Religion

my view on religion is that these days it's (sort of) singeled out it's as if the word god or crist or even church seem to be a crime to say

 

That is very interesting. I never considered the fact that it could be possible.

I think, though, why so many people have a problem putting science and religion hand in hand, is that religion is more about faith, while science is more concrete.

I'm not saying that religion isn't real, I am a firm believer, but that's just it. I believe, and I really have no proof other than to just trust.

I'm not really quite sure what you're saying. Could you elaborate a little more please? Do you mean that religion is somewhat frowned upon because of the violence sometimes associated with it?

 

yeah sort of like that

for example priests sometimes malest children but that doesn't mean everyone in that religon is the same as that one person


get what im saying?

 

^ Yes, I think understand now.

This kind of brings up the issue of extremists, I suppose. After the 9/11 attacks, and especially since the current war, I've noticed that a lot of people view Muslims as terrorists; just because of the few extremists that take things a little too seriously (in my opinion, at least).

So, I guess that backs up what you were saying. One bad apple tarnishes the rest?

 

I personally don`t really believe in a higher power, though i respect those with enough faith to do so.

Did you ever notice that every thing pleasureable, Instinctal, and natural is a sin?
lust,greed,envy,gluttony,vanity,slothlyness, and i forgot the other one.

 

that's exactly the piont i was making

well all of those things are not right to do or be are they?

i mean greed (for example) is taking everything that a person finds valuable no matter who that person hurts or whose live that person wrecks to get it

 

i couldn't have siad it better

 

As far as the religion basis goes I myself am a Deist (yeah, they still exist) so im not into all the Bible and everything, But i agree with Luke. I respect people that are able to hold onto their convictions, but i detest the word "sin". God created humans and everything right? Then why give us these feelings if not to use them? Are you saying that he gave us lust and greed and so on to try and see who was good and who wasnt? And its not even that simple, Greed is how you get money, and how you live a good life. Greed doesn't have to be hurting people to get money, its just the desire for wealth. Lust is the desire for Sex, and that is actually physically healthy. Seems like God is setting humanity up for the diddle with this one?

 

I don't believe in "God" to many far fetched ideas and stories for me to believe. I just believe in myself and the choices I make. Life after death is to much fantasy for me you live and then die and that's it no more no less.

I guess that's why I play rpgs.

 

I'm going to have to disagree with you on this. As far as I know, God willingly let people have free will so that could make their own decisions. If God did not grant us this gift, then we would be no more than mere robots under the control of a higher being. However, it's not like God left us alone after he gave us free will; he knew that we would fall to the usual sins of lust, greed, laziness, etc., and so he secretly helps us (through the good qualities that he gives us, such as love, selflessness, and hope.) All in all, God's goal is for us to enter heaven, but he places these bad and good traits in the world to give us a choice of whether or not we really want to be with him in heaven.

And specifically talking about greed and lust, you aren't looking at the whole picture when mentioning these traits. You are right about greed not having to be harmful directly, but it always leads to problems indirectly. If a person is greedy, he/she begins to forget about the more important things in life such as friends, family, achieving personal goals, etc. In addition, a greedy person
loses appreciation for what he/she has and fails to see that there may be less fortunate people in the world. Now talking about lust, it certainly isn't right in any way. If a person has lust for another person, he/she slowly begins to lose the true meaning of love and consequently, may begin to regard that other person as merely an object so reach his/her own selfish physical pleasures. And about sex being physically healthy, yes, that's true in some aspects, but are you forgetting about STDs, such as AIDS? If lust causes a person to live a promiscuous life, then sex can be very unhealthy.

 

If you don't mind me saying, I'm an atheist. Now then, I don't really have a problem with most theist religion, but, so sue me, Christianity really pisses me off.

Mind you, I'm not flaming the Christian faith. My best friend is Christian. But you see, the thing is is that most Christians know less about there own religion than most atheists do.

Most Christians are completely clueless about the proven fact that the Bible was written by a bunch of Pagans who wanted to end the Crusades. Needless to say, their ploy worked, but in an effort to 'change as god does' the bible has now obtained so many contradictions in it, that I have no choice but not to take it seriously.

And honestly, Christians used the Bible as an excuse for slavery 300 years ago, an excuse to deny women rights 150 years ago, and as an excuse to deny gay's rights today.

But keep in mind the fact that I don't have any problems with the essential basis of Christianity at all. To quote Mahatma Ghandi: "I like your Christ, but I do not like your Christians. Because your Christians are not at all like your Christ."

 

I couldn't have said it better myself, but I want to add one more thing:

In honesty, how many of you who claim a theist religion can honestly say you've ever tried to look at life from a different stand point, and even considered the fact that you may be wrong? I do often and it really has helped me just... understand the world and the people who live in it.

If you say you haven't, and don't want to, this just makes you... honestly it makes you dumb. This just shows that you would be afraid of the world around you because deep down you know that something may prove you wrong.

Which is another issue entirely that has happened with the Christian church, they constantly deny any contact with any other religion. And when they do, it's usually to try and convert them to Christianity which just makes people hate them more.

 

alright, i highly doubt that the bible was made by pagens. true, christanity, has been used agianst blacks and gay's but you cannot hold the actions of a few powerfull people agianst every christan some of us actually see the fualt's in our own church like i constantly see the cathlic church competing with the other church's, even though the goal (in the end) is the same what im saying is that 1.) the bible was not written by pagens that's all none-sense stuff you can find on TV and 2.) don't take the actions of the few bad, rotten christan's and accuse the majority who actually believe see these rotten apples

 

And uhh...

It's a very, VERY, common thing to try to talk to a Christian about homosexuality today and they'll feed you a pile of crap like, "It's their choice, it's just that God and I don't agree with their 'lifestyle'."

Now then, as an honest-to-goodness person who wastes his time researching this stuff is that the only real difference between homosexuality and heterosexuality is the sex. What shock. But that's not why gays choose to be gay. There's evidence to support this theory (a lot of it at that) which is that gay people aren't gay because they made a conscious choice, but because they have an imbalance of Estrogen and Testrogen. And in honesty, I'm asking ever straight person on this forum -- did you have to make a conscious decision to be straight?

The point is that Christianity tries its best to make itself look like its an accepting religion. But when it comes down to it, hardly any Christians have taken it upon themselves to research what makes the people that the Bible says will burn in hell forever (but mind you, God still 'loves' them) so they just believe what they've read.

However, there is one thing that Christianity offers that Atheism does not. The biggest religion in the world is Christianity, so in honesty you guys have the majority. So I can go around talking about Christianity but I have to stay conscious of the fact that Atheism does fail to provide an answer to a question that everybody seems to love to ask: 'Why are we here?' Science can't do everything. If I don't keep that in mind, I'll just end up making a fool of myself. Everything has its flaws.