All I want is not to get tongue-tied on Tuesday...

[gregoria44]

I am entitled to an opinion (still) and I'm bloody well going to express it!

(The above sentence aimed squarely at my parents for the time being.)

Comments

[silvershe_wolf]

Forgive me I haven't read your letters at the bottom as brain is fuzzing. I get what you are saying though and agree. I remember thinking the same when I was a kid. I came from a basically agnostic family and went to the local comps (not religious schools). However I still had to pray, sing hymns and listen to Bible stories. I didn't see why. I had never said I was a Christian. I decided at a very young age I was not a Christian (I think I was at Infant School). I remember in Junior School I never said amen after prayers as my own personal protest! I always used to be afraid that the teachers would see that I hadn't said it and tell me off, lol. I thought it was all compulsory. I also remember criticised my parents for Christening me! I told them it was up to me to decide my religion. My mum agreed, and just said she Christened me just because 'that's what people did' (and probably because her family wouldn't have been impressed if she hadn't as they were all Methodists

[gregoria44]

Oh, my goodness! I used to do that not saying 'amen' thing as well! I'd completely forgotten that!

Clearly we didn't have the Boy Christened, though I was doused, and so was Bloke - as your mum quite rightly says, it's just what people did back then. We had a bit of a conundrum with the Boy, because we did want to mark his arrival in a family-style way, but certainly weren't going to get some bloke in a smock to scrawl on his forehead with Severn Trent's finest (as one vicar once said at a Christening we attended!) just to achieve such a thing.

In the end, we had a rousing 1st birthday party for him instead, and made it clear it was in lieu of a baptismal effort. Much fun was had by all (and so was an aeroplane-shaped cake!)

I respect all religions and think that with the exclusion of the mad ones (*cough* Scientology *cough*) they can be a force for good.See, to me, most traditional religions do have a lot of mad elements!! Catholicism, Judaism and Islam being prime candidates for sectioning (though I appreciate they are all

[silvershe_wolf]

See, to me, most traditional religions do have a lot of mad elements!! Ok, if I'm honest - I'll agree. I think every religion I have come across has it's mad elements, including my own! Some of the stuff some Buddhists believe I find rather baffling

[gregoria44]

Whilst 'religions' like Scientology start with a Science Fiction writer, and end with Tom Cruise acting incredibly strangely...

Ah, if only that were where it ended!!

Were that all religious folk like yourself and your mother, lovely Silver :)

religions of the world tend to originate from some remarkable prophet-figure, who truly impressed hundreds, thousands, or millions of people in his lifetime, often with miracles or teachings that changed people's lives upside-down.In his lifetime? Can't speak for all the main religions (and I do love the fact that there are WAY more Hindus than Christians) but certainly Christianity was more like an avalanche - and the facts of Jesus' life are decidedly shady and over-glossed. Interesting also that all of these prophet fellows are just that - men, not women. We actually have very little evidence of any prophet's real life - and yes, they all follow a similar vein, perhaps too similar

[silvershe_wolf]

But - religion does not survive in the same form. Social mores and morals change constantly, and religion adapts to those changes.

Totally agree. However I do believe there is an uncorrupted essence in all of the major religions, which is what some followers (the minority usually) manage to access and use for good.

I use the word 'believe' though, for this is obviously a personal belief of mine.

The important thing to remember is that we are capable of making a moral choice about these matters, which means in turn we are capable of deciding between right and wrong without the aid of (and despite the nature of) religion!

Yes. A person can def make moral choices without religion. I don't think that a religious person is any more likely to behave morally than a non-religious person (although obviously as a Buddhist I do think Buddhism has a lot to offer in this area to any person who makes their own personal choice to follow it).

To me, this business of collective worship is part of a general belief that without religion we are