When has religion irked you personally and why?

Wow. A Christian Scientist the gf used to work with (in a dental school, ironically enough) almost died from an easily treatable tooth infection last year. Missed weeks of work as she writhed about in a high fever with her healer at hand.

It goes to show how religions can make people lose their sense of logic and rational thinking. c.i.

I guess religion, like a number of other total belief systems, is capable of bringing out the worst in some...

Dang.

Jes, loved your comeback.

I had a very sane friend with a rather insane mother. She didn't want to let me meet her mom for some time -- I was one of the only white friends she had (she was black) and I thought that may have something to do with it. Finally met her, Sabrina hanging around in the background glaring at her with a "Don't say anything!!" look, had a little conversation, I missed something she said, explained that I'm deaf but read lips... ack. She started a 45-minute impassioned, in-my-face sermon about how deafness was my punishment for being a sinner, and if I accepted Jesus as my savior my hearing would be immediately restored.

Urrgh, the misery goes on and on, doesn't it? Despite an inkling of value in religious teaching, I believe that it is a crutch for those who can't take care of themselves, and who also need someone to blame for their personal problems, and who also need to be self-affirmed by torturing others. Rant done...I am thrilled with the responses so far

I don't tell people I'm a lapsed Catholic
I say I'm on parole, time served.
Ceili

There's a lot of good stuff here. I was raised a Catholic. In Sunday school I was always in trouble because I read a lot. On a theme of the infallibility of the pope I asked the nun if that included Benedict IX who became a pope at age 12. whack whack whack. I got the ruler across my knuckles. They always assumed I was being a wise guy when I was really curious. Their belief was in a teaching system based on rote (surprise) and questions were not welcome.

When I got married (to a Finn) Solveig my ex offered to raise the children in the Catholic religion and wanted to be married in the Catholic church though she was a Lutheran. The priest absolutely refused. She hit the roof and told him by his religion he was damning our children and preventing them from reaching Heaven and she hoped God never forgave him.

I stopped going to church at an early age. I explained to people who inquired that I talked to God directly and just eliminated the middle men. The only thing wrong with religion is the people.

Amen to that, bobsmyth! :wink:

Good one, Ceili!

These stories are amazing to me... bound up her legs? Nearly died of a toothache? A sinner because you're deaf??? Arggggggggh.

And I thought I had weirdos in my family. When she received school photographs of me & my sibs, my grandma (the one whose church was the scene of my rebellion at 8) used to color in the "nasty" bare arms and legs and neckline that were showing. I also have a cookbook of hers wherein she crossed out the "devil" in devil's food cake, deviled eggs, deviled ham, etc. Poor thing, she was crazed, but at least there were no whippings, illnesses or deaths that we can attribute to her beliefs.

Y'know. Yesterday I was thinking of starting a topic about weird things that nuns have said and done.

For example... I was feeling badly after my father died and went to visit with the bereavement counselor who happened to be a nun. We had lunch together and then she decided to "help" me by telling me the story of some saint who, to show her fearlessness or something, stuck her finger into the oozing sores of leper and then put her finger into her mouth. She demonstrated, of course, with the soup from our lunch. I nearly keeled over.

To all of the above:

HOLY Sh_______!!!!!!

That reminds me of when I was a kid, when I was forbidden from singing songs like Jingle Bells because "it carries the materialistic spirit of xmas!" And there was no using the word luck either because it's derived from a root word related to "lucifer" or some such. I've been exorcised several times from my possession by the evil spirits of foolishness and rebeliousness, but I doubt it ever helped any.

Really? Luck is from Lucifer?? Who'd have thought!

What religion was this, if you don't mind me asking?

I have no proof as of yet, but have a sneaking suspicion that luck/lucky is linguistically related to the norse god Loki, god of mischief and trickery...pagan of course, to those who care

Yes it was Loki's mask that was in the movie Mask with Jim Carrey.

I personally think, religion is everyone's own business.
When I married the second time, some tried to convince me to start an undoing trial at the /Catholic) diocese court (a former class mate of my sister, now a right reputated bishop, wanted to give me free legal advice).

I refused, and was told that I lived after my second marriage in deepest sin.
Which I do now.

A lunatic fringe Christian group

Lunatic Fringe?

My daughter has a friend whose family holds church service in their living room... I try to get her to stay away from them. The only thing worse that organized religion is organized cults. They answer to no one except the little voice that speaks in their heads.

STAY AWAY. Have experience with a cult, getting away from their clutches is much much harder than never getting within reach in the first place. (I never actually joined this cult, but not for lack of trying on their part.)

Oh, don't worry. There's NO CHANCE that they'll talk me into anything. Anyway, the d's gone on to more interesting boys.

I've been looking up Luck in the OED and it didn't join the English language until about 1480, most likely from the Dutch geluke... as a gambling term. Gluck (visualize umlauts) is the modern German form. I suppose, given the Dutch and possibly Danish origins, it could have come from Loki.

Weren't Loki and the Celtic god Lugh supposed to be related?