# Stupid religious idea of the day **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [January 15, 2015, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-religious-idea-of-the-day/709928 "2015-01-15T20:39:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![OldOlds](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a3d4f5/32.png) [@OldOlds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldOlds)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2015, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-religious-idea-of-the-day/709928/121 "2015-05-09T02:01:13Z")
> [@sinjin](#): > > Well I’m past that point, but will consider strapping on a holster for a tampon dunked in ketchup and whipping it out should needs be. Bring a strapon. And when you “realize” they’re upset, stand up, put it on (outside your clothing, of course) and say “There. This should make you more comfortable.” ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2015, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-religious-idea-of-the-day/709928/122 "2015-05-09T05:16:22Z")
> [@OwnRules](#): > > If you got pissed-off I’d be great, for you’d realize what a crock of hideous shit you wrote above and think about not doing it again. I must’ve missed where he or she did it in the first place. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2015, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-religious-idea-of-the-day/709928/123 "2015-05-09T14:38:52Z")
> [@Saintly\_Loser](#): > > Oh, please. This isn’t true. > > I’m a Catholic. And I’m totally on board with criticism of the Catholic Church. Believe me (and I probably know better than you), it deserves it. > > But we’re not pantheists. To believe that angels (and Lucifer, the prince of darkness, is just another angel, along with his hordes) exist is \*not \*the same as worshipping them. Active worship is not necessary for a given theological conception of the world to be dubbed “pantheistic”. Up until the slight readjustment that was WW2, an overwhelming majority of Japanese people believed in the existence of millions upon millions of kami. They were, rightly, assessed as pantheistic. They didn’t each worship all of them, or even a majority of them - but they acknowledged that a) kami were a thing b) kami were supernatural beings generally superior to man and c) kami could fuck with people if it striked their fancy, and influence the material world. Their religious practice were more pantheistic than those of Christians, in that they had specific ceremonies for the big-big kamis (of which there was more than one), and local communities also had ceremonies for kamis who were [big in [del]Japan[/del]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9jJufz9RNE)that one specific region - but they still respected that there were plenty more kami out there, and that those kamis next door could mess with them. And that’s not much different from the concept of angels. I mean, Catholics do celebrate e.g. Saint Michel, don’t they ? September 29 is the Day of Archangels (he’s one). May 8th celebrates his purported apparition on Mount Gargan. And of course, the French people who live on [his own moutain wot used to be a monastery](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mont_Saint-Michel) have their feast day for him. What’s the difference ? ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2015, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-religious-idea-of-the-day/709928/124 "2015-05-09T15:59:30Z")
I guess I used the wrong word. I meant to say “polytheistic” rather than “pantheistic”. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2015, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-religious-idea-of-the-day/709928/125 "2015-05-09T19:33:19Z")
> [@Kobal2](#): > > . . . And that’s not much different from the concept of angels. . . . What’s the difference ? Angels aren’t independent entities, but only messengers. They don’t have volition in their actions, but can only do what God assigns them to do. (Well, and rebel once, but that didn’t work out well. And it was before Creation.) (But that was in another country and besides, the wench is dead.") Saints, too, don’t act; prayers are only to Saints to intercede with God. Yes, people get this wrong a lot, but, properly, you don’t pray to St. Stephen to save you from quicksand, but only to nudge God, just a little, to save you from quicksand, if that be his divine will. Under Pantheism, the spiritual entities are free to act, and, in fact, spend a lot of time (typically) contending with each other. Pantheism is an attempt to explain the disorder in nature. Why did lightning kill the tree? The sky spirit was mad at the tree spirit. It isn’t a great explanation, but it’s an explanation. Under Monotheism (the Trinity notwithstanding) everything is controlled by only one will. There is only one creator. No one was able to intervene and save anyone beside Noah from the flood. There aren’t any other paths to salvation. ---
