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Talking in Tongues -- A Sign from God?
Bamelin
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Also known as Glossolalia
My mother talks in tongues. The first time it happened in scared the crap out of me ... she had attended some big religious convention down in the US, and one of the speakers "laid hands" on her. I knew that it happened occasionally but it never happened in front of me.
And then one day while praying in the car she started to talk in tongues. This happened while she was driving. Suffice to say it I freaked out imagining we faced immenient death as she babbled nonsensically (or in the tongue of angels depending who you ask). I actually thought it was a seizure or something.
It was pretty weird to be honest, although I thought this might have been due to it being such a strange occurance. It's not every day the person driving your car breaks out into tongues.
It had been a few years since I had seen my mother speak in tongues, but yesterday it happened again. Not sure why I'm bringing it to these boards actually, but I sorta needed to talk it through. Perhaps hear some theories on what people thing "tongues" really is, both religious and scientific.
While I have no doubt this viewpoint won't be a popular one, particularly on this board, I personally believe "speaking in tongues" to be a some sort of religious conversation between the Holy Spirit and God (the Father). From what I've seen, at least with my mother, the whole "speak in tongues" thing, has generally happened when she has some sort of heavy burden on her heart, something bothering her so much, she doesn't have the ability to put it into words. At that point I believe that the Holy Spirit takes over for her, perhaps interceding with God somewhat the same way Catholics believe that priests do during Confession.
While I am Protestant myself, I understand the basic premise behind Confession, and I wonder if Tongues is perhaps a higher form of intercession between man and God.
Do you guys think "Speaking in Tongues" is some sort of weird fanatical crazy ass Penecostal thing? Is it an oddity easily explained away by science as some sort of seizure? Or is there more to it than that?
My mother talks in tongues. The first time it happened in scared the crap out of me ... she had attended some big religious convention down in the US, and one of the speakers "laid hands" on her. I knew that it happened occasionally but it never happened in front of me.
And then one day while praying in the car she started to talk in tongues. This happened while she was driving. Suffice to say it I freaked out imagining we faced immenient death as she babbled nonsensically (or in the tongue of angels depending who you ask). I actually thought it was a seizure or something.
It was pretty weird to be honest, although I thought this might have been due to it being such a strange occurance. It's not every day the person driving your car breaks out into tongues.
It had been a few years since I had seen my mother speak in tongues, but yesterday it happened again. Not sure why I'm bringing it to these boards actually, but I sorta needed to talk it through. Perhaps hear some theories on what people thing "tongues" really is, both religious and scientific.
While I have no doubt this viewpoint won't be a popular one, particularly on this board, I personally believe "speaking in tongues" to be a some sort of religious conversation between the Holy Spirit and God (the Father). From what I've seen, at least with my mother, the whole "speak in tongues" thing, has generally happened when she has some sort of heavy burden on her heart, something bothering her so much, she doesn't have the ability to put it into words. At that point I believe that the Holy Spirit takes over for her, perhaps interceding with God somewhat the same way Catholics believe that priests do during Confession.
While I am Protestant myself, I understand the basic premise behind Confession, and I wonder if Tongues is perhaps a higher form of intercession between man and God.
Do you guys think "Speaking in Tongues" is some sort of weird fanatical crazy ass Penecostal thing? Is it an oddity easily explained away by science as some sort of seizure? Or is there more to it than that?
Bamelin on
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Nothing particularly special about Pentecostals
It really is.
There is like, no biblical basis for the modern day "Talking in tounges".
It's so extremley retarted.
When the Apostles spoke in tounges they did not need a random person translator.
RSL is the other.
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I knew the day would come when I would agree with The Cat, I just never thought it would be in a religion thread.
It also may be some form of seizure onset symptom... perhaps it is involuntary in some people, and is exploited ceremonially, causing copy-cat cases. But I haven't actually done any research, so I have no clue about the scientific end of this. Plus, any reported case of "speaking in tounges" is going to be by default reported by someone who is hostile to the idea that science can explain it. A non-religious person would say "I had a seizure".
I think people just have a hard time accepting that god doesn't speak to them in big, flashy extravaganzas anymore. Nobody wants to hear about finding god in the quiet places and so forth, they want a burning bush and some stone tablets. Speaking in tounges is a way to feel like you're being directly affected by your deity, which is a pretty powerful thing.
Also, seriously, never drive in the car with your mom again, that's fucking dangerous. Plus, when you get to heaven and it turns out that god wasn't doing it, you're going to be so embarassed.
Pretty much. People who are too stupid to read the bible think it's that babbling bullshit.
XBL : lJesse Custerl | MWO: Jesse Custer | Best vid ever. | 2nd best vid ever.
So you think that something's bothering her, she can't or won't talk about it, but God wants her to talk about it so she starts to 'speak in tongues'? After she goes through it can she interpret what she's said?
Seriously, if anyone from my fucking family ever pulled that shit, they'd get a smack in the back of the head.
Oh, I thought she was doing the praying before we leave, praying when we arrive thing. I didn't realize that praying while driving occured as well.
I think Acts 14 talks about 2 different types of "gifts", one being the ability to talk in Tongues, the other the ability to translate what's being said in tongues (The gift of Prophecy).
Somebody above mentioned that "Tongues" is common in other religious practices. I didn't realize that Tongues was practiced in other religions.
