what's your view on religion??

[freestylemonster]

^^Not at all. I don't believe in the bible. I believe Jesus had great teachings though. Jesus wanted to completely change Judaism. He had completely new ideas about God, heaven and life.

Read "Jesus and the Buddha" it's a book that looks at Jesus not as a messiah but as a great teacher.

 

[Thelema]

^^Not at all. I don't believe in the bible. I believe Jesus had great teachings though. Jesus wanted to completely change Judaism. He had completely new ideas about God, heaven and life.

Read "Jesus and the Buddha" it's a book that looks at Jesus not as a messiah but as a great teacher.

You do believe in the Bible because you believe the accounts contained in it. Jesus' teachings can't be verified in any way at all (see my above post). You still won't accept the fact that we have no way to know what Jesus did or said and the accounts in the Bible are the flimsiest accounts of accounts of accounts you can get.

Even if Jesus' words and actions were what really happened in the Bible (they weren't), Jesus was just a faith healer that wandered around talking about how great he and his father was. He didn't really do much of anything good for anybody.

What do you even believe he did that was so great?

All he was was talk and what he taught wasn't even that revolutionary or different. If Jesus was around today, he'd be a televangelist.

 

[freestylemonster]

A) He completely changed the ideas of Judaism

B) He, like Buddha, had achieved true happiness and wanted to teach people how to do it for themselves. If you take his teachings to heart you can be a very happy person free of guilt, anger and jealousy

 

[Banvard]

God is a proxy for happy feelings. We want to believe that happiness is something we cannot explain. Therefore, we direct it towards an imaginary figure. This gives him substance and meaning. The next time you are happy, he pops into your head again, and you give him more credit and more substance. This leads to the God Delusion. The more you give, the more you get back. Think of this as a paradox of the mind. The main problem with religion is blind faith. You cannot argue with that. Death will only reveal the answer. Most intelligent people – scientists for the most part – are afraid of death. However, they face it far better than a religious person does. The cycle in nature, the life forms that occupy the universe, we can appreciate more without a god. Another problem is most religions do not evolve; they just stagnate in their own dogma. If any such religion could evolve, the answer to god would not be relevant. They would come to understand that what counts most is personal experience. Taking the world for what it has become. In addition, you place all faith within yourself, not into a proxy called god. Let us cut the intermediary out and reclaim the human mind, free of god.

 

[LostViking]

When it comes to death, I feel I have to toss in something Mark Twain said:

"I do not fear death. I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it."

I find great relief in the idea that wherever we're going, it's somewhere we've been before. Whether it's something or nothing at all.

 

[Banvard]

When it comes to death, I feel I have to toss in something Mark Twain said:

"I do not fear death. I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it."

I find great relief in the idea that wherever we're going, it's somewhere we've been before. Whether it's something or nothing at all.

I believe in the possibility that our universe is stuck in a cycle. What created the universe in our past was our own universe in the future exploding. Therefore, we are reborn a number of times over. Like blowing up a balloon, letting the air out, and blowing up again. We are all made of “STAR STUFF.” When we die, our ashes will spread, and become part of nature again. Everything is connected. The universe is beautiful without god. I like the random and I want to be surprised.

If this does not make sense to anyone, I will understand.

 

[Thelema]

A) He completely changed the ideas of Judaism

B) He, like Buddha, had achieved true happiness and wanted to teach people how to do it for themselves. If you take his teachings to heart you can be a very happy person free of guilt, anger and jealousy

He didn't change the ideas of Judaism, he created a new religion out of Judaism. Many people have broken away from one religion to start their own.

Now the question to ask is, why don't you don't hold lets say...Joseph Smith, the prophet of the Mormon religion in the same class? Both men did the same thing, what makes Jesus better?

How do you define true happiness?

If God created everything, then he created anger, guilt and jealousy. Now wrap your mind around how God gave you these traits and now wants to help you get rid of them?

You can look at all the instances God is angry and jealous in the Bible, therefore, the best Jesus could ever do would be to make you angry and jealous like God.

