Thought it was about time we had a friendly but serious debate/discussion on Southport Friends.

Yesterday i hesitated about posting music which some may find offensive.  But it raised other questions out of curiosity.


It's all to do with religion or the lack of it these days.

So how many people on here follow a faith or religious path.

If you were baptised a christian do you still regard yourself as one, and what does the phrase a lapsed christian mean?

Do you still believe, have you lost your faith or have you found another path?

We used to attend church regularly as children but as we got older we have all stopped attending including my parents.

Personally I do not consider myself to be of any religion....I find it a bit silly(no offence intended)  to stand and pray to something that isn't there and to live by a book that to me is just a collection of stories.

But if doing these things gives support and comfort to others then fine

I agree chaos nobody should ever be ridiculed for something they hold sacred

I am just curious where religion stands in todays society

maybe thats part of todays problems.....although I'm not a practising christian I do feel that the ethos of christianity is being erroded away.

Basic good manners,kindness etc seem to be being buried under the pressures of every day life

Yeah i can see that point

Although someone on another forum made a great comment

the morals and justice system of our century allows people to discard responsibilty for their own actions.

I think in the past a lot of church attendance may of been down to fear though, as i child i can remember the priest knocking on doors of those who had missed mass, although i wasn't a catholic myself it sticks in my head.

But has more shops opened and people could afford cars for days out the churches became emptier, if they could walk away so quickly were they really practicing christians at all 

Originally going to church meant you had support from 'the community' because taxes were paid to the church.

England had no 'welfare state' just the Poor Law and work house.  Government was not interested in the people so it was left to the church to administer what they sought fit.

Older generations in families will tell you all about the parsih council and how they instilled fear, when times where hard they would come round to the home to see if you could sell anything you didn't need ... if you had a dining table & chairs and you only needed 3 chairs one would have to be sold (you get the picture). 

Social work was borne out of rich christian do gooders who thought they new best for society and they imposed their morals and values as they went.  If you didn't conform you knew the consequences ... "the work house".

The problem with religion today is "it hasn't moved with times" and life is very different today. People arn't interested in being preached too, lifes too busy, a majority work shifts and don't get time - but this also means some of societies morals, values and ethos has been eroded away. We have families who live on the perifry of society who don't want to conform with societies unspoken rules; they are happy to live off the states money

never actually looked at it that way groovy, good post 

Im a catholic but not a practising one....

when i was young we used to go to church...then when i started grwoing up i saw that religion is a load of  it just causes war 

My kids are all c of e...ill leave it up to them to judge whether they believe in the greatest story ever told....i wont drill it into them like my mum did 

aye i was frog marched to sunday school Liverbird, by hypocritical parents who only stepped inside a church for wedding and funerals.

Even though two of my kids have learning disabilities i think it is up to them to choose their own path and god/godess.  If they want to

as you say religion and money causes more wars that it ever has peace

i was brought up a catholic and we went to church every sunday without fail also at christmas we were not allowed to open presents until after church,

as we got older we all took our own paths in life and out of my siblings i am the only one who still goes to church, i dont get there every sunday as my 3 arent exactly well behaved but i go as often as i can, my children are being brought up catholic too they have been christened i have the youngest christening on sunday (13th)

i dont know if i truely believe it god but i do believe in something, my grandma went through a really rough time a few months back and lost her sight as well as one of her eyes and she says if it wasnt for her faith she doesnt think she would have made it through 

i think it is personal preference but i agree religion is the cause of most of our wars 

I was brought up as a catholic. Myself and all my sister attended a very catholic school meaning church at least twice a week and my mum taking us at weekends too.
You live and learn I suppose.........being preached to so much and terrified of the consiquencey of actually commiting a sin. When my Dad died our lives changed so dramatically,my mother stopped going to church after a discussion about things that happened following his death. I suppose she just gave up attending church but after that she never pressured us to go to church again. Im a firm believer that maybe there is a higher being but I also believe you dont have to get down on your knees and worship him.
Im very proud of the fact that I know the bible inside out but I would never push my child to do what we did when we were young.

I decided before my own children were even born, that i would allow them to discover their own paths.

Not sure how that would work now

I try to teach them respect

I don't even push my own faith on them, or anyone for that matter.  Although i have had Christians trying to save my soul  strangely it is the people who practice no faith i seem to get the most hostility off