Christian Unicyclists

Off-topic
21

“I am an oppurtunistic agnostic.”

Dude Bevan you sound like a 40 year old man in a 14 year old kid’s body. I’ve wanted to say that for awhile… especially when you start talking about science or politics. :smiley:

Anyway, on the topic of religion, anyone can believe and practice whatever they want, as long as they do it with sincerity. Because one day, they’ll either attain total perfection or realize they were completely wrong, learn from their mistakes, and start over. The only thing I hate is when people have a life full of opportunity to live and all they do is hang their beliefs on a shelf like a freakin coat! A COAT!!

What I mean is, people go to church every Sunday, fantastic. But after church do they stop themselves from getting angry at someone just as they were about to? Do they make a point to fix someone lunch? Do they let others borrow their stuff? Do they give someone a couple of dollars who wanted to buy something and came short? This is the same for everyone who “believes” in something.

I have a feeling Jesus said “do unto others as you would have them do unto you” because “as you sow so shall you reap”

When you think about it, everything we do, say, or think, is recorded in our minds and is literally creating our world in the future - just like Jesus said. Nothing has a nature of its own, or else everything would exist the same way for everyone. So naturally, we are imputing that nature, and it depends on how we’ve been treating others.

In some ways, laying your God trip on people can be just as hateful as someone bashing Christians for their insane God trips, so just chill out.

22

Dude… Bevan, there you go again… :wink:

23

Re: Christian Unicyclists

well back to the original post which did have something to do with unicycling. i am a Christian and there is one guy in my church who rides and he sometimes rides to church on Sunday but not that often, a couple others ride but don’t own a unicycle. for the rest of you, from what i read (got kinda bored of the same old arguments) it seems as though you should do some more research on Christianity and what it has to say about morals.

24

Well gerblefranklin thanks for genetics lesson…. Watson and Crick would have slapped me around themselves, were they in the neighborhood. Anyway, tone is a difficult thing to set and see on a forum. I am not a militant on a crusade to save others, nor do I see myself as a lone rebel. However, I must say that there is a difference in my views and that of a religious fundamentalist. As stated before, fundamentalist movements seek to “restore” a faith to its purist form…through literal interpretations of scriptures and other texts. Also, as said before, serious limitations are imposed on followers and surrounding individuals. This can range from the shunning of the individuals to even death in its most extreme form.

And so you call me an extremist and place me in that class. Tisk, tisk. I wish to control no one…unlike leaders of fundamentalist movements. Maybe I am an extremist because I feel that as long as there is religion there will exist a group of individuals who will exploit the insecurity of its followers (or soon to be)…in doing so, there is a trickledown effect that permeates all facets of society. I was raised catholic and went to catholic school…where I saw and felt this first hand….see where this is going. ………eh, I think this has gone on long enough…again, its been fun……we’ll shoot the shit over the new kris holm carbon fiber seat base later. Keep it real and ride on.

25

Buddy Christ absolves you all!

buddyjc.jpg

26

Re: Re: Christian Unicyclists

Indeed, the original topic was not off topic at all…it’s a shame that some people’s insecurities have to ruin a thread there was absolutely NOTHING wrong with…
Oh well, the world is full of jackasses… :roll_eyes:

27

and i think that’s the point, we all have our differences and i have expressed my opinions before on other topics pertaining to religion and have been forced to defend my views, i will not do that here because frankly it’s not why the thread was started and even if it was RSU is not the place for it. i speak for myself on my last point and that is regardless of what other members believe it doesn’t effect my opinion of their intelligence or whatever in other such topics in the forum. let’s not hold grudges because of religious differences. :slight_smile:

and if anyone does want to talk about this kind of stuff i would invite you over to the dreaded “Most Replies” thread in JC, occasionally we do get into some good topics and it’s a nice change from the usual dribble. it’s at least slightly on-topic over there

28

What you are talking about is imperialism and statism. Christ founded no government. He asked his followers to found no state. When his name is used to justify persecution, what is being acted out is the bias of people who are after power and control. Persecution is not a teaching of the scriptures. Don’t confuse power seekers with followers of Christ.

