I’ve actually had a lot of salient points on religion to add at many points of the discussion, but I realised early on the futility of discussion.
For the record, I admire your tenacity.
I am possibly an atheist in the dictionary meaning of belief in God with a big G, but I definitely believe in something, probably most similar to @Hope.in.your.heart, although it is possible that ‘thing’ that I believe in is God.
I do believe that Jesus existed though if that’s any help!
I think Klopp being a Christian is relevant to this discussion, not least as it seems to promote understanding and support of those from other faiths in the squad. I remember in the documentary Klopp talking about how they changed pre-match routines to accommodate Mo and Mane’s Islamic rituals/washing (sorry can’t remember details).
Maybe it’s just because he’s a nice guy, but nice atheist guys might be more skeptical/less understanding
Don’t you think that’s quite a flippant response to such a serious issue?
not at all. To be honest, I’d rather the church be held accountable for the actions of it’s clergy. But we both know, that will never happen.
they’ve recently started discovering thousands of bodies of dead children on residential school properties all over Canada in the past 12 months, a deep dark dirty secret of a collaboration of the Catholic church and the Government of Canada dating back over 100 years. Children physically removed from their homes and sent to boarding schools run by clergy where the children were physically and sexually abused and the bodies of those who didn’t survive were buried on the grounds.
The church’s response? An apology and a meeting with the Pope.
it makes me want to puke.
here’s the best part of the whole thing. Sept 30, Canada declares it a federal holiday for “National Day for Truth and Reconciliation”. part of mending the damage done with the aboriginal communities who have born the brunt of European expansion into Canada for 250 years. and our illustrious Prime Minister Justin “Fidel Jr” Trudeau is on holidays with his family, surfing. fucking joke.
Interesting one for those who take Christianity seriously. I was in a Catholic primary school last week that was having Hinduism day. The kids coming out of one of the sessions in the hall were wearing traditional Indian dress but also sporting bindis (red dots between the eyes). Now on a religious note, the colour red symbolises ‘shakti’, the goddess of strength to which the dot refers amongst other things. Is this not directly against the commandment of not worshipping false idols? I asked the head and his stance was that they were just dressing up. That could be considered as even more offensive by those of the Hindu faith. Either you take this stuff seriously or you don’t IMHO.
It is the difference between Christendom and Christianity. Christianity is the faith. Christendom is the collective culture and institutions of the faith, and may touch on things like hospitals, schools, colleges, universities, government, and so on.
England still has vestiges of Christendom throughout its culture, even if most people aren’t especially religious.
To give two football examples, they sing God save the Queen before England play. It is the national anthem of course, but most people who sing it probably don’t believe in God. Another example would be the singing of the Christian hymn Abide with me, before the FA Cup final. For devout believers it might be sung in a worship service and the words are meaningful and so on, but for the average FA Cup fan, it’s just part of the pomp and ceremony of a big day.
Having a Hinduism day at the school sounds like a positive thing. Kids should learn about different cultures and religions, not least in the hope that they will turn out as educated, tolerant and respectful adults.
There is a difference between worshipping a God and having superstitions and myths about what pleases God. When I was still a young Christian believer, my father passed away and he was of course a different faith being a very traditional Chinese. So the usual Chinese funeral in Singapore involves a lot of traditional rites like chantings and burning of joss sticks and incense over a number of days etc. And as the only son, I am expected to head all these rites in the funeral. And I was confused, as a Christian, wouldn’t I be doing something against God if I am getting involved in all these? So I asked my Pastor, and my Pastor’s answer to this has shaped a good part of how I view God and understand His love for us. He said “in our cultural context, doing these acts in a funeral demonstrate respect and filial piety to the parents. Do you think its more important to God that you honour your surviving Mum by showing that just because you are a Christian, you are not deserting them and what is important to them or to hold on to beliefs that just because you hold some joss sticks, God is going to so offended and punish you? God is a compassionate and loving God, He is not there just always waiting to punish us. You can never go wrong by honouring your parents.” And I know there will still be Christians out there who do not believe what I did or what my pastor said was right but to me, I felt at peace to know that the God I believe in is not a God who desires to punish us for legalistic reasons but instead guide us to honour the people who are important to us in this earthly life.
Totally agree. It’s a much better alternative than a hegemonic attitude towards other religions and cultures and looking down on them as if they’re uncivilised and need to be upgraded by spreading the Good News by force if needed.
I’m not sure that any hindu (except the hardline bhakts) would mind if there was a school which was having a dressup day. If anything it teaches the kids that there are other cultures and religions around and teaches them tolerance.
I do agree that cultural appropriation exists. But it’s not as if Yoga being used extensively in US , or Starbucks calling Tea as Chai etc etc really matters.
Do find the names chai-tea and naan-bread sorta reduandant though
And yes religious harmony is especially important in Singapore, we don’t get offended by things like this, although I must say nowadays for some reason with the younger generation, we get people who are more offended by things we thought are common in the past.
Off-topic, but List of tautological place names - Wikipedia
Highlights include Loch Loch, and Pendle Hill.
A part of it also has to do with ignorance of the usage of the words. Younger generation nowadays tend to be more culturally aware of what is acceptable and what isnt.
I agree and disagree in certain ways. I must say in current context, certain words and phrases would definitely be offensive and not be used. But like 3-4 decades ago, its not to say that those words were not offensive in our times, its just that probably we were more ‘chilled’ or were more accepting of the context of how it was used between friends etc? Just for example, I had Indian, Malay and Peranakan neighbours living on the same floor, and we used certain words on each other that we knew were stereotypes of their religion or race and usually it ends up with us saying ‘fuck man, you racist ah!’ in a mock anger kind of manner. Of course nowadays these terms would never be accepted and I can understand why and believe that times do need to move on to show sensitivity to people but I think the difference to me was never the words or terms because we all knew it was offensive even then but somehow we just did not take offence…
I agree mostly again.
Just that it takes time for certain words used to describe a stereotype to become a racial abuse. The more people perpetuate the stereotype , the closer it gets from being banter to being offensive.
yeah i get what you are saying, somehow that line of being just a banter was crossed and it became a weapon to abuse and attack people with vicious intent. Sad, but this is what it is nowadays.
There is a group recently started in Ireland, called " Irish Mens Rosary"
They meet and pray on Saturdays to seek reparation and to protect “their” women from the evils of abortion and contraception.
They recently disrupted a vigil to commemorate Aisling Murphy who died in a horrific assault.
They are littered with right wing party members. The movement grew from Poland.
They hide behind prayer to spout their bile.