Honest question. Is this site a religious site?

[follderol]

It seems to me there's a large amount of Christian posts. I've also noticed a fair amount of disapproval for other religions.

I am an atheist. I don't really want to be part of a christian site posing as a parenting site.

So is this actually a Christian place?

of course in America the whole thing has gone too far

they have GORGED on biscuits and can't stand up anymore

but that doesn't mean that the English Biscuit is wrong

UQD: so in some cases a reductionist analysis rests happily alongside the acknowledged existence of the thing it explains reductively -- i.e it doesn't have to make any claims about the non-existence of the explained thing?

Now tell me how you decide in which cases it does make such claims about non-existence and in which cases it doesn't? If you were to do that then you might not have bought your sarcasm about religion so cheaply.

You'll get lots of sensible answers UQD, most of which will contradict each other

UQD, how about CS Lewis's answer about prayer not changing God, but changing us instead? Sorry not to engage you seriously on a thread that is now primarily about biscuits (which I'd point out is your fault )

BTW I hope you all feel suitably guilty - I was going to just have my nice ham salad wrap and a few grapes for lunch... no points for anyone for guessing what else I found I desperately had to have....

Threadworm, as you would expect, I can't quite decide which is my favourite biscuit. Although I am particularly fond of shortbread. Or at least I was until UQD opened my eyes to the meaninglessness of the experience of shortbread eating. Now with every mouthful I will hear in Yaffle like tones "nothing but flour, butter and sugar, you know..."

Malted Milks are my favourite...

My religion is?

The problem with Threadworm's very clever-sounding analysis above is that people have different ideas about what constitutes this very emotive term "reductionist". Is it reductionist to discount the views of David Icke, or the flat-earthers? If it isn't, then the above is just special pleading. If it is, then we may as well forget rational thought.

If your god can't cope with a bit of sarcasm he must be a touchy bugger.

Yes IB, but you will still eat the shortbread. You won't decide it's much better all round to just eat a slab of butter, a cup of flour and a cup of sugar instead.

Malted Milks? What's the matter with you?

Your religion is... Baptist Church Toddler Group?

eachpeach!

You're a satanist?

Shortbread: The exquisite sensuality of the melting fat in one's mouth (experienced as a craving for more) is the poignancy of perceiving as a passing ephemeral thing the yearned-for meaning within the aesthetic experience, even as it slips beyond our grasp. Just like the beauty of a liturgy sung to an in-some-sense non-existant God.

kayharker - as ever yours is a comment worth engaging with. I take full responsibility for the biscuits. That's what you get for using an an analogy...

I know that Lewis comment, but, like his "rusty ships" analogy (in" Mere Christianity") it only works if you believe something is happening at all in the first place. As I've said above, there is nothing wrong with praying to make yourself feel better, but I'd look for evidence if anyone wanted to claim any supernatural happening.

Sorry to be all boringly insistent on evidence all the time! But it does help... otherwise who's to say that the invisible pink elephant in my back garden doesn't exist?

Yes, I think you've put your finger on it threadworm

Kay, yes quite.

It is more than feeling better I think - I mean, you could apply that to anything humans do: falling in love, having children...

I think that if you open yourself to the divine through meditation (typed medication there, which may also work...) or prayer then you are opening yourself up to change and thoughtful reflection and perhaps some spiritual event that affects you on a very spiritual level - and that change should help you to be a better human being

rather than, say, write threatening letters to David Attenborough

So you want my acceptance (freely given) that eating a home-made shortbread is far nicer than eating flour, butter and shortbread separately, and/or stating that this is all it is. Fine.

But I don't dispute the existence of the biscuit-maker. If I want evidence for his/her existence, it is easily found.

I still don't get (see, this biscuit thing is actually quite interesting) how this is a religious analogy. It doesn't work.

Threadworm - exquisitely put.

But I don't know what "spiritual" means. Some people would say that this is my problem. Others would say that this is because the word can mean whatever the hell you want it to mean, complete with waving arms and woooooo noises.

UQD: reduction has nothing at all to do with discounting. And it's not a particularly emotive term.

Urgh... shortbread is disgusting !

well I think that there do seem to be people who have no recognition at the idea of 'spirituality' so I DO BELIEVE YOU but nonetheless for me, the spiritual life is something that is very real and important and essential to my mental health and well-being

But if I am accused of being "reductionist" it is being done for a particular emotive purpose.

I am being told I am looking at something in a certain way, and that if I only looked at it in a different way I'd see it differently. Well, fine, but I need evidence. Otherwise it's just special pleading.

So in a way it is to do with my "discounting" a particular way of seeing things. Your way.

explain why it is done for a particular emotive purpose UD?

What do you mean by the "spiritual life", though, morningpaper? You may mean it, for all I know, in a quite sensible way. You could mean the feeling of general well-being, of mental health, of calm and being at peace with the world. Or a combination of the above. A lot of people do. All these things are perfectly demonstrable and explainable without recourse to the supernatural, which is the area a lot of people mean when they talk about the "spirit".

Ah, well, in terms of prayer, I'm not especially part of the crowd that looks for miraculous proof, so I'm not even going to attempt to provide evidence in that regard.

Makes little odds anyway, as it's always going to be anecdotal anyway. Even examples that are medically documented can usually be dismissed by the skeptic as remissions (and they often are remissions, but remissions don't usually come for the asking, of course)

In terms of 'something' happening, well, if one is praying, then something is demonstrably happening. Maybe nothing measurable outside of the prayer, but there is the prayer itself. If prayer is said to be more for affecting the pray-er than anything else, then that changes the measurement somewhat.

The problem with addressing this issue in isolation is that, despite vague and misleading religious my own belief is not in 'the power of prayer', it's in 'the power of God' and so proving that a prayer has been answered involves all those other issues of sovereignty, time, faith, reasons for faith and so on. It's not something that a 'pat' answer can be given to, iyswim.