GoldenWolf Posted January 20, 2015 Posted January 20, 2015 I remember during my religious days, being taught about the several spiritual gifts of the holy spirit. I was mainly taught about the ones mentioned in 1 Corinthians (prophecy, tongues/interpretation of tongues, discerning of spirits, miracles, healing etc..). The most popular one I had encountered was speaking in tongues. The first time I heard it I went to a completely different church from mine. We were doing a prayer group and every nearly every single person could speak in tongues. They all had distinct ways of doing it, like multiple languages being spoken at once. I was amazed at this, so they offered to pray over me so that I would be gifted with this ability. After that, whenever I tried speaking in tongues, I couldn't get words out (or sounds, considering it's pretty much gibberish), maybe because I was too shy about how silly it sounded. Now that I've left religion, I've started wondering why on earth it happens. Could it just be a psychological thing? Sort of like the placebo effect, you think it's going to happen and so it does, but in reality it's all just part of what the mind expects to happen. Or is there a spiritual side to it that might not be what they think it is?
sdelsolray Posted January 20, 2015 Posted January 20, 2015 Speaking in tongues is a ritual practiced by many Christian denominations. Adherents are exposed to the ritual during worship services. They are based on a few sentences from the Bible. Indoctrination to accept the ritual is usually in play, and peer pressure to perform the ritual is inherent in this practice.
mymistake Posted January 20, 2015 Posted January 20, 2015 It takes no skill at all to babble "in tongues". Apparently it also doesn't require the Holy Spirit since today I can still do it just as good as when I was a fundie. 2
midniterider Posted January 20, 2015 Posted January 20, 2015 And the comment , "Skibbitty bop Dodge Durango babaganoosh didjeridoo! Bring the children into the mosh pit! Derp derpity Idris Elba doobity doo quisinart capoeira! Someone order a pizza! Derpa-derpa-douchinalia!""
Will02 Posted January 20, 2015 Posted January 20, 2015 It's always gibberish. Nobody miraculously becomes fluent in a new language they had no prior knowledge of. Even when I was a christian I wasn't impressed since anyone can start babbling like an infant if you put enough liquor in them.
FreeThinkerNZ Posted January 20, 2015 Posted January 20, 2015 It's just gibberish, I can do it any time I like. Everyone can do it, it's just forming sounds with the movement of muscles in your mouth, the same way babies first start to form speech. The only difference is that it's faster. Read this sentence slowly and notice how your mouth produces the sounds. Now imagine if your mouth moved randomly. That's all there is to it. There is no supernatural. Like all other supernatural claims, this one has a perfectly ordinary natural explanation. 2
Thrive Posted January 20, 2015 Posted January 20, 2015 My church didn't do this, our pastor interpreted spiritual gifts as everyone having different strengths that they bring to the chruch. Some are called to teach sunday school and some are called to lead music worship. Some poor souls were even called to clean the bathrooms and mow the church lawn. I am curious for those who did this practice when you were Christian; at the time you were speaking tongues, did you feel caught up in the moment and thought you were honestly expressing something? Or did you know what you said was fake, but you gave into the pressure to show that you were "touched by the spirit" since everyone else seemed to be doing it?
FreeThinkerNZ Posted January 20, 2015 Posted January 20, 2015 I am curious for those who did this practice when you were Christian; at the time you were speaking tongues, did you feel caught up in the moment and thought you were honestly expressing something? Or did you know what you said was fake, but you gave into the pressure to show that you were "touched by the spirit" since everyone else seemed to be doing it? I didn't think it was fake. I firmly believed that I was communicating with god and that he didn't want me to know what I was saying to him.
yunea Posted January 20, 2015 Posted January 20, 2015 I too did genuinely believe that the holy spirit was helping me communicate to god what I wasn't ready to consciously know about myself. Or that there was information about the other person I was praying for that I shouldn't know. I never thought it was or even could be fake because I'd felt so strongly about it myself, until I learned that similar phenomena can be created in hypnotic trance AND the trance itself is not as strange a thing as it's often made out to be. So, turns out tongues aren't proof of god at all in the end. 1
Lucy Posted January 20, 2015 Posted January 20, 2015 I went to a church that did that once. I just stared at everyone. Why do some people roll around and twitch on the floor?
yunea Posted January 20, 2015 Posted January 20, 2015 Lucy, it's because god "strikes them down". Supposedly his touch is so powerful that a small human can't handle it better than that, and the bible says anyway that when someone is full of the holy spirit, the world thinks they've gone totally crazy. I've done that myself. Ergh. Of course this always had someone yelling "GOD IS TOUCHING YOU ACCEPT IT!!!!! NOOOOWWWW!!!" in my face, and I must have been like "ok then *falls over*". Looking back on it I have no clue why a loving god would want his followers to have what looks like epileptic seizures. As if he, in his omnipotence and infinite wisdom, couldn't touch a human carefully enough to just empower them. 1
francesco Posted January 20, 2015 Posted January 20, 2015 church need a spectacular show to get more member as more member = more money members need proof of miracel hence this speaking in tounge
AManWithOutAGod Posted January 20, 2015 Posted January 20, 2015 Even as a Xian I thought it was all BS and fake. I didn't go to a church that did it, but when I did see it (on like tv or the internet). I just shook my head and said they are faking it.
