Religion will eventually become obsolete (worship, religious leader, God, evolution)

[boiseguy]

I personally do not Hate religion, I was raised Mormon... what I hate is its effect on people... turning them into sheep that follow the words of MEN.. which is what the bible is... I don't believe in the whole jesus thing.. but i don't hate him or christianity any more than I would hate the same effect islam plays on the minds of people who believe it... I think Islam is a perfect example of religion gone absurd... and christians are not too far behind... but like to wage wars agains muslims contending that they are "messed up" Pot meet tea kettle...

Originally Posted by Alpha8207

Exactly. So many times I find people start ranting and raving about religion and what they really hate is Christianity.

Strange.

And yeah, I'm up a little late. But I gotta unwind and see if Letterman has a decent Halloween show!

[sergeyn]

A non-religious and generally agnostic person here. Two points to make:

1. The post is aggressive. It labels people with rather unpleasant labels without any justification. As long as we, the non-religious, have this sort of demeanor, we'll actually be helping organized religion. I think a lot of deeply religious people are inclined to view us, godless ones, as cold and cynical, because we "do not have Jesus in our heart" (formulations may differ). I know that that ain't so but seeking confrontation like the OP does confirms this view.

2. I am deeply convinced that religion is not going anywhere anytime soon. It will most likely mutate and change overtime but the accompanying beliefs in Higher Power will stay. Saying that science and progress will replace religion doesn't make sense to me. Religion answers (or rather claims to have answered) the questions like "Why am I here?" or "What's good and what's bad?". Both of these questions are extremely important to most people to the point that not having some answers causes extreme anguish. Now these questions deal with the subjective while science deals with the objective. Science by itself can't answer them!

I do think that if people continue becoming more educated and less desperate in their lives (which is a big if, unfortunately), they will shift towards less dogmatic spiritual traditions like Buddhism. That shift (which I personally desire), however, really depends on the way history unfolds. In the meanwhile, separation between Church and State should be firmly maintained but very carefully, without creating the vast impression that "Christians are persecuted".

[cleatis]

Originally Posted by sophix

I hate to blow it for most of you, but religion is a man-made creation that will very soon be exposed for what it is - a counterintuitive, destructive, manipulative organization that has been feeding off of people's vulnerability and weakness for years.

When will Americans realize (as most in nearly every other developed nation) that the notion of a man sitting up in the clouds watching every move and every thought you make is utterly ridiculous! It's absolutely astounding to me that someone can actually believe that a man was born of a virgin, performed a bunch of miracles, and then died, and rose again. Especially with zero evidence to support this viewpoint.

Yet, these same religious fundies will balk at repeatable, proveable, time tested scientific research. It just doesn't make any sense.

As I'm sure has been stated on these forums before, you can "choose" (such a favorite word of fundies) to believe whatever you want. It's when you use collective mass ignorance to your benefit to pass or not pass legislation which limit the right of individuals or practices you deem "immoral" that becomes the problem.

I tell ya, unless something changes, this country is headed for disaster.

i can actually agree with a lot of this. but i see religion as a necessary evil, or at least one that isn't going to go away. religion has been around for as long as people have (hell even Neanderthal man had religion). Religion has served a few purposes such as helping a society form and as mentioned before, gave people a tribe to belong to.

i'm not saying these things were without consequence, but society couldn't have formed as we know it today. it would for sure have been different, for better or for worse both. remember everything has a trade off.

yes, religion is a horribly rotten and corrupt institution, but we would have corrupted whatever institution took its place, because that's the way people do with institutions.

so i am not saying that i am a fan of religion (at least the religions i have come across) but i am saying that no matter what we will have corrupt institutions that drag us down in the same ways religion has/does. there is no silver bullet answer and humanity will never be all that it can; humanity will remain the pathetic underachiever that it is and will always have conflict of interest.

[Tricky D]

As long as they do no harm, I don't mind religion.
I only hope that man's mob mentality will become obsolete.

[Nothing12]

the one good thing about the Bush Presidency is people are seeing Religion and Christianity for the fraud it is

[GCSTroop]

Originally Posted by Alpha8207

I may have missed it, but did anyone else notice the Op talks about 'religion' but then in very descriptive terms pretty much dials that anger in on Christianity?

I don't think the anger is about religion, I think it's about that Person who was born of a virgin, died, and rose again to free me from the chains that held me.

