religion - your thoughts

[katmeow]

Just a post from my livejournal about my venture to Hillsong church:

A few people were interested in my adventures at church, so I thought I'd write about them here. The last two Sundays I've been out to Hillsong church for my sociology of religion assignment. Bizarre experience I tell you. For those who haven't heard of them, I direct you to www.hillsong.com

They have released a CD which went to number one on the ARIAs, one of their board members chairs Gloria Jeans in Australia (and many of the franchises are owned by Hillsong members), they've been mentioned in relation to the Family First political party, they have a congregation of about 17000 and growing and they are a fine example of the ultra-conservative religious right in Australia.

That is the church conference center, where most services are held. It reminded me of the superdome. Once you get inside, first thing you see if what they call the resource centre, but it's just a merchandise store... filled with items which create a Christian pop culture. I swear, I had no idea there were so many Christian rock/pop singers and groups. They even had a Hillsong dance music compilation. I'd have to say my fave item from the shop would be the Bibleman DVD series. It's a kids adventure series, with titles like Bibleman: Breaking the bonds of disobedience.

Anyway, I went with a friend from uni, and we just sat in the service gobsmacked. My childhood was completely devoid of religion and the few occasions I'd been to church, it was sitting in some stuffy room on wooden pews while an old guy blabbed on from the bible. This place is insane. Massive arena, stage with full band + singers, 3 large video screens behind the stage, professional sound and lighting. Such a slick production. The service started with half an hour of singing and it was like a concert... people were seriously bordering on moshing in there. There wasn't that much actual preaching in the service.

To me, the whole service really seemed geared toward getting people to donate to the church - which you can do by credit card in the envelopes behind each chair From talking about upcoming church events, what the church is doing in the local community, donations to build a Christian church in Iraq to giving away Hillsong CDs and books, it was like one long advertisement for the Church, interwoven with emotive music. I'll give it to them, they certainly know how to put together a completely professional presentation.

Anyway, don't worry, I'm not converted. If anything, it's made me even more cynical about organised religion!

Quite an interesting experience.

 

[caleb hunter]

Just another division...

 

[lostpunk5545]

I bought a cd player from a mate (well more mate than acquaintance but I don't see him often) which had a burnt cd left in it titled "hillsong". I tried listening to it and it was terrible

 

[strumpet]

**Disclaimer: "you" in my post is a generic 'you' - not intended to be anyone in particular

**Disclaimer Part 2: I really don't mean to offend anyone. What you believe is your business, but it will colour what I think of you based on my thoughts below.

I believe that religion is, indeed, the opiate of the masses.

I can't possibly believe in a benevolent God. Look at the state of the world. And if there is such a thing as God, who the Hell thinks that god has time to listen to everybody's prayers every night?

And God the Friend? Please. To me, that's a comfort crutch. It means you don't have enough confidence in yourself to believe you can get through life on your own. And you're probably too scared to admit that there are vicissitudes of life that are scary, and if you hope you can escape them by clinging to the belief that some part protects you, that's lovely. I prefer to hope my luck holds out.

The vengeful God? What the Hell would the point of that be? I made all you lot and now I'm going to make you PAY.

The God vs the Devil thing? Please. If God created everything, then how could there be such a thing as a fallen angel?

Original Sin? What a fucking ridiculous concept.

Islam and Christianity have the same God for crying out loud. The debate isn't even a religious one but a social mores one.

Jesus was probably a real guy. There's enough material written on him for me to think so. muhammad was probably a real guy too. Were they good guys? Well, according to the guys who wrote stories about them, they were pretty amazing goody-two-shoes, who had some neat things to say about how humans should treat each other.

Buddhism? Don't know enough about it.

As for people who believe in reincarnation? Yea, could be true, after all there are a finite number of atoms/amount of energy in the system, so could be true that we get recycled, I suppose. But what good does it do you if you don't remember?

I can't explain how our universe came to be. Perhaps something was created at some stage. But if it was a God, I think he/she/it either died or lost interest a long time ago.

To answer some of the other questions: My parents brought me up Norwegian lutherans. That meant prayer every night before bed (a rote one, not one that you made up each night), and church on Christmas Eve (sometimes, not every year), christenings, weddings in Church and confirmation. No other discussion about God ever.

and for a couple of years in my teens I was a fervent Baptist due to some cute, cute guys I knew whose parents went to the International Baptist Church in Aberdeen, scotland. Hormones do that shit to you.

Then, in uni, I was a fervent Wiccan for a while. After trying a few 'ceremonies' and not getting anything out of them without acid though, I gave up on that idea.

I am sending my boys to a Unitarian school. They have chapel every week. I think it's good for them. We tell them at home to question all the things they get told. If they want to believe, that's fine, but never believe blindly and without using your intellect. And I think it can't hurt them to know some Bible stories and get instilled with some nice morals either. If nothing else, the Bible stories will help them understand allusions to them in literature and other places as they continue to develop their intellect.

**Disclaimer number 3: I haven't read through this whole thread, only the initial post, so don't know if I am just repeating everyone else, but these are my points.

And shit! This must be the longest in-depth post I have written on bluelight in a long time.

 

[waspman⌐]

i was raised by athiests and their view was "if you like a religion you can do it" but after much research i decided that there couldnt be a god.
the whole thing stinks of hypocracy. every religion i've looked into is just so full of it.

i think the bible / koran whatever your book of choice is, is just meant to instill values, and not to be taken literally. a bit like aesop's fables.
How can creationists accept that this all mighty 'god' created them. it is just an easy answer, created when nobody actually knew the truth. similar to how humanity used to think that the world was flat, or that everything revolved around the earth.

www.atheist.org has so much good information on it