# Speaking In Tongues **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 25, 2006, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/speaking-in-tongues/354152 "2006-04-25T16:07:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Lissa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2006, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/speaking-in-tongues/354152/43 "2006-04-27T03:05:10Z")
[QUOTE=DocCathode] Which is why I said earlier that the important thing is how a religious belief or practice effects people. If a particular belief cause adherents to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and watch Monty Python, then that belief is a good thing. If a particular belief causes adherents to start an Inquisition, become suicide bombers, or forward e-mails promising that Bill Gates will give us money, then that belief is a bad thing. [/QUOTE] I don’t think you can blame or credit religion for individual people’s behavior. Good people will be good people regardless of whether they’re religious or atheists, and bad people are the same. ---
**Author:** ![Chotii](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/71e660/32.png) [@Chotii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chotii)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2006, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/speaking-in-tongues/354152/44 "2006-04-27T03:40:08Z")
[QUOTE=ralph124c] I don’t get it: the Gospel story of pentecost says that the apostles started speaking, and everyone understood what was said, in their own language. This ‘glossolalia’ stuff is just gibberish-it means nothing to anyone except the person uttering it. [/QUOTE] The Gospel indeed says that. And I can’t remember what verses my old Foursquare church used to justify it as a ‘private prayer language’, but I’m sure there was something. As for it meaning something to the person uttering it, I wouldn’t be so sure about that. As I’ve said, I was _not_ in a ‘state of ecstasy’ when I first became capable of, uh, rattling off syllables that I still think sound like a Native American language, (but very probably are not). I could do it right now, sitting here. Same sounds. No emotion. No meaning to me. No idea what it’s supposed to accomplish. Even back when I called myself a believer, I simply “took it on faith” that it meant something to God because it sure as heck meant nothing to me then. Even less so today. I used to envy the people who had - I mean _felt_, or experienced - what I would now call ‘a religious experience’ (though then I would have called it ‘the presence of the Holy Spirit’ or something like that). The sorts of churches I went to were really big on the whole idea of _experiencing_ a relationship with God, the way one might _experience_ a relationship with someone you know and love. You had to feel it. I never could. I’m not utterly convinced that most of them did, either - I ran into a lot of people who confessed privately that they didn’t feel anything, and that prayer didn’t seem to work for them, who were publically much more fervent and self-sure. I’ll buy the ‘power of suggestion’ suggestion, but I still don’t know how to classify my ability to still make this…ah…speech, when I don’t even believe in it anymore. ---
**Author:** ![mrald](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3da27b/32.png) [@mrald](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mrald)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2006, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/speaking-in-tongues/354152/45 "2006-04-27T03:50:07Z")
[QUOTE=Beige Socks] . I did raise eyebrows when I wore a mini skirt, fishnets and knee boots once. But they still love me! [/QUOTE] Especially since youre a guy! 😉 [/QUOTE] 😕 no I’m not. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2006, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/speaking-in-tongues/354152/46 "2006-04-27T04:02:11Z")
[QUOTE=mrald] Especially since youre a guy! 😉 [/QUOTE] 😕 no I’m not. [/QUOTE] CITE? ---
**Author:** ![mrald](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3da27b/32.png) [@mrald](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mrald)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2006, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/speaking-in-tongues/354152/47 "2006-04-27T04:19:25Z")
[QUOTE=DocCathode] 😕 no I’m not. [/QUOTE] CITE? [/QUOTE] Well [here](http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/mrs_fought/detail?.dir=dec6&.dnm=5cf1re2.jpg&.src=ph) and ummm.. [here](file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/jennifer%20fought/My%20Documents/My%20Pictures/cokejen.jpe) ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2006, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/speaking-in-tongues/354152/48 "2006-04-27T06:57:29Z")
I will honestly speak to the power of tongues. Yes. I had a powerful experience. I was a child of 10 or 11 and the whole experience is quite indelible. I went to a church service with family and was totally agape and frightened during the proscribed ecstacy. I really sid feel a pwerful emotional connection and although they explained it as the spirit. I saw it as the ignorance and fear. Quite an exquisite bond although under all the princiupals that I have come to despise. It is dishonest. I was ignorant and afraid and they sucked me in. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/speaking-in-tongues/354152.md?page=2)