Your Views on Religion?

[LadyX]

I'm starting this thread to continue a discussion that was started in a thread where it wasn't appropriate.

What are your views on religion? I am against any kind of organized religion. It has been the reason for so much killing that has gone on through the ages. If there is a God (I'm still searching for my answer to that one) why would he want people to kill in his name, when one of the commandments is "Thou shalt not kill?"

So called religious people are hypocritical, and judgemental. Yet, if you look into their lives, you would find them to be no better than those they preach against. I have no answers to the secret of life, and I never pretend I do. Unlike those "religious" people think all the answers lie in a book. Everyone seems to interpret this book to fit their own circumstances. So it seems the rules it preaches are not set in stone. How do you feel about it?

[sonofhud]

I believe in God. I am still young; I'm a college student, so I have began to question things a lot more. I was brough up in a Southern Baptist home and went to church every Sunday because my parents made me. Not that I didn't mind, because thats how I was raised. I got used to it and it didn't bother me. I definately do not hate them for bringing me. I have not really gone much since high school.

 

Do I agree with everything they teach at my church? Not hardly. There are many activities the baptist church is said to look down on that I don't really have a problem with. Such as consuming alcohol. I don't think there is anything wrong with having a drink or two, but many many people at my church would frown upon that kind of behavior.

 

So called religious people are hypocritical, and judgemental. Yet, if you look into their lives, you would find them to be no better than those they preach against.

 

This has been one of my biggest problems with going to church. By no means was I ever the perfect little Chirstian church go-er, but some of the people I was in church with on Sundays would be all religious and "praise the Lord" singing worship songs. The next day at school they would be flipping people off across the courtyard, cursing non stop, sleepin around, and getting wasted every weekend. That was pretty much the same behavior has people who aren't going to church so why would I or anyone wanna be associated with that? What makes their way of life any betteR? And an even tougher question is what gives me the right to judge what they do? Shouldn't I just go about my own business and worry about how I live? So i've kinda been confused about all of this for the last few years.

 

why would he want people to kill in his name, when one of the commandments is "Thou shalt not kill?

 

He doesn't want people to kill people. War is not brough on or initiated by God, but by people. People are sinners, and "true" Christians would always work for a peaceful resolution, like Jesus would have. We will never see an end to wars based on religion. Religion is something that is most important in believer's lives, so important that they are willing to die for it. Still today in Ireland, there are protestants fighting catholics. Both groups are Christians and believe in the same God. Both believe there was a man named Jesus, who was essential God in a human's body, he lived a perfect(sinless) life, and was crucified to die for the sin of everyone else. That is the basis for Christian beliefs and yet because they have a few differences they have been fighting each other for years.

[tphillip]

LadyX, I'm similar to you. I'm an atheist,

 

I despise organized religion as a whole. Generally I have found them to be hypocritical at straying far from what they should be doing (Eg: Political activism). The other gall is that many organized religions give the credit to God, but the blame to humans. God isn't a very good leader if he won't take the blame along with the credit IMO.

 

However I don't disparage anyone of their own personal beliefs, provided they don't preach. Don't try to convert me, and don't disparage my beliefs and I'll happily leave you to follow your religion (Provided you and your religion is not violent).

 

However I'll actively call any believer to the carpet if they say they follow a particular religion and talk up their faith and beliefs, but in practice do not follow their beliefs or the tenets of their religion. It really irks me when religious people are such blatant hypocrites. Who are they to tell me how moral they are when they can't even follow their own beliefs or that of the religion that they say they follow.

 

Ok....I'm done venting now.

[jenny]

for me, and i would only presume to speak for *myself* - religion is a necessary weakness in thinking. it's a human-made construction/narrative intended to sate curiousity, comfort, and control, much like any other system of thought.

[moimeme]

It is as prejudicial to paint all religions and religious people with the same brush as it is to engage in any other broad (and therefore fallacious) generalizations.

 

It is a myth that religions 'cause' wars. Wars are started because leaders of nations have geopolitcal goals to achieve. The truly manipulative ones find a society's weak spot and use it to fool the populace into going along with their aims; whether that be to claim that Jews were ruining society or that Iraq was about to launch weapons of mass destruction. Whatever 'sales pitch' will be soaked up by a gullible public will be used by political strategists for their own ends. The trick is to find a small grievance and blow it up and distort it, so in Ireland, it was the case that Catholics were discriminated against. Having a fractious Ireland keeps its attention off its place in the Commonwealth.

 

I find it bizarre that people complain that churchgoers are not well-behaved. Abigail von Buren used to say that churches should be 'hospitals for sinners, not museums for saints'. Who else should go to church but people who aren't living good lives and who need to be told to do so?

 

The other fallacy is to equate God with religion. God didn't start religions. People did. And people are prone to error, to issues, to problems, to their own troubles. To blame the state of religions on God is ridiculous.

 

As for blaming God for what happens on Earth, that, too is foolish. We have free will. Not much use free will would be if He treated us all like puppets and made us do His bidding. People cause wars; not God. It is ridiculous to blame Him because we're idiots. I'm sure if it were up to Him, life would be great here but He lets us decide.

 

Are 'the rules' cast in stone? We have two sets of rules; the Ten Commandments and the Two Great Commandments. The Bible is a collection of some of the books written over thousands of years and translated time and again over the centuries. To think that somehow, in that process, things were not mistranslated or in any other way messed up is exceedingly silly, I think. The nuances from language to language can be huge, much less from different eras of languages.

[dvda]

religion is a crutch. blind faith is for people that aren't string enough to live life on their own. I'm not necessarily talking about the belief if god. when i say faith i mean people who think along the lines of "everything will be ok if i just believe in god". their lives don't have any meaning on their own and they have to have some "deeper" meaning and believe that somehow they're going to be rewarded for living. Not saying this to insult anyone, but personally I find that to be a severe weakness, a mjaor character flaw, and frankly, extremely pathetic.