The language thing is called Xenoglossy and yes it does seem to be what's described in Acts 2 on the Day of the Pentacost.
It goes abit deeper than that. Basically there is something that's bothering her, so she starts to pray, but the issue is so "heavy on her heart" she can't come up with the words to say to God while praying. The idea is that the Holy Spirit then intercedes, saying the words to God that she can't formulate herself.
I've been interested in the whole Tongues thing for awhile now ever seeing it happen with my mother. I'm not really sure where I fall on the issue, but there is definately biblical evidence for the phenomina, particularly in Acts 14.
I pretty much felt the same way to be honest. Religious extacy or not, I was literally like "OMG" when it happened on the road. She was like "oh it's no problem I can still drive when this happens" .... but I'll admit I had images of the car careening out of control. Initially I thought she was having a seizure. Scared the hell out of me.
My fundie friends, who enjoy gathering downstairs and shouting in tongues while I'm trying to fucking sleep, claim it's not supposed to be unintelligible but random languages. Basically, they claim they've heard people speak in short bursts of spanish, greek, latin, usw.
Now, I've had a bit more education in linguistics, and I've heard a lot of their babbling, and I've never heard any fucking spanish from them.
Anyway, many do believe that it is or should be intelligible to others, but it's our (us waiting to be converted) fault that we don't know the language they're shouting.
It's everywhere when you start getting into the esoteric or less published parts of religions. I know jack shit about neurobiology or neurochemistry, but it could be something with religions in general, sort of like "the power of prayer" works in every religion.
Reminds me of the Orz.
When someone has a tongue of fire descend upon them from Heaven and grant them the ability to spread the Gospel in another language, which they have never learned but which is immediately recognisable to native speakers, that’s a miracle.
When someone starts speaking gibberish for no apparent reason, that’s a brain malfunction.
See that is some weird shit
I believe it only happens if they have been exposed to the language though
Which would suggest that your brains stores and processes linguistic information completely subconsciously and if you just slammed your head against the wall properly you could unlock it
That, my friend, sounds like a hypothesis. I'd be most interested to hear how that works out for you.
;-)
let me go put on mah learnin' helmet
That's not totally crazy, given how easy learning languages is for children, I have to think that perhaps the only difference as we get older is properly processing the new language (perhaps we're overthinking it?), we're likely still taking it in, just not doing anything with it.
Oh crazy people, you never fail to amuse.
If you can get that working, can you tell me the precise location you hit your head and how hard? Don't worry if you can't tell me in English, I'll find a translator.
That's where the religious theme comes in: you hear what you want to hear from glossolalia.
I recall an article some years ago where some British person took a blow to the head, and then spoke with a thick French accent. :P
A couple of years ago when I was in Malawi my friend and I were walking along the main road and could hear this non-sensical (though granted, its not that I knew a whole lot of the local language anyway) yelling and screaming coming from a group of huts on the other side. It definitely got our attention, though we assumed there was a brawl going on.
Then these three girls (between 10 and 14 I'd imagine) walk up to us and ask if we knew what was happening.
They then told us the people were talking in tongues, identified themselves as Jehovah's Witnesses and proceeded to ask us when we would be joining their church. Across languages, races and continents, some things never change :P
XBL : lJesse Custerl | MWO: Jesse Custer | Best vid ever. | 2nd best vid ever.
"For anyone who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God. Indeed, no one understands him; he utters mysteries with his spirit. But everyone who prophesies speaks to men for their strengthening, encouragement and comfort. He who speaks in a tongue edifies himself, but he who prophesies edifies the church. I would like every one of you to speak in tongues, but I would rather have you prophesy. He who prophesies is greater than one who speaks in tongues, unless he interprets, so that the church may be edified."
Much of the rest of the chapter is Paul speaking more about it.
I'll be fine, just give me a minute, a man's got a limit, I can't get a life if my heart's not in it.
You may not understand this immediately, but some people are interested in the truth. If you are the type of person who thinks it's good to tell a dying man he doesn't actually have cancer because it makes the world easier or better for him, well fine. Millions if not billions of people share your cowardice. It's probably one of the reasons why religion was invented.
At any rate, I'd never lie to a dying man about the facts. But, if a person who was dying from cancer got comfort and strength from praying to their higher power, seeking a cure that wasn't based in science, or BASE jumping, I wouldn't tell them to give up. Or that they were wasting their time, or attampt to tell them how to live out the rest of their lives. I wouldn't take that away from them. Just like I wouldn't try to convince an atheist that his tumor would stop growing if he prayed to the big dude in the sky.
Also I'm waiting until my kid sister is six to tell her there's no Easter Bunny, Santa Clause or Tooth Fairy. I know she already knows what's up, but if I tell her the truh I don't have to buy her presents right?
I'm pretty sure this has only ever happened with accents, never languages unless - as some already pointed out - they've had previous exposure to that language. What's actually happening in these cases isn't that they've developed a brand new accent, but that their current method of speech has become impaired in such a way that resembles another accent.
If you have a stroke, sometimes your speech becomes slurred - it's the same principle but with an occurrence that sounds like an already existing accent.
So she went to a brain-washing convention and now she's acting weird, you say?
So he stopped doing it in public?
Yep.