"It's time I found a new religion"

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i dunno about hasslehoff & leather jackets but the rest sounds kewl

don't forget to wear shades at all times.

of all people why david Hasselhoff? Was it the talking car or the stunning 1980's good looks??

Just because he'd be a good person to take a jab at, he seems to show up and cameo in almost everything and anything these days. Just flows with all those breezy "Look! Its David Hasselhoff!" type jokes I've been hearing lately...

The Spongebob Squarepants movie comes to mind.

As per the whole religion topic. I have almost completely abandoned some of the ideas that are promoted in the name of God these days; most specifically:

1. Oppose everything non-Christian (abortion, gay-marriage, Dungeons and Dragons (pff), etc.)- Bad. I wholehardedly believe in open-mindedness. I will not let my faith, ahem, someone else's interpretation of my faith guide my thinking.

2. Spread the word of God to everyone, even if they don't want it- I refuse to tell people to change their religion. I refuse to call people sinners and tell them they're going to hell. In fact, haven't people been killed in the name of conversion, or killed because of conflicting beliefs? That is not my job. If I were to find someone who actually wanted to change, I'd point them in the right direction. Everyone is entitled to choosing their own beliefs.

I choose which parts of the Bible to follow, and I choose from my interpretation of what they mean and what would happen if I followed. I believe the Bible is open to interpretation (certain parts of the Bible have been interpreted to be unusable today; there are quite a few examples (*cough* The whole Old Testament).

I've broken my beliefs down to this.

1. Treat others the way you want.
2. Ten Commandments
3. Be, at the very LEAST, a decent human being.

I guess you can call me a nondenominational-unorthodox-lazy Christian.

Excellent man.

I'm lucky that one of the only true friends I've ever had (the coolest guy on the planet) taught me about this:

Whenever I'd try to tell him something, anything, like "that movie is better than this one", or "you've got to act this way to score chicks" or anything like that, he'd subtely say "Don't preach dude." And apart from preaching to me to not preach, he'd follow his own advice.. It's actually very difficult to go about your life not "preaching". But it made me realise how ineffective preaching is.

That's sounds more like a philosophy, psybot, rather than a religion.

I reckon all religions teach the same thing if you ignore the dogma. I can't stomach the dogma so I just cut the crap and get to the point.

The point - I reckon - is all about love.

And it's completely ludicrous how we can't even see the love because of all of the religious dogma.

Therefore, I think that once everyone gets the point that we are pure love, or one consciousness with many masks, or one big family, or however you understand it

Then our symbol for God could easily be David Hasselhoff and there'd be no worries.

I'd vote for the following characteristics in the New World Religion:

1. Peace and no killing
2. Love
3. Lots of bongos and mantras
4. Meditation sessions
5. Eat anything
6. Four hour working days
7. Not so many silly uptight marriages
8. Wide range of extravagant gods

I agree up to a point - religious dogmas and the differences therein are a large part of whats caused some of the bloodiest wars in our history. However I really think we need to hang on to the civics end of it, promote sheer altruism rather than just pure love (ie. making people think and get reason in it rather than having people's passions guide their actions). As for those bullet points, unfortunately the human condition tends to provide that if a society gets too tolerant and peaceful the bullies always rise to the top, the people who fear or identify with the bullies start joining their ranks, and then your right back at the point where we're at.

I really think society should teach responsibility, engrain it in people, have a LOT more really tough love for all the social butterflies who just wanna skate by on their social skills and set society's precident with bad attitudes and all that judgemental crap, and really come down on people who wanna have rotten attitudes unlike we do now - I mean crush their egos. While I'd like to see a society of very altruistic and empathetic people who actually use their empathy to look out for the the next person as much as themselves I still think, in context, we do need killing (you'd be surprised how many people pathologically take kindness for weakness and they'll never change, that and there's far worse in the way of human monsters out there than that even), 8 to 10 hour days at work (regardless of what people think, keeping society and infrastructure running takes a lot of responsibility and we're barely holding it together right now as it is - even working as much as we do).

As for marriages I really think our society needs to change their whole outlook on the relationship world, see it as something more sacred again, stop condoning cheating so much, and really teach people to understand eachother rather than having divorce or cheating be appropriate at the drop of a hat when one partner's unsatisfied but doesn't think they should need to tell their partner anything (ie. they shoud just automatically know) - in short I think our world needs a hell of a lot more emotional maturity. Heck, I think we may want to work harder in terms of helping people find out who they are and what's right for them at a younger age just through the education system because way too many people have no idea who they are in theeir 20's, 30's even later, and that's another thing that's really crashing everyone elses party - not to mention the fact that these people are the most competative and tend to push everyone else to the side, whether their guys or girls.

