[discussion] Views on the thought of religion.

[Johnnywup]

Not specific religions, just the thought of religion. For example: I personally, think that man has been trying to wipe each other out since time began, but since "Laws" came about, they haven't been able to do it legally, so they point out differences. For example, black/white people. Religion came about when people needed a difference to kill for. They were in a state where they didn't know science, so people said, "Oh there must be a God". Most people agreed. The things about the God were disputed, making religions. And people fight other religions because of the difference between them and the person fighting. I think religion is wrong, just for the reason of killing people? Bull****. People may have actually began to believe in what they came up with, and made sermons, etc. These things may be life-changing to some people in the present, but the majority of religion is for killing. This is just an opinion of what happened. I don't have any supporting facts.

[Falkner]

Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.

I'll post my reason for this quote later, but AFAIK, religion is just propoganda.

[krnboy1009]

^For what though? If its a propaganda shouldnt it support something else? Like government...or corporations....

Religion is what it is. A tool to keep people in check. Sure its not perfect, and some are rather broken, but its still what it is. Thats my take on it. It isnt incredibilt important but I cant imagine a decent society without it.

It just has to change along with times and technology.

[Merciless]

Personally... religion is crap. I have said this, and I will say it again. I scorn... I sigh when someone says "jesus is my savior" or something like that. It does not matter what religion. Religion is almost ALWAYS the cause of EVERY WAR, something to do with beliefs.

look, I don't care if you love Jesus, great, but don't lecture me on how great Jesus is and how he saved us all.

i say, if a matter can be proven, so be it, ill believe it when i see it.

Religion is NOT what keeps society in order. Government is what keeps society in order.

i will say it. Religion versus Government, Government wins. I am a moderate in the political society, that has extreme views on the left and the right.

now, Darwinism, versus creationism. I want to ask, is there any hard PROOF that creationism happened?

[Dae314]

People believe in religions because it gives them certain information about life. Principal among this information is the information about what happens after death, what the meaning of life is, and how do we know/deal with good and evil. There's some more things that all religions in general try to answer but I can't think of them right now. The knowledge of these things is comforting.

We aren't born knowing what our purpose is in life. Some people think there is no purpose in life. Religion tries to give purpose to life so that people can keep on living. When a person feels like they have no purpose they're likely to lose the will to live. When they've completely lost the will to live they're basically dead, apathetic, numb to the world. When people feel like they know their purpose and they are fulfilling your purpose that brings them joy. Religion gives purpose to people's lives.

We aren't innately sure of what happens after death. Death is a scary thought, have you ever actually imagined what non-existence feels like? It's a weird thought especially given that we all have existed for all our lives. What happens after death is a mystery that religions try to answer. Different religions answer this in different ways, but if we accept a religion as truth, we are obliged to believe in its opinions about life or non-life after death. Think of death like a closed door (woo for cliches). Lets say anything could be behind it. Could be a guy with a gun that's gonna shoot you, could be an ice cream sundae, could be your mom, or it could be anything. You don't want to open it for fear that something bad will be there. Taking a Christian perspective here, isn't it comforting for a person about to die, a person standing at the door about to open it, for someone to come and tell that person "Don't worry I know you've led a good life I know I'll see you in Heaven"? It gives them confidence to go through death with the hope that heaven really is just behind the closed door. You can never really understand the fear of the unknown until you're forced to face it.

People innately recognize good and evil, even if it's skewed by society's perspective. See my other posts in other threads for more arguments about absolute/ultimate good and evil. Some people wonder why good and evil exist together in the world. How can there be joy at the same time there's so much sadness? How can there be innocence amongst so much corruption? Religion tries to answer these questions about good and evil. It gives a person peace of mind to know, somewhat, how everything works. It's frustrating to not know how/why something is the way it is. Especially if that something seems contradictory. Religion tries to answer these questions and provide peace of mind through that.

Religion exists because of man's search for the truth about life. It's a philosophy, not a science. There's no proof needed, no theorems or equations. Religion is man's explanation for all the biggest questions he's ever asked. Religion is a way of thinking, a belief system, that penetrates to the very core of human nature and changes the way we live life. It's an attempt to understand the incomprehensible, a stab at answering the unanswerable, and a beacon of hope for all who choose to believe in it.

[RavenBlade]

Somehow i find that this discussion is pointless.



Seriously.

[Johnnywup]

^For what though? If its a propaganda shouldnt it support something else? Like government...or corporations....

Religion is what it is. A tool to keep people in check. Sure its not perfect, and some are rather broken, but its still what it is. Thats my take on it. It isnt incredibilt important but I cant imagine a decent society without it.

It just has to change along with times and technology.

I disagree. Religion has been modified, not changed. The difference, in my opinion, is that Modification doesn't change the underlying thing. Changing it is making completely anew. And its more than broken. It's become the reason for 90% of wars (The other 10% also have to do with differences...).

