Hello F(r)iends,
Religion is so often villified in modern times; however, I posit that religion, spirituality, and the like can be tons of fun or at times it can be amusing. I would like you guys to post fun experiences involving religion or spirituality.
I’ll share a few experiences soon.
-Thirst
I was once at a pentacostal church, and they tried exorcising me! 
I’ve never had a fun religious experience, except for a few girls calling out “oh god” during sex. Perhaps if I was a Wicca I’d have some better stories.
I’ve probably had what could be considered a couple rasta experiences
Jerks.
Oh, wait, this isn’t the word association thread. Silly me. 
-Thirst
Any day now… 
I once took part in a ‘wiccan’ ritual in which many of the girls were topless, and they all seemed to want to ‘work my energy’
good times!
nun outfits (and robes in general) are hot.
Hello F(r)iends,
One of my fondest memories with religion is a church picnic. I remember there were about 300 people at the picnic of which I actually knew 200 of them very well. There was frisbee, football, flag-football, basketball, egg toss, roast pork {best I’ve ever had}.
The weather was perfect, the talks engaging, the focus on fun. I remember thinking to myself: this is what god had in mind when he wanted the disciples to have the heart of a child.
-Thirst
Thirst, apart from you, who seems to be the only one who has derived true satisfaction from the religious manifestations of your kin, nobody I see had in mind that this thread could be taken seriously.
This is why I am asking you know if you could seriously find religion fun, that is to say: recomforting and relaxing. I know that Jesus had dinner with his apostles too and spent time with children, but I fail to see the true meaning of religion in this.
How can religion be fun, when you are confronted seemingly again with your weak nature and bear the heavy burden of your sins ? Especially in Christianity, which is a religion of the Absolute by excelence, complacency and vane activities should be let aside, don’t you think ?, in the scope of educating the spirit towards a higher dimension of being.
I think religion can be fun. It drives humanity to be social. We strive to want to be apart of a group, and part of the attraction of any religion is that you are apart of a group.
I think this is becoming important today more than ever as towns and cities become larger, people grow more and more apart. “Church” (even your DR. S) brings people together. As thirst said he has fond memories of a church picnic. I have fond memories of camping trips I took as a mormon boy scout (there is a difference).
It’s the same thing. It’s not god that attracts most people to be in church. It’s the prospect of not being alone. (note: this is what drives most conversions)
Hello F(r)iends,
Hi Mucius Scevola,
My church experiences were nearly always “fun”. I went to church: I sang with joy, I learned, I thought, I was challenged, I laughed out loud… Yes, church can be fun. In fact, one could make the argument that not only could church be fun, but it should be.
Not to mention that Christ teaches us to become like children: innocent, happy, playful and a lot more…
I remember one specific time when a minister regaled us with the story of Peter walking out into the lake to walk on water with Jesus. I laughed gleefully as the minister pointed out Peter’s courageous act to get out into the water and then to lose his bravery as the wind scared him… Maybe you had to be there. But it was good times.
-Thirst
I’ve had a few good times at various church camps, but I could only take the preaching so long. After being told what to do and given excuses as to why to do it, not to mention having a few of my core beliefs bashed by the main speaker, I just wanted to leave. I became an atheist at one such camp, as well as liberating one friend of mine from the bondage of religion. Not that I followed him around telling him God didn’t exist. He didn’t take much prodding.
Religious groups have you change yourself to fit the group, behaviorally. You should be a member of a group if you can, but primarily a free human being.
They were more demonized then you’ll ever be, and should go f***
themselves.
Lo!
@Doctor.S:
… =/ I guess we know what the doctor’s prescription is.
Bah! Realy now, if a religion can give you hope for the future AND say that the world is gunnu end… then judge + forgive you at the same time, and teach you yet stop you from trying to learn, then i guess it can be fun sometimes to. It all depends. Some religions are healthy, some are un-healthy.
Which brings us to my next point:
Love and freindship is the only true religion.
Religion can be fun because it bundles certain activities that are generally fun. These include social gatherings, songs, parties, festivals, rituals, learning, growing, and meditating on certain metaphors that can make you feel better/stronger/more relaxed. It has a side benefit of making death seem less scary.
My contention is that all these fun things can and should be divorced from “religion” per se, because they can be generated, sustained and combined in myriad ways that don’t require faith, or the claim of faith, in various ancient scrolls written by men. If you believe in the fundamental divinely generated tenets of religions, fine. Do it and enjoy the fun that comes with it. But if you don’t believe in the claims of authority in fundamnetal religions rangeing from Greek Mythology to Modern Christianity, get your fun some other way, because there will be a lot more flexibility and you won’t be helping to perpetuate what I personally feel is a restrictive, flawed and potentially catastrophic vehicle for exactly the kinds of things Thirst points out.
