Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

http://www.thedailyshow.com/collection/421999/the-war-on-christmas/421734?xrs=synd_facebook


Well I guess that settles that folks! Christianity is not an organized religion. You saw it from the grand poobah of the Republican party himself!

Mother. Of. God.

If God is the supreme being, then surely His mother would be something special.

 MrDwhitey wrote:
If God is the supreme being, then surely His mother would be something special.

Two out of three Abrahamic religions agree that Mary was a catch.

When I first heard that, I thought the same as most people... But for some reason it just sorta stuck in my head.

I think that, in some small way, he is right. I mean, if we view Christianity in an overall manner, sure it's a religion. However, if you break it down some, you'll see that it's sort of a binding philosophical premise that many religions are based on. In this way, Catholicism and Baptists, Lutherans, Episcopalians (its Chuch of England, only in America) etc. are religions that follow the philosophy of Christianity.


In no way am I really trying to defend him, just sharing the thoughts that I had had after seeing that on TV.

Once again, another person who should have been aborted. But I'm sure he's philosophically against that.

For the Fox News Tea Partier crowd, Christianity in't a religion. It's an excuse to bully others. Got raped? Well, I'm a Christian, and I can't give you the morning after pill. It just keeps going on. They are a joke.

 timetowaste85 wrote:
Once again, another person who should have been aborted. But I'm sure he's philosophically against that.

That's quite a stand to take. What's your basis for it?

 SoloFalcon1138 wrote:
For the Fox News Tea Partier crowd, Christianity in't a religion. It's an excuse to bully others. Got raped? Well, I'm a Christian, and I can't give you the morning after pill. It just keeps going on. They are a joke.

Decent Christians don't believe that way of thinking: only the stupid ones do.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Seaward wrote:

 timetowaste85 wrote:
Once again, another person who should have been aborted. But I'm sure he's philosophically against that.

That's quite a stand to take. What's your basis for it?

Um...blatant stupidity that shouldn't be contaminating the gene pool? Pretty good basis, I'd say!

Exactly. However the decent Christians don't have the same sopaboxes and bullhorns as the crazy stupid ones.

 SoloFalcon1138 wrote:
Exactly. However the decent Christians don't have the same sopaboxes and bullhorns as the crazy stupid ones.

The decent ones don't bring in the ratings.

 KalashnikovMarine wrote:
http://www.thedailyshow.com/collection/421999/the-war-on-christmas/421734?xrs=synd_facebook


Well I guess that settles that folks! Christianity is not an organized religion. You saw it from the grand poobah of the Republican party himself!

Being on the vestry of a church, I can vouch for the lack of organization...

 Frazzled wrote:

Being on the vestry of a church, I can vouch for the lack of organization...

Sitting on the roof would make people uncomfortable....unless you had a fiddle.

 dogma wrote:

 Frazzled wrote:

Being on the vestry of a church, I can vouch for the lack of organization...

Sitting on the roof would make people uncomfortable....unless you had a fiddle.

Tevye wrote:
Traditions, traditions. Without our traditions, our lives would be as shaky as... as... as a fiddler on the roof!

Good news folks....O'Reilly has been a fiddler for years.

Sweet. Let's start taxing churches.

 dogma wrote:

 Frazzled wrote:

Being on the vestry of a church, I can vouch for the lack of organization...

Sitting on the roof would make people uncomfortable....unless you had a fiddle.

DANGER DANGER
Use of that phrase will start Mrs. Frazzled singing "matchmaker matchmaker make me a match" and other songs I always sleep through. Even worse she might slide into the theme song from Gilligan's Island, and then I'll have to rip my own face off.

He's basically correct, at this point. Americans wave their christianity in the face of the rest of the world, yet know almost nothing about it, nor do they practice it correctly, or fulfill religious obligations.

I'm not a fan of incredibly devout people, but at least they commit to something, and follow through with their oaths and all that.

 Captain Fantastic wrote:
He's basically correct, at this point. Americans wave their christianity in the face of the rest of the world, yet know almost nothing about it, nor do they practice it correctly, or fulfill religious obligations.

Liberalizing religion has created the effect such that requiring church services is not necessarily mandatory. Believing in Jesus as the Son of God and so forth basically makes you Christian. Following a particular set of beliefs around a Christian faith makes you a specific sort of Christian.

