# Religious Ecstasy **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [June 3, 2014, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religious-ecstasy/689926 "2014-06-03T14:19:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Robert163](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/4af34b/32.png) [@Robert163](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robert163)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2014, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religious-ecstasy/689926/21 "2014-06-04T20:14:40Z")
> [@Hampshire](#): > > I caught some of Joel Osteen the other day and that guy is downright methodical about preaching to the choir. Nobody is going to listen to a guy who tells them everyting they’re doing is wrong and sinful. But they will listen to a guy who tells them everyone else is being wrong and sinful. I kind of like Joel Osteen. I think he mainly talks about how to improve your life. His crazy talk is very limited if non existent. I’v never heard him promise a parishioner a new car or faith healing if they send in $25. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2014, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religious-ecstasy/689926/22 "2014-06-04T23:17:18Z")
> [@Hampshire](#): > > I caught some of Joel Osteen the other day and that guy is downright methodical about preaching to the choir. Nobody is going to listen to a guy who tells them everyting they’re doing is wrong and sinful. But they will listen to a guy who tells them everyone else is being wrong and sinful. More importantly, they’ll listen to someone who tells them that they will be saved _because_ they’re listening to him, usually just before the plates are passed. ---
**Author:** ![Bill\_Door](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@Bill\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_Door)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2014, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religious-ecstasy/689926/23 "2014-06-05T02:56:10Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Ain’t that how Christianity got its start? No, Christianity at its start was based on love and tolerance. Then they crucified the only true Christian, everybody took note of what happened to damn dirty Samaritan lovers, and one thing led to another. It’s an old story, but a good one. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2014, 7:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religious-ecstasy/689926/24 "2014-06-05T07:02:02Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Blabbabagabba yerreth tsimpai yerevakh pakarr no mi zahn! That’s just the original Hebrew for Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn. ---
**Author:** ![nani](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/58956e/32.png) [@nani](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nani)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2014, 9:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religious-ecstasy/689926/25 "2014-06-05T09:57:38Z")
> [@Robert163](#): > > I kind of like Joel Osteen. I think he mainly talks about how to improve your life. His crazy talk is very limited if non existent. I’v never heard him promise a parishioner a new car or faith healing if they send in $25. Joel Osteen is likable in a kind of bland Costco tempura sort of way. But I’d rather read [James Cone.](http://www.amazon.com/God-Oppressed-James-H-Cone/dp/1570751587) ---
**Author:** ![Razncain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9d8465/32.png) [@Razncain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Razncain)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2014, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religious-ecstasy/689926/26 "2014-06-05T17:55:17Z")
I don’t recall ever hearing of a group of people motivated or inspired to fly planes into buildings that were on drugs, or to blow themselves and others up. ---
**Author:** ![Blaster\_Master](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/cab0a1/32.png) [@Blaster\_Master](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blaster_Master)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2014, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religious-ecstasy/689926/27 "2014-06-05T18:15:29Z")
> [@xizor](#): > > It made me a little bit sad that my music never brought out such cathartic responses in me. Maybe you’re listening to the wrong music. I no longer consider myself religious, though I am a theist, but when I was, my religious experiences were very similar to how I experience some of the songs I love that have most moved me. ---
**Author:** ![ISiddiqui](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/97f17d/32.png) [@ISiddiqui](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ISiddiqui)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2014, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religious-ecstasy/689926/28 "2014-06-05T19:24:13Z")
> [@Hampshire](#): > > Nobody is going to listen to a guy who tells them everyting they’re doing is wrong and sinful. But that’s exactly what the Catholics do and people listen to them ;). (This is not, btw, as is common on this site, knee-jerk anti-Catholicism… even though I am a Lutheran, I have lots of respect for my Catholic brothers and sisters - this allows some good natured ribbing - and no, I didn’t become Christian for the jokes) ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2014, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religious-ecstasy/689926/29 "2014-06-05T19:54:30Z")
So, this religious ecstasy… they just pass it through the confessional screen? ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2014, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religious-ecstasy/689926/30 "2014-06-05T20:22:00Z")
> [@Blaster\_Master](#): > > Maybe you’re listening to the wrong music. I no longer consider myself religious, though I am a theist, but when I was, my religious experiences were very similar to how I experience some of the songs I love that have most moved me. I think fundamentalists religions forbid listening to secular music for this exact reason. They know the same emotional experience can be had whether someone is singing the words to “My Sweet Lord” or “He’s So Fine”. You could take the holy ghost music of a black Pentacostal church, play it in a dance club, and see the same level of frenzy. So I think the fundamentalists are right to be afraid. Music is a very powerful way to tap into people’s emotions. Once a person realizes that it’s the music that makes them feel happy and hopeful, they don’t really need the serious religious stuff. ---
**Author:** ![ISiddiqui](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/97f17d/32.png) [@ISiddiqui](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ISiddiqui)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2014, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religious-ecstasy/689926/31 "2014-06-05T20:30:01Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > I think fundamentalists religions forbid listening to secular music for this exact reason. I can assure you this is a very minor portion of fundies. After all, if Southern Baptists were required not to listen to secular music, how in the world would country music survive? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Sattua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sattua/32/11906_2.png) [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2014, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religious-ecstasy/689926/32 "2014-06-05T21:07:30Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > So I think the fundamentalists are right to be afraid. Music is a very powerful way to tap into people’s emotions. Once a person realizes that it’s the music that makes them feel happy and hopeful, they don’t really need the serious religious stuff. It’s maybe shallow of me, but I’ve always felt like Fatboy Slim’s _Song For Shelter_ covers this pretty well. Which makes it, maybe, the most dangerous song ever written? ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2014, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religious-ecstasy/689926/33 "2014-06-05T21:22:29Z")
> [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](#): > > When it comes to “ecstasy”, I think you are talking about pathos and not logos. Logos is the realm of “believers”. Pathos is… something else. The second musketeer? 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religious-ecstasy/689926.md?page=1)