Why is religion so persistent?

then, man learned more and more through science, simpler, rational explanations for stars and lightening and earthquakes. they became more and more torn between their old explanation of a man in the sky, and their newfound science.
i love how the pope endorses big bang theory, as long as people don't try to look at Beginning itself. haha


peace,
sophia

 

Talking of the pope.. he's meant to be the catholic churche's most holy person, right? Free from all sin, get 'out of hell free' card, the lot... if that is the case, why is the position filled by men who vote on it? If this is god's right hand man, would god not choose him?

 

And that is the reason people end up shooting themselves with guns, because they believe they are unloaded or broken. Only one who does not know the Bible could make such a statement. The Bible is light years ahead of us. Yet I hear people making statements like this all the time. While people talk their nonsense, Bible prophecies are being fulfilled right under your nose, and you can't even see it. The Bible is very detailed, and are future is written within it's pages. Yet for some, it is more easy to mock it, than to read it. The Jews are not back in Israel by accident. Ezk. chapters 37,38,39 will tell you of Israels future. The God of the Bible is not dead, but He has wonders to perform.

 

I met a meth addict once who felt the same way about the bible. Of course he also believed my best friend was the "leader of the ring of fire". He used to see shit and get all jumpy. Used to panhandle for "pennies from Jesus".

the moral of my story is: fundamentalists and meth burnouts have a lot in common.

 

yah i don't the whole pope thing, i am not catholic and don't understand the need for a pope. God loves us all the same, the idea of a pope is just confusing.

 

I chose the last one but a more valid answer would be "no, bc religion is needed." for me anyway. not neccesarily a certain one either. jsut in general.

 

why?

 

I'm not even going to bother with you anymore... you'll continue to spout this crap regardless, and there is nothing I can say that will make you think any diffrently.. so I'm not even going to try..

All I can say is that we'll have to wait and see... only problem is that you'll die before any of this doesn't happen, and I'll never be able to say I told you so.

 

The real reason you are not going to bother with me anymore is because you don't know anything. The reason there is nothing you can say is because you don't have a clue. I see people like you all the time. The Jews are returning to Israel as the Bible stated they would, the Jews took South Israel first as the Bible said they would and the Jews retook Jerusalem second as the Bible said they would. I have already seen these things, with more to follow. The East Gate remains sealed, and Christ return is as sure as the prophecies that have already been fulfilled. The God of the Bible is a God of facts that can be observed.

 

You see, this is all very well and good, but you're basing your information on a (collection of) book(s) that are mostly bullshit... There are so many things wrong with so many of the stories and information in the bible that I don't even know where to begin...

Due to that, please excuse me if I find it hard to believe whatever it is you're spouting at any one point in time based on the bible.

There is no way that you can prove what you're saying until it actully happens, so why not just shut up about it until then... when it happens (or rather, doesn't happen) please feel free to laugh in my face... but until then, just shut up will you, seriously.. it's getting annoying now.

 

Let the guy speak!!
Religion is so persistent and so are it's participants. So don't expect to scare any of us away, it's out of love and concern for humankind that we stay persistent. When they nailed Jesus to the cross, even THEN He asked God to forgive them because they didn't realize what they were doing.


You wouldn't like it very much if we gave up on you or didn't give a shit in the first place, and then at the end, when Christ returns, you look over at us wondering why we didn't try harder to convince you. If we really think we know the truth, it should be understandable why we would want to share it with those who don't know.

We're not just trying to spread the good news for entertainment, or to make ourselves feel better than others, we do it becasue we are called to do it, we are told by the Lord to spread the gospel. We are doing it out of obedience and because we see people's need more and more for salvation as time goes by.

