14-year old Pakistani girl activist shot by Taliban

[garbon]

I want to cast fireball. Meri's hippie goddess sucks.

Well damn. If we're making up the religion, why can't we have fireballs??

I'd like to sign up for bringing back Isis in the version where she conveniently couldn't find Osiris's penis and fashioned her own implantation device.

[Malthus]

Replacing their current religions with women-friendly woo cannot solve the problem - or rather, if you could change their culture to be more modern in its attitude towards women, why not simply change it to one that lacks woo altogether?

Because people like woo.  And a certain percentage of them seem to need woo.

Fair enough. There is nothing stopping people from having the woo they want and need and being socially progressive.

Hell, look at the Jews. Ain't nobody more backwards when it comes to women than the ultra-Orthodox - but if you want that Orthodox religiousity but want to ditch the anti-women stuff, you can be Reconstructionist. Many of my relations are.

[Valmy]

I'm not sure on that. I'd think if we look over time that we have more people who don't belong to an organized religion than before.

Sure.  It helps when the social pressure to belong to one goes down.  But people are still nuts for woo and religion stuff.

Also on your religion bit, that's like saying NewYorkCares is my religion.

No it is saying I joined a religion that shares my beliefs and values Marty.

[merithyn]

No it is saying I joined a religion that shares my beliefs and values Marty.

My son - a devout atheist - joined the local Unitarian church for the youth group. I'm amazed at how important it's become in his life. He loves the "good works" aspect. I've never gone, but I think this Sunday I'm going to go to their service to see what it's all about. Their pamphlet was interesting, anyway.

I'm more of a ceremonialist (having been raised Catholic and all) so I need a bit more ritual in my services than I suspect the UUs have, but I'm trying to be open-minded. It would be nice to belong to a congregation again.

[garbon]

No it is saying I joined a religion that shares my beliefs and values Marty.

Volunteers at New York Cares have shared beliefs and values.

Hell my company talks about shared beliefs and values.

[Valmy]

Volunteers at New York Cares have shared beliefs and values.

Hell my company talks about shared beliefs and values.

It warms my heart to hear that garbon.  Many things can share my beliefs and values but many are not religions.

[Count]

No it is saying I joined a religion that shares my beliefs and values Marty.

My son - a devout atheist - joined the local Unitarian church for the youth group. I'm amazed at how important it's become in his life. He loves the "good works" aspect. I've never gone, but I think this Sunday I'm going to go to their service to see what it's all about. Their pamphlet was interesting, anyway.

I'm more of a ceremonialist (having been raised Catholic and all) so I need a bit more ritual in my services than I suspect the UUs have, but I'm trying to be open-minded. It would be nice to belong to a congregation again.

I have a lot of friends who are Unitarians (and similarly were in the youth group in High School). None are religious. When I went to a service, there were no bibles in the church, and the pastor invoked basically every major religious figure outside of Christianity. I think it was the Easter service. 

[katmai]

God dammit! Who gave count directions to the site?

[Valmy]

I have a lot of friends who are Unitarians (and similarly were in the youth group in High School). None are religious. When I went to a service, there were no bibles in the church, and the pastor invoked basically every major religious figure outside of Christianity. I think it was the Easter service. 

Well if it is UU one of their big things is showing the common spiritual lessons of every religion. 

[Barrister]

No it is saying I joined a religion that shares my beliefs and values Marty.

My son - a devout atheist - joined the local Unitarian church for the youth group. I'm amazed at how important it's become in his life. He loves the "good works" aspect. I've never gone, but I think this Sunday I'm going to go to their service to see what it's all about. Their pamphlet was interesting, anyway.

I'm more of a ceremonialist (having been raised Catholic and all) so I need a bit more ritual in my services than I suspect the UUs have, but I'm trying to be open-minded. It would be nice to belong to a congregation again.

I have a lot of friends who are Unitarians (and similarly were in the youth group in High School). None are religious. When I went to a service, there were no bibles in the church, and the pastor invoked basically every major religious figure outside of Christianity. I think it was the Easter service. 

WTF?  Count?  How's it going man?

[Count]

Also yeah we shouldn't (further) commit tons and tons of troops to Afghanistan (or god forbid Pakistan). We've managed to kill a hell of a lot of 14 year olds ourselves with our video game like drone strikes. It's not the same thing, of course, but this isn't the sort of thing we can solve with the military.

[merithyn]

My son's church (which still feels weird to say  ) includes Xianity along with all of the others, I think. I was invited for a parents' night with the Youth Group, and there was a pretty good mix of symbolism etc.

[Valmy]

WTF?  Count?  How's it going man?

He said in the other thread he did not want any greetings SO STOP IT

[Count]

I have a lot of friends who are Unitarians (and similarly were in the youth group in High School). None are religious. When I went to a service, there were no bibles in the church, and the pastor invoked basically every major religious figure outside of Christianity. I think it was the Easter service. 

Well if it is UU one of their big things is showing the common spiritual lessons of every religion.

Yeah, I really like the UU but I was still surprised at how starkly non-Christian it appeared. I think if I ever became religious I'd just go to a Reform temple, which has similar values but maintains some of the traditional stuff I like.

[merithyn]

Yeah, I really like the UU but I was still surprised at how starkly non-Christian it appeared. I think if I ever became religious I'd just go to a Reform temple, which has similar values but maintains some of the traditional stuff I like.

I wish there was a Reform Catholic Church. I suppose Episcapalian is close enough.