Religion!

OK, so in another topic, religion came up.  So what are your beliefs, opinions, thoughts, confusions, questions? And of course keep it civil, don't judge or bash, if you think something is offensive, stick "in my opinion" in front, so you can't get in poo.

schnooder:  I believe that Jesus died for our sins.  I believe that He will return one of these days.  If I am wrong, then at least I have lived a good life, if you are wrong, oh-oh.

I believe religion was created to explain the unexplained, manipulated to control and civilize the masses and successfully promoted as a way of self fulfillment with an ultimate reward, building long-term popularity during highly corrupt and barbaric times through the centuries. 

I believe religion flourishes today for a version of these reasons. It still can be used to 'answer' some things that have not yet and due to human limitations, may never be comprehended through science. For the most part, it also counteracts biological survival of the fitest, encouraging humanity with some obvious glaring exceptions noted. In addition, it typically dangles that carrot of the final payoff. 

Aside from being discovered by some later in life, it thrives off being indoctrinated from birth. From all I see, it enhances the lives of those who believe and usually extremely so the fact that its based in hearsay is insignificant to me because the results are so empowering for them.

Original Post by mommakitty:

schnooder:  I believe that Jesus died for our sins.  I believe that He will return one of these days.  If I am wrong, then at least I have lived a good life, if you are wrong, oh-oh.

so you're hedging your bets?

devout spiritual atheist, here.

Just because you do not believe in the wind doesn"t mean it doesn't blow your hair.

If you do not believe in gravity and jump off a building, you will still be squished at the bottom.

There is no explaination outside of a living God that makes any sense. If there is no God and there is no life other than this, how or why do you get up in the morning? I live to serve a risen savior who died on the cross for my sins, He paid the price that I should have paid. He sustains me and encourages me and through him I am better than I could ever be alone.

I did not come from monkeys, I was formed and created by God to serve his purpose. He gives me life and asked only that I love him in return. If God were not real, then life has no meaning or purpose. I do not require an explaination for everything, he assures me that in time I will gain all knowledge.

It's really interesting... there was no written documentation of Jesus until long after he died.

Constantine & co. got together and decided what was and wasn't holy enough to put in the bible

Original Post by mommakitty:

If I am wrong, then at least I have lived a good life, if you are wrong, oh-oh.

If Atheists are wrong, then at least they got to spend their time on earth unafraid - free to follow their conscience wherever it lead them. If Christians are wrong, what a waste of precious lifetime spent being afraid! What a waste of time and energy spent praying and sitting in church. How unfortunate for everyone who was persecuted, killed, accused of witchcraft or heresy, or denied the right to marry or adopt children because being gay is "against the bible".

To use the season we are in, Thanksgiving without the Turkey. I believe that religion does exactly the opposite, it separates father from son, mother from daughter. The Bible calles it separating the bone from the marrow. It does inhance our lives but at a great price. It has caused wars since the beginning of time. It is purely an individual thing. I did not brainwash my children, they made the choice to follow Christ on their own. I could not bring them to this conclusion just as I cannot change your mind, it is something we each have to decide for ourselves. God chose not to force us to follow him, he gave us a choice. We all make our choices but he is still God and he requires for us to follow him for salvation. The Bible says that there is no other way except Christ. Our choice does not change his mind. If we choose not to follow him then we have made our choice and the consequences are clear. 

lnorris, if you're not trying to change our minds, why so many posts?

Okay...I wrote a blog post about this a few weeks ago...so...I'll just re-state it here...

God, well, here I speak mostly of the Christian idea of God because that is how I was raised. But I watch fellow Christians around me preach and claim to embody Jesus and do his will. But to me, they are "Sunday Morning" Christians, sweet, understanding, open and remorseful at the time, only to become the exact opposite once church is over.

I believe in something more, which comes from my own experiences. While I believe in Jesus and in the bible, I also believe that we, as people, as humans who are flawed and bound to sin and make mistakes. Have removed the female influence from the bible.

Women have for generations, been seen as mans servant, as an after-thought to man so that he would not be alone. We've been told to "Submit" and serve the men in our lives. I do not believe, however. That creation can accur without a female influance. You cannot have children without mothers, weather they be tree, insect, animal or human, nothing is born without both sides.

I believe that the female God, or "Goddess" as it were, was removed from the bible centuries ago in order to somehow show women that men came first that they must accept this fact blindly. If a woman had seen a female influence in the bible, or other religious text, perhaps she would not be willing to submit and serve men blindly...This would give woman a sense of power and self worth.

I do not believe that God or the Goddess are above one or the other, but that they stand together and worked together to create the world, just as they work together now. I believe that both of them chose to send Jesus here as a vessel to show us that we are not alone and to give the ultimate sacrifice.

I've watched so many Christian people in my life, and that of my friends, who seem to think God is someone to pass judgement, a bit like a principal just waiting to hand out detention slips to hell should we step out of line. I've witnessed those who claim to be Christian do nothing but pass judgement and condemn people for not following what they believe.

However I have also met many wonderful Christians.

I do not believe in hell. I believe there is punishment for things. But no child is born evil, no child is born wanting to harm and to sin. It is always a chain of events which mold a person to do good or bad. It is there choice of course, but I believe God knows them and why they became the people they are. I trust in him to help them and show them the way, not condemn them to a fire-filled eternity for there sins.

I believe the only true sin is removing the free will of another.

I do not believe people are sinners for following there hearts in the instances of gay or lesbian, bi-sexual or transgendered. God IS love. Whatever combination that love is found is not important. We are not divided Male and Female. Each of us are blessed with a combination.

