Hi guys,
Im currently doing the HSC (for those living in New South Wales, Australia). So of course this is my last year of school. Im doing a project which is worth 40% of my final mark and is the most crucial part of the course. It is called a Personal Interest Project, where you pick a topic your interested in and you have to do lots of secondary research and primary research on it. I chose to do my project on the identity of the Coptic people. So what im trying to see is if Our belief system (the faith) shapes who we are including morals, ethics and so on. So i would love to hear your thoughts on this topic as im really interested in what some of you have to say.
I did some surveys and i was actually pretty shocked when i saw one of my respondants (who was a sunday school teacher) saying that they werent against homosexuality, abortion and euthanasia. But as a social and culturally literate person, i must not judge based on anyones thoughts on the area of topic.
So if any of you have anything to say on this i would like to hear your thoughts on fasting, going to church and your morals and ethics.
And what would also be really helpful is if you just added whether you were in your teens, twentys and so on. (you dont have to give exact age :)
thanks heaps guys and god bless :)
Comments
I personally would say that I believe God has given us a way to live (through His commandments) that does not have literally BAD consequences on our lives. He is just trying to make life easier. For example, if I kill, I will live with the fact that I killed a person for the rest of my life and it would negatively affect each and every aspect of my life, like getting married, getting a job-- I would be lucky if I would even get a job with a criminal record. If I lied, its a universal fact that the truth will come out no matter how hard we try to hide it-- God is just telling us not to do it in the first place. If I committed adultery, I would have to live with the fact that I slept with someone who I walked past on the street or live with the fact that a child is now put in the middle of all this, not making the world any better, not mentioning all the quarrels and child support and how it would impact negatively on every other aspect of my life. This is the perspective I gain from Christianity especially through the commandments has shaped my identity so to say. Fasting, prayer and metanias. God is right about the commandments, so would everything else He says. I for one am against homosexuality and abortion. As for euthanasia, I am glad I am not anywhere near that issue for now and neither am I putting myself in that situation. In fact my entire morarity is based on the above reasoning.
I am in my 20's.
http://hirr.hartsem.edu/sociology/rymarz.html#top#top
It is titled "Maintaining Identity: An Examination of Coptic Orthodox Young Adults"
Hopefully it'll help you: there are 20 subjects...
I am for life because of being Orthodox and for marriage between a man and woman because that is the kind of marriage in our church.
So I cannot be for abortion, euthenasia, or homosexuality. It is not a compromise I can live with and say God would like at all.
In all of my class discussions (so many turned up this year in particular) nothing has made sense to me to convince me otherwise.
Beliefs of our Church and thinking has come to the same conclusion in my case. I am a teenager.
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if anyone else has anything to say please feel free to do so as this will really be helpful.
There was another thing i would like to ask though....for those living in westernised countries such as Australia and America, do you feel that living in the country whether you were born there or not, has given you the freedom to express yourself? And has it in any way influenced you to have certain beliefs, even if it is against the coptic faith?
I would love to get into contact with anyone such as a priest or an elder of a coptic church as i want to do an interview as part of the project. I could even send the email with all the questions i wanted to ask and recieve the responce via email. So if anyone knows or might want to be interviewed on this topic please say so as it would be greatly appreciated.
god bless you all :)
Personally, I try to align my beliefs perfectly with what my Church believes. If there is any contradiction, I get it sorted out as soon as possible by asking questions on forums like this and asking priests and even bishops.
thanks guys and god bless.
He who is in us is greater than he who is in the world.
god bless