Religion: If You Don't Believe In It Why Does It Bother You?

Lmao, if I cared about grammar in posts thus far, I would have gone batshit crazy over 80% of the responses alone that I've responded to....

Oops, that gibberish underneath the quotes is me babbling. Didn't mean to put a gray quote box around it, too. /blush

Hey Sev, You can use both of of these.. b/c ...

A)Affect is to have influence.. The Jehovah's witness knocks on your door, and tries to " Influence " you into their religion. They are usually or generally found, everywhere.

B) Effect I just joined the Jehovah's witness, b/c I got sucked into the spiel at my door and what a result this is.. /sigh <lol>

I guess you already know that both are understandable, I'm not trying to correct you in any manner. I'm just making a statement.

aw, man, right as i was about to go to the gym ;_;

but it's like hitting me on the knee with the mallet, being argumentative is a reflex for me

sure, both are understandable. no argument there.

if i say to you: I go to gym now, lift weights so can get big.

you have a good idea of what i'm trying to get across. it does indeed make sense, as you say.

That doesn't make it proper or correct English. While understandable, the sentence breaks several laws of grammar.

Grammar Nazi? Guilty as charged. I'm a book lover and a journalist, and i have a genuine love for the construction, rules, and flow of the English language, corny as it sounds.

of course, i almost never capitalize or punctuate so there's some hypocrisy to be found

but then neither did E.E. Cummings and he's a damned literary hero

Oh hell no. I would so go



on their *** if I had the opportunity. Couldn't care less of consequences at that point after having lost his own son.

Total random aside, but this is a pet peeve of mine as well.

Using correct grammar and spelling is not about whether or not it's easier for you. Because it's not. It's a huge pain in the ***.

But if you want random strangers to care about what you're saying, you can't put the onus on them to puzzle their way through your nonsensical word salad. It's disrespectful. To assume the ease of your writing is somehow more important than the ease of the other person's understanding is self-centered and childish.

Making a good post is about "selling" your point of view, and posting with crappy grammar and no punctuation is like trying to sell a car that hasn't been cleaned in four years. You might think it gives the car "character," but most people aren't going to ask to see under the hood if you have beer stains on the seats.

Aye, it certainly helps having correct spelling, punctuation, and grammar if getting your point across was your initial objective.

At least most of you are constructive in your efforts to correct one's faults.

yeah, because we could resort to rock throwing and spreading the butthurt around like butter on toast...

wait...

nvm

Unless it's the beginning word of a sentence :P

Remeber Im not religious in the sense but I like to stir the pot to get all sides going. What if the world had no churches and no religion? Then who would help to feed, cloth and shelter the less fortunate? (Don't say the government) Because as far as I can tell 99.9% of the people that run food banks and other community based programs (other than government) are churches and people of faith. So is it better to have science and religion peacefully coexist for the betterment of society as a whole, granted there are extremists from both groups. Or is it better to have only one and we are all either slaves to God or to Science. God maybe doesnt exist but the laws of science may also only be true in our immediate vicinity of the universe. In conclusion why not use the best of both to bring about a better life for all?

It's a sad thing that the lie of Original Sin has been told so often, in both myth and present day teaching. I will say again:

Original Sin is a lie.

Go to a child, and tell them that they are a sinner from birth, and I doubt they will understand why, if they have some idea of what sin is. This life we have is the best chance to flourish inside.

Ask yourself if we cannot escape your ability to sin, and if you say yes, consider whether or not that's because of your fear of being unable to let go of your habits.

So what about the other idea, that Jesus saved people from their sins?

Friends, if Jesus saved us, then who saved the people before Jesus was alive? Christianity has come up with an answer for this, but doesn't it strike you as a poor excuse to say that those people go to Limbo? Or maybe it strikes fear into you, that if you were to live like people before Jesus' time, you will also be unable to get to heaven and be happy.

Think about why the church would tell that "Jesus saved us from our sins" over and over again. Go ahead and ask yourself if the Church has no stake in saying this. It does. With this strange and foreboding statement, the Church, which bases itself around Jesus, can gain followers and keep them.

Why do people have to be sinners? Why does Jesus have to be their savior? Jesus taught many good things, and was a courageous and selfless person - but the religion that emerged from it was based out of a misunderstanding of what he really stood for. The lie that Jesus is the savior of Christians has been told many, many, many times. For centuries. It is effective in trapping people - they doubt their ability to be saved without Jesus, and since Jesus is experienced through the Church, they conclude that they must follow the Church to be saved.

And I do not mean to belittle Jesus, for he was a good man. But Jesus did not save people from their original sin. First, because there is no original sin. And second, because Jesus taught people HOW to overcome and be aware of their sin. Did the people who learned directly from Jesus before his death need the Church? No.

If you have become ensnared by religion, it's important to become aware of how it has trapped you, and why. But since most religions are not named religions by us (e.g. political systems), do not assume you are not trapped in one or many. Strive to be self-aware, and the mysteries will be revealed one by one.

But the servant who does not know his master's will is still beaten.


This applies to Mosaic Law. This does not excuse Original Sin.








Yes, the offer of salvation applies to anyone in the world with the one caveat:




And it makes it emphatically clear as to the only path to God.

