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Post by koboldmaki on Apr 28, 2010 12:41:27 GMT 2
I'm Ásatrú. It was along way for me since I was raised atheistic and became Christian in the age of 7. When I became older, I concerned myself with the history of Christianity and discovered that it's nothing for me. It needed a lot of time until I spotted my religion. I really got problems 'cause lots of people think, i'm Nazi. But there's a real good heathen network against fascism, Nazis and rascism.
I think, the main problem of most religions are people who use religion for increase their power and religious fanatics who say the only true religion was theirs.
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WikingMetal
Wolfcub
Juodaan viinaa, tullaan viisaammiksi n?in
Posts: 9
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Post by WikingMetal on Jun 1, 2010 9:25:20 GMT 2
I'm Christian, through and through.
I was raised in a Christian household, in that I was baptised, went to Catholic schools, but we never went to church or anything. I never really believed in any of it, and when I was younger I looked into heaps of different religions. But then a few years ago my cousin converted to Orthodox Christian, and he started teaching it to me in a way that I didn't learn in school (in school they just shoved it down your neck basically), and it all made sense to me. I went to South Africa for Easter this year, and met a bunch of hardcore Christians, and it changed my views on Christians completely, for the better. So yeah, now I'm Catholic, try to go to church on Sundays, and nothing can change my beliefs. I believe that there are 3 parts to a human; 1) The flesh. The flesh is the body, our actions, everything that makes us up corporeally (physically/materially). When you fall over and it hurts, thats a feeling in your flesh. The flesh is our link to the Earth, and essentially a shell for the soul. 2)The soul. The soul is the ethereal (metaphysical/immaterial), our link with God, and the part of us that carries on after we die. It is what we use to talk to God when we pray, where we have feels such as empathy, love, compassion, hate, guilt, etc. This is where the conscience acts. In my understanding, the conscience is the Holy Spirit of the Holy Trinity, God's will and spirit within us. It is God's voice inside us. 3) The mind. The mind is the brain, which is our link between the body and the soul. It works like this; the soul tells the mind, the mind tells the body, the body acts. The mind also tells the soul what is going on in the body, and in the world. God tells the soul by the Holy Spirit what is good and what is bad by God's Law, the soul tells the brain what is right and wrong by God, and the brain is where we decide whether we will act in accordance with God's Will, or go against it, in our flesh (that is, our actions). To act in union with God, is to listen to what the Holy Spirit tells us, and to act accordingly. Basically, to listen to the Soul. The process is Soul>Mind>Flesh. After a long time of practising this, the "voice" of the flesh gets quiet, and we start to forget about pleasures in the flesh and do what God wants us to do instead. To act against God is to do things the other way around, and the passions of the flesh (lust, anger, gluttony, etc) rule our actions. Our brain listens to what the flesh wants, so we stop listening to the soul. The voice of the soul gets quiet after a while, and it takes somebody to come and help us to get that voice talking again, which is what happened to me. But, having said all that, I am not perfect at all, and I don't pretend to be. I still enjoy doing the stuff I love doing, like drinking, fighting, etc, even though I try to love and serve God as well. But my beliefs are MY beliefs, and even though nobody will ever convert me to another religion, I respect everybody's right to believe what they want to believe, and do what they want to do, and I will never try to press my beliefs on anybody. And I still take a lot of interest in lots of different religions.
Anyway, after all that, I believe we should all put our differences aside and Let's Drink and Enjoy!!!
SK.
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Post by Mighty Croc on Jun 1, 2010 10:58:54 GMT 2
Actually all traditional religions/beliefs state that a man is body, soul and spirit. That's one of the fundamental principles in esoterism. But many christians are sure that the soul is some kind of "body+spirit", that's not actually correct.
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Post by nordenstam on Aug 22, 2010 22:35:44 GMT 2
Hi, being a newbie here found this topic very interesting for me. It's harder for me... I half and half with 2 kinds of religions. I'm a student of theological faculty where I am on 2 branches - Jewish studies and Religious studies. This says most about me... I love Judaism but at the same time I adore "wild" natural shamanic beliefs. One part of me loves to be given to one personal G-d. To obey and to be devoted to it... second part of me is wild like the sinister northern wind who never lets You stay in peace. With time I realized that the second part of me got more percent than the first one. I'd love to be born back in time, and keep reindeer herds together with the Sámis or at least be an Inuit. Sometimes I really miss the real connection between people in these modern times I love colder countries because they simply suit me better. For future I wish to make my Magister or Doctor degree on Sámi native religion. So round and round, one coud say that I am simple pagan but it's not that so easy
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Post by wolferin on Aug 24, 2010 15:41:09 GMT 2
I've always being thinking Judaism is not very favorable towards women, but may be I'm wrong.