ExCBooster Posted January 20, 2015 Posted January 20, 2015 As a species, we've actually invested a heck of a lot of time and effort into trying to identify sounds or sequences that could be language or encode information. Sometimes as an intellectual exercise, but mostly because language in forms we don't recognise is encoded - usually for military or espionage purposes. Actual human language, as opposed to random babbling, has statistical patterns, syntax, grammar - internal rules that let you identify it. That's part of how speech recognition software works. The program can sort out talking from other noise because it matches the sounds to an internal database of patterns found in your language. It may take a good long time, but we can work out totally unfamiliar graphic representations of languages, based on patterns found in human language and organization. Like with Mayan hieroglyphs: it was the Mayan use of a base 20 number system and mathematics that led to the first breakthroughs in understanding them. Or, even analyse totally unknown samples, to see if they conform to statistical patterns common in known languages. So, run speaking in tongues samples through computer analysis to figure out if it conforms to patterns in language? Hilarity ensues. Also, since an adult human being has already imprinted on a language, and has a heck of a time hearing let alone producing sounds that do not exist in their native language, you could check to see if anyone's producing sounds that don't exist in their own language. I certainly don't hear anything different than scrambled English that sounds vaguely Middle Eastern. I mean, seriously, real human languages, right here right now, are incredibly diverse. Roll call: European languages combo pack! Xhosa tongue twister! Lakota language! Chinese languages combo pack! The even weirder thing is that the languages that speaking in tongues tries to emulate are not quite dead and unknown ones. We've gotten pretty good at reading and even reconstructing languages from the middle east from 6000 years ago... they left plenty of writing, after all. The fact that you don't see Sumerian, Babylonian, Assyrian, Aramaic, Hebrew, Greek, and Latin scholars just lining up to listen to people at these meetings speak in tongues speaks volumes to me. If they were actually spouting long-dead languages, the pews would be stuffed with scholars with audio recording equipment and notepads. That said, your brain is an amazing piece of meat-hardware in its own right. Just because speaking in tongues is babble, not language, doesn't mean that it's "fake" exactly. Glossolalia certainly can be an altered state of consciousness. Given that psychology is a "soft science" that can't control for all the variables in experiments, we're far more secure in our knowledge about outer space than we are "inner space." See also: "Skwerl" a short film in fake English! 2
yunea Posted January 20, 2015 Posted January 20, 2015 My tongues did have sounds that weren't used in my native language, or any that I was studying at the time, or regularly hearing (in my country kids are exposed to foreign languages all the time) - except the many people around me who prayed in tongues who had similar sounds in theirs. Hehe, erm, yeah. One girl claimed to pray in French, but none of us could understand French at the time, so we could only say "yeah sounds like it". I probably could still do it if I tried, especially because I know how to do self-hypnosis these days, but I haven't been ready to try.
