Religion: What it means to you

I'm a Christian, trying to get over some struggles I have. Basically I have had a bad experience with organized religion and overtly authoritarian standpoints. I've come to realize that while I need organized religion for growth, I can't let it govern what I think. I need to think through what I am told and check up with it in scriptures. Organized religion almost made a...I don't know, not quite an athiest, but something, out of me. I was saved when I had almost completely turned away (I didn't realize that I was at that point then, but I do now) buy a really awesome guy -> "sunday school" teacher who was also my vice principle. He teaches the high school class, I still go there even though I am in college because its such an awesome class. He really reinforced the need to check what you are told, no matter who from, even the pastor, with the true word.

I don't know if I am Libertarian (from a social standpoint, not economic) because of an extremely violent reaction (metaphorically speaking) to authoritarianism, or just because it seems right, I'm inclinded to think the latter. It makes more sense Biblically to me not to legislate morality on others.

Anyway thats what I think of religion. Necessary, but it has a great capacity for doing a lot of bad.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

I think it's pretty cool reading through this about all the different beliefs people have here, I didn't realize the online community was so incredibly diverse. Even people describing themselves as athiests, agnostics, Christians, spiritualists, etc, are pretty different in and of themselves.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

It's a valid source of truth in and of his own worldview. But the problem exists because he thinks it should apply to EVERYONE'S worldview, which, quite obviously, it does not.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

The above is what happens when science tries to explain human consciousness.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Originally Posted by Sassafrass

You really shame Christians. $20 says most Christians witness you and hang their head in shame.

You truly are a scab on humanity.

You just won yourself $20.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by Grail

And about 50 years ago to when christianity began, you would probably be looked upon with admiration.

At the risk of sounding like I'm siding entirely with LordSword (which I'm not), Christianity actually began roughly 2,000 years ago with the teachings of a man named Jesus. Whether or not Jesus was who He said He was is up to the individual to decide.

LordSword: Not everyone needs some kind of ultimate platform to build their lives on. Morality is not an absolute concept for everyone, it's not that hard to come to that sort of realization. People can be good without being Christian - even the Bible attests to this fact. I see this in people all the time. Athiests aren't stupid or evil, they just have a different belief system, and trying to say they can't be moral because they don't have some sort of higher guiding source to direct their lives is just plain stupid.

And assume for the sake of this paragraph what you said about spiritual concepts since the dawn of civilization is true. Why does the fact that people have believed something for hundreds, or even thousands of years, make it true? A common example is how people once believed the earth was flat. Just because people believed this did not make it true. I am not commenting on the ultimate truth of your statement - merely the flawed reasoning behind it. The "correctness" of concept or idea is not determined on how many people have believed in it for however long a time.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Originally Posted by Capo

Ah, now I see. All biblical conventions should continue to be practiced today.

I'll grab the sheep, you get the kindling. Time to sac-ri-fice, baby.

That's incredibly ignorant. Biblically speaking, sacrificing animals to absolve sins was no longer needed after Jesus sacrificed Himself on the cross for the sins of mankind.

I'm not saying you should believe either one way or the other, by all means, form your own beliefs, but at least be informed about the things you are going to discuss.

FELIPE NO