Religions

Well this can be a touchy subject but I find it interesting. I'm curious about everyone's beliefs. I was raised with christian values but I no longer hold to those beliefs entirely. I don't actually have a religion now, other than when I'm being a smartmouth, I tell people I practice Cristyism Examples are if my husband gets a cup of coffee and doesn't drink it all, I tell him he is dishonoring my religion by wasting it Another is when I don't feel like doing something it's against my religion for the day, my old boss got to hear that alot, LOL. I just believe that as long as I do what I think is right, it's enough. I don't claim to know if there is a heaven or hell or if we get reincarnated or anything like that. I think I'm a good person so even if I'm wrong about not worshiping God, Budda, Ala, or a thousand other gods I am confident I'm covered so I have no worries. My husband is a christian to his heart even though he skips church and we kinda are teaching our kids that path because it's a lot simpler than my own beliefs. An example of the simplicity is my husband's mother died not to long ago and we were trying to explain death to our 3yr old. He couldn't get the concept and still kept asking where grandma went so we finially just told him she went to heaven to be an angel and watch over him from the sky. He accepted that because it was a place with a name and now he thinks she's a fairy that he can't see I introduced him to fairies long before angles and that is what he thinks angles are if you're wondering where that came from.

Anyway what religions do you all practice???

lol! Nice religion Moondemon.

I dont want to discredit anyone's belief or say that religion is all bad. I mean no offense of anykind. That said:

I've stopped believing in religion when i began classes of philosophy in college, it's hard to keep on believe in a power outside of myself. People often say that they did this because of God, or that God gave them the strenght...blablabla...For me, when i do something good, i slap myself on the back, I did it, not some guy in the metaphorical clouds, when i survive my nasty childhood, it was MY strenght, not his. This way of thinking is always diminishing the human being for some allmighty being. No. I believe in humans, WE have the strenght to do everything, it is OUR strenght. Religion is made by men's hand and yet, the creation surpass the creator. Funny. It weaken the human 's spirith. The concept of christianity, is good though...love one each other, give to your brothers and sisters....that philosophy is humanist and very beautifull...that for me is christianity. The love Message Jesus wanted us to learn. Unfortunately, people say they are christian but doesn't live by what being a christian really is.  On the other hand, throughout history, men has commited the worst atrocities in the name of their God...how weird...one of the commendement is thou shall not kill...and yet it the name of God, its ok. WHAT? How coherent is that.  In history, christian has killed so many people... christianity has seen so many massacre.And simply because christian couldn't tolerate other gods, other religion...There is so much incoherence in this religion... The christian religion of men is bad and corrupted. Historically Jesus truly lived, how sad he would be to see what men has understood of his message of love.

Alas, i believe in men, i believe in energy , in good in people, i believe that we are a part of nature and that earth is like a good mother who loves us. I believe we need to protect our home (earth). I believe that the human being has the power to do everything he want to do...I believe in me.

I think you both have good points and I don't think Lili sounds like she's bashing. The example I'm going by is at a great uncle's funeral these two old ladies were sitting behind me talking about a family member who was there. They were "good christian women" yet they kept saying that a person like the girl they were discussing didn't belong in a church and quite a few more things to that effect. Let me tell you, I was TICKED off by what they were saying. Unfortunatly attitudes like that are alot more common then people want to adimt and it does ruin the all should be loved theory and I think that is what Lili ment by The religion of men is bad and corrupted. Yes there are people out there that truely show their faith the way it was ment and I bow to them but there are also people out there that just give lipservice to their faith and show exactly the opposite.

Once my kids are older I plan to explain my own beliefs to them and I'll let them know other beliefs (I reserch alot of religions to kill time, I really need a life ) Then the boys can decide their own path without fear of dissapointing me or their father. This is because I get a lot of grief for my own veiws from my family and if the boys want to choose another road from mine I want them to know we won't get on their cases about it. I'm very lucky in the fact my husband is open minded and he has no problem with the master plan for the kids

No i didn't mean to bash Christianity... The christian philosophy, is very beautiful and if men truly lived by this philantropic religion the world would be such a beautiful place. Its men or the individuals that are corrupted and use religion at their advantage,  Take this example:

In South America when the spanish came and 'discovered' there was two kind of fathers that were there to 'convert' the natives. There was the fathers who said that the natives we'rent men, that they were animals, that they didn't had souls... therefore they could be use as the spanish saw fit, mainly as slaves. There was also the fathers who loved the natives, they still wanted to convert them, but they said that they were all brothers and that by treating them as slaves as if they were nothing, they were going against Jesus's teaching. They fought to help the natives.