(Sorry about following the thread-jacking. Let’s follow vivalargo’s open-community thinking.)

29

Is that a good thing or a bad thing?

As for my jackifying of the thread, I’m a hot-headed idiot (albeit a kinda articulate one…), so ignore me if you wish (because I’d know if you didn’t [sarcasm]).

Thomas: I agree that your views differ, but you, like FUndamentalists and Born Agains, wish to “enlighten” the rest of the population and do away with what you deem to be corrupt and wrong. I dont’ think religion practiced with an objective mind is corrupt or wrong, it’s the corrupt and greedy leaders who make it that. I can see the view of don’t give a despt an army, but I think that many good things have come from religion, and they should be fostered, not downed on. As for the crusades, that’s racism and ignorance causing that, not religion.

Anyways, as for the original topic, if I went to temple I’d unicycle to it, except I’m sure I’d offend the rabbi, as I’m not supposed to use technology on the sabbath. Not to mention the nearest temple is about 4 very hilly miles away. I’d probably just convert to Islam, there’s a mosque about 2 blocks away:) .

Happy unicycling to wherever you go or don’t go to for worship.

P.S. Thank you Buddy Christ.

30

I have a few things to say about this thread.

Firstly, I’ll ride with anyone regardless of their spiritual views (I’m agnostic on and good day and athiestic most of the time).

Secondly, I think the person who started this thread had every right to do so. She wasn’t preaching to anyone. She was looking for other Christian unicyclists. I can’t think of a better place to do so.

The person who attacked her is the one who starting actually discussing (if you can call it that) religion.

Lastly, if a person posts information that another person finds offensive, there are MUCH more constructive ways of conveying that.

Oh, and one more thing. I’m sure EVERYONE has at least one belief that is totally and completely wrong. You have no way of knowing which belief that actually is.

31

That’s TOTALLY and COMPLETELY wrong!:wink: :slight_smile:

32

I enjoy my cynical aetheisim, and the millitancy seems to have all but disappeared with age :slight_smile:
I get by quietly hoping that if I do find myself opening my eyes after death, it will turn out to have been one of the obscure, long extinct, polytheic (is that a word?), human sacrificing religions that was right all along.

Won’t there be some worried faces in that queue??

33

You might be right, but you can’t USE my arguement to disprove it. :stuck_out_tongue:

34

I’m not a Christian but I’ll chip in here for the hell of it (no pun intended :stuck_out_tongue: )… out of all the opinions shared on this thread so far I actually agree with maroastedpeanuts the most.

The way I see it, we can all agree that we’d all like a good way of life to hand down to the next generations. Now, this objective could probably be reached if there was a God and he did love us all and we all believed. Seems to me like everything would be great if everyone was Christian.

It’s an almost impossible problem to solve, I would ask God to solve it for us if I didn’t think he’d just do what he always does and either forgive us which won’t work because we’ll just do it again or he’ll take matters into his own hands and:

A) Create a large natural disaster to kill all the nasty people.
or
B) Tell a “prophet” to pass on the word that we should kill all the nasty people.

And then the survivors God would probably tell them they should have their revenge etc.

If you were God, and you had the power to turn water into wine, you could heal people and you could create planets… and all you wanted to do was tell people about how you loved them, would you:

A) Meet up with everyone at the same time and shake hands with them, show them a few uni skills and have a group discussion about it… and then come back periodically to avoid the “chinese whispers” doubting phenomenon.
or
B) Meet an old man at the top of Mount Cyanide and tell him to tell everyone else about you… and then come back periodically but only ever meeting one prophet at a time, telling them to relay messages to the masses (JC included).

So yeah, that’s my opinion on the matter, I’m not gonna ask anyone to stop believing stuff because I think Christianity is doin more good than harm at the moment (all the Christians I know are really good, law obeying, fun lovin ppl).

