Do you believe in God or is religion just a joke?

[chickles_:)]

Through what took place with Jennifer. I have kind of really just started praying more and seeking God and people that can help me figuere out alot of things. Anyways my question is.

Do you believe in God or are all religions just a big joke and a waste of time?

Hya Butterfly Wings!
Wow, what a big question for you - do we believe it God or is religion a big joke?

I think we all go through that question or something similar at some time in our lives. Though I think it's important to separate "belief or trust in God" and "religion". I say that only because I and my friends/family have found that equating God with religion (which is what us flawed people do about it) can be extremely confusing. 😕

I am sure you have really benefitted from what many good people have said on your thread but I thought maybe I would share something my b/f and I recently heard on the radio that made sense to both of us at least. 🙂

First let me precis this by saying we both do go to church and try to live faithful lives to God and people around us.

Anyway, it was actually a Buddhist who said this: there are really only two things anyone needs to consider. If someone tells us something is true or a good path to follow for life... Then why not try it?

And then, after some reasonable trial period ask ourselves if it actually helps us with what really matters in life: in other words,

1. does the teaching or practice help us feel better about ourselves?
2. does it help us connect more with others?
3. does it encourage us to be more kind, more considerate, more compassionate?
4. does it help us make sense of our world?

One might add other questions of the like but you get the picture.

After that the question is: does the person we learned the message from embody an ethical behaviour that we can learn from? If not then even if the message they deliver is true, maybe we need to look for a different teacher of the same message for inspiration.

It sounds like your prayers are helping you - if I read your words correctly. I think by that witness alone, you are on a good path to finding a faith in God that is meaningful and helpful for you.

Many blessings on your journey of faith discovery, Butterfly Wings wherever that may lead you!

Chickles

 

[brianspencer66]

Im an agnostic and always questioned organized religion. Most people here in the states go to church and dont even understand why they are going. Alot of religion to me is nonsense to keep the masses in line plain and simple.

 

[BigJim]

There are religions of spiritual freedom (of which you might think Buddhism is one), and then there are religions of spiritual domination, social restriction and political exclusion. Religions of the former type (to the extent that they are considered to be religions) are one thing, and religions of the latter type are something else again.

Religions of the latter type might be a lot of things, but they are no joke. They have resulted in centuries of widespread death and suffering. They have consistently stood in the way of progressive thought, human inquiry and healthy sexuality. Billions of good people have died from the direct or indirect influence of religion.

Individually, they all claim to bring us closer to our knowlege of God. Collectively, they should should clearly demonstrate to us that either our common conception of God is false, or there is no God at all.

You might be interested to know then, that Dalai Lama is a vehement opposer of homosexuality.

 

[SmarterthanU]

You might be interested to know then, that Dalai Lama is a vehement opposer of homosexuality.

Yep, I'm aware.

 

[tkl-pen]

While I believe in God and in Jesus Christ, I do not attend any particular church since I consider them all to be self-serving - Jesus Christ defined his church as all the people who believe in him - most of the nearly 35,000 so-called Christian churches in the world take from the Bible what they want and ignore the rest, teach about Jesus Christ but not what he taught (and he was called 'Rabbi' which means 'teacher').

I had an interesting chat with a female minister of the United Church here in Canada once - the Bible clearly states in the New Testament in two places that women are not to teach in the church or to speak in the church - yet this group ordains women in spite of the instructions of the Bible - therefore, in my mind, it is not a church of God because it blatantly and intentionally disobeys him. By the way, I love and respect women dearly, so please don't take me to task on this - it is not my view personally - but it is the instructions given in the Bible.

Another thing is the so-called feminist Bible that has been developed by feminists at Oxford and perhaps similarly at other places. These people have changed genders to read 'child of God' instead of 'son of God' and so on - they say they are Christians and believers but they are charletans - and the third last verse of the Bible clearly states that anyone who changes the words of the Bible will suffer severely at a later time. Again, I love and respect women - I detest the evil that radical feminism represents in the world today.

All religions are, in my view, beneficial because they set codes of behavior and conduct for their followers. Those who do not follow those tenets, of course, are not truly part of that religion.

As for those who believe in nothing, well, they have nothing to look forward to or to hope for. That, to me, is truly sad.

 

[Belmont]

My stance has gone from devout as a kid, to total brooding atheist from 7th grade through early college, to passive egnostic from then till current.