Within reason. I find having the really good stuff in moderation always makes it taste soooo much better when I do have it.

Plus with this stupid insulin resistance thing of mine, I can't quite eat everything I want, but... meh. That's a different subject matter altogether.

Aw, I knew someone would see the impracticalities of my plan.



On a serious note, and to techstepgenr8tion, yeah I know there ain't no such thing as Utopia. I hate seeing the peaceful punished by the bullies too - look at the Dalai Lama, he's been exiled from his own country. Perhaps it will always be necessary to fight when you are forced to, which is a hard idea to swallow. How will there ever be peace if this is the natural law?

Hm..

I've got mad respect for the Dalai Lama though, The Art of Happiness is one of the best books I've read IMO. WHen you see into his throught processes while you see a very intellectual, rational, and extremely altruistic person you also see a guy who's got an unbelieveable amount of inner toughness and resilience. At one point in the book the coauthor had been interviewing him on the idea of forgiving one's enemies, looking at tests as opportunities, and mentioned that he felt that in this day and age he felt that the idea of seeing things like that might not be as appropriate as it used to be. The Dalai Lama thought for a minute on that and said "Yes, perhapse your right...". After the conversation the author remembered who he was talking to, a guy who'd been kicked out his own country, had many of his followers executed by communist dictators, had the weight of being a national figure who was unable to free his own country. The author said that when that realization came back arround on him it was probably the most embarassed he'd been in his life.

IMO the world's always been like this and IMO, before the 20th century things were probably worse in general but you just didn't have the TV and news to cover it all. Technology's also played apart in making it uneaven - its intensified the amount of self-preservation and order peaceful nations can maintain but intensified the scale to which a despot or dictator can terrorize their own country.

Yeah, what a thoughtful and humble leader. How different the principles are to others like George Bush. You just can't compare..

I can understand the coauthor's perspective that asks, 'should Buddhist principles be changed for the changing world?'. I mean, the rest of the world is building Weapons of Mass Destruction and it just blows your mind - you think, how could pacifism ever compete with that?

But I think it can, and I think Buddhist principles are timeless. It seems such an impossible ideal, such a massive change to integrate into our society because we have so much violence in every part of our lives. You know, it comes down to the bare fact that if someone punches you, you don't retaliate, you absorb the injury with forgiveness and practise your patience. Or even more difficult, if you get bullied at home, you practise patience and don't retaliate. You stop watching violence on TV and quit your selfish desires. It seems impossible, but logically it is the only way that violence will ever end..

(ah, I think we are back at the Utopia thing)

Lol, your talking to the wrong guy on that one but oh well...




It really doesn't - it's a great perspective to apply in ones own outlook on life but it's probably not the best outlook when the soldiers come through.



Because we're still animals bucking eachother for dominance, prestige, mating rights, and most people would rather give into that than be good.



Well, like in the movie Hero it's a powerful message when someone knows you could have beaten them up in a heartbeat but didn't or just sat there and blocked everything they through at you, however when its seen as victimhood that's where it gets ugly and IMO isn't really recommendible because the wrong people will really feed off of it.

I've started a new religion.

1. Don't be delusional.
2. Think as if you have brains.
3. Common sense please
4. Everyone else is crazy but those who believe with critical thinking skills.

Try Wicca. If you want to read up on it, I suggest Gerald Gardner (the originator), Eileen Holland, Yasmine Galenorn, and Konstantinos. Avoid Scott Cunningham and Silver Ravenwolf at all costs.

Pros:
-Reverence for nature
-Promoting kindness to others, nonviolence, pacifism, etc.
-Non-proselytising
-Recognition by the U.S. Congress
-A cool symbol (the pentacle)
-Over a decade old so you know it's here to stay
-At least two members of Inkubus Sukkubus are Wiccans (Candia and Tony)
-Magic

Cons:
-Considered old fashioned, primitive
-Gets a lot of flak from Christians
-Most Wiccans have a high-and-mighty attitude
-Sully from Godsmack is a Wiccan
-The magical/occult aspect of Wicca draws the wrong crowd

Last edited by 666 on 11 Feb 2006, 11:28 pm, edited 1 time in total.

one more con - a lot of pretensious little goth kids