**Author:** ![Locrian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/locrian/32/14146_2.png) [@Locrian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Locrian)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2015, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-religious-idea-of-the-day/709928/126 "2015-05-09T20:07:46Z")
Let’s drop the education and get to the dirt: What does encouraging people to believe in supernatural entities as being a real thing lead to? [Well, it leads to this:](http://www.rawstory.com/2015/04/texas-church-members-accused-of-starving-demon-possessed-toddler-and-then-trying-resurrect-him/) Never thought there’d be a dumber family or church than he ones the Schiable family from Pennsylvania went to, did you? Ahh, but faith healing can only lead to faith resurrection. > [@](#): > > "Police went to a Balch Springs home, which also operated as a church, where they were told a “rising ceremony” had been performed four days earlier in an attempt to resurrect him, the network reported. > > Investigators have not yet located the parents or church congregants. > > Video of the ceremony appears to show Aracely Meza, the church’s secretary, praying and speaking in tongues over the toddler’s body, which she anoints with oils, as other congregants gather around. > > Meza, who is not the child’s mother, was charged with injury to a child by omission. > > A woman who knew the boy’s mother said pastors believed the child was possessed by demons, and she said the boy went 25 days without food before he died. > > The video shows Meza asking Jesus to give breath to the boy, identified as Benjamin, during the hours-long ceremony. Since the human imagination lets us create supernatural gods, rules, and regulations fit to a community to restore and keep order, the human imagination will eventually lead us to create sects & congregations of people who declare themselves fit for diagnosing a kid with a demon. The demon came from the imagination in the first place! Trick for humanity is trying to keep the “original demon” (in the kid’s body:rolleyes:) where it belongs, in the imagination. ---
**Author:** ![Locrian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/locrian/32/14146_2.png) [@Locrian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Locrian)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2015, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-religious-idea-of-the-day/709928/127 "2015-05-09T20:26:09Z")
[Here’s a more recent one.](http://www.rawstory.com/2015/05/atheist-mom-gets-death-threats-over-school-bible-complaints-but-christians-claim-theyre-the-victims/) > [@](#): > > "An Oklahoma woman said she plans to move after receiving threats from other parents because her complaints ended a public school Bible giveaway. > > The woman contacted the American Humanist Association last month after her son told her his third-grade teacher surprised students at Woodrow Wilson Elementary School by handing out the Bible in class, reported the Friendly Atheist blog. > > … > > Lea told the Atheist Analysis blog that her children had faced bullying over their agnostic views since moving to Duncan six years ago. > > Her eldest daughter, who was a high school junior when she started school there, was called “ **a devil worshipping lesbian transvestite whore”** because she did not believe in God, Lea said." Yeah, bolding mine. I’m curious to know what a “devil worshipping transvestite” wears to indicate this. If you don’t worship their god then you must worship Satan, because he’s the only other choice right? Let’s not forget this god created these archangels as he created “all things good and evil.” ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2016, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-religious-idea-of-the-day/709928/128 "2016-01-25T07:31:19Z")
Ah, here is where I can put this: Refugee thingy. A Germany-based organization called [Muslimstern warned the German government that they must ban alcohol because women are dressing too provocatively, which is getting them raped](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3411641/Germans-ban-ALCOHOL-want-prevent-sex-attacks-help-North-Africans-integrate-says-Muslim-group.html). So, I guess if alcohol is banned, women will dress modestly? I mean, there are just so many things wrong with this. Like, they should not wear perfume – yet, the most notable assaults took place in the town of Cologne. That is just so wrong. ---
**Author:** ![OffByOne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/45deac/32.png) [@OffByOne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OffByOne)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2016, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-religious-idea-of-the-day/709928/129 "2016-01-26T17:03:15Z")
> [@Canadjun](#): > > Because what you consider mocking other people consider insulting, and insulting people isn’t a particularly good way to bring about peace and harmony in the world. Do you really want the hatred between certain sects of Islam and the “Western World” to continue indefinitely? All of those drones, stealth aircraft, and high-tech weapons cost A LOT of money. Sticks and stones… ---
**Author:** ![OffByOne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/45deac/32.png) [@OffByOne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OffByOne)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2016, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-religious-idea-of-the-day/709928/130 "2016-01-26T18:21:50Z")
> [@Saintly\_Loser](#): > > Oh, please. This isn’t true. > > I’m a Catholic. And I’m totally on board with criticism of the Catholic Church. Believe me (and I probably know better than you), it deserves it. > > But we’re not pantheists. To believe that angels (and Lucifer, the prince of darkness, is just another angel, along with his hordes) exist is \*not \*the same as worshipping them. Perhaps, not. What, then, of Catholics praying to Mary and the Saints? ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2016, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-religious-idea-of-the-day/709928/131 "2016-01-26T18:40:52Z")
