souperman

Well, in reply to Milton, I was raised as a Christian... Mom's a Catholic, Dad's a Southern Baptist. I started off going to a Catholic church, then we eventually decided on Methodist. As you can see it was kinda necessary we go to Church. Never argued, just went. Was the usual Sunday activity. Until I started reading the actual Bible... I was sitting in Church one day with my parents, got bored of the pastor talking about how wonderful God is.

I was reading from the beginning, I saw flaws with the creation story, but I read on, thinking "Ok, maybe it was just God's will." Then I read about how Cain went to Nod to find his wife... I was thinking.. Okay, where did this city and these people come from? I asked my Dad, he told me he didn't know.

From another message board I visited regularly I was linked to your "If there is a fire do not run" parody thing in your Humor section... I started reading around. This was sometime ago, don't remember when I actually started reading the forum for more than the humor section.

So anyway, thank you for your quick and meaningful replies.

Rational BAC

So this "speaking in tongues" thing came from Paul?

Should have figured. The only way to understand Christianity is to realize that Paul's only role was to spread the faith to the gentiles. Make it acceptable in ways that Judaism could never be.

And he lied (maybe a little harsh---he just made up stuff) a lot to get it done. Ends justifies the means and all that stuff. Paul is the main reason that Christianity has about 2 billion adherants today. So good for him. And maybe God even had a tiny hand in Paul's writing----I doubt it though. If Paul had any reason for being, I think it was to be used as a tool for God--------who figured we would go back to the essence of Christianity later.



Do NOT take Paul very seriously and Christianity gets much simpler. And take Revelations and flush it down the toilet (where it has been before) and Christianity makes a lot more sense to the layman.

Doctor X

Except for all of that exclusion. . . .

--J.D.

Biff the unclean

Speaking in tongues is much older than Paul.

It comes from the Pythoness of the Oracle at Delphi. How it worked was you made a large donation to the Temple of Apollo and you got the ask the Pythoness a single question. She would the pray to the God Apollo at a fissure at the altar. Recently tested it was found that a mildly toxic gas was, and still is, emitted from this crack in the Earth. The Oracle is over the junction of two earthquake faults. She, the Pythoness, would start dancing around and babbling incoherently. (Near the time the Christians closed the temple a desperate king forced the Pythoness to answer two questions and go through the procedure twice--it killed her) A Priest of the temple would "translate" what the Pythoness had said. She was speaking the speech of the gods and was getting all her information from Apollo. The paper the priest would give you was always a totally ambiguous rhyme. What you had to do then was go down the mountain to the village of Delphi where you could find the shops of the Seers. These guys would translate the rhyme into easy to understand Greek�for a price of course.
You have to remember that the Book of Acts of the Apostles is not a history. It's a bunch of traveler's tales, novels and plays that were popular at the time retold with the Apostles as the heroes. Even Paul's famous conversion on the road to Damascus is a plagerized version of Euripides famous play The Bacchae which would have been over 400 years old when Acts was written. They even kept some of the same dialogue.
So when the Apostles are speaking in tongues they are doing so because that is how god speaks to man. Unfortunately, the god doing the talking is Apollo, but what the heck. The god on the road to Damascus was Dionysos and no one seemed to care when they gave his lines to Jesus.

So, unless this Christian revival is being held in a seismically active spot the good Christians are faking it. I'd bet that they each secretly think that they are the only one who is faking.
If they aren't faking remember the fate of the Pythoness who spoke too often and don't go back without a gas mask.

NonHomogenized

Depends on how hard you knock them on the head

The former members of those groups can better discuss with you the hows and whys (I was a Presbyterian, then a Methodist, and, later, a non-denominational) thereof.
So, content-wise, I'll just stick with my sarcastic comment ^_^

crocodile deathroll

Do they ever post in tongues?

ex-xian

I never faked it. And the people closest to me never faked it. It's an altered state of consciousness; the oracle used drugs, the pentecostals (and many other religiouns) use prayer, meditation, and suggestion. If you've been to one of these meetings, you have no idea of the emotional pressure and the mass hysteria that can come into play.

conkermaniac

I am a former Christian fundamentalist, but I don't remember people speaking in tongues or doing any of the other nonsense that is commonly mentioned on forums. In fact, the people at my church were your typical Christians, just a bit more conservative.

Milton

Do you mind giving us some sources for your claim? I am interested in reading those stories you say Acts was copied from.

And in regards to the speaking...I think some are deliberately faking it, while others do it because they feel the energy of the crowd.

I am a fundamentalist, but I have never been convinced of any of that garbage. In fact, I remember that I even tried to convince myself that the Trinity was a true doctrine. But I never did accept it.

ex-xian

I've been here for almost two years and this is the first time I recall anyone talking about glossalalia.
You have no experience with the topic but you're sure that "some are deliberately fakingn it." Maybe you should confine you remarks to things you actually know something about.

That fact that are a self-proclaimed fundy terribly mars your credibility