I can't really defend against him Alpha, I did find his tone pretty condescending. But in regards to his anger towards Christianity, I have this sneaking suspicion that he suffers from what I do... Too many people throwing the book in his face and telling him he's going to burn in hell or people that call themselves Christians and make him feel like he's not even human for his lack of belief in Jesus. I had that same anger at one time directed towards religion and mostly Christianity because of that. The forum helped me open my eyes that no, not all Christians are idiots, who want to throw the Bible in your face every time you talk to them. Sometimes, it's the bad impressions that seem to stick in our minds the most.

Pardon my french but we had a saying in the military (or at least that's where I heard it the most):

One "Oh S**t!" erases a thousand " 'Atta Boys!".

[Travelling fella]

Originally Posted by GCSTroop

I can't really defend against him Alpha, I did find his tone pretty condescending. But in regards to his anger towards Christianity, I have this sneaking suspicion that he suffers from what I do... Too many people throwing the book in his face and telling him he's going to burn in hell or people that call themselves Christians and make him feel like he's not even human for his lack of belief in Jesus. I had that same anger at one time directed towards religion and mostly Christianity because of that. The forum helped me open my eyes that no, not all Christians are idiots, who want to throw the Bible in your face every time you talk to them. Sometimes, it's the bad impressions that seem to stick in our minds the most.

Pardon my french but we had a saying in the military (or at least that's where I heard it the most):

One "Oh S**t!" erases a thousand " 'Atta Boys!".

I agree with some of the things you said Dear GCSTroop, the more radical you are thinking that others deserve eternal damnation just because they think different is what makes most people run away from religious ideas, I doubt Christ would have thought that way.

Religion was intended to free yourself not to enslave yourself, God gave us divine powers such as reason and intuition to be able to discriminate and find the truth for ourselves instead of following men, however he sent us (imho) great enlightened souls such as Christ, Krsna, Buddha and Muhammad to help us on our way back to God.

There are 2 kinds of energy.

Vibrations emanating from spirit, that have the power of attraction, creating bonds of unity and harmony

Vibrations emanating from the cosmic delusion, that have the power of repulsion, thus creating disonance and divisions

Christ being an spiritual man only emanated spiritual vibrations. (imho)

Religion without Science is blind
Science without Religion is lacking

Science + Religion = the way to truth, eternal peace and bliss.

[Mooseketeer]

As long as religion gives comfort and succour to people it's fine by me. I don't understand it, it baffles me and some forms of it scare the hell out of me, but it is obviously terribly important to many so fine.

I can't imagine a world where religion is obsolete or disappears altogether , I think mainly because a lot of humans on the whole need to believe in something greater, a creator, giving them a reason to exist, a meaning of life and answers to questions which puzzle us all. Some of us chose to look at science for those answers but a large majority still feel a need for religion. We all need to "belong" and as tribal creatures are drawn to groups which makes us feel included and secure. Religion provides this.

I believe we created god to assuage our deepest fears and to some extent we have also killed him the last few years as spirituality is in decline and slowly being replaced by more earthly matters such as consumerism.

I also believe though that these periods go in waves and that man will at some point return to religion to comfort him when he feels lost in our new scary world of spiritual void .

A world without religion seems to me to go against human nature.

[Travelling fella]

Imho as science keeps evolving and advancing we will finally reach to the conclusion that God exists, that Yoga is a sacred science who had all the answers coded in such a way we couldn't decipher those mysteries before, some top scientists are starting to use oriental phillosophy to find explanations to questions that science wasn't able to solve before, we'll continue seeing this trend until science and religion become one discipline.

[Mattie Jo]

I hate to blow it for most of you, but religion is a man-made creation that will very soon be exposed for what it is - a counterintuitive, destructive, manipulative organization that has been feeding off of people's vulnerability and weakness for years.

I think that you would replace "religion" with the word, "Mankind." You may even include animals in this since they kill for food. Now I will say that religious organizations are a hornet's nest, but not religion or spirituality itself.

It sounds to me as if you have been deeply hurt by religion. I only say this because I have too, but while in the past I rejected it entirely, I now just reject religious organizations. I carry my own beliefs within, and I consider my religion to be kindness, which isn't always easy to always express, but I do my best. I also consider religion to be helping others.