Personally, any problems with religions all stem from the organized churches, not the beliefs themselves. Also, I kinda take anyone with strict religious beliefs as being very arrogant (including strict atheists). If you believe something out of fate, you inherently admit you could be wrong. I don't see how one can be narrow-minded on something of that caliber. This is all guess work, and if there's a higher power, they don't want us to know for certain. So live your life.

 

[BigJim]

While I believe in God and in Jesus Christ, I do not attend any particular church since I consider them all to be self-serving - Jesus Christ defined his church as all the people who believe in him - most of the nearly 35,000 so-called Christian churches in the world take from the Bible what they want and ignore the rest, teach about Jesus Christ but not what he taught (and he was called 'Rabbi' which means 'teacher').

I had an interesting chat with a female minister of the United Church here in Canada once - the Bible clearly states in the New Testament in two places that women are not to teach in the church or to speak in the church - yet this group ordains women in spite of the instructions of the Bible - therefore, in my mind, it is not a church of God because it blatantly and intentionally disobeys him. By the way, I love and respect women dearly, so please don't take me to task on this - it is not my view personally - but it is the instructions given in the Bible.

Another thing is the so-called feminist Bible that has been developed by feminists at Oxford and perhaps similarly at other places. These people have changed genders to read 'child of God' instead of 'son of God' and so on - they say they are Christians and believers but they are charletans - and the third last verse of the Bible clearly states that anyone who changes the words of the Bible will suffer severely at a later time. Again, I love and respect women - I detest the evil that radical feminism represents in the world today.

All religions are, in my view, beneficial because they set codes of behavior and conduct for their followers. Those who do not follow those tenets, of course, are not truly part of that religion.

As for those who believe in nothing, well, they have nothing to look forward to or to hope for. That, to me, is truly sad.

This assumes of course that the Bible is actually the "Word of God" and not a collection of writing that were collected, translated, mis-translated, altered, edited and in some cases burned by the hand of very mortal man.

 

[Babbles]

I thank feminists for my right to vote, work, speak, breathe.

My reaction was similar.

There are contradictions in the Bible, so don't tell me women aren't supposed to preach.

Women are ordained saints after yes, preaching and healing, and getting killed for this, but are not fit to be priests?

How many priests today in the Eastern Orthodox or Roman Catholic churches (from Constantinople, Greece, now Turkey, and Rome, respectively) or any other churches who do not ordain women,
------- are also saints?

Any statements in the Bible which would assign women to the status of less than 2nd class citizenship --- or perhaps that of sentient luggage ---
are, interestingly, not direct quotes from Christ.

There is absurdity, but yes The Book has been man-handled a bit too much though it's core is historic, and the message, when not further manipulated, is "love thy neighbor as thyself," regardless of gender or color.

So I'm Eastern Orthodox Christian FEMINIST with an open mind. I disagree with more than enough, but the spirituality of the church is intact in spite of the load of malarkey men have burdened it with on earth.

AND WHY ISN'T THIS IN THE POLITICS AND RELIGION FORUM?????

There's a reason why these debates are SEPARATE, church & state folks.

Many of us don't want to get sucked into these headache debates in this subsection of the forum, thank you.

 

[tkl-pen]

Big Jim's response perfectly demonstrates my point - the Bible is acceptable only as long as it fits the things we want - if not, then we explain it away in any of a number of ways to justify our position not in alignment with the teachings of God, Jesus and the apostles - as long as it agrees with us then its okay and if it doesn't agree with us then its not.

Babbles' response is also predictable - during the 20th century, there was an honorable women's movement that fought for the right to vote, to work, etc. They did a lot of good, and I fully agree with their efforts which brought women the right to equal pay, equal opportunities, equal status in society, personal safety, the list is lengthy indeed. These were great women.

This movement, though, was hijacked by the man-hating blue-stockings of the lesbian minority in the 1960s and 1970s, who had quite a different agenda. You can thank those so-called femists for a few other things, Babbles, like a massive divorce rate and its resulting child poverty, kids running around looking for something to belong to and ending up in streetgangs, declining population due to women being encouraged to work and discouraged from raising families, further declines in population from their encouragement of the use of abortion as a method of birth control, massive increases in heart disease and lung cancer rates among women due to their need to smoke and drink in order to fit in with perceived male competitors, and the list goes on. These are the radical feminists of whom I speak, the ones who seek to destroy society and perform the works of evil among us - these are not the fine women who fought for the rights to vote and work - they are usurpers of that honorable title and nothing more.