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Religion
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
Do you believe in religion, religious texts and god at all? <IMG SRC="smile.gif" border="0" ALT="icon">
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Catholics I found were way too into the guilt sin Hell thing so I ran.
Raised up jewish. Both my parents are jewish by heritage. Though they come from VERY different backgrounds.
My mum grew up in a very religious society, while my dad doesn't believe in God, and grew up celebrating nothing.
Seeing both worlds, I do believe in God, but not fanatic about my religion. As I have said in some other threads, you need to be able to question your religion, and make it give sense. I don't believe the "it just is, cause it says so in the bible", there needs to be an explenation. And I feel sorry for those people who get so caught up, that it all ends in mechanism.
<IMG SRC="tongue.gif" border="0" ALT="icon"> You know what I mean. He grew up in a totally atheistic enviroment.
And those little wafers are so fattening darling <IMG SRC="biggrin.gif" border="0" ALT="icon">
But when they start hitting people with that crutch, it becomes a problem.
Dont you think it sounds a bit contradictory? If you question your religion then are you really prepared to believe in it? And you know religion is something you cant really prove or argue in the end, cos nobody in this world knows the answer about anything supernatural. So I think passion is the key word for people with religious belief, rather than reason or logic that kind of stuff.
I know you can't prove something related to believe a hundred percent, but some things seem more logical than others. I won't do something when I can't see the idea in it or the good. I won't follow anything blindly.
Thats my point of view...
The fact is this: if children were not told a word about religious beliefs, absolutely nobody would be religious. From a neutral point of view it becomes fully apparent what a load of bollocks religion is.
The same old argument that religion makes people good doesn't wash. On the contrary, I've always found that it is the atheists and agnostics who have always shown the biggest share of charity, understanding and morals.
And for those of you who think that a child brought up in a godless environment would go straight to hell, how could this be? God is supposed to be all-knowing and wise. Therefore if a person is good-hearted and a good samaritan they would inevitably go to heaven. Since they did not know about God, they could not possibly worship him (not that a being that is all-powerful and in possession of infinite wisdom would actually care whether people worship him, of course).
Stop brainwashing the children now!!!
Some people do believe in a God, and follow a religion, so why force these people not to share their beliefs with others? Surely you support freedom of speech?
Just wondering <IMG SRC="smile.gif" border="0" ALT="icon">
Lots of major charities have a relgious (usually, in this country, Christian) background, even if it is not overt.
e.g. Oasis trust, London City Mission (both working with homeless); Chrisitan Aid, Tearfund (intl aid); Fairtrade etc etc...
Not to mention the thousands of smaller projects organised by individual churches.
Of course, atheists are charitable too, but I think one of the main teachings of Christianity is charity and service to others. What's so bad about that?
Catholicism sounds interesting.
I think what Aladdin said is those who go to the extreme, like brain-washing people so they kill others or suicide.
Even without such extremes, dont you think religious people are less tolerent than those without religion? They dont like to see those who are different to their way of lifestyles and beliefs. If thats not the case there wont be so much religious conflicts all over the world.
And Kentish, if you read the example about Palestinian blowing themselves up in my earlier post you would know what I mean by ruining lives. At the end of the day, who in their right minds would believe they would gain eternal happiness and have lots of sex by killing lots of people, had they be not brainwashed since birth about such rubbish?
Or how about those told that God hates homosexuals and that they'll go to hell if they don't suppress their sexual feelings? How many people have suffered in silence because of this? I believe that might well account for ruining someone's life.
But you've just lumped all religions together as if they are all the same, and teach the same things. Don't be so naive.
Sure, Islam has been exploited by fundamentalists and people have done crazy things because they think it is part of their religion. I am not a muslim/moslem so I can't really say whats going on there. And of course I don't agree with what they do.
But if I choose another religion, can you explain how it ruins lives, or brainwashes people. Sikhism: actively peaceful. Christianity: actively peaceful. Hinduism: actively peaceful. I'm out of my depth here - I wouldn't know what most religions think about homosexuality. Even the Catholic church is confused - it seems to accept homosexuals as long as they do not engage in gay sex.
But even if most religions do not accept active homosexuals, I have yet to meet a religious person who actually hates homosexuals for what they are. I have never heard anyone tell a homosexual that they are going to hell.
From 5 - 16 I went to Catholic schools, and I was the sort of kid who had to be dragged off to church kicking and screaming. So being me, I rebelled against it. I had utter distain for religion of any sort especially Christianity. I believed that it was completely ridiculous for a set of books, etc to tell people how to live, and it was out of order to be judgemental etc I thought there was no way society could progress with religion - being intolerant of almost anything. We were born, we grow, we die. That was it.
Then one day I found one of my mums prayer cards lying around (basically it was a prayer for St Judes or something - they are a group of monks or nuns who say prayers for people) and I was kinda rude about it telling her that religion and God was nothing but a pile of intolerant crap. She said to me, "Well these are MY beliefs and YOU are not being very tolerant of them are you missy?"
Point was taken. I had been so high and mighty about how bad religion was etc I forgot that it means something to others and how I wasn't exactly being nice about her beliefs. Thats why I get annoyed when people say that for society to work there has to be tolerance of all beliefs, but would happily say that they would burn a Bible etc. (Although I appreciate that my mother isn't exactly an extreme case i.e wouldn't blow herself up)
I'm not an atheist, or a theist, I don't know what the answers are but I have faith in something, (which I won't go into <IMG SRC="wink.gif" border="0" ALT="icon"> ) but at least I have something to believe. <IMG SRC="cool.gif" border="0" ALT="icon">
All I was saying is that children should not be told religion as the one and universal truth. Just teach them History (which will include a fair amount on the religions and its followers, but keep it as it is: history, old folklore and superstitions. Then, when they reach 18, tell them that actually Christianity is true, God really exists and JC came back from the dead for us and then flew up to heaven. See how many would believe it.
That is way the different Churches would fight to the bitter end against not teaching children religion. Because otherwise they would have no members at all.
Do you mean in schools? Cos when I was taught R.E at school we weren't spoon fed what to believe. Its like reading a newspaper - you read what happens, and its up to YOU to decide what you believe to be true.
I liked R.E at school I learnt a lot about other religions and other cultures and it made me think about the world around me and why it is like that. <IMG SRC="smile.gif" border="0" ALT="icon">
If you are an atheist then fair enough. You have made your choice, presumably it was informed.
I was brought up in a Chrisitan environment, went to a C of E primary school and so on. I struggled in a similar way to go_away as a teenager because I just couldn't see the point in going to church, and I didn't see God making any difference in my life. My Dad is not a Christian, and I looked at him and saw that you can get through life quite happily without religion.
So now I am left not really knowing. I have always known that there is a God - I have faith in God. I have no doubt about that - life is just too amazing to be down to chance. But I am still disappointed with the attitudes of some religious people, who do seem to be overly judgmental. I am actually very interested in theology, but I would argue for an informed choice. The Bible is not a history book, it is something more. It has some very wise advice in it. Whether it's God's advice is another matter...
Anyway, I take a very liberal attitude to religion. If you want to do it, then fine. If you do not believe in any God, then that's fine too, but don't try to shout down those that do. We all have individual views and we should all accept each other's.