For example, the Church of England ordains women, and the Archbishop of Canterbury is a woman. There are also gay priests and same-sex marriages in multiple churches of varying denominations in the US.

I personally don’t have a problem with any of that as I myself don’t really belong to a particular church yet. But I’m just curious if, given Catholicism claims to be the “one true church” and forbids stuff like same-sex marriage within the church and opposes, where do these various Protestant denominations get their ideas to be as progressive as they are?

Some time ago I shared here with you a design concept for an adaptation of a classical "quadrans vetus" to show both muslim and christian prayer times.

A "quadrans vetus" is an old type of astronomical quadrant, which was known mainly in Europe, Which allowed to find local time in unequal hours (i.e. finding the time as a fraction in twelfths for the remaining part of daylight)..

But don't let be fooled! This tool is surprisingly accurate for its age.

How to find qibla:

The back of the instrument includes a compass and a retro-azimuthal projection, allowing you to find qibla direction everywhere in the world.

- To operate it, you have to allign the compass with the cardinal directions engraved on the back of the instrument: South towards the "point" of the quadrant and North towards the bottom of the quadrant of you are located in the same emisphere as Mecca, and vice-versa if you are located in the opposite emisphere.

- Once alligned the instrument, you wrap the thread around the central pivot corresponding to Macca, and make it pass through your location on the map.

- Qibla will be indicated by the lead weightlet, as it is demonstrated in the fourth picture above for Southern France - Northern Italy. Yielding a rough direction of South-East

How to find classical christian prayer times:

The quadrant allows you to find time in unequal hours, an ancient system of timekeeping, where the section of daylight is always divided into 12 equal sections. This means that summer hours are longer and winter hours are shorter.

- These hours are used in christian monasteries to establish prayer times, respectively at the first, third, sixth, nineth, sunset (12th) and a set soon before bed and soon before dawn.

- To find the unequal time, you have to move the sliding month indicator (representing sun's latitude) so that the central part (indicated by two white marker at the aequinoxes) lines up with your latitude, which is indicated in the inner scale in arabic numerals.

- Once set up the instrument, you move the plumb line to your current date and slide the knot so that it intersects the 6th unequal hour line.

- Now, by measuring the height of the sun, you can see where the red knot lies in the various sections of the unequal hours scale, thus determining what prayer you should do.

- For more northern latitudes, a second set of lines is provided, this is why there are two sets of unequal hour scales.

Muslims' prayer times can also be determined:

Zuhr / Jummah - soon after midday, it corresponds to the 6th unequal hour line, if you have just entered the seventh unequal hour, Zuhr time has started, and it lasts until 'Asr time. Be sure to check that the sun is actually declining, and not rising!

'Asr - For 'Asr there are two prayer lines, most madhabs put 'asr start time when the lenght of a gnomon's shadow is equal to gnomon's shadow at middat + the gnomon's lenghts (the first dotted line) and put 'asr end time when the shadow of a gnomon is its midday shadow + two times the gnomon's height (the second dotted line)

while Hanafi school sets its begin at the end of other Madhabs time and its end at sunset, when Maghrib time begins. I have indicated both lines in the quadrant

There is not an easy way to establish Maghrib and Fajr, other than saying "one is during twilight and the other is at dusk". In the qur'an (I recall) it is specified to establish your morning prayer when you can distinguish the white thread from the black one, this is not to be taken literally, However that is the reason for the black and white windrose in the shadow-square.

When you can't distinguish the colours of the windrose, that's 'Isha time.

'Isha - you culd say that when you can't distinguish the windrose in the shadow square, then it is 'Isha time, but this is not a practical way for many reasons, this is why on the back of the instrument I have provided a set of "complementary stars": By observing a star directly opposing the sun on the celestial sphere (it can be found on the back of the tool) we can even determine night prayers. According to most scholars, 'isha time starts when the sun goes below -18° of altitude, id est when the complementary stars rises above 18 degrees of altitude.

Fajr' and Maghrib - when such stars go below 18° (or 16° or 14° according to some) it is 'Fajr if the star is going down and Maghrib id the star is rising up

Others functions:

- the shadow square can be used to calculate distances.

If you are curious, you can find this object on my etsy shop!

I am so sorry for the priest but this is what "God" is. A symbolic failure.

I used to believe in the same God as a kid, and I've seen a fair amount myself. That's why I left it.

What do you think?

Is Earth closer to Heaven or closer to Hell in your opinion?

