Made the thread that came up in Political. Mods, just remove this if you think it’ll be a trash fire but I am curious to see what people learned from their various Christian, Jewish, Islamic, etc. religions, especially as children.
Please keep this civil and only related to things that you were told or see related to religion without aggression. I think we can all agree that reasonable people can have beliefs against yours that you can personally laugh about without hate. But some things go beyond even a suspension of disbelief.
Here is my example from the other thread, taught in my high school classes:
(Christianity, Lutheran, Missouri Synod)
The reason that dinosaur bones appear old is because Satan placed them there and artificially made them appear old to make the Earth appear older than 6,000 years. They actually co-existed with humans within the last 6,000 years, but the Flood wiped them out. (Which doesn’t jive with Noah now that I’m older and think about it.)
The reason that Moses and Methuselah and those people lived for hundreds of years was because the Earth was surrounded in a large bubble of water vapor which prevented UV rays from damaging their bodies. The reason people don’t live that long anymore is because the Flood was caused by this bubble collapsing, explaining how so much water covered the entire globe at one time.
I never really got how you could even have a Satan when God is all powerful / all knowing / etc. Couldn’t god just go “poof” and Satan is no more? Or is god just not that powerful??
This is a good question and I would like to say my church would say that violates Satan’s/Lucifer’s free will, which all of God’s creations are given.
Note, I see a lot of flaws in this immediately, but I am simply stating things the way I remember or intuit they would have been explained to me. I am neither arguing for that nor shitting on the religion.
I suppose, that’s a bit like my 3 year old running around the house like a maniac and no one stopping him and “well it’s his free will”. Or in practice he gets picked up by someone who weights 5x him and put in his room.
I only intend here to share things that I find silly using the best words I was given. I wish I could better remember why gay people are supposed to exist. I know it was something about them being confused but I’m blanking on the best actual explanation so I will refrain.
I mean, I figure give the fairest shake I can to these things. I’m not here to say anything I wasn’t actually taught/preached to about.
I remember a new one now that I’m thinking about it.
(Christian, Lutheran)
The only way to heaven is through belief in Jesus Christ. For those few people who have never heard of Christ, the Word of God is written on man’s heart and a good person who would never know of Christ can still go to Heaven by naturally following his teachings despite not knowing who he specifically is.
Which led me to question why missionaries tell people about Jesus, because the moment they do, those people must choose whether Jesus Christ is their god or if they want to be a good person outside of Jesus Christ.
My pastor didn’t like that. It was another tipping point.
I believe they’ve changed this since because it’s terrible marketing, but the Catholic church used to say that babies who died before being baptized didn’t go to Heaven because they weren’t cleansed of original sin (I guess it’s sinful to be born?)
They didn’t exactly change it all the way.
They now say they “hope” the baby’s go to heaven.
But nothing is certain. Depends which version of god is making decisions that day.
… is it moral for you yourself to go to heaven when an innocent infant is condemned to limbo?