Religion Is Racism

[HoLoDreaM]

Just Say NO to Religion!

[Kamikaze_Badger]

Just Say NO to Religion!

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I actually agree here .

[Sainou-Kun]

Ooo Man. Ok. I

[General912]

Theres a differance between Religion and Faith...

 

A religion is a set group of people with the same faith belifs....

 

 

Faith is beliving that there is a higher being that controls our destinys, a higher being we have no evidance of...

 

 

There are two types of people who belive in a religion aand or faith.

 

The everyday person, who lives their life day by day and is trying to do good on what their religion teaches them...

 

 

The extreamist. (there are extreamists in all religions, not just a certian one) Extreamists are the ones who live their lifes by religon, the folow the religions doctrine word for word, the force their belifes onto others and try to get them to follow their ways. Some will use force while others will get in your face a preach to you untill you follow them....

 

Religon is not bad, Faith is not bad, it is extreamists who continue to belive that their religion is the one true religion that are bad.

 

For example pf extreamism in our country, the people who keep wanting religion in schools and divine creation taught in biology classes... These are extreamists people who cant stand the fact that someone is teaching their children something that they dont belive in, so what do they do? They file lawsuits, they challenge school board decisions, and take it to the supream court.

 

Basicly if you want your children to learn about a religion enroll them in either a bible class/sunday school program, or even switch to a private school where these belifs are taught.

[Kamikaze_Badger]

I know I'm going to get flamed for this, but here's how religion started:

 

Ignorance, and an inability to control the people.

 

 

Now, time to explain this:

 

Back before the days of science, before philosophers, before men who were wise, we had Neanderthals, and Cro-Magons. Now, the former of these have been theorized to have not been quite all that intelligent compared to the Cro-Magons. Now, even though the Cro-Magons were intelligent, they did not know how things came about. So, they made up theories, and religion was born. It most likely varied from family to family, tribe to tribe, etc. This same general pathway follows through with civilization.

 

Fast-forward a few thousand years to Zoroastor. He comes up with the first known monotheistic religion, Zoroastrianism. This religion was modified a bit, and Judaism was born.

 

Judaism has surived only because of the fact that of the thousands of religious beliefs at the time, it got around, and stuck in peoples heads. You do a good job during life, you get a one way ticket to Heaven, and you have a way to get your kids to behave with Hell.

 

Later on, a man by the name of Jesus is claimed to be the christos, or "saviour." Before you know it, we have Christianity, and bloated accounts of things.

 

I wouldn't be surprised if things such as Noah's Flood were exaggerated. The first known Greek historian exaggerated his works greatly. People wanted God to seem all mighty, so they blew up events.

 

Today, with science and technology, "miracles" have been found out to be quite the opposite. And, science allows for modifications to it's ways, unlike religion. Science is testing hypothesis for truth. It's tested the claims of religion, and found them to be false.

 

Religion today only truly serves as a moral booster and insurance for what happens after death. However, it has still motivated people to help others, so for all I care it can stay, provided it stays out of government rulings and other things of the sort.

 

 

That's the opinion of my humble self. And I shall go now.

[martymcfly]

My opinion:

 

Just because science explains something doesn't mean it isn't a miracle. Everything that happens is a miracle, we don't need a god to explain it.

Edited December 10, 2005 by martymcfly

[Kamikaze_Badger]

According to many religions, a miracle is an intervention by God in the universe. One must keep in mind that in Judaism, Christianity, Islam and in other faiths people have substantially different definitions of the word miracle. Even within a specific religion there is often more than one usage of the term.

 

Or, it could just be watered down to an amazing event regarding science of physics.

[LoArmistead]

My opinion:

 

Just because science explains something doesn't mean it isn't a miracle.

[WhenKittensATK]

Religion is more sexist then racist. Women are still allowed to have the same ranks as men in some religion (i will not name). cultures are different in different countries, your father obviously adapted to the culture in the US. now if he was in a heavy muslim country he might be different.

[Jacket]

p8, I really do hope that, as you have read through the other posts, you have come to the realization that not ALL self-proclaimed Christians are racist and bigoted. If you are still struggling with that, perhaps some of my views can help you make that determination.

 

A quick preface: While I do not necessarily agree with everyone that has previously posted, I will not condemn one person in my post. These are my opinions, and though yours may be different, that is your understanding of God, Christ and religion as it is best for you to understand. I pray that you have the same mercy for me.

 

I'll start at the end: the after-life. In my church, one belief of the after-life is that, when you die, you go to a place called Paradise. While growing up, I basically understood this to be like a constant Sunday school. Paradise is a place where you learn about Christ and His teachings. Paradise is not restricted to members of my church, just as it is not restricted to members of Christianity. Anyone who dies goes to Paradise.

 

Upon Christ's return to Earth, Satan is locked away for a period of time (usually believed to be 1,000 years), and all those that had been to Paradise come back to Earth as messengers. During this time, there is peace on Earth and all will be educated. After Christ's rule, Satan will be let out for a short time. After Satan's rule on Earth, the Judgment Day will be at hand, and everyone will be given the choice oh what they believe. Those that choose Christ will go to Heaven - those that choose otherwise will go to the Lake of Fire and Brimstone.