Guest Furball Posted January 20, 2015 Posted January 20, 2015 I knew a guy once that said he went to one of these churches and got slain in the spirit. He said he got knocked over when one of these nuts put his hands and on him and he said it felt like he got hit by a 2x4. Its all in the persons head. Even as a christian i didn't believe in this version of the jesus cult. It's all tricks of the mind. These people are just babbling nonsense. I remember the guy from the band korn who converted to this version of the jesus death cult. In his autobiography, he said he was sitting in the pastors (paid liar) office. The pastor asked him if he had received the holy spirit. When he said he hadn't, the pastor said receive him now, and the guy from korn said he felt like something entered into his stomach. As soon as this happened he said he could now speak in tongues and understand what the bible was saying. If there really was a god, he wouldn't need this person to do his bidding (work) for him. It's all theatrical bullcrap. -me 2
midniterider Posted January 20, 2015 Posted January 20, 2015 It's always gibberish. Nobody miraculously becomes fluent in a new language they had no prior knowledge of. Even when I was a christian I wasn't impressed since anyone can start babbling like an infant if you put enough liquor in them. Reminds me of this song: http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=1388
midniterider Posted January 20, 2015 Posted January 20, 2015 I knew a guy once that said he went to one of these churches and got slain in the spirit. He said he got knocked over when one of these nuts put his hands and on him and he said it felt like he got hit by a 2x4. Its all in the persons head. Even as a christian i didn't believe in this version of the jesus cult. It's all tricks of the mind. These people are just babbling nonsense. I remember the guy from the band korn who converted to this version of the jesus death cult. In his autobiography, he said he was sitting in the pastors (paid liar) office. The pastor asked him if he had received the holy spirit. When he said he hadn't, the pastor said receive him now, and the guy from korn said he felt like something entered into his stomach. As soon as this happened he said he could now speak in tongues and understand what the bible was saying. If there really was a god, he wouldn't need this person to do his bidding (work) for him. It's all theatrical bullcrap. -me I was baptized and rather disappointed at the lack of anything special or supernatural happening. I never spoke in tongues and thought it was a bit retarded though my church friends thought it was great and tried to get me to do it. For some reason I would not allow myself to talk like an idiot. :-)
Guest Furball Posted January 20, 2015 Posted January 20, 2015 I knew a guy once that said he went to one of these churches and got slain in the spirit. He said he got knocked over when one of these nuts put his hands and on him and he said it felt like he got hit by a 2x4. Its all in the persons head. Even as a christian i didn't believe in this version of the jesus cult. It's all tricks of the mind. These people are just babbling nonsense. I remember the guy from the band korn who converted to this version of the jesus death cult. In his autobiography, he said he was sitting in the pastors (paid liar) office. The pastor asked him if he had received the holy spirit. When he said he hadn't, the pastor said receive him now, and the guy from korn said he felt like something entered into his stomach. As soon as this happened he said he could now speak in tongues and understand what the bible was saying. If there really was a god, he wouldn't need this person to do his bidding (work) for him. It's all theatrical bullcrap. -me I was baptized and rather disappointed at the lack of anything special or supernatural happening. I never spoke in tongues and thought it was a bit retarded though my church friends thought it was great and tried to get me to do it. For some reason I would not allow myself to talk like an idiot. :-) yeah i remember trying to talk in tongues after watching some of kenneth copelands preaching. I thought i sounded like an idiot and was embarrassed for myself. I got up and never did it again
RipVanWinkle Posted January 21, 2015 Posted January 21, 2015 This thread brought to my mind an occasion that happened shortly before I de-converted. I had discussed with one of my closest fiends the fact that I had not found a church that I felt satisfied with because everything seemed so superficial,. He convinced me to visit his church which he claimed really great. This was the 2nd close friend of mine who convinced me to attend a specific church. Both experiences were horrible. Anyway, about half way through the service a man was designated to speak in tongues and another to interpret. The first one babbled along obviously performing his assigned task making no sense. It was unbelievable. But the interpreter was even worse because he read his interpretation which was merely certain bible verses. It was so phony it was embarrassing. What happened next shocked me. Before church we had decided to go to lunch together. Because of how stupid this speaking in tongues demonstration was even to my very xtian friend, he became furious and, with out saying a word, quickly on stomped out of church ahead of his wife, my wife and me, leaving us far behind. When we arrived at the restaurant, there he was sitting at a table sulking. We ordered lunch and had no discussion about the tongues incident. He lightened up over time during lunch and things went on pretty normal after that. He and I have never spoken about it since. Hmmm. He's still a good friend and is really a very nice guy. I have never seen him act rude or unfriendly before on since. How stupid Xtianity makes even nice folks behave. Rip
Guest Furball Posted January 21, 2015 Posted January 21, 2015 The more i look back on christianity and religion as whole now that i am out of it, the more stupid and pointless it becomes. It's all theatrics and man made b.s.----thanks for sharing your story rip 1
expat674 Posted January 21, 2015 Posted January 21, 2015 When he was younger, a good friend of mine was forced speak in tongues at a church rally. He refused and a group of Xtians all but sat on him until he "yielded to the spirit." In the end he said he started to recite the menu from the local Indian take-away in a funny voice. "Chicken Tikka, tandoori, keema naan, balti, balti, pashwari etc" and the dumb @rsed Xtians all started falling about the place screaming "Praise the Lord"... 4
Guest Furball Posted January 21, 2015 Posted January 21, 2015 weird....whatever pleases jesus and his band of fruitloops
VahnBlue Posted January 22, 2015 Posted January 22, 2015 When he was younger, a good friend of mine was forced speak in tongues at a church rally. He refused and a group of Xtians all but sat on him until he "yielded to the spirit." In the end he said he started to recite the menu from the local Indian take-away in a funny voice. "Chicken Tikka, tandoori, keema naan, balti, balti, pashwari etc" and the dumb @rsed Xtians all started falling about the place screaming "Praise the Lord"...Teeeeeaaaaars! Funniest thing ever. ????
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