Website

[Anonymous]

Having finally decided to get off my ass and start "learning" again (plus, new job = easier to use the internet more, hurrah!), I decided to research 'The Bible' a bit - what I know about Jesus, Noahs Ark, & several other biblical stories mainly comes from Andrew lloyd Webber musicals (JCS rules!), telly, & what I vaguely remember from assemblys at Primary School...

Have only read a little so far, but this website seems to be pretty good - please don't prosecute me if it's crap!  :wink:
for finding out things - the section I read on The Bible & homosexuality was really informative, I always seem to end up in "debates" in the pub about religion (and vegetarianism, and, when I've been in said pub a few hours, the merits of Britney with black hair...) & now can actually know what I'm talking about! Just singing at people doesn't always work....

Hope it comes in useful for at least one someone  

~Rowena

[Fillionous]

Er... I think you are actually missing the link in your post.

Or at least I cannot see/find one

I would be quite interested in this site, to see how it compares with my own studies. I have at times looked at a number of religions and thier texts, in part so that I can better understand my own Pagan ways and how they fit togeather with the world and it's beliefs.


Be bright, be bold
Fillionous

[Anonymous]

(posts link, backs away in embarrassment....)

http://www.religioustolerance.org/aboutus.htm

 

[Fillionous]

Thanks...

Met a similar site based in the UK, but I think this one is better... definitly one for the bookmark... not only Christian and Bible viewpoints but all sorts of religious views/ideas/documents.

Exellent site.

Be bright, be bold
Fillionous

[Lark]

That's a really, really good site.  It's one that I've used for years.  Great place to get some basic information about other religions that tends to be unbiased.

-Lark-

[mermdotcom]

Religioustolerance.org was actually the first resource that I found while looking into Wicca/Paganism.  It's a great site.

I've been doing a little Bible reading myself in the past several months.  My old church (where we were borrowing the minister from) threw me a bridal shower, and my aunt's Bible study group gave us a Bible.  (My family doesn't know that I'm no longer a Christian as of yet)  I was glad to receive it - despite how uncomfortable Dan was with it - because I think the stories in the Bible are fascinating, and in many ways, educational.  And like you said, it helps to know what the heck you're talking about during a debate!

Just out of curiosity - and you don't have to answer if you wish - but what faith were you raised, Rowena?

[Anonymous]

I don't know if I can claim to have been "raised" in a faith, as my parents aren't very religious. They're Church Of England (which is Christian? Gee, I should really know that!),
though the only-go-to-church-for-weddings-&-funerals type of Christians! with a flimsy but definite belief in God.

I was Christened as a baby, mostly I believe because it was "traditional" and to please the grandparents! Same with my younger brother.

Because of where I grew up - I'm English btw - & the community as it was, I had a mostly Christian influenced upbringing, I suppose - prayers & songs about Jesus at Primary School, nativity plays (I was the Angel Gabriel, oh yes), family friends children being Christened, etc...

Like most of my peers back home, apart from a few Irish familes I knew (Catholics), I was Christian raised I suppose, but only because that's the way it was in the 80's!

However, I never felt a great love for God, or a pure belief in Jesus Christ, etc, things I have felt since about other things. God was just this hairy dude who lived on a cloud...
This is probably why I never really absorbed much to do with the Bible, other than the obvious Eden, Noah...& it's only now, with a lot more perspective & some years tucked under my belt, that I can actually learn & understand in my own way, not the way my teacher tells me to.

I rememeber when I was 16 at school, we all had to check a form with name, birthdate, allergies, etc for school records - one thing was 'religion', & my previous one, I assume done for me by parents when I joined the school at 11, was 'Church of England'. By this point I was very NOT CofE! & I wanted to change it to Pagan, but my teacher told me "it wasn't a real religion" and I couldn't put it down - neither was I allowed to put atheist, which I would have rather had than Cof E. That was really strange - especially as some kid claimed to have put bloody 'Jedi'.  

~Rowena

[TheBriarRose]

CoE is Anglican...An Englishization type branch of Catholocism.  I'm an Episcopalian, an Americanized type of Anglicanism.

Agnostic is usually better recieved than Athiest.  It means you just don't know for sure.

I've looked around the Religious Tolerance.org site, and I'm quite happy with it.  It does seem to be purely objective, and as a Christian, that's the kind of point of view I'd like to present of my religion...not the dark side of it that is actually politicians masquerading as Relgious leaders, but that's a different rant!

(no, I'm not trying to convert you by any stretch) I just wanted to say thank you for bringing that link, I will be spending some time there reading what it has to say

[TheBriarRose]

and not branch, but offshoot....

[Anonymous]

CoE is Anglican...An Englishization type branch of Catholocism.

I never knew that!! Thank you  

My job being as boring as it is (I'm one of those people everyone loves to hate, cold calling people all day, "can you spare a minute to answer some questions?") I've been  reading ALOT of stuff on that website to pass the time!
the Christianity section comprising about a zillion essays or something, I haven't made much headway there! but plan on finally working out what protestant, anglican, etc, means....

It says something for the English school system that I got an A* in my GCSE religious education, but still don't know this!!

Agnostic is usually better recieved than Athiest. It means you just don't know for sure.

yeah, I knew that then, I think it was the teenage part of me saying, "Well, if you won't accept what I believe, then screw you - I won't believe anything & on your head be it!" etc, etc, angst, etc...  :wink:

~Rowena

[Fillionous]

Interestingly (and as a bit of an aside) the whole Catholic / CofE thing dates back to Henry the 8th (of all those wives) a English Tudor king who started off Catholic, but due to wanting to divorce his barren first wife and being heavily in debt saw an opotunity to kill two birds with one stone when the Pope refused his maraige anulment... Seporate himself from Rome, present himself as the head of the English Church, get his divorce and break up the very rich monisteries to pay off his debts.
The result was the loss of many historic documents (both religious and secular) kept by the monks, the breakdown of the only institute (of the time) providign any kind of hospital care and poor relief, the birth of the CofE Church (regarded as Protistant by Rome) and a few hundred years of Catholic/Protestent killings/wars/attrocities...

Quite an interesting period of history for the development of both the UK and the Christian Church and by extention it (and all its benifits and problems) were exported to the British empire (which was in part initially funded by the breakup of the monesteries)...

Be bright, be bold
Fillionous

[TheBriarRose]

Yeppers, Filionius (forgive my spelling) you know your history!  What's really funny is now-days, Anglicans and Episcopals consider themselves "Half Catholic" where as the Catholic church considers them fully protestant.  It's like the illigitamate child with the servant girl or something *tee hee*...

And most if not all Christian denominations are like the "union of Marriage"...more for political reasons than religious ones.



Not bashing christians...I am one

[Lark]

Brock was raised in the Episcopal Church.

He refers to them as Catholic Light...all the ritual and only 1/2 the guilt.

-Lark-

[TheBriarRose]

Yep, that's it, Lark...perzactialllly

[mermdotcom]

It says something for the English school system that I got an A* in my GCSE religious education, but still don't know this!!

I think that's how it goes in most American school systems, nowadays.  Everyone's so afraid of not being "politically correct" that they try to cram information into classrooms religions other than Christianity, but the students don't learn anything really relevant on the subject because they're only touching the surface.  Meanwhile, no one learns a thing about geography, history, math, literature, etc., and the kids who aren't brought up Christian, or whose parents are the wedding-funeral-Christmas type of church-goers are left, like you, not knowing anything about it.

I could write a frickin' novel on my beef with the public schools in this country.  I thank Athena everyday that my brother is being homeschooled and already, at 10, has a passion for history and culture!