I used to worry about the "what if" there is a hell, because I'm not a Christian. A couple of years ago I was giving the whole thing some thought, and I had somewhat of an epiphany, as it were, and I had a huge realization, for myself.

Quite simply, if there is a god (and I will use the male term just for familiarity's sake), then he CREATED me to be skeptical 2,000 year-old promises of salvation. He MADE me very wary of stories that can't be proven, and especially, of legends of spectacular deeds that happened "once upon a time", but never seem to happen again, i.e., a virgin birth, messiahs rising from the dead, and so forth.

If there is a god, he also created me to be a kind and caring person. I donate to worthwhile charities, I help old ladies put their groceries away when it's pouring rain, I never litter and try to recycle as much as I can...hell, I don't even kill spiders, I catch them in a glass and release them outside. I'm optimistic and generally cheerful, and I try to make the lives of the people around me easier and happier.

If I die and find myself standing before a god, I am confident that he will not judge me harshly for being exactly the way he created me. I mean, come on..."Hey there, Silv...yeah, you were a good person, you were nicer than some so-called religious people, but all those good deeds you did were for naught because even though your heart was kind, you didn't believe in the -correct- 2,000 year old story.

Oh, and by the way...this guy over here who tortured animals, robbed people, destroyed property, and was generally a complete *** all his life but found Jesus on his deathbed gets to lounge in paradise for the rest of time...sorry about that."

Yeah, um...no...any being capable of creating life, the universe, and everything would be far more just than that, so, I'm confident that being true to myself in trying to make the world a better place is all a being whose love for me is -perfect- would really want. 8)

Even back then, people told the truth by saying "so it was written".

How was it written? I can write anything I want, but without investigating it for yourself, how can you know it to be true or false?

The Bible has many places that are written with the intention of fooling others into believing it is true, so the words alone are never proof.

The very fact that writing can be false proves that the Bible can also be false.

Learn by examining yourself, maybe using the Bible as a guide, otherwise you are only hiding.

Did Jesus really claim that only through him could people be saved? If so, maybe he was referring to something else besides himself - a living human being named Jesus - and instead to what he stood for. Why would any human being say "I am the way" arbitrarily? Either they had something to gain, or, if not, maybe they are just teaching something for the good of others.

But whether he said it or not doesn't matter, and here's why: the real truth doesn't need to have any knowledge of the past or future. It is a present awareness. What Jesus may or may not have said is up to YOU to figure out the truth of.

Yes, Jesus was human. Yes, words can be twisted. So how are you to believe even what Jesus said in the Bible? Do not BELIEVE, but make an attempt to know the truth or falsehood for yourself. Pursue it with your whole spirit.

Ah the edit button isn't showing up for me, but the first line of my last post should be: "Even back then, people thought they were telling the truth by saying 'so it was written'"

My personal interpretation according to Genesis, yes, mankind had become like gods, but nowhere near the power as YHWH, as Eden was on Earth, he had to have made the Trees, and I don't imagine that He would need anything that He created.

And I find it funny that none of the church councils or any other revisionist throughout the ages has ever bothered to change the line 'has become like one of us", especially as the religion shifted to a monotheistic one.

That statement does not in any shape form even attempt to prove or expound upon the first part. You make bold statement and then say stuff completely unrelated to it. It only works on people not paying the slightless bit of attention.

Here, have a video. It's mostly just teasing, to lighten things up a bit. I'm not fabulous enough to know how to embed a video, so clicky clicky. :-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ope-1Zb5t-k

I am going to write a book full of my idead and ways i want the world to be. But to make sure people read it and follow it, i'll say god told me to do it. Think it's ridiculous? The Bible did it. call it what you will, it's a bunch of ramblings of people who say they talked to god. (bear in mind that drugs weren't illegal or looked down on in those days.) The Bible never contradicts it's self. Hmm when was the last time someone wrote in the bible that didn't um.. idk... ALREADY READ AND BELIEVE IN THE BIBLE? I mean.. does it just not make sense that people could just be adding to the story?? Now i am not saying i do not believe in any sort of God or divine influence. But i do NOT trust man or anything man has written or said with my faith. Man lies to benefit himself. Show me a person ( aside from Jesus appearently) who has never lied to get what he/she wanted atleast once. Albeit, the Bible is a wise book and should be looked at as nothing less, because it does hold a simple set of morals and guidelines that one should follow. But there is alot of stuff written in the bible that i just can't bring myself to blindly follow and stuff that i think is contradictory to what a benevolent, loving god would want.

I seriously thought this thread was taking the piss when I saw the name; I thought "who would give two shits about that stuff in the modern world? Must be some kind of joke!"

Then I clicked on it today for the first time, thinking "must be a good joke to still be on front page!" only to find out it was genuine.

I was like, "wtf??"

Then I saw the discussion was 99% North American, and I was like, "LOL,K! That explains it!!"

LOLUK

Just curious as most charities I have seen are run by people of faith or backed by a church in some form. Im agnostic so this is purely for debate. Lmao I've never seen a food for hungry program directed by a non believer. Doesn't mean there aren't any just that its very rare.

you just type "[youtube ]the url[/youtube ] (remove the spaces and ofcourse put the url for the vid in where it says "the url" :)

ty ty Vonn :-)

Eddie Izzard is awesome.

EDIT: I prefer Christopher Titus though.

Why is he in drag?