It is our souls which choose the gender we become in our hearts, it is something decided long before we come to be here. The body is just a vessel to hold the soul until there time is finished. Because of that, I feel the gender of a person on the outside is not important.

We have learned to rely to much on our eyes. God does not speak to us that way, he speaks to our hearts, it is us who must take the time to listen. His voice is soft, but it IS there...whispering.  It is our hearts which choose who we love. That love is a gift that is given freely between us and it should not be judged.

There are many divisions of religion, Christian, Jewish, Buddist...the list goes on. But the love for God is the same, regardless of the story that is told of him or her. We all seek the same thing, to be loved and know that when the time ends here we are not left with nothing.....

Should it matter what we label it?

What is ther name of the bible you use? I have never read that one.

I thought we were here to share our views. I am just stating what I believe. I realize that I have very little influence over anyone. I am usually not this vocal about what I believe. I try to live my life in a way that Christ might be seen in me. People are not influenced by idle chatter buit rather by what is seen in their lives. I am so far from perfect. I am a sinner but I am forgiven. Throughout time people have rejected what God has to offer. It is not my responsibility to change theie minds. My only responsibility is to share what Christ has done for me. The choice to change or to accept what Christ has to offer is totally up to you.

Since my previous examples of transition fossils were dismissed, how about the flu virus? okay, so technically not an "animal"...but still a great example of evolution at work.

The reason we get a new strain of the flu every winter is that it mutates. So you get the flu and build up antibodies to beat it, then the flu mutates (evolves) to a new strain, so when you catch it next year your antibodies no longer work. The flu is constantly changing and we can physically watch its RNA sequence change right before our very eyes. We can see exactly where the "parent" strain mutated to create the new strain. To me, actually watching evolution happen in a test tube is more compelling evidence than any skeletal remains anyone could dig up. Although those are compelling too.  (Okay Ill shut up now.)

lol...for someone not trying to convince people you sure do jump in straight off...

BUT...to answer your question, thats what I'm SAYING!! the bible teaches that women should "Submit" well...that doesn't fly with me, I would rather die a lonely spinster than submit to make some God happy. thats why I choose what to believe, which isn't a religion..but something I've learned just living.

For example...the bible says being Gay or lesbian or Transgendered is reason enough to go to hell, then WHY are these people some of the sweetest kindest people I have ever met? and, I dated a guy once who was gay...he didn't want to admit it because he was so scared he would burn in hell for it...you know what happened? he tried to be straight, lied to me and himself...and basically distroyied himself in the name of "God"

I can decide to make my own country and make my own laws but every April the 15th I am reminded that I am a citizen of the USA and my taxes are due.

We can not just in vent what God is, He is what he is. He made the laws and guidelines. We can choose who we are but we can not choose who God is.

I don't mean to be offensive if I seem to be. It's hard to show emotion and in inflection in writing.

you're not offensive.  you're kind of amusing, but you're not offensive.

you're obviously trying to tell us all what we "should" believe.  good luck with that.

I'm not offended eather...I just don't think the bible tells the whole story.

just from a woman's point of view...we have the kids and take care of the men.(traditionally speaking!) But we should submit? I find it funny...we get all the work. I've seen those traditional women on tv and such...doing 1000000 times more work then the men they submit to and still seen as below them...

I would rather drill holes in my toes and hang myself feet first from the ceiling fan....

The bible/God/Satan is nothing but a story to scare people and "keep them in line". 

I'm agnostic with atheist leanings. Like jblarghp, I love studying religions. I just don't want to practice any. 

HAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

mommakitty you must been one of those people that think very highly of themselves and their beliefs and think that everyone believes in god.

You must be very sheltered.

I would get into detail about how much I hate religion but I won't because I don't care about other peoples beliefs.

And what the heck makes you think I don't live a good life and strive to help others and make this world a better place? No god has anything to do with how I live and I live great.

If I am wrong and I die and I go up in the freaking sky and I am at the freaking pearly gates and the man with the freaking beard sends me down to hell because I didn't believe in him, I will give that bearded son of a gun the middle finger because that is no god I want to know. I want nothing to do with a god that thinks that everyone on earth must believe in him or else they are going to hell.

I would rather burn in hell then make believe I think that god put me here. I cannot and will not believe in such garbage.

I've got a simple thought on Hell...if I'm going for doing something...then all my friends and family are going to be there too.....it's all good

:)

Original Post by lnorris55:

In all my education I have learned that you do believe something just because you want to believe it. There is absolutely no proof for evolution, it is all a theory. Please do not judge my level of education or understanding because you disagree with what I believe. If you will provide me with one transitional animal fossil then you might get my attention. I hear many speculations on animal evolution but no concrete proof.

The fossil record has no transitional species. It is purely a guess.

 I hate this topic, no one's going to win. It's an agree to disagree type situation, because both sides feel so strongly.

If you took it that I was judging your level of education, I apologise. That wasn't what I was trying to say at all. I was simply trying to put out there that some people are never correctly taught about evolution, and others are not taught about it all.

I just find your argument hypocritical. You keep talking about how there's no efficient scientific evidence for evolution, yet you believe in something that has absolutely NO scientific evidence to back it up. You're using a series of (what could quite possibly be) coincidences that have happened to you personally, as a source of proof. It just seems very irrational to me.

How is evolution any less possible than creationism? I don't understand.

How is creationism not purely a guess. What actual evidence is there. I mean ACTUAL evidence.