> [@OffByOne](#): > > Perhaps, not. > > What, then, of Catholics praying to Mary and the Saints? The idea is you pray for their intercession. In other words, they pass the message to God. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2016, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-religious-idea-of-the-day/709928/132 "2016-03-10T23:14:09Z")
In Soviet Russia, church preys to you. [Victor Krasno faces a year in the slammer for insulting the faithful](http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/mar/03/russian-atheist-faces-year-in-jail-for-denying-existence-of-god-during-webchat?CMP=oth_b-aplnews_d-1). > [@](#): > > "If I say that the collection of Jewish fairytales entitled the Bible is complete bullshit, that is that. At least for me,” Krasnov wrote, adding later “there is no God!” So, in a country where the state religion used to be atheism and believers were “persecuted”, now the culture has done a one-eighty. ---
**Author:** ![OffByOne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/45deac/32.png) [@OffByOne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OffByOne)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2016, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-religious-idea-of-the-day/709928/133 "2016-03-11T20:51:40Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > The same Adam, who remarried after his first wife dumped him for an archangel? Book, chapter, and verse, please. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2016, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-religious-idea-of-the-day/709928/134 "2016-03-11T21:01:36Z")
> [@OffByOne](#): > > Sticks and stones… Hacks and Drones. Get with the times. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2016, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-religious-idea-of-the-day/709928/135 "2016-03-11T21:04:35Z")
> [@Anaamika](#): > > It reminds me of The Color Purple - "I believe that if you pass the color purple in a field and turn to admire it God gets mad. Thanks for bumping this thread, because I found this mistake! It should be “DON’T turn to admire it” ---
**Author:** ![OffByOne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/45deac/32.png) [@OffByOne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OffByOne)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2016, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-religious-idea-of-the-day/709928/136 "2016-03-11T21:10:51Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > Kinda simple. Neither group believes there is more than one God. The argument is only over the message that God has given to his people. And they agree much more than they disagree, to the point that all Catholics and most Protestants believe that both are Christians. > > You can’t just go making up beliefs that neither group has to try and repudiate their beliefs. You can’t argue form a position of ignorance. I call BS. Try asking a Jew if hse thinks Muslims worship the same G-d that they do. After you get dealt a “new one,” then turn around and ask a Muslim the same question. ---
**Author:** ![OffByOne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/45deac/32.png) [@OffByOne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OffByOne)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2016, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-religious-idea-of-the-day/709928/137 "2016-03-11T21:14:11Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > The idea is you pray for their intercession. In other words, they pass the message to God. Whatever happened to “No one comes to the Father, except through Me.”? ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2016, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-religious-idea-of-the-day/709928/138 "2016-03-11T23:40:58Z")
> [@OffByOne](#): > > Perhaps, not. > > What, then, of Catholics praying to Mary and the Saints? Post #125. > [@OffByOne](#): > > Book, chapter, and verse, please. Post #92. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2016, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-religious-idea-of-the-day/709928/139 "2016-03-11T23:46:40Z")
[“Prophet” bitten by a lion when God neglected to protect him.](https://www.informationng.com/2016/03/prophet-loses-his-buttocks-to-hungry-lion-while-trying-to-play-daniel-in-lions-den.html) ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2016, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-religious-idea-of-the-day/709928/140 "2016-03-12T00:12:38Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > [“Prophet” bitten by a lion when God neglected to protect him.](https://www.informationng.com/2016/03/prophet-loses-his-buttocks-to-hungry-lion-while-trying-to-play-daniel-in-lions-den.html) There’s something inherently irresistible about a news story that contains the phrase “Unfortunately, lions are fast…” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-religious-idea-of-the-day/709928.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-religious-idea-of-the-day/709928.md?page=8)