At the end of the day though, nobody knows. We’re like electrons (or something), interacting in flows… maybe we’re part of something bigger but we have no way of finding out and no way of enjoying the final product (barring afterlife). Ah well, at least there’s unicycles.

Hmm, the way some people seem so sure about afterlife amazes and confuses me. Also, does anyone know what goes on behind the scenes at those evangelist things where ppl get healed on TV? Has that stuff been proven to be BS?

Cheers
Pete

35

if you are judging Christianity based on the televangelists it’s time you looked a little deeper;)

36

Without having details on the specific prohibition here, I’d still say it’s a stretch to refer to a unicycle as technology. It’s a short step up from the BC Wheel at best. Are cars not to be used?

37

Wait, you believe that everyone has a belief that is totally and completely wrong. What if that belief of yours is wrong? IF it’s false, then the opposite must be true, which is that no one has a belief that is totally and completely wrong. But that contradicts my earlier statement.
A PPAARRAADDOOXX!!!

38

I live in Utah, and as such, almost every unicyclist I know is Christian (if you count Mormons as Christian :wink: ). Anyone who went to Moab was surrounded by us…

And onto the hijacked thread, Tom, I think you should take a hard look at your posts and see if you don’t come across as a militant (or at least, bitter) atheist.

Now, onto my views on the issue. Christianity is a good thing. Judaism is a good thing. Buddhism, Sikhism, and Islam are good things. Intolerance is a bad thing. No religion is inherently bad (except Satanism, which is by its very definition evil). Bad people are bad. Tom seems to be focusing on the negative side of religion, but is completely forgetting the other side of things. Religion had done so much good for the world as well. Someone mentioned the President. You may not like how he runs the government, but does anyone remember how he was before he became a born-again? He was a drunk. Is anyone going to say that he was better off that way? If so, I would say that you are more intolerant than most Christians.
Anything as fanaticism is bad. I know many level-headed, very moral Christians. I’ve also been reviled and nearly spit upon by people from other religions. Why? The human factor. People are people no matter what. If they are intolerant, they will be intolerant whether they define it by religious standards or not.
One of the most moral people I met was a Muslim down in Brazil. He led his life according to the priciples of goodness and truth that he found in his religion. I also went to a lecture by the Dalai Llama. I have never met someone so enlightened and good. Anyone who thinks that they use religion as a crutch to oppress people is more blinded than any religious person I’ve ever met.

39

Pete, I have nothing against you, but isn’t saying that nobdy knows just as presumptuous as someone saying that they do know? How do you know that I don’t know? I personally believe that I do know the meaning of life and do know about the afterlife and the reason I’m here on this planet. To me, that’s what religion is all about. And I am enjoying the benefits of this knowledge right now.

40

OK, but are you 100% sure? Haha, lemme guess, you were brought up to believe that? Frankly, I think it’ll be so deeply ingrained in you that you might even take offense to me even questioning the concept. Do you question your beliefs? like “would I believe in God and afterlife if my trusted parents happened to have been avid athiests?” or do you think to yourself “That fire and brimstone beginning to the Old Testament sounds a bit far fetched, ah well, it was written by God… & mum said it was true, so it must be true!”?

I can only judge what might happen to me after I die by what I’ve seen of the world. I can’t remember what was going on before I was born… it’s almost as if there was absolutely nothing going on, no thoughts, no breathing, no life, no anything and that’s the way I was for 1000s of years until the day I was born.

Maybe if I’d been born 1000 years ago I would have been gullible enough to believe that the world was flat and that I was going to live forever. Maybe if I was born 50,000 years ago I’d have been too monkey like to dream up fantasies of heaven… but, in this day and age, the extent of my imagination is that I’ll be a memory after I die.

I can appreciate that it must be reassuring and tempting to think that you get to stick around somewhere nice but I’m not quite sure how in your short time on the planet you can conclude and be 100% sure that you’re gonna live again.

Good on you & good luck (you might be right!):stuck_out_tongue:

Pete