybody pray it was just our Burleigh Heads State School mass crime scene.

Otherwise Hells Gates will open & Qld as we know it comes to an end.

No joke! Watch the news! See the soul being sucked out of Melbourne.

"The scope and sheer volume of those articles is incredible. Very effective displaying them all in a single graphic."

Occasionally someone does a similar thing on Twitter, a collage of NewsCorp headlines on boat people, Labor, ABC, the usual culture warrior targets.

Amazing how people still fall for it all.

Absolutely Stunet. You could do the same for all those 'targets'.

Corporate media - and the Murdoch media as the biggest player in this country for decades in particular - is insidious. It shapes and distorts and warps the national 'debate' BIG-TIME.

Jello Biafra calls this 'propAGENDA'. He also says "don't hate the media, BECOME THE MEDIA!"

As another punk icon said::

Do it! Do it! DO IT!

tbb I am so sorry to hear that tale. That really was a thing the school did?

I can't begin to understand what they were thinking. Certainly 15 years later or so we never experienced anything like that.

You seem to get into the symbolic nature of wording, this building displays some symbolism that is disturbing:

Yeah TBB, truly shocking to hear of your experience and try to contemplate that. What were they all thinking??

By all means attack religions if you must,whatever rows your boat but at least be consistent.Afghan dancing boys anyone?No mention of Muslim Arabs predilection for young boys? Child brides? What about everyone's favourite victims aboriginals,Tenant Creek? Numerous communities with high rates of STD's in very young children as young as 2 .There is no defence of peadophilia ANYWHERE including the church but of course very selective on the Left.AAH the left,if they didn't have double standards they'd have none at all.Hypocrites and cowards all.

Heartfelt thanx guys as it's the never knowing that drives you mad.
Most know that in 1970's abuse & molestation scarred many from every family.
A lot of that abuse had a face or a name perhaps even a twisted excuse of sorts.

tbb thanks swellnetonians for his diploma but I will never sort out that mess.

velocityjohnno does Dr No serpentine lair have fliptop stairs for pet Moha Moha!
Just where do you dig up these freaky fables...they forever blow my mind! (So Cool!)

Horas, ya jackass, whataboutery ain't cutting it when the 3rd highest guy in the Vatican chain is the one busted today.

Leave it to Rupe's stupes to do the flat out scurrying, ducking and diving, and making excuses . At least they get paid handsomely to do it. What's your excuse, peanut?