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What are your religious beliefs?


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epicurus never said that, lactantius did, and then hume extracted that quote from lactantius' works

get yr facts right fool

But I believe in the quote, Lactantius is attributing those words to Epicurus.

Lactantius, Teleology, and American Literature

Eric Carl | The Midwest Quarterly | January 01, 2005

It doesn't really matter who said it, since the words themselves are the power.

this could very well be true. most of epicurus's works have been lost in our modern time, but they would have still been extant in 300 AD or whatever. it just bugged me because epicurus is a greek, and a greeks' understanding of monotheism would have been very limited.

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But I believe in the quote, Lactantius is attributing those words to Epicurus.

Lactantius, Teleology, and American Literature

Eric Carl | The Midwest Quarterly | January 01, 2005

It doesn't really matter who said it, since the words themselves are the power.

this could very well be true. most of epicurus's works have been lost in our modern time, but they would have still been extant in 300 AD or whatever. it just bugged me because epicurus is a greek, and a greeks' understanding of monotheism would have been very limited.

That is certainly true. Who the hell could really ever know with certainty who said what 2 millennia ago?

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A head's up: tomorrow's Fresh Air (NPR radio program w/ Terry Gross) will be discussing the identity of Jesus Christ.

The Gospels are at odds with each other on important points about the life and death of Jesus. We talk with Bible scholar Bart Ehrman about these contradictions and what they tell us about the historical Jesus and the authors of the Gospels. His book Jesus Interrupted which just came out in paperback.
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discuss...I think it's quite good, albeit incomplete, summary myself.

it's inconceivably more complicated than that. i should preface this by saying that in no way am i religious or spiritual. i am a bar mitzvah'd jew, but currently i don't practice anything and don't particularly know what, or even that i believe in anything (at this point in my life) either. however, i find this shit engrossing. it's a pretty lame hobby.

religion is so complex. it can't be reduced to a prayer, psalm, phrase, paragraph or even paper. it can't be completely explained in a book. it is organic and living. religion is malleable and workable. you should be able to decide what you believe without having to delineate it to anyone.

that fact is so overlooked these days, it's such a bummer. religion is personal. if it isn't personal you aren't doing it right.

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you should be able to decide what you believe without having to delineate it to anyone.

I am pretty sure every single person with religious beliefs does this.

A la carte religion is basically the only way anyone takes it. People just take a religion and mold it into their personal god one way or another but somehow manage to rationalize still being a part of a particular sect (for obviously social reasons - understandably so when your whole family or group of friends will ostracize you if you reject the religion but keep the faith: see that Scientology article I posted earlier).

But I agree, religion is more complex. Organized religion doesn't have that flexibility.

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