My Problem With Religion

[Danzig]

i just wish people would keep it simple. be good. be nice to people, don't be an ******* like rand says in his signature line. no one should have to preach to you (at you) for you to do the right thing. why does it have to involve a third party? why does some guy have to live a single, lonely life so he can tell you on sundays how to live?
i was raised a catholic. i haven't been to church in years, nor do i feel the lack. i've raised my kids to follow the golden rule. it's not rocket science!
do i believe a guy named jesus walked the earth? yes. do i think he set good examples about how to treat others? yes. what else do you need, or need to be told? all this judgemental crap...all the shooting, wars, crusades, it's all b.s. and the complete opposite of what religion is supposed to be about!

[timmgirvan]

Originally Posted by Danzig

i just wish people would keep it simple. be good. be nice to people, don't be an ******* like rand says in his signature line. no one should have to preach to you (at you) for you to do the right thing. why does it have to involve a third party? why does some guy have to live a single, lonely life so he can tell you on sundays how to live?
i was raised a catholic. i haven't been to church in years, nor do i feel the lack. i've raised my kids to follow the golden rule. it's not rocket science!
do i believe a guy named jesus walked the earth? yes. do i think he set good examples about how to treat others? yes. what else do you need, or need to be told? all this judgemental crap...all the shooting, wars, crusades, it's all b.s. and the complete opposite of what religion is supposed to be about!

Zeiggie: We get along pretty good, but it's really not that simple. And you can't dismiss the singular most person is history because Man in his usual sloppy way prostituted Christs' message on Earth.

[Danzig]

Originally Posted by timmgirvan

Zeiggie: We get along pretty good, but it's really not that simple. And you can't dismiss the singular most person is history because Man in his usual sloppy way prostituted Christs' message on Earth.

i'm not dismissing him! i think the people who have taken all his messages and twisted them into some judgemental kind of garbage while they look down their noses at others are the ones who dismiss him!

[timmgirvan]

Originally Posted by Danzig

i'm not dismissing him! i think the people who have taken all his messages and twisted them into some judgemental kind of garbage while they look down their noses at others are the ones who dismiss him!

Read your quote...because of peoples' garbage...HE is relegated to the back burner in many peoples' lives. I just don't want it to be My friends' lives!

Originally Posted by Danzig

i just wish people would keep it simple. be good. be nice to people, don't be an ******* like rand says in his signature line. no one should have to preach to you (at you) for you to do the right thing. why does it have to involve a third party? why does some guy have to live a single, lonely life so he can tell you on sundays how to live?
i was raised a catholic. i haven't been to church in years, nor do i feel the lack. i've raised my kids to follow the golden rule. it's not rocket science!
do i believe a guy named jesus walked the earth? yes. do i think he set good examples about how to treat others? yes. what else do you need, or need to be told? all this judgemental crap...all the shooting, wars, crusades, it's all b.s. and the complete opposite of what religion is supposed to be about!

Z.

Have you met people that would interpret what you just wrote inadequate? I have met many. They would tell you... you have not been saved. I cannot make that determination. I will tell you that. When I ask these people how they would come to the conclusion that they have been saved, and that I have not... and continue the line of questioning. I often confuse them, or they stop listening and hide behind a shell of knowing without what I would consider satisfactory reasoning. It usually comes down to " I did not reason myself into this, I have faith" And I say but your faith had to involve some reasoning... and then it pretty much falls apart. They dont understand me, and I dont understand why they cant understand what I am trying to determine.

And my conclusion of their thinking becomes, dont ask so many questions and you will be fine. Accept, have faith, but dont inspect.

[Danzig]

Originally Posted by pgardn

Z.

Have you met people that would interpret what you just wrote inadequate? I have met many. They would tell you... you have not been saved. I cannot make that determination. I will tell you that. When I ask these people how they would come to the conclusion that they have been saved, and that I have not... and continue the line of questioning. I often confuse them, or they stop listening and hide behind a shell of knowing without what I would consider satisfactory reasoning. It usually comes down to " I did not reason myself into this, I have faith" And I say but your faith had to involve some reasoning... and then if pretty much falls apart. They dont understand me, and I dont understand why they cant understand what I am trying to determine.

And my conclusion of their thinking becomes, dont ask so many questions and you will be fine. Accept, have faith, but dont inspect.

hell, pg i've been told i have no soul, been judged by many around here because i don't attend church, or because they find out i've been raised catholic, apparently that in itself warrants eternal damnation in some circles....
thing is, how does anyone know anything about what happens next? lol you don't. they don't--yet 'they' (who is they?) know that 'they' are right, and everyone who is different is wrong, and dammed for it!

but the have faith part-i have to confess, i'm pretty lacking in the whole faith dept. i think there's something bigger then us out there--but i'm not so sure what!

[GenuineRisk]

Originally Posted by Danzig

hell, pg i've been told i have no soul, been judged by many around here because i don't attend church, or because they find out i've been raised catholic, apparently that in itself warrants eternal damnation in some circles....
thing is, how does anyone know anything about what happens next? lol you don't. they don't--yet 'they' (who is they?) know that 'they' are right, and everyone who is different is wrong, and dammed for it!

but the have faith part-i have to confess, i'm pretty lacking in the whole faith dept. i think there's something bigger then us out there--but i'm not so sure what!

You Deist, you-- well, if it worked for the Founding Fathers...

No kidding about the Catholic thing- I have a friend of 20 some years in Florida who told me she doesn't think Catholics are going to heaven because "They're more concerned with doing good deeds than with their relationship to Christ." Sigh...

[Danzig]

Originally Posted by GenuineRisk

You Deist, you-- well, if it worked for the Founding Fathers...

No kidding about the Catholic thing- I have a friend of 20 some years in Florida who told me she doesn't think Catholics are going to heaven because "They're more concerned with doing good deeds than with their relationship to Christ." Sigh...

ben franklin is my hero...and it cracks me up when the whole we are a christian nation look at the founding fathers dialogue starts. t jefferson was accused of being an atheist back then, now he's been redeemed i guess.

[GenuineRisk]

Originally Posted by Danzig

ben franklin is my hero...and it cracks me up when the whole we are a christian nation look at the founding fathers dialogue starts. t jefferson was accused of being an atheist back then, now he's been redeemed i guess.

Since you brought up Old Ben- in his own words....

To Ezra Stiles, 9 March 1790 (B 12:185-6):

"You desire to know something of my religion. It is the first time I have been questioned upon it. But I cannot take your curiosity amiss, and shall endeavor in a few words to gratify it. Here is my creed. I believe in one God, the creator of the universe. That he governs by his providence. That he ought to be worshipped. That the most acceptable service we render to him is doing good to his other children. That the soul of man is immortal, and will be treated with justice in another life respecting its conduct in this. These I take to be the fundamental points in all sound religion, and I regard them as you do in whatever sect I meet with them.

As to Jesus of Nazareth, my opinion of whom you particularly desire, I think his system of morals and his religion, as he left them to us, the best the world ever saw or is likely to see; but I apprehend it has received various corrupting changes, and I have, with most of the present dissenters in England, some doubts as to his divinity; though it is a question I do not dogmatize upon, having never studied it, and think it needless to busy myself with it now, when I expect soon an opportunity of knowing the truth with less trouble. I see no harm, however, in its being believed, if that belief has the good consequences, as probably it has, of making his doctrines more respected and more observed; especially as I do not perceive that the Supreme takes it amiss, by distinguishing the unbelievers in his government of the world with any peculiar marks of his displeasure."