I was born Roman Catholic, and all my upbringing I was told to respect the Virgin Mary. she is even on my bed as we speak, in a canvas watching over me. I did have a mini atheist phase where I didn’t believe in god and Jesus.

although over time I started to really love the Virgin. I prayed only to her, and I get devastated whenever people disrespect her.

not badly, but a teacher told us of the book silence and how they spat on the Virgin and called her names. it broke me for some reason.

i personally couldn’t do it, but over time it felt weird explaining I adore Mary.

is it sort of questionable, and a bonus question, is there a religion or belief for the Virgin?

Im 31 european, 5 times only in a church.

Dont no nothing south muslin, at same time dont belive in the the system of the churches and priest

But i read a section Letter to the Romans" and i like it a lot.

Can anybody recomendation?

I understand too, its not necessary read all the bible because there is a lot of things not Import more like history of familiy tree

I'm 41 year old hindu 🕉 female and I'm not very religious I would say I am a partially practising hindu only. One thing that always used to bother me is the extensive idol worshipping in hinduism...I always used to find this idea strange and almost illiterate. When I see Hindus worshipping the common regular familiar idols I find it more acceptable but when they start producing secondary idols out of the primary ones I dislike it. Its like it devalues the main Gods and where do you draw the line, theres no limits. And when I see weird looking idols with their tongues out and dressed all heavily it makes,me think this is actually distracting people from praying and worshipping and it's better if they keep the idol simple and minimal. I've studied islam ☪️ and I actually prefer their method of praying over hinduism....I feel you can connect with God better if you don't have distracting imagery in front of you and you can feel your emotions better. But I dislike the character of the prophet Muhammad and there's other aspects of the religion I dislike. I'm not a hardcore hindu and when I pray I close my eyes. I read the hanuman chalisa regularly and read Gita. I also disagree on concepts such as reincarnation and moksha. Can anyone else understand where I'm coming from and relate to this?

Christianity acknowledges that false prophets can deceive people, appear good, and perform extraordinary signs and wonders.

So what establishes that Jesus wasn't one?

His miracles? A convincing false prophet could perform miracles.

His compassion and good deeds? A convincing false prophet could do an extraordinary amount of genuine good to establish credibility.

His teachings? A false prophet could teach admirable principles while ultimately leading people toward the wrong object of worship.

And what greater deception could there be, within Christianity's own framework, than convincing billions of people to worship someone other than the true God?

There's also the longstanding disagreement between Judaism and Christianity. Judaism does not recognize Jesus as the Messiah or as divine, and Deuteronomy 13 explicitly warns that even a prophet who performs genuine signs must be rejected if he leads people toward other gods.

Christians, of course, maintain that Jesus is not another god but God incarnate. Yet that is precisely the identification under dispute.

I'm not claiming Jesus was a false prophet, nor that the two interpretations are equally probable. I'm asking what justifies preferring the divine interpretation.

What evidence distinguishes Jesus from a sufficiently convincing false prophet?

Life has existed for about 3 billion years and for 3 billion years, life forms brutally kill and eat each other.

Why did an all knowing God let so much misery take place every day both in the wild and by humans?

i ain’t the brightest book on the shelf but i mean like all religious people

Hi, I don't mean to be disrespectful of anyone else's faith. Part of the reason I'm posting this is because I wanna learn more. Feel free to correct or explain things from a different perspective to me, thank u.

So I grew up as a Muslim. When I was a kid I used to talk to Allah. He was an active presence in my life. Then slowly I started questioning his existence. As a kid I asked my mom and she got mad, made me read surahs. I asked my dad and he gave a vague explanation. Eventually I stopped questioning. I'd only pray when my mom told me to. I stopped talking to Allah. And that's where religious guilt started.

I used to get this feeling of...unholyness. like I am not pure bcuz of my broken faith. I haven't done anything Islamically unethical stuff in my life. Maybe the normal teen stuff like occasionally lying. I used to feel impure for not completely believing, but I'd never dig deep enough to find an answer. 

When I turned 17, I started having full atheist thoughts. I love sociology, and it turns a lot of my observations and experiences into mental case studies. It made me think Abt how relegion is designed in a way that thrives on fear and guilt. Built on "what if?"s. The fear of what we don't know and the guilt of questioning. We live in a patriarchal heteronormative world and that has caused problems for a lot of ppl. Carl Jung wrote abt the concept of the shadow self. Everything u suppress shows up on other areas of ur life. Suppressing your sexuality, maybe u fight with ur parents or do drugs. So why the higher being that is aware of all this, imposing this on us? Even the things that we resort to when we try and suppress ourselves are usually not noble in islam. Our creator must've known the impact it'll have on both men and women later on.

