Religion in a Negative Light--Opinions

Of course it is. All subjective information passes through the filter of human desire and comes out as the individual wants. And religion is purely subjective.

Everything can be manipulated to fulfill pretty much any motive. We are a seedy lot we are. It is a good reason to understand where you will draw the line...what you believe and what you don't believe. Understanding who you are and what you stand for will keep you anchored in the midst of a **** storm. 'Cause mostly folks is just full of poo. If you keep your head about you, when you come across the real thing you'll know.

Genuine people are a treasure...

chase that rabbit will you?

Religion is mythological, metaphorical, yes, entirely based on a subjective experience. However, when it's related to another, it's always misinterpreted or misunderstood. For instance, the Garden of Eden, metaphorically, is the earliest blissful stage of mental development of a child before the awareness of time, and thinking--based--on--opposites arises. But religions literally define the Garden of Eden geographically as a place, and then atheists deny the Garden. They're half right, of course, but superficially.

A very interesting philosophy on the Garden of Eden Coluber, is this a scripturally based thought or is it an exercise in theology?

That's interesting. I always took it to be a blissful stage of development of the human race, before our ancestors had gained the capacity of "judgement" and associated knowledge. As such I always assumed that the original writers had been astute enough to recognize what it must have been like when humanity transitioned into that level of thought. The "warning" about not eating from the tree of knowledge is therefor even more interesting because humanity really had no choice, because we could not have become human without taking the path we took.

I don't know that one is justified in "blaming" religion. It is manipulated just as are patriotism, political ideology, tribal loyalty . . . just another card in the deck of tricks to go up the sleeve of those who would manipulate others for their own ends.

I need to clarify that I don't think every person who is "religious" is manipulative. But for those who choose to - it is a great vehicle to control the masses so to speak.

I do believe that there are MANY who have good hearts and truly choose to serve others well. We are all human and will try to manipulate at times...but that doesn't mean there is an untoward agenda involved...

That is why I say knowing what you believe - what you can and can't live with - will save you from following some less than charitable intentions led by those who would manipulate others for their own purposes.

Hey Set.

Hey, Darlin' . . .

One of the most vicious "crusades" was the Albigensian Crusade, which was a war waged against Christians who denied the authority of the Pope, and dispensed with the services of priests. The Pope couldn't get any traction, though, until he promised the King of France that the estates of the heretics would be condemned and handed out to the holy warriors. No war without money--money and power trump religion every time.

Money and power is what it is all about for the manipulators.

There are quite a few myths about men stealing wisdom from the gods, eg Prometheus. What i like in that is the pagan view on gods as just as egoist and jealous as we are. A god that forbid men to access knowledge, like the god og Genesis, can only be an asshole... And I like that simple, theologically primitive view of gods as über-assholes.

Erich Neumann, student of Karl Jung, proposed this metaphor as an archetype or elementary idea, and it makes perfect sense. The Christians turn it into a negative idea, but the metaphor is universal, of course.

I must admit I've never read the bible, except the dirty parts one night in a motel--Song of Solomon--which describes a woman's body poetically. Hot stuff!

I never quite understood the breasts like fawns reference.