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Post by nordenstam on Aug 24, 2010 19:59:07 GMT 2
It very depends on the particular group of the believers, there are of course soem terrible ultra-orthodox ones which behave terrible to women but mostly in wide Judaism these are not that much considered as Jews anymore. But in some mainstream Judaism are women very honoured in many ways. As I said - it depends a lot on particular believers. Actually in my opinion Roman Christianity behaves to women worse then Jews.. but everyone has own opinion.
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Post by wolferin on Aug 24, 2010 20:33:54 GMT 2
Well, may be and as a whole it can be said about all (popular) monotheistic religions - they are patriarchal religions. Some of the pagan religions are much more emancipated - Asatru, Celtic druidism, though some are not, like old Slav religion. When I read more about Slavic paganism, I was a little surprised about the status of the women, because I expected they to be "more equal" to men, but they were not. And this habit in some Slavic tribes, to burn the wife with the dead husband is much more near to Hinduistic traditions.
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Post by nordenstam on Aug 24, 2010 20:59:49 GMT 2
That's truth, it's more Hindu...
Unfortunatelly about the Slavs we don't have that much facts and informations like about Nordic culture...
I also agree on that fact that it can be common to all mainstream monotheistic religions but I think it's not only problem of these... And it always so much depends on the people who are prictising it.
Maybe it does not depend so much on the religion either. Here in my country people use to say that they are atheists but from their behaviour to women it looks like Christianity in the Middle Ages.
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Post by wolferin on Aug 25, 2010 16:24:30 GMT 2
Unfortunatelly about the Slavs we don't have that much facts and informations like about Nordic culture... I think the article about Slavic Myths in Wikipedia in English is not bad at all. Also there are videos in youtube, but many of them are in Russian, if you understand, there is information. There are also some disputes (some in English) about spreading of neo-paganism of different kind. I also agree on that fact that it can be common to all mainstream monotheistic religions but I think it's not only problem of these... And it always so much depends on the people who are prictising it. Maybe it does not depend so much on the religion either. Here in my country people use to say that they are atheists but from their behaviour to women it looks like Christianity in the Middle Ages. I agree it depends on the people. And about these people in the countries - it is more tradition, than religion.
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Post by nordenstam on Aug 25, 2010 17:54:10 GMT 2
Definitely
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Post by wolferin on Nov 13, 2010 16:43:08 GMT 2
I'm totally shocked by an act of orthodox fanaticism here and just can't write about it! In the Sea Garden in the city of Varna, over a spa water spring, a month ago was mounted a statue of two dragons in love, holding golden egg. According to me, the dragons are very cute and interesting, having great chance to turn to favorite attraction of the Varna citizens and the tourists (Varna is the biggest Bulgarian city on the Black Sea and third biggest city in the country). Some orthodox fanatics and priests want the statue to be removed, because the dragon was snake relative, i.e. symbolizes the Satan and in an christian country must not stay such an image. I hope the people in the Varna municipality will not listen to stupid blockheads and will not move the statue.
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Post by Bartbär on Nov 13, 2010 16:55:32 GMT 2
Wolferin, that's an awesome statue and I hope those overly-religious wack-jobs don't have the power to take it down. I'm not much of a religious type, but I don't mind what people believe, as long as it doesn't effect the liberty of others' beliefs and choices. This is a case of those types who DO wish to push their beliefs on the rest of their country: no matter how predominantly christian it may be. It saddens me to see that they're THIS upset about a simple and beautiful statue...
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Nov 13, 2010 17:12:07 GMT 2
Wolferin....WHAT?? I am totally with Anwend! ...just cannot understand, and in the same measure I am not surprised either knowing the ways of our clerics in this area.. Really hope common sense will win there. PS: Why didn't you take us there when in Varna? So wish I saw that... next time, da? Because it's cute.
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Post by Mighty Croc on Nov 13, 2010 17:21:03 GMT 2
Here there are lots of religious fanatics, but orthodox christianity is not an official religion of Russia, so the fanatics usually go fukk themselves. But they are always whining about things like this [some guys even managed a mass burning of books about Harry Potter], so if the statue would be in Petersburg, here could be something like that. But the statue would stay.
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Post by wolferin on Nov 14, 2010 19:55:46 GMT 2
Thank you for the support! I hope, the mayor and people round him will not be so stupid to listen to the priests. Here orthodox christianity is one of the official religions, but of course the church is out the state.
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