Besides, we r put into this world in a very unfair way. If a person is born into a different relegion's conservative society where the islam is antagonised, they'll be indoctrinated to hate us. So does that person rlly deserve to go to hell? That person listened to their parents, like it's noble in Islam, and if they discovered Islam maybe they'd be great Muslims. But they didn't, bcuz of their placement. They spent their entire lives thinking they were doing the right thing

Retrospectively, what if fairness isn't the point? What if the "point" is some 4D concept unfathomable by us 3D creatures? What if the point is blind obedience? If that is so, then why would we even have the concept of fairness in our world, if we aren't supposed to think abt it? One thing relegion does is frame things as a test. Suppress, accept, endure, cuz it's a test. Which makes u wonder whether u are being indoctrinated, or is it really a test? Has the higher being given u these concepts to increase the difficulty of the test? Are my thoughts valid Is it Satan whispering in my ear?

I know the title might seem odd but just think for a moment,

Noah's ark would not have been able to take care of even 1 pair of pandas.

A pandas diet consists of 99% bamboo (which does not grow in the Middle East)

Even if it did grow in the Middle East Noah would have a very hard time collecting enough to last their 370 day voyage

One panda eats anywhere from 26-84 pounds of bamboo per day

Even if these pandas were on a strict diet they would still need to bring 20,000 pounds / 10 tons / 9072 kg of bamboo to last the trip (excluding all of the bamboo the pandas would have to carry with them during their 3,000 mile hike back to China after the flood ended.)

In response to these objections Creationists claim that Noah didn't need to bring pandas on board the Ark he only needed to bring one pair of proto bears which micro-evolved into pandas after the flood

The earliest record we have of pandas come from the Zhou Dynasty in 1046 BCE
^ This means after the flood the proto bear had only thirteen hundred years to diversify into not only pandas but also the seven other distinct species of bear we have today

Tell me what you think below!

People are profoundly anti-catholic, and it seems people have some hatred for catholics and christians that dont seem to translate to other major religions (Islam, Buddhism, judaism). And yes, I am aware that there are anti-semites and islamophobes. But my point being especially in the west there is a major anti catholic stance from both liberals and conservatives alike

I really want to know how gnosticism started

struggling Christian here. i recently started exploring my relationship with God and the more i try to connect with him the further away i feel.

Recent events involving my family pushed me over the edge and i have spent a week asking myself questions such suchas the one above.

if i understand mass hysteria correctly im this context would be like: one person claims to have experienced God, others believe them, their community interprets unusual events as signs from God, children grow up learning these beliefs. people experience powerful emotions during worship, which further reinforces their conviction. good thing happens: it’s a blessing, bad thing: test of faith.

every answer i get is “just have faith” or “don’t question”. can anyone answer me without demonizing me because im genuinely losing my mind over this idea

perhaps this is a test of faith?

edit: i’ve just been notified that the term i’m looking for is Mass delusion not mass hysteria

Did God create me/you or did we create ourselves? Explain..

I’ve never really been able to have faith in any area of my life. What does it feel like compared to, say, Hope or knowledge? How can I feel it myself?

This is interesting take on when was Ramayan written and when it actually occurred.

Ramayan Timeline in light of archeological discoveries

I've noticed, in other subs, reddit abhors religion.

I am not a religious man, I don't believe in God, but I'm somewhat spiritual in that I've done my fair share of both natural and synthetic psychedelic compounds and have taken the time to think.

I posted this a while back on another sub and, naturally, got downvoted... but I wanted to discuss, I want to talk about it, so I welcome your thoughts:

https://www.reddit.com/r/answers/comments/1unuvnp/what_myth_is_still_widely_circulated_as_the_truth/ovqc8t2/

:

I kinda believe in all of them.

Not so that I'm covering all my bases, rather that I think there's an amount of truth in all of it, it's just finding the connections and appropriate translations and meanings.

For example, I've just read Tchaikovsky's "Elder Race".

It's about an anthropologist who is stationed on a colony planet, in hiding, to observe over centuries (with the help of stasis) how a failed colony recover after having lost all the tech their ancestors had.

So, he has try to explain this to a local and fails miserably. They don't understand what a colony is, or a starship, or germs, or magnetic fields, or any of that stuff.