I have never been angry because somebody worked on the sabbath and killed them. In light of that, I do now propose that I am and you are more just and moral than God. I've never raped anyone, I've never slaughtered every man woman and child in a city. These are all strong evidence that God is lacking very much in morals.

 

[Tiercel]

I'm absolutely gobsmacked by the amount of women who have responded to this thread.

So I'll risk alienating a few more by saying that the only god I could believe in would be the Conan from Robert E. Howard's original stories.

 

[LostViking]

I'm absolutely gobsmacked by the amount of women who have responded to this thread.

So I'll risk alienating a few more by saying that the only god I could believe in would be the Conan from Robert E. Howard's original stories.

You little Setite, you.

Oh wait, you want Conan as god?

...great, now I have Arnold's voice quoting stuff from the Old Testament stuck in my head.

 

[Banvard]

You little Setite, you.

Oh wait, you want Conan as god?

...great, now I have Arnold's voice quoting stuff from the Old Testament stuck in my head.

YouTube - Terminator vs Jesus

 

[NormanBates]

Well here's something religious that deals on a topic of depression and laughter.

Ecclesiastes 7:3 Sorrow is better than laughter, For when a face is

My views on religion vary because I was brought up religious but also went through the whole questioning/atheist stage so I guess I'm capable of feeling both ways.

 

[rado31]

if God is so allmighty , why does he have preachers on earth
Why they are chosen one.
They are parasites. IMO 90% of human "jobs" nowadays are redundant.

I wonder what are/were religious views of native americans

 

[LostViking]

if God is so allmighty , why does he have preachers on earth
Why they are chosen one.
They are parasites. IMO 90% of human "jobs" nowadays are redundant.

I wonder what are/were religious views of native americans

Native American Mythology

I guess Shamanism could cover some of it. The religion has deep roots in nature anyway, with lots of spirits, dreams, visions and such mixed in. I think they, or most of them, had no "gods", but rather "greater beings". While they were powerful, they weren't at the same level as f.ex the christian or muslim gods.

 

[Lea]

I agree with the OP.

 

[I_Walk_Alone]

It could be a coping mechanism for the human brains' emotional regions, when hard cold rational thinking just doesn't really make a difference to the wellbeing of the clan.

 

[Thelema]

if God is so allmighty , why does he have preachers on earth

Because he needs your money, lots and lots of money so the Pope can walk around in $500 loafers.

Satan, on the other hand, has not asked anyone for a penny. Who is more evil!?

 

[Thelema]

It could be a coping mechanism for the human brains' emotional regions, when hard cold rational thinking just doesn't really make a difference to the wellbeing of the clan.

Reality is more useful than believing things that don't exist

blissful ignorance is okay until it starts being put forth as actual reality.

 

[I_Walk_Alone]

Reality is more useful than believing things that don't exist

blissful ignorance is okay until it starts being put forth as actual reality.

Not their reality.

It isn't necessary anymore thats for sure.

 

[Thelema]

Not their reality.

It isn't necessary anymore thats for sure.

Emotionally, believing something just so you can function, even tho it may not really be true, can be good.

But if its the belief God created humans and the reason you believe this is because evolution doesn't make you happy...then it gets ridiculous. When you base your beliefs on emotions, and when evidence exists that contradicts your beliefs, you are saying your emotions are more important than what is actually real.

 

[DepecheEyes]

I see religion as unnecessary at least with Christianity. I think people follow Christianity simply because they believe it fulfills certain purposes like having morals and removing fears of death.

However, the best way for us to act moral is to simply establish our purposes or goals and use actions that help us accomplish it with the least disadvantages. I believe morality is relative to purposes and goals. In other words, actions are either good when they help fulfill a purpose or bad when they obstruct it.

Obviously, this would mean that no action is absolutely good nor absolutely bad. For instance, to rape may be good for the rapist to relieve his sexual urges, but it is also bad because he violate the safety of another. Also, he puts himself at risk with the law and if he gets caught...well, you fill in the blank. In the rapist case, masturbation would have been a far better action to help relieve his sexual urges.

As for the fear of death, I think a better method would be to simply accept the pleasures that are in this life and that just because we strongly desire for immortality doesn't follow that someone or something is obligated to give it to us.