I agree with Thirst inasmuch as it makes no sense to villify religion on the grounds of quality of life, in most cases. But I think it makes sense to villify it on other grounds, too many to mention here.
Scythekain :
Thirst:
It really burns me down to read this. These are exactly the sort of misconceptions that have been pushing Christianity to the burlesque image that it embraces today: the illusion of a victorious church, attending the impression that all of us within it are actual Christians. The triumphant, monolithical image of Christianity which you toss around, my sirs, as a sort of assumed state of being, a joyful and elastic amusement, is a sad error.
It makes me sick to read how people these days refute God just because He doesn’t come down and mows their lawn, or how they attempt do deconstruct Christ as if He were some Lego puppet, but it mostly annoys me to see how Christ is being pushed aside to make room for some chubby minister and his bed-time stories of people who lived and died a long time ago. Gentlemen, Christ lived a life of poverty and suffering, and whether you believe He was or was not God is your problem - but in order to declare yourself one of His followers, you need walk (or at least try to put yourself) in His sandals.
But being a Christian today has turned into a nothing, a buffoonery, something that everyone has access to without even having to squint. The Church is like grandpa sitting in his armchair, eating his soup and smiling benevolently while his grandbrats squash bugs in the yard. The triumphant Church, sitting in its earthly throne, has shouldered Christianity aside, in favour of a comfy, quiz-show like, recreation.
The grand error lies not in that the Church is advancing demographically (no, far from me this), but in that the Church has come to an internal halt, assuming for itself a static condition, subsisted by the fallacious idea that Truth in Christianity is a purpose, a being, overlooking the fact that Truth is actually being, walking, becoming.
Pondering firmly on what Christ said about He Himself being the Truth, the Absolute, then it becomes clear that a triumphant church cannot be in this world nothing more than a phantasy, that in this world we can only live within a struggling church.
Christianity isn’t entertainment for the masses - it concerns the individual and it addresses him entirely : “Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” Interaction within social life is, in this context, a challenge, and not an end in itself. It is wrong to look for Christianity in the harmony in which its adepts live - religion shapes itself in the heart, from which attitude emanates. Being thus like children in their innocence is something to look up to, but we screw up too often to be as uncaring and forgetful as children are.
Christ said: “My kingdom is not from this place” (liberal translation). He said this not as a reference to those times and places, but to as a universal statement. As soon as Christ’s kingdom comes to a deal with this world and becomes a kingdom of this world, Christianity has been pushed aside. When, conversely, Christianity is in and for Truth, then it is a kingdom in this world, but not of this world, meaning it is struggling.
pxc,
Completely. They have you embrace something that is not a natural part of yourself, Have you believe things unjustified. But Thirst is right… It’s fun. It’s fun going to a convening of where everyone else in the room is hearing what you are hearing and embracing the same reality you are.
The quaker and buddhist meetings are boring. They just sit around meditating. Occasionaly a quaker stands up and starts spouting words… it’s a little disconcerting and ruins the silence.
mucios,
I don’t expect a lawn mowing, I do however expect a universal image of god, if we are to be expected to believe in his almighty power like these books would portray. Is the soul harvestor powerless to project a uniform, conformin image of himself to his masses?
And what is more likely, that god created man in his own image, or that man created god in his image?
I’m gonna guess with that statement you are either catholic, or a calvinist…
I see that you feel really strongly about this… as we have more and more things taken care of us by lower classes (either people or robots) we are destined to become more “comfy” and “quiz-show” like.
Care for a round of cranium? To see who can charade out Kindergarten?
I think you are unwilling to see the fact that people prefer being happy, than being depressed. The type of christ you believe in is a depressed old man, who shoulders the worlds sin… Not everyone likes going to a congregation to be depressed, get enough of that from reality.
Hello F(r)iends,
Mucous, Jesus attended a wedding and probably had a good time. Jesus endorsed the fellowship of the disciples (he flat out encouraged it). In fact, it is doctrine to ‘rejoice in the lord’. There is no reason to think that Jesus wanted his disciples to starve, to not admire the beauty of god’s creations, etc.
Christ suffered so that we would not suffered. And while he asks us to follow in his footsteps, he does not ask us to abandon this earth. Jesus does not ask that you abandon your home but rather that you do not weep if you must abandon your home, he does not ask you to sit around and wait for the day of deliverance but rather to live a life of virtue, or righteousness. A life of perfection does not necessitate physical suffering as there can be plenty of spiritual suffering!
I’ll leave it at that… the point was as much like what Gamer pointed out. We should not villify the church based on quality of living–it is not necessary that you should lose out on living a fruitful life–but rather that you question the church on the other aspects. Does corrupt doctrine like you mentioned exist? Yes. Is it prevalent in Christianity today? Yes. Does this mean that it is impossible to live a fruitful life as a Christian? No, not at all. But you made many valid objections to the apostacy of today’s Christianity to which I say: well done!
-Thirst
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