[VASH THE STAMPEDE]

Personally ,I back slide alot.I am a Christian.Religion is not for the weak but for those who are Strong enough to last on a narrow path of no sins .

Faith is the belief of things that aren't yet, but will be.

Faith is not blind, but the people who don't understand it are.

Religions vary,therefore misunderstood alot.

GOD doesn't take credit for anything ,people give him that credit(not him self).

To say the BIBLE is a factitious book ,is wrong.It teaches us how to deal with situations that are unbearable.

GOD spoke through this book.

[jenny]

i actually have a lot of respect for people who understand that it's a created system, and *chose* to believe it - it's like choosing to live one's life based on a really great novel.

 

this is, however, why i would never date xtians - the methods of proof are so different as to be seemingly irreconcilable with secular methods. one of my guys used to say i should do X based on biblical evidence, and then quote many, many, many passages. i would just blink, then laughingly suggest that hemingway wanted me to do differently.

[Ryan]

I've said it before and I'll say it again:

 

Be your own god.

[moimeme]

why i would never date xtians

 

one of my guys used to say i should do X based on biblical evidence

 

PLEASE do not confuse fundamentalist Christians with all Christians. There is no more a single stripe of Christian than there is of Native Canadian or East Indian.

[jenny]

no, fair enough. but isn't the bible fairly central to most xtians even if they are not literalists or thumpers? please do explain, socrates. i think you have yourself once stated you accepted the bible as legitimate evidence, actually, but i'd have to hunt back.

[VASH THE STAMPEDE]

If you're your own god ,what benifits have you got other that you'll be in HELL next to me.

(If I dont change my ways)

[Ryan]

If you're your own god ,what benifits have you got other that you'll be in HELL next to me.

 

Well....the obvious one is that I don't have your hell.

[VASH THE STAMPEDE]

LOL,Thats actually funny.

[cindy0039]

Originally posted by Ryan

I've said it before and I'll say it again:

 

Be your own god.

 

Ryan, could you go a little deeper with this and explain what you mean? I'm fascinated by this statement and would really like to understand where you're coming from with it. Thanks!

[moimeme]

"but isn't the bible fairly central to most xtians even if they are not literalists or thumpers?"

 

The Bible is a whole bunch of books. Some people focus on all of them. Others pay most attention to the newer bits. Some people swear it must be followed verbatim (though they do not stone their disrespectful children in the square). Most do not.

 

"please do explain, socrates".

 

I'm not Socrates. Ryan's Socrates.

 

"i think you have yourself once stated you accepted the bible as legitimate evidence, actually, but i'd have to hunt back."

 

Wrongo. That wasn't me. I quoted JC from a few New Testament books. That he existed isn't a matter of conjecture, BTW.

[moimeme]

Ryan, could you go a little deeper with this and explain what you mean? I'm fascinated by this statement and would really like to understand where you're coming from with it. Thanks!

 

It means Ryan's Buddhist.

 

[Ryan]

Ryan, could you go a little deeper with this and explain what you mean? I'm fascinated by this statement and would really like to understand where you're coming from with it. Thanks!

 

It means I take full control of my world, my force, and my fate. I do not surrender any of my thoughts, feelings, or will to the mythology of any society.

 

That he existed isn't a matter of conjecture, BTW.

 

I don't think many people doubt the existence of a human that is now known by the name of Jesus Christ. The historicity of his acts, however, is dubious.

[VASH THE STAMPEDE]

Ok , I love the controversy.

But in reality there is a GOD and there will be JUDGEMENT after you die,and there is a HELL (sorry ryan) but it is a real place where all those who fell short of the glory of GOD go.

[Tony T]

Heaven and hell have nothing to do with religion. It is ludicrous to think that someone would burn in hell for an eternity for commiting any act which is forgivable....and all of them are.

 

Good and bad have nothing to do with religion. Good and bad are judgements and not the part of religion to make.

 

Religion is life. Life is rewarded with itself and we give that reward to ourselves according to the way we live. This is it. This is all. And it should be that way. It should be no other way. Eternity is a bore. Forever is a drag. Whatever time we sqeeze out of this planet that we are happy is our heaven. The rest is just a waste of time.

 

The God of creation is the God within all of us. The kingdom of heaven is right there inside of us. You can make heaven for yourself or you can make hell.

 

The question is not whether or not I believe in God...but does God believe in me?

[Ryan]

But in reality there is a GOD and there will be JUDGEMENT after you die,and there is a HELL (sorry ryan) but it is a real place where all those who fell short of the glory of GOD go.

 

I love it when people state opinion as prima facie.

 

I'll choose ignorance over fear as my ruler any day.

[VASH THE STAMPEDE]

So let me get this right you don't believe in GOD who created us,but in a heart beat believe we've evolved from monkeys or fishes.

[Ryan]

So let me get this right you don't believe in GOD who created us

 

I have no reason to do so. The burden of proof is on the assertion, not the negation. I'm not saying it's false...I'm just not saying it is true either. I don't know. Nobody knows. Welcome to the agnostic.

 

but in a heart beat believe we've evolved from monkeys or fishes.

 

If a heartbeat means time spent studying biology and genetics, then yes.

[Ryan]

On second thought, I don't have much of a problem with that.

 

My god does create me.

[jenny]

Wrongo. That wasn't me. I quoted JC from a few New Testament books. That he existed isn't a matter of conjecture, BTW.

 

http://www.loveshack.org/forums/t25566/15-7?highlight=bible%20and%20evidence

 

i understand that some sections are narratives based on actual historical events. i just don't accept it, or them, as having any authority outside a standard collection of writings about different times and societies.