 

That is the belief I had while growing up.

 

In my church, we are also taught that there are three levels of Heaven; the Celestial (the highest), Telestial (middle) and Terrestrial. These different levels of Heaven are attained by God's judgment on your life. After getting out of college and having done some of the things I've done, I wouldn't be surprised if I got the Terrestrial level.

 

Now, let me explain a few more things about my church. First of all, my church believes in Agency. This is God's gift for us to choose what we believe. My church has no creed, but we do hold to some central tenants. For example, our mission statement is "To proclaim Jesus Christ and promote communities of joy, hope, love and peace." We believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God, and also that he is Emmanuel, or "God with us" in the flesh.

 

But, many people in my church do not believe that, if you don't have the same beliefs, you are destined for Hell. Because of Agency, I have some personal beliefes that I will continue with.

 

I have more of a universalist view of God. We are all God's creation - Jews, Christians, Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims; Blacks, Whites, Hispanics, Asians. The final judgment rests with God. I believe that God is a merciful and compassionate God. I don't think that God would want to see his creation suffer, especially if that creation was never given the opportunity to learn about Him and his son. I believe that God will have mercy on those that are "without the word" and judge them according to their lives.

 

As far as experiencing a lot of hypocrisy, I can certainly understand your struggles with that. While some people do go overboard, please understand this: We are all hypocrites. If we are to truly live as we are instructed, we will all have to preach against something we have done in our lives. While that certainly does not give someone the right to condemn someone to Hell or to tell someone what they are or are not, that does mean that we will have to swallow our pride, ask forgiveness for our sins, and if called upon by the Lord, share the witness of our experience with others that may be facing a similar situation.

[mazakman]

Yeah sure religion has been used in the past to control the masses either through intimidation OR interpretation

 

For example in the middle ages (also called the dark ages) the Catholic church restricted the ability to learn to read to it's clergy & aristocracy... you had to simply believe what version you were told, as for intimidation... fire & brimstone sermons effectively cowed the masses into adopting an approved social behaviour... or better yet during the Spanish Inquisition & Salem witch trials, if you chose another path you PAID dearly for it

 

Totally 100% Kami' you don't need to be a Christian to be a good person

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As I have said many times before...it's not the religion...it's the people....some people will twist the words around into something that they want to "preech"...they change things around and spout it off to people as a specific religion..when really it's just that persons interpretation of a religion...then there's the whole useing religion as an excuse for war etc etc.....you have to educate yourself about different religions so that you know the true meaning.....and not what a bunch of so called "christians" are saying. You can talk to 100 different "Christians" and get 100 different takes on the religion....the ones you mention make it look bad....that doesnt speak for the religion as a whole......just like you cant hate all of a certain race because one person of that race treated you badly....meh...this is an old arguement. :goes to get more turkey:

 

Also to respond to bigred....IMO...my take on my religion... "CHRIST"ianity revloves around Christ...as in Jesus...the man that was persecuted for his beliefs etc etc.......i don't think Jesus would have defined himself as a Christian....his followers do(followers of Christ)......but there are many different sanctions etc etc of the Christian religion.

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I have to agree with Taz and Celtica, I found their comments to be close to my own beliefs and didn't want to quote a dozen other posts.

 

Faith is not something out of a book or what someone tells you. It's in your soul, your heart or however you want to put it. IMO faith is something that is supposed to move and motivate you in life to be a better person, well at least that's how I see it.

 

Here is something personal that I will share with you:

 

My inlaws are Jehova's witness. Their belief is also that they are the only ones that will go to heaven (sounds familiar doesn't it) but not all Jehova's witnesses because there isn't enough room or something like that. They are a very closed and narrow minded bunch of people that do not interact with "non believers.

 

The inlaws never call my wife or any of her brothers or sisters just say say hello or find out how it's going. If you are a "non believer" then you don't exist whether you're an offspring or not. I find this to be very frightening.

 

I could never imagine myself saying that any of my children don't exist for me, or any part of the human race either.

 

I've had discussions with some Jehova's witnesses about their beliefs and everything they believe seems to have been pounded into their sorry little heads which unsurprisingly is not unlike most other religions.

 

Not wanting to write 50 pages or so on the subject I'll close by saying that just about every religion seems to divide the human race apart instead of bringing us all together. It's a sad situation indeed.

[Sovek]

I'll make this short, Jehovah witnesses ARE NOT true Christians, Christians are told by the Holy Word to interact with non-belivers, otherwise the Good News won't get out. If you were to come to my church for a couple of weeks you would understand how Christians are to act.

 

And for those who say Religion is the root of all evil and we should get rid of it, It has been gotten ridden of before, It's called COMMUNISIM, Do we really want something with what the Soviet Uninion had? what China is doing to Christians because of what they belive in??? Do you want to be imprisoned, tortured for your faith?.

Edited December 10, 2005 by Sovek