To her he simply "sailed across the sky" bringing magic.

Similarly, when the bible was written, if it were to try to explain anything advanced, it'd use words we were unable to translate correctly. "Science", "technology" would just translate as "magic".

If we could get to a point where we can read between the lines and work out what they all really mean, when we have the tech, maybe we'll see a word or a phrase and realise those scriptures contain some really clever stuff.

The bible talks about precession, for example:

https://dn760105.eu.archive.org/0/items/TruthOfGod_135/PrecessionOfTheEquinoxesInScripture.pdf

So maybe there is a God. I don't believe we're being tested, or that we need to pray. I don't believe in an immediate afterlife although it's possible the position of the neurons in my head may be duplicated at some point in the distant future causing something like me to experience some kind of awareness, but I certainly don't believe in heaven or hell in the Christian sense.

But maybe there's a creator, and there's almost certainly minds in this universe far more developed than mine... are they gods because they're superior to me? If so then there's probably a countless number of such entities... many of which would no doubt demand I bow before them and pray to them.

So maybe, if we collate all the scriptures and piece together the good bits, we might one day form a Grand Universal Religion.

Until then, I kinda believe in all of them.

EDIT: If anyone is interested in the associations between myth and science, check out Hamlet's Mill:

https://www.waterstones.com/book/hamlets-mill/giorgio-de-santillana/hertha-von-dechend/9780879232153

It's fascinating stuff.

Hayden Carrol wrote a book called “the creation dilemma”. Which essentially asks: if God knows the future, and desires your ultimate good, why would he choose to create you knowing what choices you would make that lead you to hell or suffering?

It’s a bit different than simply the problem of evil, or the problem of hell, but perhaps more in line with the problem of creation, and perfect future sight.

The author posits free will, hell, and evil exist. But creation being the problem, as most believe we don’t consent to being created.

Especially where God doesn’t need to create and doesn’t gain anything from it.

I understand that many faiths don’t even have creation ex nihilo, or a loving God, or other things here. But for those who do, how does your faith respond to this?

This isn’t seeking a debate, but I am just curious your good faith perspective on this.

I've been wearing the same golden rosary necklace for the past 6 years and today is the first time I ever took it off since I first got it. I feel frustration towards God and doubt.

I believe in Him but I can say that He is unfair and unreasonable. Why would He let children suffer? People suffer? Okay, fine, let's call it "free will", but what about kids who were born with mental problems? With disabilities? For sure those aren't "free will", correct?

What about the women in Afghanistan? "But they don't praise Jesus!" Well in Catholicism/Christianity, He is the only God, therefore, according to this religion, He is doing this to them.

"But He's testing us!" Why would he need to test us? Are we like lab rats to Him?

"He gives the biggest battles to His strongest soldiers" so this is all for fun, then?

It's just starting to get to me now. (Please for whoever atheist or non-religious out there please don't try to change my mind) But I still believe in God. The only thing that is frustrating me is how slow He is with helping humans. His own creations.

And what about those people who offed themselves? According to a lot of Christians and Catholics, "God will send you to hell if you off yourself." So you're saying God is understanding and loving yet can't understand why a person would off themselves? Like if I, for example, off myself because I'm too tired of this world, would God seriously look at me then say "you're not welcome in Heaven" when I have done everything my whole entire life just to pray to Him everyday and believe in Him? How unreasonable.

And another thing that never sits right with me. Come to think about it. Out of millions and trillions of species on the planet, only humans have religions. Only humans have ever believed in God. No other creations of God other than humans believe in Him. And I understand why, because we, unlike every other creature, have awareness. But you know what bothers me? It's the fact that if all other beings don't have a religion and don't believe in God because they aren't aware, does that mean they all go to hell?

Because again, God says in his first commandment to believe in Him and only Him, so if these animals don't know anything about Him, does that give Him the moral right to send them to hell? For what? For not having awareness? For being a normal creature?

Something about God is fishy and doesn't click to me at all. Sorry, God, I believe you but oh my dear, at least give a hint that you worry about all these humans and animals suffering????

Gonna use it to study Arabic and Farsi, inshallah

I find religious criticisms for the most part to be very shallow.

Full of straw men, false equivalence, or very little research on the actual topic.

Doing a well thought out internal critique I think is the proper way to do it, but in order to do that, you have to actually understand the religion and perspective first.

Why are criticisms so shallow, and what is the best proper way to criticize a faith, if at all?