I just began my first home brew. It was going well until it was time to siphon the beer to the pot for carbonation and then into the bottles. I finally just poured it into the pot and funneled into the bottle.
What is the consequence of this? Why is it necessary to siphon from the beer to the bottles?
First, welcome! Second, while you're in the right place to ask questions, you'll get a lot of opinions so use what you need to for your situation. Third, sounds like you may have tried the thumb-over-the-end-of-the-siphon tube method and made a mess. Been there. That's when I bought an auto-siphon and a bottling wand. Never looked back.
The point has been made, but I'll add my two cents to what most others have said. Introducing oxygen to your post-ferm beer (by pouring or sloshing the beer to the extent of creating bubbles) can result in anything from off-flavors to a totally undrinkable batch. Siphoning gently sucks the beer up and gently releases it into your bottling bucket
without introducing oxygen. From there, a bottling wand attached to your bottling bucket spigot gently transfers the beer from bucket to bottle again,
without introducing oxygen. This will be a significant factor in the success of your homebrew.
Others have mentioned adequate cleaning and sanitation of all your equipment that comes into contact with the brew, i.e., anything that makes contact with it from the post-boil wort to the post-ferm beer. This is critical. Temperature control during fermentation is also critical.
I wouldn't be too discouraged by some of the suggestions here that you may have ruined your beer. For the future, bottle your beer when it's safe to (generally after 2-3 weeks in the fermenter and after 2 consecutive final gravity readings 2-3 days apart that read the same. Leave your bottle-conditioning beer at ~70F for 3 weeks, then into the fridge for 1 week. Then (hopefully) enjoy!