My own church

[Scary Guy]

Yes so, I've been thinking about this (for years actually) and want to start up my own religion/cult/group of like minded individuals pretty much to unify and change the way everyone looks at life. Obviously this is a huge concept and undertaking (not to simply get ordaned in a religion but starting one from scratch (well not completely from scratch since the ideas have existed for some time)).

Obviously this sounds even stranger comming from me, a self proclamed atheist. But this has a lot to do with science (fuck scientology though) and social structures, and personal spirituality.

The First Church of the Void is just that, and worships the void (not cthulhu, different style of ending everything).

Pretty much based around The Neverending Story and Final Fantasy V type of voids, most closely related though to that of /dev/null. This is hte great nothing you meet when you die. To be absolved into nothing for the rest of eternity never to return, I know I'm scared too.

However while we're stuck on this hunk of rock it is our duty to help one another and try to make life better for everyone in general. Karma has a lot to do with it obviously.

"How does one worship nothing if it doesn't exist"

Simple, people do it with God all the time. No one knows if a god or gods exist or not or how many there are or if they're good or evil or what. You just think they exist.

"How can nothing exist"

Very simple. You take a bell jar, you seal it and remove all the air, you have a void.

This church is also based around the fact that we do not know all of the answers and that we could in fact be wrong, but probably aren't.

I figure there are so many crack pot churches and cults around that making one that is actually worthwhile would be a good thing to do. I figure if I'm going to do anything worthwhile on the planet this will be it.

[phee]

Cool idea...

Do we get a temple with virgins and goats n' stuff, with like spooky chants going on and robes... followed by a gothic disco orgy with the soon to not be temple virgins anymore?

[Head Wreck]

i command my minions to declare this church heritcal..

if any of my minions are still DG.n members (god i've been here for soooooo long now)

[Vater Araignee]

005 start

010 The Void = 020

020 nothing = 030

030 concept = 040

040 something

050 if 010=050 goto 005

060 end

Go for it! one question:

Why fear nonexistence?

I just cant understand why somebody would practice such an exorcise in futility.

Now being trapped in a void with nothing but your sense of being, That's frightening.

I honestly want to understand.

[The_Dark]

You cant worship "nothing" The moment you do, you define it and it becomes "something". It may only become "The void I created in this jar", but thats more than it was before you defined it. Nothing does not exist in nature. Create a pure vacumm, not that it can be done on Earth, and nature will "fix it" by putting something in it.. usually anti-protons.

[torn asunder]

there has to be a "nothing" - "nothing" is the space between "something"... if there wasn't "nothing", everything would be solid - for example, what is the space between protons, neutrons, & electrons? or between quarks? etc... :blink :erm

umm, nevermind... :fear

[The_Dark]

Potential

[phee]

I like this discussion.

[Dollardave]

LOL PHEE some of the stuff u say is fuckin hilarious bro. Personally I'm one of the last few Christians left on the earth I grow and meditate on his highness have since I was 17. Very few Christians on the board tho I bet.

Cool idea...

Do we get a temple with virgins and goats n' stuff, with like spooky chants going on and robes... followed by a gothic disco orgy with the soon to not be temple virgins anymore?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

[phee]

Thanks mate I enjoy your posts as well.

[Marblez]

Sounds like an interesting concept, but I dislike the word "Void". It is much too cold, perhaps the thesaurus could help you come up with a more attractive word?

Main Entry:   void

Part of Speech:   adjective 1

Definition:   empty

Synonyms:   abandoned, bare, barren, bereft, clear, deprived, destitute, devoid, drained, emptied, free, lacking, scant, short, shy, tenantless, unfilled, unoccupied, vacant, vacuous, without

Main Entry:   void

Part of Speech:   noun

Definition:   emptiness

Synonyms:   blank, blankness, cavity, gap, hole, hollow, lack, nihility, nothingness, nullity, opening, space, vacuity, vacuum, want

Source:   Roget's New Millennium™ Thesaurus, First Edition (v 1.1.1)

Copyright © 2005 by Lexico Publishing Group, LLC. All rights reserved.

First Church of the Barren? - Don't expect it to be passed through the generations :blink

First Church of the Free? - Invite me to your first Bake Sale :grin

First Church of the destitute? - Nevermind :fear

First Church of the Gaping Cavity? - :confused Damned Bake Sales!...or umm, sorry phee - no temple virgins :whistling

First Church of Spacial Nihility? - Has a ring but does it still mean the same or is the sum of two synonyms actually an antonym?

[The_Dark]

The Church?

Sometimes when this place gets kind of empty,

Sound of their breath fades with the light.

I think about the loveless fascination,

Under the milky way tonight.

Lower the curtain down in memphis,

Lower the curtain down all right.

I got no time for private consultation,

Under the milky way tonight.

Wish I knew what you were looking for.

Might have known what you would find.

Wish I knew what you were looking for.

Might have known what you would find.

And it’s something quite peculiar,

Something that’s shimmering and white.

