How old do you have to be to have religion? [Title edited by GNHQ at OP's request]

There are a lot of people on GN who have a faith, they never speak about unbelievers being saved or people going to hell. I dont believe but I like listening to them talk about their faith.

Grammy Grammy you do know theres a school of thought that says the dying on the cross was just a trick.? Normally in crucifixions the people were left to hang all day and often overnight .Jesus was taken down quickly by his friends and spirited away to give him time to recover so he could make his"risen from the dead" appearance on the Sunday .

The bible was written by many people over many centuries who all put their own spin on christianity .In my opinion anyone who believes its all true needs to see a psychiatrist .Its a work of fiction in the main and one written to keep the people firmly in their place ...or they might be damned and go to "hell" .

Thats how religion works

Or, as Marx put it: "Religion is the opium of the masses".

paddyanne Thats how religion works No it isn't - and hasn't for a very long time. People have always argued and quibbled about what belief is, going back to all the heresies.

Not to mention Martin Luther an , thousands, no, millions since. I cannot think of a single religious accepter, including myself, who accepts religious precepts with out thought and who doesn;t differ profoundly with the church of their allegiance, on one if not many fronts.

Good for you Galaxy!

M0nica

paddyanne Thats how religion works No it isn't - and hasn't for a very long time. People have always argued and quibbled about what belief is, going back to all the heresies.

Not to mention Martin Luther an , thousands, no, millions since. I cannot think of a single religious accepter, including myself, who accepts religious precepts with out thought and who doesn;t differ profoundly with the church of their allegiance, on one if not many fronts.

Yes, Monica, and for me to be open to ideas from other faiths and non faiths.

The concept of trying to love other human beings with compassion demands, surely, that we are open, and listen.

Integrated education poll from 2021 found 71% of parents in Northern Ireland believe children should be taught together

www.belfastlive.co.uk/news/belfast-news/integrated-education-poll-finds-71-21207568

Support in Northern Ireland for integrated education – schools attended by both Protestant and Catholic children – is high. There are many factors behind this, including the view that separate schools perpetuate divisions and are an anachronism in an increasingly secularised society.

There also appears to be a political will to make integrated education a reality. In April 2022 the Northern Ireland Assembly passed the Integrated Education Act which placed a statutory duty on the Northern Ireland Department of Education to “encourage, facilitate and support” integrated education. In an unrelated announcement in July, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland announced additional funding of £1.9 million to support schools wishing to become integrated.

There are a number of factors holding back progress towards integrated education in Northern Ireland. Existing organisations involved in education, including the Protestant and Catholic churches, have been defensive about their own schools. In a divided society where political decisions depend on consensus, there is a level of political inertia to overcome.

Change driven by politicians has also been slow. The Good Friday Agreement of 1998 included a commitment to facilitate and encourage integrated education. By 2021-22 there were 67 integrated primary and secondary schools in Northern Ireland, out of a total of 976. They enrol under 8% of all pupils.

theconversation.com/integrated-education-in-northern-ireland-why-progress-is-slow-despite-support-187881

On the topic of integrated education here is a lyric from Iolanthe:

I often think it's comical – Fal, lal, la!
How Nature always does contrive – Fal, lal, la!
That every boy and every gal
That’s born into the world alive
Is either a little Liberal
Or else a little Conservative!
Fal, lal, la!

The segregation in Northern Ireland seems almost like a form of apartheid.
We teach children about the different beliefs and practices of religions -Buddhism, Islam, Sikhism as well as Christianity. We welcome children from different religions at our primary school and ask parents/grandparents and others to come into school and talk about aspects of their religion e.g. using prayer mats and answer children’s questions.
But how would you explain the violence?

You mean the violence in NI or that practiced by some claiming its in the name of their religion?

If the latter I'd say it was a very age appropriate issue. Unless a child asked at primary school level, try to answer, but not teacher-dressed. But at secondary level? Pertinent, alongside the issue of "how can a good god let suffering happen." (that is, if a speaker claims that a God actually has that power)

paddyann Yes, Monica, and for me to be open to ideas from other faiths and non faiths. But of course, professing any religion, must always include that. This is why so much so christianity works in an ecomenical way.

Every religion, no matter how long its tradition is a reflection of the age its living adherents live in and while its core beliefs are likely to remain unchanged in every other way interpretation and some change is always there.

The Good Friday Agreement of 1998 included a commitment to facilitate and encourage integrated education.

I wonder how different NI would be now if that good intention to give up religious apartheid in NI schools had been enacted at that time and all NI schools had been integrated for the last 25 years.

nanna8

In general things for Christians are getting worse, as is predicted in the Bible. There is a great deal of persecution throughout the world, including in so called ‘enlightened’ countries. We know and accept this, it was prophesied. GrammyGrammy speaks the truth, we are given a choice and if we choose not to accept God’s love for us we will not be saved . We are encouraged to keep our mouths shut by contemporary society, however and insults are flung at us.

Is it not so bizarre that there are so so so many ways of being a Christian, with so so so many Churches and denominations. Which is is the 'true' one. Christians seem so good at denigrating all other Christians from different groups, from Plymouth Brethrens, to JWs and strict Scottish Kirk and everything in between, with huge differences in beliefs and practise.

Quite good at flinging insults at each other- and even for 100s of years, killing each other in the most abominable and non Christian of ways.

Let alone the often open hatred they have of other faiths, like Islam. The Crusades and imperialism did not perscute Christians.

And as said above, very close to us, NI, Glasgow, still today.

My parents were very liberal-minded and rational, and didn’t thrust religion or atheism on us. At school there was a non-denominational Christian service every morning. I loved the service because I liked the words and enjoyed singing hymns and psalms, but at no stage did I believe any of it to be true. It was the same as any other good fiction, enjoyable.

Varian wrote:
"The Good Friday Agreement of 1998 included a commitment to facilitate and encourage integrated education.

I wonder how different NI would be now if that good intention to give up religious apartheid in NI schools had been enacted at that time and all NI schools had been integrated for the last 25 years."

Religious certainty divides people. People are just people not categories.

Granma70s wrote:

"It was the same as any other good fiction, enjoyable."

One of my favourite hymns is nonsense, scientifically and factually, but the spirit of the hymn is beneficial and true.

There is a beautiful documentary on BBC of Desmond Tutu and the Dalai Lama who between them wrote a book called 'Joy...Finding Happiness in Troubled Times' it shows true interfaith.

Desmond Tutu had a wonderful smile, often laughed and seemed a happy man. The Dalai Lama is the same. Religion for them is a power for good. I doubt whether either of them would have advocated separating young children, making mutual understand more difficult.