- Joined
- Jul 6, 2010
- Messages
- 5,867
- Reaction score
- 909
- Location
- Victoria, Aus
- Website
- antagonistsneeded.wordpress.com
OVER, over? Or just over for now?
Graded assesment will be over over. I have one more hurdle that I have to pass tomorrow, the OSCE (Observed Structured Clinical Examination), but that's a pass fail thing. Difficult to pass cause there's 10 automatic fail points, but as long as I remember them all, I should be fine. Plus theres two chances. I'd rather get it on the first one though.
On the other hand, a brief history lesson: in the 1860's, the American Presbyterian church split into two congregations over the question of slavery and the Civil War. They stayed separate until the early 1980's, when they finally decided to reunite into one group.
And, as of 2012, they're splitting again over the question of homosexuality and what should be the church's official position regarding same.
It breaks my heart. It really does.
But -- and I'm not preaching, I really am not -- when I meet people who say they hate religion or churches, I have a standard answer: churches are filled with people. People who have flaws, and can be stupid and pigheaded and WRONG about a thousand things. As the above example illustrates oh too well.
Church =/= faith. Faith is a different animal altogether.
Church can definietly influence a person's faith though. I would have considered myself religious when I was in my teens. My parents were at best agnostic, but I found a lot of comfort in believing in a god that loved everyone. I went to church, found it benefited me
Then I moved to a much more conservative place and discovered that a lot of people believe that that same god is going to condem two thirds of the worlds population to hell fire for eternity. That put my right off. So far off in fact that I would probably say I lean more towards the belief that the is a god, but hopefully not a revealed one (revealed through religion) Because if there is a revealed one, then logic says one of the revelations is right and the rest wrong and so many of those revelations entail punishment for those wrong that I really hope they're all wrong, on the details at least.
So I don't go to church unless I know the preacher these days. Talk of punishment and of others actions that are classified as sins that I can't see as logical sins make the faith I have left a lot more fearful and weaker.
/random personal exposition