Leads you here despite your destination,

Under the milky way tonight

[Scary Guy]

It is cold, and uninviting.

As far as my nothing it exists. As my reference to /dev/null points out. /dev/null on UNIX exists but when you send a file there it nolonger exists.

http://linux.about.com/cs/linux101/g/slshdevslshnull.htm

/dev is device /null is a device that does not exist. The void is your floppy drive at that point.

Or the null space (alt 000 or 255)

( )<--255, 000 doesn't print as thats true null and not null space? if I remember right) which exists but does not exist.

Also lets talk about outer space, which is for the most part one great big black void asside from the space particles and light from far off stars that penetrate space. Or how bout a black hole which just keeps sucking in matter including the light the star gave off. It is all about nonexistance, but not like you think.

The void is just where you go when you die. I fear losing who I am mentally and leaving my physical form. But I accept it and the only way to conquer that is to turn it into love.

Anyhow we're still a bit off topic. How do I start this thing up?

BTW awesome idea on the temple.

[The_Dark]

There is far less "empty" in space than you think.

[Black Sunday9]

what is the space between protons

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

actually electrons spread out past their orbit so there really isn't an empty vacuum in the space between protons, is there?

I'm not a quantam physics expert so that is a legit question I wanted to know since you posted this.

also, the band 'the church' is classic. 'reptile' is their best tune though I also like 'an nguarded moment' and 'a month of sundays' and who can forget 'destination'. I like the Church.

I also like the Church of Scary Guy since he lives a mile from me and it won't be much of a hassle to get in and out of.

[Vater Araignee]

How do I start this thing up?

BTW awesome idea on the temple.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Your church will need :

Articles of Incorporation <--- yup a church is a corporate structure I'm not positive that this is the correct one

A federal tax I.D. number fast and e z

Constitution and bylaws

501©(3) status [aka nonprofit status] Exemption Requirements

[Scary Guy]

Most matter is made up of empty space.

Here http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/jun20...44325.Ph.q.html

Or I heard somewhere that the distance between an atom and it's shell is greater than the distance between the sun and pluto when put on the same size scale.

Also from the other link in that (just so you don't have to click)

"Using those numbers, we can calculate another pictoral model. Since the

electron may have NO size, let's start with the nucleus. If we imagine a

nucleus the size of a marble (say 1.5 to 2.5 cm), an atom would be

something like 1.5 km (about one mile) across. The electrons would be

smaller than 5 micrometers (5 times 10E-6 m)in size. Typical human hair is

50 to 100 micrometers, so the electrons would be smaller than a tenth of

that. Remember, I always say "smaller than" because it could be that the

electrons have no physical diameter at all!"

BTW thanks Vater Araignee for all the neat info.

[Brenda Starrr]

LOL PHEE some of the stuff u say is fuckin hilarious bro.  Personally I'm one of the last few Christians left on the earth I grow and meditate on his highness have since I was 17.  Very few Christians on the board tho I bet.

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I'm a Christian as well. However, this completely intrigues me.

[SomeDanGuy]

Yeah, most of the universe is empty space, and I think I've heard similar version of that nucleus-electron distance analogy.

I'm with you on starting a new church. I've been thinking about this recently. In my opinion, our current major religions are so old that they've accumulated dogma and ridiculous rites/rituals. They often lead to hatred and closed-mindedness. I'm still not quite set on what to replace them with yet, however, because there are of course good aspects of religion. For example, the belief in an afterlife in which you're rewarded for good behavior is an essential motivator for society, especially for dangerous jobs like the armed forces or law enforcement.

[Homicidalheathen]

This response was so smart and right on for me it's almost frightening. Have I met you The Dark?

You cant worship "nothing" The moment you do, you define it and it becomes "something". It may only become "The void I created in this jar", but thats more than it was before you defined it. Nothing does not exist in nature. Create a pure vacumm, not that it can be done on Earth, and nature will "fix it" by putting something in it.. usually anti-protons.

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[Homicidalheathen]

By the way. Good luck and good idea Scary guy.

[Homicidalheathen]

What a very multi faceted person. Dark arts and a christain....hmmmmm......everyone should meditate. Everyday. I am down with that. Omg more ghetto sayings. Smack me! Oh wait, I might like that....

LOL PHEE some of the stuff u say is fuckin hilarious bro.  Personally I'm one of the last few Christians left on the earth I grow and meditate on his highness have since I was 17.  Very few Christians on the board tho I bet.

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[Homicidalheathen]

I run a meditation group and we have done a meditation on this but we don't do it like we are dying away into nothing just our energy goes out into everything. Here are the things behind it if your inteested. It is a native american path from out west.

[Homicidalheathen]

One more file to go with that meditation and philosophy.

I run a meditation group and we have done a meditation on this but we don't do it like we are dying away into nothing just our energy goes out into everything.  Here are the things behind it if your inteested.  It is a native american path from out west.

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[Scary Guy]

das bump