An Evangelical Unitarian service

[kestegs]

Yea...It's a religious topic

I wanted to see what everyone thinks about this video, it gives some pretty good explanation of what is going on in the beginning of the video, but here is a brief intro to the people:

Marlin is the Pastor of the largest Unitarian church in the USA, this video takes place in his church on this past Sunday morning.

Bruce is one of the Pastors at my church in Colorado, Marlin calls it a mega church, but it's not really that big. Bruce is a very close friend of mine.

I know it is a bit long, but you don't actually need to really watch it, you can just listen too it after the first bit once you get accustomed to the voices.

This is a rather unprecedented thing and I am curious how Christians and Non-Christians alike view what they are both saying, Thanks for your honest opinions in advance

[nurman]

A bit off-topic, but how many churches are there in the US?

[jmervyn]

I'll have to check it from home.

[kestegs]

http://hirr.hartsem.edu/research/fas...ast_facts.html

says there are about 300,000 churches in the US.

[stillman]

As a non Christian, I will point out how he is cherry picking various lines from Jesus to support his thesis that we should love everyone and reject no one. However, Jesus also said to obey all the rules laid down in the Old Testament, and some of those rules are very nasty (like killing homosexuals). This contradicts much of what the pastor said (like loving everyone, including homosexuals).

This is a tough situation, because it doesn't matter which biblical verses you pick; there are almost always contradicting statements elsewhere.

[kestegs]

Yes, they did only pick very basic and general statements, the point was of course not to offend anyone at the church, or at least make an effort not to.

I don't think that Jesus truly meant to obey all the rules of the old testament. Here is an interesting article about old testament law vs Jesus. It's not really put on by a Christian group I don't think and it feels fairly unbiased, but gives some good points to consider on the matter.

[Valhauros]

Although I was raised as Catholic, around 13, I started believing all religions were a farce, and by itself, that it maims civilization's progress. I watched the whole video, and the way I see it, it comes down to a single phrase, which I agree with: "If you are seeking comfort, you won't find truth".

Religions blind people from reaching the truth, because we are too stubborn and proud to recognize that most of our life-changing questions are much more simple that we would want to. I takes a lot of courage to come to accept reality, so we opt to shade ourselves with the comfort of afterlife and a God who resembles more Man than Infinity. The Pastor seems to be inflicted (at the time of the video) with a thirst for better answers, so it clashes with his actual notions.

I think it comes down to believing whatever takes you through the day. If you are really seeking the truth, then religion is not the place to find it.

[kestegs]

If you don't mind, why did you start to believe religion was a farce and that it maims civilization's progress?

I will agree with you that most or a lot of religion is a farce. You are right that many people look to religion for shelter and hope of an afterlife, this can be a good thing or a bad thing. then again I don't really like to be called religious myself, and I'm not sure we have the same definition of religious.

I would have to say that religion (or God/Bible) are the only place to find truth, which may not be overly surprising to you at this point.

What is this truth that you are seeking or have found, or what gives your life meaning?

The pastor is a bit conflicted, yes. He is on a journey more than he has arived at a destination.

[BobCox2]

Yea...It's a religious topic

EDIT

Thanks for your honest opinions in advance

From an article in the Economist.

Goodness has nothing to do with it
Utilitarians are not nice people


Quote:
"One of the classic techniques used to measure a person’s willingness to behave in a utilitarian way is known as trolleyology"
No lack of that type of study on this forum.

But I digress...
Quote:
"For example: there are five railway workmen in the path of a runaway carriage. The men will surely be killed unless the subject of the experiment, a bystander in the story, does something. The subject is told he is on a bridge over the tracks. Next to him is a big, heavy stranger. The subject is informed that his own body would be too light to stop the train, but that if he pushes the stranger onto the tracks, the stranger’s large body will stop the train and save the five lives. That, unfortunately, would kill the stranger. "
So the choice of saving five lives by sacrificing the one life in front of you (acting on the situation) OR do nothing and kill five guys while knowing you could have only killed one.

What a conundrum.
Quote:
"Dr Bartels and Dr Pizarro knew from previous research that around 90% of people refuse the utilitarian act of killing one individual to save five. What no one had previously inquired about, though, was the nature of the remaining 10%. "
So most people are not utilitarian and just let things happen in front of them.

Quote:
"Dr Bartels and Dr Pizarro then correlated the results from the trolleyology with those from the personality tests. They found a strong link between utilitarian answers to moral dilemmas (push the fat guy off the bridge) and personalities that were psychopathic, Machiavellian or tended to view life as meaningless. Utilitarians, this suggests, may add to the sum of human happiness, but they are not very happy people themselves. "
So the next time you support the utilitarian viewpoint you might want some meds handy.
Quote:
"Utilitarianism provides a plausible framework for deciding who should get trampled. The results obtained by Dr Bartels and Dr Pizarro do, though, raise questions about the type of people who you want making the laws. Psychopathic, Machiavellian misanthropes? Apparently, yes. "
Looking at many lawmakers today, this result is actually not too surprising.

The paper in the journal Cognition.

RIP

Spoiler

We love spam
watch the utilitarian/ Unitarian fun

[kestegs]

Don't think I've ever heard of utilitarian before, interesting.

Your two links at the top of the post both go to the same place, did you intend that?