Religion.

Originally posted by gng007:After growing up in a religious family, I realized about 5 years ago that religion brought only stress to my life - now I am pretty much agnostic and I love it!

Originally posted by JuJuman:[..]

U2charist
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A U2Charist' (also spelled eU2charist or U2 Eucharist) is a communion service, or Eucharist, accompanied by U2 songs in lieu of traditional hymns and sometimes as part or all of the service music. The music can be played from a CD or, in less common cases, performed by a live band.
The U2charist was initially started in the U.S. Episcopal Church but has been adapted by several other denominations. It is typically a liturgical service (including communion) that features the music of the rock band U2 and a message about God's call to rally around the Millennium Development Goals. The U2charist is held by supporters to be a great opportunity to reach out to people in their congregations and larger communities, especially young people, with messages of global reconciliation and justice for the poor and oppressed. Bono, U2's lead singer, has been a particularly vocal proponent of the Millennium Development Goals, and has been proclaimed as a global MDG ambassador. The U2charist seeks to raise awareness of the MDGs and call people worldwide to a deeper faith and engagement with God's mission.
Contents [hide]
1 History
2 Use of copyrighted content
3 References
4 External links
[edit]History

Although churches have used U2's music in liturgy for many years, the first U2charist was designed by Sarah Dylan Breuer in 2003, with the service held in Baltimore, Maryland, in April 2004.[1] Breuer was a contributor to the book Get Up Off Your Knees: Preaching the U2 Catalog (Cowley Publications, 2003), and was inspired to create the U2charist by her reflection on spiritual themes in U2's music as she wrote her contributions to the book.[2] The service spread quickly by word of mouth and over the Internet, particularly after the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland held a U2charist at their conference for all diocesan clergy in October 2004, after which many clergy present held U2charists with the assistance of the "Without Walls" worship team throughout 2004 and 2005, [2] with the St. Mary's Outreach Center in Baltimore, Maryland, where the U2charist first took hold, as its base of operations.[3]
After consulting with Breuer, the Rev. Paige Blair, rector of St. George's Episcopal Church in York Harbor, Maine, along with several of her parishioners, held her first U2charist on Sunday evening, July 31, 2005.[4] Since that time, Blair has appeared numerous times in the media as an advocate for the U2charist.
Since the U2charist began in 2004, it spread quickly around the world, with services being held in numerous countries, including a “U2-dienst” (U2-service), started by the Rev. Jan Andries de Boer from Broek op Langedijk in the Netherlands in 2006.[5], as well as services in Australia, Italy, and Mexico.
[edit]Use of copyrighted content

Universal Music Publishing Group and the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) do not require a license for U2's music to be used during U2charist services provided that:[citation needed]
the context is a worship service and it is not called a concert
all of the money raised goes to a nonprofit or non-governmental organization supporting the Millennium Development Goals with none of the money going to the hosting church[6]

Originally posted by Shimitz:[..]

i think this is pretty cool... what do you guys think?

You can fund yourself, a God and believe in which one you want, 'cos they love you all the same, they just go by different names. You can fly your flag today, are you proud or just ashamed? It means nothing, it means nothing; if I haven't got you

Originally posted by djrlewis:[..] sums things up for me quite well

s ironic how the Abrahamic faiths have the most animosity towards each other and yet all believe in the same god.

Originally posted by BonoGlasses:[..]

NEED. TO. FIND. PARTICIPATING. CHURCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Originally posted by goldy:[..]

I dont think you can really say they all believe in the same God. For a start, each of the 4 faiths is fundamentally different and believes in a God with fundamentally different characteristics - many of which cannot be reconciled. eg, Jews believe in God's singularity, Muslims are the same, and Christians believe in the Trinity - 3 parts united in 1 perfect relationship. Or the role of Jesus - imposter to the Jew, an alright dude and prophet to the Muslim, and God come to earth to save humanity and perfect our relationship with him for the Christian.

Sure they have a common historical source (that being Abraham) but are all fundamentally different. Christianity and Judaism split off at the time of Jesus, when through Him, our understanding of the common Old Testament was reshaped to cast the entire Bible as an ongoing story of God's plan to save humanity no matter how we reject Him - all brought to perfect fruition in Jesus taking our own punishment "for the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord" (Rom 6:23)
Hence, whilst Judaism still has the same basis, Christianity becomes about realising there is no way to save ourselves, the God is the only way and that He loves us enough to open that way - through Jesus - and doing so that there is nothing we can do, or have to do - we simply have to believe to be saved.
Conversely, Judaism (and Islam) depend on one's own good works to hope you get across the line and are good enough - there's less certainty - assuming you believe in God in the first place of course .
Conversely, Islam didn't originate until the late 500s when Muhammed was around. And sure there's the claim that Allah and 'God' are the same - but the Muslim only sees Jesus as a prophet - not God - and Jews and Arabs havent exactly shown themselves to get along well together
I think when you look into it that although there is some common historical ground and genesis, when you look at the character of the God each of the 3 Abrahamic religions believe in, then the assertion that its the same God tends to dissipate. If you read into it more, each has a markedly different nature and character and the requirements for the followers of each religion are pretty different.

Sorry for the rant - its just that the pluralistic view that all religions are the same and that everyone believes in ultimately the same thing tends to annoy me - it doesnt recognise the individual aspects of each faith that people actually choose to follow it for. Of course, the debate about whether they're 'all true' and if there's only one way to God and heaven etc is a whole other can of worms (as a Christian I believe Jesus is the only way) but my main concern here was just to clarify that all Gods and faiths arent really the same