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The reason that everyone, even atheists, should love the majority religion is this: It is 99% gnostic.
In other words, 99% of the faith comes from whatever the person "feels" is the right thing to do.
In the case of an atheist, 100% of his belief comes from his own thoughts and observations.
So, while the religious believer might give lip service to a book, in practice they really do only that. You will not find their actions and speech to reflect much of anything in the book. But I believe their faith causes them to look to their Higher Selves. And that "higher self" is no different than what an atheist would also look to. An atheist looks at it from a rational point of view about abstract principles, while the religious believer looks at it in the form of an idealized person who is always giving them new "visions" and new thoughts and ideas, and they are sharing these "visions" with other believers. The visions tell them the same things that the atheist deduces from reasoning and from his own observations and intuition.
Isn't that the case for any religion and not just Christianity? The majority of my friends are Christians (liberal and conservative). I love them for them, not the religion.
I try to love people and not a religion. Ironically, being a member of a religion helps me better accomplish this.
Instead of loving God or Jesus, I try to put that extreme, unconditional love towards my current life and the people in it. Tough for everyone to do (if we could, maybe it would be heaven on earth), but personally freeing and rewarding when it can be accomplished.
its a nice try ozzy. Most people are good people. The milli/fundy mentals roll in and screw the pooch.
I also am contemplating the nation that some people feel that they are "judging people" when they disagree with ideas of that person. They are so against "judging people" they blame this religion thing.
for example: I said once " .... shes not the best looking girl ....", wow, did I get ripped. I could not explain to the person that all I was doing was "lining up faces" and seeing were that "head" fit.
so I think some people glitch out over "people are the bestest thing ever" so they blame religion. That is not saying that for all people, right? Some people have been abused by a religious person or are just mentally ill.
I describe how the universe works and why I think we should help each other.
Other people call me names.
like atheist
theist
leftie
rightie
whatever-ie
I just saw that "cultural religion" was added or in the title and my response to that would be absolutely not. It takes courage to go against the grain and speak up and people shouldn't feel they need to follow along with everything else. What did Galileo say about following the herd?
I just saw that "cultural religion" was added or in the title and my response to that would be absolutely not. It takes courage to go against the grain and speak up and people shouldn't feel they need to follow along with everything else. What did Galileo say about following the herd?
But Galileo was following scientific principles. He was fighting a political system which just happened to be theocratic. That political system that was anti-science was really what Jesus would have called "the world" or the worldly powers of darkness. Those in darkness deny the truth wherever it is found.
Antichrist = anti-science.
Most Christians today believe in the same scientific principles.
The theocracy that the political powers created from Christianity was done so out of the "people" following the truth/spiritual principles they identified with in the Christ. Worldly political powers will always tap into whatever the people are following, so that they can control the people.
The people are following the gnostic tradition of their faith (Holy Spirit), while they are also being unknowingly led by the political form of that same faith. Paul called it the "antichrist". Paul's Christ was the inner savior inside of all men.
The theocracy that the political powers created from Christianity was done so out of the "people" following the truth/spiritual principles they identified with in the Christ. Worldly political powers will always tap into whatever the people are following, so that they can control the people.
The people are following the gnostic tradition of their faith (Holy Spirit), while they are also being unknowingly led by the political form of that same faith. Paul called it the "antichrist". Paul's Christ was the inner savior inside of all men.
Two of the first democracies of the world came from non Christian religions, both pagan in fact, Athen aND Iceland. The Reinasaince came about in part because the knowledge of the Greeks was kept alive by the Muslims and started becoming better known in Europe. Within Europe much learning was saved due to the semi isolation of the Irish.
Your topic is the same as we should love Americans because they were the first modern democracy which disregards the partial genocide of First Nations peoples, slavery, the many proxy wars and their current political theatre.
Religious groups do good as do non religious groups. They also do bad and evil, for example American missionaries who were pushing Uganda to impose the death penalty for gays. Without religion would the Middle East be in the condition it is now, would all the European religious wars have occurred or would the treatment of indigenous people have been so barbaric?
I can support the good that religious people do but there is no reason to love these religious by picking out the good and ignoring the bad. I am sure that Denmark has done good as well but I have no personal reason to love Denmark and the Danish. Or to hate them either.
Two of the first democracies of the world came from non Christian religions, both pagan in fact, Athen aND Iceland. The Reinasaince came about in part because the knowledge of the Greeks was kept alive by the Muslims and started becoming better known in Europe. Within Europe much learning was saved due to the semi isolation of the Irish.
Your topic is the same as we should love Americans because they were the first modern democracy which disregards the partial genocide of First Nations peoples, slavery, the many proxy wars and their current political theatre.
Religious groups do good as do non religious groups. They also do bad and evil, for example American missionaries who were pushing Uganda to impose the death penalty for gays. Without religion would the Middle East be in the condition it is now, would all the European religious wars have occurred or would the treatment of indigenous people have been so barbaric?
I can support the good that religious people do but there is no reason to love these religious by picking out the good and ignoring the bad. I am sure that Denmark has done good as well but I have no personal reason to love Denmark and the Danish. Or to hate them either.
True. That's why I would tend to focus on the churches that are doing good things. They might not even be able to classify easily by denomination. But the people are led naturally to churches because they are a community that is following the higher spirit.
For example, in 2017 America you would probably find that in the neighborhood United Methodist church or other similar denomination. Or certain Catholic churches. (As far Christian churches go.)
But twenty years from now, who knows.
its a nice try ozzy. Most people are good people. The milli/fundy mentals roll in and screw the pooch.
I also am contemplating the nation that some people feel that they are "judging people" when they disagree with ideas of that person. They are so against "judging people" they blame this religion thing.
for example: I said once " .... shes not the best looking girl ....", wow, did I get ripped. I could not explain to the person that all I was doing was "lining up faces" and seeing were that "head" fit.
so I think some people glitch out over "people are the bestest thing ever" so they blame religion. That is not saying that for all people, right? Some people have been abused by a religious person or are just mentally ill.
I describe how the universe works and why I think we should help each other.
Other people call me names.
like atheist
theist
leftie
rightie
whatever-ie
As you rightly say, nice try. It may be that religion is a very effective way of getting people to behave well when they can't think of a good reason to. The downside is that it can be used to make people behave badly when otherwise they might not.
But we really need to persuade people to do the right for reasons they can see make sense and are in their own interests, now as well as for the future, not because of some divine stick and carrot arrangement.
As you rightly say, nice try. It may be that religion is a very effective way of getting people to behave well when they can't think of a good reason to. The downside is that it can be used to make people behave badly when otherwise they might not.
But we really need to persuade people to do the right for reasons they can see make sense and are in their own interests, now as well as for the future, not because of some divine stick and carrot arrangement.
Good luck with that.
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