You practice the Christian religion so long as you believe the core tenants of the faith. I do have to disagree with Bill O'Reilly such that Christianity is not a religion and side with Jon Stewart that the religion Christianity has a philosophical aspect too. You can follow the philosophy (interpret as you will between many, many conflicting messages), but the belief in Jesus, God, The Trinity, ect. ect. is religion at its core.

Bill O'Reilly just giving the audience what it wants. A sensible and considered conversation about religion doesn't get ratings. An angry nutjob getting other people angry so everyone ends up shouting at everyone is ratings gold.

I mean, just watch O'Reilly when he goes on The Daily Show. While he still plays the arch-conservative role, he changes it just enough so that it produces good tv for the now liberal audience. He's totally self-aware - it's a complete act.



That said, I'm kind of interested in this idea that Christianity could be just a philosophy. I mean, obviously it isn't, it contains spiritual and meta-physical concepts, and it argues from authority, not from reason. But that last part really interests me - what if Christianity couldn't just say 'this is wrong because it says in our book that it's wrong', but actually had to substantiate why something was wrong. It wouldn't be enough to say 'you should heltp the poor' and 'homosexuality is a sin' - they'd have to explain why those things are true.

I suspect this would cause a rather nice change - all the good stuff that's self-evident, like the idea that we should help the poor, will be easily explained and justified. While the ideas about gay marriage will struggle quite badly to find their own reasonings.

Tide goes in, tide goes out.

You can't explain that.

 Piston Honda wrote:
Tide goes in, tide goes out.

You can't explain that.

I can... the MOON!

...actually, I think you'll find that it's my namesake:

Wait are you telling me I've been praying to Poisidon for a safe journey across the Mediterranean all these years for NOTHING?

If you're in the Med, Poseidon's a great choice. Don't let anyone tell you different.

 whembly wrote:
I can... the MOON!

Yeah, you can, I can, and so can everyone that completed primary school, except Bill O'Reilly. A while back O'Reilly was debating Silverman again (because shouty right wing people in shouting matches with smug atheists is ratings gold) and O'Reilly was asked for a proof of God, and he said the goes in, and the tide goes out, and you can't explain that without divine intervention.

It was a moment I kind of doubted my theory above, and thought maybe Bill O'Reilly isn't just putting on a show, and he is just a dumb gak.

Well I guess that settles that folks! Christianity is not an organized religion. You saw it from the grand poobah of the Republican party himself!

Christianity isn't really an organised religion. Christianity is an umbrella term for the catching of various organized religions of the Christian faith. But Christianity itself is not organized.

 Ratbarf wrote:

Well I guess that settles that folks! Christianity is not an organized religion. You saw it from the grand poobah of the Republican party himself!

Christianity isn't really an organised religion. Christianity is an umbrella term for the catching of various organized religions of the Christian faith. But Christianity itself is not organized.

By that definition there is no organized religion though.

 AlmightyWalrus wrote:

 Ratbarf wrote:

Well I guess that settles that folks! Christianity is not an organized religion. You saw it from the grand poobah of the Republican party himself!

Christianity isn't really an organised religion. Christianity is an umbrella term for the catching of various organized religions of the Christian faith. But Christianity itself is not organized.

By that definition there is no organized religion though.

There can be, as was in the post that you quoted, there are indeed organized religions of the Christian faith. Say Roman Catholics and Baptists. But they don't control all of the different branches of Christianity. So Christianity itself is unorganized. They aren't mutually exclusive.

Now while I agree that Bill O'Reilly is at best a shock jock and worst willfully ignorant that doesn't mean that everything he said is automatically false. And while at first glance this would seem to be, it actually isn't. Though I don't really know if he meant it that way or was just being dumb about it.

Christianity is as much an organized religion as Abrahamism or Peganism.

The Southern Baptist Convention is an organized religion, the World Assemblies of God Fellowship is an organized religion, the Roman Catholic Church is an organized religion, the Church of England is an organized religion, etc etc etc.

Now if he was trying to imply that all Christians are loosely organized with no organized framework whatsoverer, then he would be wrong. But there is no single "Christian Religion".

I cant view the link in the UK.

Can someone tell me what the this Bill O'Reilly is saying.

If its "Christianity is not a religion, it's a relationship with God" or something similar then he is correct, but such a comment is not for secular understanding, as the words 'religion' and 'religious' have different meanings dependent on context. In some circles it's an insult to call a Christian 'religious'.