I am not necessarily against religion. I was raised Catholic and some of my closest friends have close ties to their church. However, I do consider myself an agnostic and refuse to affiliate myself with organized religion. I believe that no one religion has it right. Each institution is so caught up in the small differences among each religion they dont recognize that in the broad scope of things they are alike and preach similar morals and beliefs. I find members of these institutions to be the most judgemental and hypocritical people I have come across. They look down on anyone that is not of the same religion, as though they are somehow above the rest of us and better enlightened. When asked what church I attend and I respond that I do not attend church I am immediately judged for it, and have even been told Im going to Hell for it. Well I consider myself a good and moral person, and any god that will punish me for not attending a false institution or not being baptised is no god of mine. I do not think my purpose in life is to attend church and perform silly rituals one day a week. Rather than waste time on this nonsense people should focus their time and energy into doing some good for the world. Some churches do distrubute donations to the poor and organize charities, but more could be going to these instead of being occupied with grand buildings decorated with elaborate pieces of art. If you look back in history the church has always been more concerned with wealth and grandeur. Ridiculous conflicts over the holy land have persisted since the crusades hundred of years ago. Its not even some paradise they fight for, just an endless stretch of DIRT. I just want to know when it will be socially acceptable to ask a religious person "what is wrong with you?" when they decide to judge me.
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I often think about that. I always imagine that in the future less and less people will be religious. I really don't think being religious is for everyone. I consider myself a "devout" pagan, but I think I'm just inclined to be a spiritual type of person, not necessarily religious. I don't understand why people as a whole feel the need to be very religious. I think people's problem is that they can't function in a world without absolutes. Things either have to be right or wrong. If things are not this way then people actually have to create change themselves and control their own lives instead of leaving it up to God/dess.
I agree with you about the "holy land" conflicts. That's always been my problem with Judeo chriatian faith, it teaches that God has a "chosen" people who are above the rest.
Denken. Nicht lesen.
The old standard of religion is obviously in decline with each generation. Not that long ago people were expected to marry within their religion. You were expected to wait to have sex until marriage and once you had committed yourself to someone you could not break that committment (in other words divorce) no matter how unhappy you may be. Most of these things are rare today and are almost nonexistent in US culture.
it will never be okay to judge a religious person for their beliefs, because when they are preaching the wrong ideas (being judgemental....etc) they are not "real Christians" thats the excuse often given.
im not saying they should be free from judgment....i believe those who judge should be judged....however they will continue to come up with every excuse in the book as to why they should be free from judgement.
they will use the bible most often....adn the bible is an inescapable circular argument. A circular argument that is automatically considered to be true and free from error simply for being inescapable. not by actually having proof of real fact or truth.
I think it is okay to judge those who are religious because i think most religious people are wrong.....the ultimate judgement im oncerned with when it somes to religion will be the judgement we face when we die or pass on to the next life.... whether a Christian wants to ADMIT that theyre wrong in the actions of their "crusade" or whatever they think they are on is not of my concern because i have my own beliefs and i simply dont care for their opinion. so perhaps you can accept it as okay for yourself....because it doesnt really matter what others think. But if your wondering when society will accept it or religions themelves will acceot it.....i have to answer: probably never.
Religion seems to be embedded in humans like it or not. There has always been belief in some divine greater power, from spirits in nature to gods of many things to just one god. I find it strange that no one looks at the fact that in the Bible it is written that the first people had contact with God and knew the "truth" of their creator, yet there is no evidence of any worship or belief in the true God until many years later. The fact that religion is constantly changing is proof that there is no correct religion. Now there are new ways of worship with crap like Kaballah and whatever the hell scientology is. I guess these institutions are just these ugly things that will always be there and try as we might to ignore them they insist on shoving their crap in our direction.
Kaballah is not new - it's a form of Jewish mysticism that's been around about as long as the Jewish faith has. Just because Madonna has brought the world's attention to it doesn't make it new or crap.
Scientology, on the other hand, is an entirely different matter :).
Not all churches are bad. I go to one sometimes... Just to hear what they have to say. But then again, it's a very liberal and open minded church, so I guess that's a bit different.
Another comment said something about religion being here to stay. Yeah, I would have to agree. Dawkins made a good comparison in saying as a moth is attracted to a candle light because of its innate sense to use the stars to guide itself at night, religion is a "side-effect" of some useful evolutionary behavior. In this case it would be love and community, or at least I think that's what he said.