Personally... religion is crap. I have said this, and I will say it again. I scorn... I sigh when someone says "jesus is my savior" or something like that. It does not matter what religion. Religion is almost ALWAYS the cause of EVERY WAR, something to do with beliefs. Agreed. As I said above, religion isn't the cause for all wars, just most. Not always beliefs either. Jesus is just a figure to make people feel smaller than they are, so they have something to blame.

look, I don't care if you love Jesus, great, but don't lecture me on how great Jesus is and how he saved us all. Agreed heartily, Jesus explanation above

i say, if a matter can be proven, so be it, ill believe it when i see it.
I agree. I mean, I'm atheist until proven wrong (basically agnostic, but I feel more atheist).
Religion is NOT what keeps society in order. Government is what keeps society in order.
It's not government. It's fundamentals set by someone, doesn't have to be government. And order is opinionized, like most things. Hitler felt that killing jews was keeping order. I respect his opinion, though I don't agree.
i will say it. Religion versus Government, Government wins. I am a moderate in the political society, that has extreme views on the left and the right.

now, Darwinism, versus creationism. I want to ask, is there any hard PROOF that creationism happened? Nope. None. Just people claiming to know "what God did."

10 characters

[Dae314]

now, Darwinism, versus creationism. I want to ask, is there any hard PROOF that creationism happened?

Sorry about the double post but I took so long on my other one there were updates when I was done :P.

I'm just gonna take the Big Bang theory for this example:

If the big bang theory is correct then the universe was at one time as small as a single atom. All the matter in the universe was condensed into an ultra tiny molecule that was ULTRA MASSIVE. You can think of it like a gigantic super mega black hole. Now normally in the universe black holes don't spontaneously explode because they're too massive. Their gravity just keeps getting stronger as they absorb more mass and that keeps everything together. Now why then would a gigantic black hole want to suddenly explode and create the universe? What happened? all the matter in the universe was centered at that 1 point, there's nothing else that's around to disturb it, it should've just kept going as a gigantic gravity ball. Something very very powerful had to break that tiny source of mass and make it unstable enough to explode and create the universe. Now what do you suppose did that?

Now if the bb theory is wrong, the universe still had a beginning. That much is pretty much agreed on. So anything with a beginning had a trigger. Look at a watch, a clock, what makes it tick? A battery? some circuitry and wiring and w/e else? Would it still be ticking if no one built it? Would it still be ticking if no one added a battery? Someone started it. Things don't happen spontaneously, the universe didn't swoosh into existence all of a sudden in it's present state. But the universe didn't start on its own either something made it go.

[nanop44]

If it wasn't for religion technology today would have been much more advanced today.
But nooooo, they just had to kill off those people in the name of "God"

[Depressio]

I believe I was "created" by God. And by that, I mean this: Yes, there was a Big Bang. For billions of years, the universe developed and Earth eventually formed. Something had to start it: spontaneous events sometimes happen in science, so why not use a "logical" explanation of a higher being? I use "logical" loosely--of course saying something was created by a supreme being you can't feel with any sense other than intuition is a bit crazy.

From there, millions of years produced the first forms of life, and millions more brought forth intelligent life. To those of you who have learned about the Drake equation, you'll definitely understand when I say the chances of intelligent life forming is slim to none. I believe a higher being could explain why this extremely tiny chance was able to happen.

Science can fit perfectly with religion. It's all about how you look at it. For me, I choose not to restrict myself with a particular denomination of Christianity or a sect of another religion. By remaining nondenominational, I believe in what I've been told and accepted for years as well as add in my own twists to what I believe is right. In addition, I don't take the Bible seriously. A lot of it seems like bull**** anyway, and I believe since Jesus came the entire Old Testament seems moot.

My brother, who is agnostic, brought up the argument that if I were to grow up anywhere else, say the Middle East, I would have a different religion anyway. I feel this is not the case. If I were to grow up with a different religion, I'm sure I would be able to identify my beliefs weren't true and try to seek the answer myself. I mean, my views aren't exactly typical, and society hasn't suppressed me enough to maintain a normal religious identity.

I commend people who express themselves religiously. However, at my school I see a bunch of people with various religious identities. There are the sheep, who blindly follow whatever they are told (you see this in Bible Club especially). Next, there are those who firmly believe in whatever ideology they follow (me). Finally, there are people who choose a different religion for the sake of being different or pissing people off.

Let me talk about these people for a second. Honestly, I can name a number of people at my school who I would consider "anti-Christian." Basically, they're being punks and attacking my religion just to get attention. Granted, almost everyone else aside from these people are intolerant, xenophobic people who don't even know what the Quran is, so I guess there's some balance.

These people do a lot of what stereotypical Christians are criticized for: pushing others to believe in what they do. It's understandable: if you feel something is right, you'll go to great lengths to make sure others feel the same way. However, I know religion is something very personal and has multiple answers for different people. No, I won't shove my ideals down your throat. People tried doing that for centuries, and look what happened: millions of people died, and along with them their great cultural strides.

To those who say religion isn't a way to suppress people, then you are horribly wrong. For centuries, and even today, monarchs and dictators used religion to justify horrible things on their agendas (genocide, money, etc.). Although I have religious beliefs, I still acknowledge the fact that religion is a primitive ideology. That's not to say religion can't be restrictive. My views allow me to believe whatever I want while maintaining the vital points of Christianity.

That's it for now, although I think I could write a bit more in what I believe in.

tl;dr - I'm a nondenominational Christian, believe in the Big Bang/evolution, and hate people who pull the whole "religion is stupid therefore you are stupid" crap.