 

I'm just asking, the last poll choice is something about being a Pagan. I am pretty sure being Pagan myself that Paganism is a religious affilation. I feel that it is important that human beings feel some sort of spiritual connection. I do not feel that it must be in the form of organised religion. I do not feel that everyone need adhere to a specific dogma. My sister is a very conservative Christian, and it is my feeling that she feels she needs a great deal of structure and strict set of rules to make her life seem ok to her. However, not all people need to follow a religion that closely or need to feel that conected to any spiritual part of themselves, for me a walk in the woods on a nice day fills me with enough spirituality, and enough of a sense of belonging to something outside myself. I don't think it is fair to critisize other people's beliefs. I do not agree with my sister I think a lot of what she believes is silly and ignorant. She think's I am wrong. I don't critisize her and she does not critisize me. What I do think is wrong is when people try to conver you or condem you for what you belive. When someone says, if you do not do bla bla you will go to hell. That is what I find to be wrong. I feel it is better not to discuss religion with people you don't agree with if you don't want to fight.

 

from a Christian to a Pagan, i have to say that was a very good post with alot of wisdom.

Threatening people with hell is wrong, so is critisizing someone's beliefs.
And yes, sometimes a walk in the bush makes me feel closer to God than a handful of great church services.

if we truly have open hearts and open minds, we will find the truth and the truth will set us free.

 

I disagree.. just because someone believes something, that does not mean they should be free from critism... Everything is open to critism, espically when it's something based on what someone 'believes' (rather than hard evidence).

I could believe that my next door neighbour is a demon, and so it's my duty to kill that person - right? I mean no one is going to tell me I'm wrong, to critize me, so I'm free to do it right? No..

It doesn't work that way.

 

If you think that, then you know NOTHING about real paganism...

 

sure but there's a difference between criticism and CONSTRUCTIVE criticism.
that's the key. If your belief might lead you to kill someone as you say, that would be very dangerous and should be stopped, so i don't really see how that fits in with this conversation.

 

I think it's so persistant because the goal is to change what people believe. But since people will only change if they want to, they have to be persistant. Maybe they think they'll wear people down into changing

 

I think a world without violence, hatred, fear, intolerance, prejudice and ignorance would correspond to your vision. If more people woke up and broke their addiction to money, power, identity and other desires of the ego, then maybe this perfect world of ours would emerge and prove to be the much more substantial reality.

This is what religion is supposed to teach you.

The fact that so many get it so wrong is no more the fault of Jesus, Buddha, Mohammad, Moses, Krishna and company than the Civil War, McCarthyism, segregation, or the war in Vietnam or Iraq are the fault of Thomas Jefferson. If you are going to eliminate religion because too many people get it wrong then, by the same logic, you might as well also get rid of language, social organization, culture, civilization and technology. While we're at it - Michael Bolton? Celine Dion? J. Lo? We could avoid these horrors if we just eliminate music all together.

Eventually, of course, you will find that nihilism is far more limiting than religion.

 

Because I see going around telling people that the world is going to end soon is a dangerous thing to be saying. Now you might agree with him, seeing that your a christian, and that is fair enough... but I disagree with him, so it's my duty to myself to critize what he's saying, to point out where it's wrong.

 

"Religion" is not meant to teach you anything... Religion is nothing more than:

1. 1. Belief in and reverence for a supernatural power or powers regarded as creator and governor of the universe.
   2. A personal or institutionalized system grounded in such belief and worship.

Nothing about teaching, or finding morals or ethics, or anything.

Religion is the result of early man not understanding the world around him, so he resorts to making up stories that sound right to him..

OK, now I admit that some religions have gone into teaching morals, etc.. based on what they think is right, but just because they think it's right, that does not mean it's right for everyone...

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not denying anyone their own personal freedoms, and if they want to pratice a religion, within their own environment, that does not affect anyone else (without concent) then great... I'm happy for them... but at the same time, I don't want them to impose their beliefs on me

Why is religion so persistent? Because people have grown up with stories and legends that have been passed down and taken as fact. But now new science is starting to disolve the stories and info that was passed down, but people are not willing to admit that they were wrong..