Corruption is in the heart of men, the religion is...its the heart of people that turns it bad...I dunno if my point of view is more clearer now?! I've been baptized when i was young, i grew up with god, but i don't believe in what men have done with the religion...i dont believe in the hand of men in it...but i do find the teachings of Jesus great. I know some people that aren't baptized or anything and they are more christian than some real christian that i know.

Your example Cristy, is exactly what i was trying to say.

Tricky topic, very tricky.  In my own life I have kind of gone in extremes with religion from being very religious to athiest (well agnostic would be a better word) to slightly religious where I am know.

Religion is a painful subject for me because my dad used to work for a church and then a lot of bad things happened (I won't go into detail) and he left the job and spent a year unemployed.  I was in high school at the time and had to deal with a lot of people calling me names, telling me I was going to hell, etc.  On top it, I had to be financially independent from my parents because they couldn't afford much. 

My religious prefernece was never really accepted by my "friends" in high school and they constantly either told me I was going to hell or they tried to convert me.  With all of that I soon began to question the existence of any sort of diety.

Now I'm slightly religious.  I go to church when I feel I need a little spiritual enrichment, I combine beliefs from the religion I practice with others that I find enlightening, and as a student of science, I incorporate some of that in too.  In most religous books I've read, the diety (whether it be God or Allah, or whoever) did things like create the world, but they never really said how.  This I believe, lets a perfect window in for science to explain things.  In my own mind, I think its fair to say that if a god created the world, the laws of physics, and science were also created by that diety and therefore science doesn't clash with the diety and religion, it compliments it.

What I think is most important is trying to be a good person because it is the right thing to do.  This is very difficult because doing so can sometimes mean that I can't do what I want, but need to do what I should.  In the future, I hope to see more religious acceptance and more separation of church and state.  I think historically speaking, when government and religion combine, bad things happen.  Especially if not all the citizens under the government have the same religion.  That's just my opinion though.  Feel free to disagree.

I do want to add one more thing.  I think its funny how people view the media.  Many people here think its too liberal and maybe it is.  I must be way out there though because I think its too conservative.  What I mean is that I'd like to have a better understanding of world issues and domestic issues and I don't think I often find that.  Oh well, just a thought.

On Dec 16, 2005 10:46 am, BogusRed said:

I have to agree with Emmet. The media had little to do with my own distaste for the Christian sect. ( I don't blame the religion.) It's the people. 

I've read the new testament a few times and i've always find the teaching of Jesus to be quite the philosophy its very human and has love ( among ther things) as basis. My friend had a nice view of it :She said that maybe the part where Jesus claimed to be son of god and all that might have been added afterward, she thinks that Jesus was an ordinary man who had this huge capacity  to love and wanted to change the world, he just came to early for his time. The people in power seeing he was gaining too much influence killed him. I think it's nice...

As for me, its history that made me not like the christian religion of men, you know, the pope, the vaitican...all that...i dont believe in. I dont believe in the church and all that stuff. I believe in whats behind all that artifice...

As for the kids i'll have eventually, i'll let them choose their own belief...

*opens the flood gates*

How to start this off....Well, I happen to be a devout craddle Catholic.

I've had many people in my days tell me that the religion I follow, the religion I've given my life to, is bogus, and full of the corrupt and wicked. But I think what gets overlooked, more often than not, are those of us who do go to church, who do try our best, and who do believe that the acts we commit here on earth will decide if we are able to join God in heaven.

That being said, I am (as are the rest of us) human; I go 5-9 mph over the speed limit, I have a cigarette when I'm anxious, and I do slip up and get angry. I'm worried that these slip ups are leading people to believe that the majority of the people involved in the religion are faulty...

As for the few  psycopaths through history that have claimed violence in the name of 'god'; speaking religiously, if there is a God, there is also satan. And I think God is blamed for a number of things satan has a hand in. That doesn't make the religion bad. That makes the person who committed the act mentally ill and with tortured soul. It makes them worth praying for...

It really pains me to see so many of you vehement about the people that make up these religions, and I want to know if there are any clarifications that I can make. I can't be positive I can help you, but I want to try...

Like i said, its not the religion in itself that is bad. Its the people. The people that say your religion is wicked and all doesnt make the difference im making here...its their vision of it, its not THE vision of it.

Ah... Religion is a very sensitive subject. Well I'm a catholic...well actually not a very good one. I don't go to church, I've never been to catocism (I think that's the spelling), And I wouldn't trade High school for Catholic School if my life depened on it but that doesn't really mean that I don't think there's a God.

