Religion

[Matty]

Anyway, arn't there 2 gods in America? - cars and money - thats it

Col

I thought the gods were guns and money? Or is your expert knowledge waning?

 

[nikkypickles]

I'm just curious to know - out of the posters on here who have a religion (and by that I mean have been subscribed to a religion at some point in their lives, no matter what their current beliefs) - what percentage are Christian, or a derivative, or Muslim, or Buddhist, or Hindu (or any other - sorry, those are just the ones I can remember off the top of my head).

It just seems that from the replies so far, the focus has been on the Christian church and its corruption.
It's quite arrogant of Man to expect God (or god - take your pick) to answer our prayers. God is on everyone's side according to those who fight in His name. Which means that if He's got any sense, He's keeping His nose well out of it.

For the record, I don't believe in a God (big-G), but I do believe there is something more in control and more knowledgeable than Man - but it is a silent being, an observer, not a call centre.

 

[ColinEssex]

That's funny Col, cause at last count there are at least 1,000,000,000 Christians and the same number or so of Muslims, all believing in I Am; or Allah if you prefer.

I know that there are millions who believe in a "christian" fabricated fairy story - I was saying where's the evidence of any such existence of a god or christ person? as far as I know its all heresay.

Just imagine being the geezer who dreamt all this religion stuff up.
You start a story about a "god" or "christ" figure, you make up some simple rules.
Then you say if you don't believe, then you go to "hell" forever. (thats the hook, its peoples insecurity) People believe it because they are gullable.
Then comes the brainwave, you (the people) give me money to enable me to tell others about my story and you giving me money will be like an offering to make you feel cleansed. Then the new people will give me money too and I'll be a millionaire and live a life of luxury

Its a belter of an idea. One of the greatest cons of all time. Actually, its like the hundreds of American tele-evangelists in a way, playing on peoples insecurities and fleecing them of money to live in luxury and contentment.

Then when you go round doing strange things like invading countries and killing people, you just say god said to do it coz god is on my side.


Col

 

[ColinEssex]

I thought the gods were guns and money? Or is your expert knowledge waning?

no you keep the gun in the car of course

Col

 

[ColinEssex]

I'm just curious to know - out of the posters on here who have a religion (and by that I mean have been subscribed to a religion at some point in their lives, no matter what their current beliefs)

Nikky - I spent several years going to a christian church, I got involved with the "senior" members there because my brother-in-law was a deacon.

I just could not believe the hypocritical attitude of them (the members). They despised "non-believers". The treasurer skimmed 10% of the offering. They openly slagged of other members. They had affairs with others wives. They lived a "non-christian" life during the week and became "christians" on sundays. It was awful, and this was a Baptist church.

I gave up because I couldn't live my life as being a hypocritical lie.

Col

 

[msp]

I know that there are millions who believe in a "christian" fabricated fairy story - I was saying where's the evidence of any such existence of a god or christ person? as far as I know its all heresay.

Col

I thought there was quite a bit of historical evidence of a person of Christ existing (in Roman documents written at the time etc) . It is just the evidence of the on son of God, etc that is a little hazy.

 

[Rich]

but I do believe there is something more in control and more knowledgeable than Man - but it is a silent being, an observer, not a call centre.

It's called mother nature

 

[jsanders]

It's called mother nature

Why is it that atheist can be so religious?

 

[Rich]

Why is it that atheist can be so religious?

What's religion got to do with mother nature?

 

[ShaneMan]

If there was at least a shred of evidence that there was a God or Christ or whatever then more people would believe it.
The scribblings of some lunatic in a book is not definitive evidence.
Col

There is evidence, you just choose to ignore it or attempt to explain them away. Also, the "lunatic who scribbled in a book" must have been pretty lucky to predict so many things that have come true already and schools out on the ones to come. Something like 600 prophecies of Jesus birth over something like a 800 year time span and they all came true, to give one example. Pretty lucky fella to pull that off.

Nikky - I spent several years going to a christian church, I got involved with the "senior" members there because my brother-in-law was a deacon.

I just could not believe the hypocritical attitude of them (the members). They despised "non-believers". The treasurer skimmed 10% of the offering. They openly slagged of other members. They had affairs with others wives. They lived a "non-christian" life during the week and became "christians" on sundays. It was awful, and this was a Baptist church.

I gave up because I couldn't live my life as being a hypocritical lie.

Sounds like rather than finding out what God and His Book had to say you looked at others and they let you down. Man will always let you down, but that doesn't prove anything as far as God and the Bible goes. Just proves that a man can claim to be anything but that does make him what he claims to be.

 

[ShaneMan]

Well the answer to that one is fairly simple. It's because of the mal-treatment that the populace needed dumbing down. From a roman point of view: We like feeding christians to lions but we don't want a revolution, so lets find some rhetoric that will persuade them that if they keep quiet then they'll be rewarded after they're dead. If they don't then they're in danger of hellfire.

EDIT: The parable of the rich man and Lazarus encapsulates this.

Most theologians believe that the rich man and Lazarus was probably not a parable.

I guess the Roman Empires plan has worked to a certain degree. Their Empire fell so I guess that didn't work out, but the "dumbing down" of folks did work, cause there are a large number of us less than intelligent folks who still buy this made up story hook, line and stinker.

but the Old Testament did big time. The issue of slavery was still pertinent and yet completely ignored. Indeed one could argue that it was encouraged to forget about the past battles against slavery.

"For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ."

John 1: 17

I guess I'm not following your point on this one (I have been "dumbed down" you know ). I did admit that there are many stories in the Old Testament of slavery, but those stories were talking about the Jews being made slaves. Outside of that I'm not sure the point that your driving at so even the verse you have quoted from John is not fitting in for me, so I guess I need a little more explaination to understand were your driving us to.

 

[jsanders]

What's religion got to do with mother nature?

Nothing of course.

But atheists seem to be among the most devout in their proclamation of their faith.

Even to the point of being disciples for the spread of non-belief; which by the way takes as much, or more, faith then believing, because one has to ignore the signs of a higher power all around them.

I personally can’t ignore it because I’m an addict, and the only program in the world with any kind of positive track record for the deliverance of alcoholics from the hell of addiction is the AA method, which relies heavily on the “higher power”

So when you believe there is no God, and then you proceed, with all of your power, to convince the world of your enlightened position.

That is religious.

 

[Rich]

We have AA in this country, they use willpower and therapy, not fairy tales and man's fear of the unknown

 

[Rich]

Man will always let you down, but that doesn't prove anything as far as God and the Bible goes. .

Didn't God let down 20,000,000 of his followers during WW11?

 

[ShaneMan]

Didn't God let down 20,000,000 of his followers during WW11?

Can't answer a question that I don't understand. How did He do that?

 

[Rich]

Can't answer a question that I don't understand. How did He do that?

He wasn't there for them

 

[ShaneMan]

He wasn't there for them

Who were these 20,000,00 followers?

 

[Rich]

Who were this 20,000,00 followers?

Well there were 6,000,000 Jews to start with, do you need a breakdown of the rest?

 

[ShaneMan]

Well there were 6,000,000 Jews to start with, do you need a breakdown of the rest?

Yes, I do, cause I didn't know there were that many "believers" fighting in WWII and I really don't know how God let them down, so actually an answer to both would be nice.

 

[Rich]

Yes, I do, cause I didn't know there were that many "believers" fighting in WWII and I really don't know how God let them down, so actually an answer to both would be nice.

I think we both know that faith in God plummeted after two world wars but more so after the second, surely you can see how I arrive at that statement.
Unless God allowed their sacrifice as some sort of test of their love for him, doesn't sound like a loving deity to me.