I agree with BR that religion is there for a moral system to give us at least something to believe in because not matter what you believe in a person always sees some kind of higher power or figure to believe in. For instance if you are an atheist then that sometimes means you believe in science or Earth. But I don't nessecarily agree with BR that science explains everything. This is where my Belief in God lies. Scientists say that all cells come from pre exisiting cells if so then where did the very first cell come from? Perhaps that's what God created. And how did all of a sudden a big explosion create a massive universe? Perhaps God had a hand in that too. Maybe he's the one who created that Big Bang that made solar systems and stars and planets for which life may be possible to evolve. where I think that people have it wrong is that God created everylittle thing visible. No, science has already proven that everything has evolved from others things in a sense yes God did create everything by making that one cell but not in the literal sense that every religious buff claims.

And this is where I disagree with Emmet. I don't believe that science and religion compliment each other. In my view they're at war with each other. Because science is proving that God didn't make everything, science is proving that there is no God which I think is just wrong. There may or may not be a God but in my opinion there is. He's just not as involved as everyone may think he is. Religion and science may never get along and then there's always people who lean way to the right or way to the left what my belief is that don't do either be somewhere in the middle. Belive in a God but don't belive in him so much that he'll help you on a math test. Belive in science but don't belive in it so much to think that there's no glimmer of faith left.

And another thing that bugs me about what people say that God tells you to do. For example why would God care if you're glutonous? Why would he care if you're envious of someone else? or having premarital sex? Is that what really matters in life? Is that what God would care about? In my opinion God only cares about life. If you kill another life willingly then obviously he's not gonna like that, If you take you own life then you're basically telling God 'Hey! I don't care about you or anyone else!' he's not gonna like that either, but if you risk your life for someone but not really achieve your goal then God'll say ' This person cares enough about other people to risk his own life to save them. A+ in my book', and if you sacrifice yourself for someone else in attempts to save them and lose your own life then that's showing that you cared more about that person then to worry about what happened to you, you wanted them to live their life. Again I'm not in the least religious that's just what I think God would really care about. Not envy and things of that sort.

But hey this is all my opinion and I'm done ranting now. You all probably think I'm crazy now but that's ok

All this just goes back to what I said when I opened this subject.... it can be a bit touchy

Emmet my dear, I know how you feel about the freinds saying you are going to hell and trying to convert you, I had alot of that in my late teens It wasn't fun.

Karana, I don't think you opened any flood gates and I'm sorry if anything I've said so far has offended you. I'm glad your only human cause you would be scary if you weren't I don't think anyone here has ment to seem like they are attacking your religion and You are right that there are alot of followers who do try to do their best. Its just that many people hold to other beliefs and their reasons for them are as real as yours even if it isn't about the same thing.

Arkillian, I think you pegged me with the why magic fasinates us comment

Jill I don't think your any crazier than I am for opening this can of worms

Then why base your opinions on those who are obliviously wrong? Even by what you know of the religion?

And, yes, I was somewhat offeneded by this topic because I try really hard to do my best as a Catholic; but it's the stereotype of my religion that's hard to get around, and this conversation only solidifies that.

Please don't take this as a personal attack, because its not.  I guess I don't see where you disagree with me.  What you wrote is sort of what I'm talking about.  Could you please explain further?

I suppose it comes down to how you view science.  Science is actually a philosophy.  I think we forget that because when we think of philosophy we think of Mills, Locke, Nietzsche, etc.  We forget that science too exists to explain things like philosophy.  It is a perspective that happens to lead to experiments that "prove" one thing or the other.  The other thing to remember is that in science, nothing can be "proven." 

I suppose if you think that science and religion are at odds, that's a perspective that I don't see.  I don't see that science has tried to disprove God's existance.  Maybe a few scientists have, but over all, I don't see it that way.  I'm very interested to hear what you think.  To me, science has showen many indications for the existence of a diety and perhaps evidence for stories within the Bible, Koran, etc.  They may not come out and say, "This indicates that such and such as written in the book of whatever happened."  Sometimes you have to read into it, which perhaps is my mistake.  I guess I see science as a means to explain the works of a diety, not a way to disprove that a diety had a hand in anything. 

Maybe this is one of those things that we're kind of saying the same thing but from opposite angles.  Either way, I really enjoyed reading what you wrote.  You are obviously a very intelligent person who puts a lot of thought into your opinons and I respect that very much.