Christianity: Damaging to our civilisation?

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What I mean is that it is a shame that religion has in a way monopolized the term god. All conversation over subjects that concern our spiritual existence is categorized as religious talk, and therefore uninteresting to the young competatively raised minds of our time. I have started countless discussions over topics like morality, the nature of the spiritual human being, the philosophies of ghandi, jesus and buddha, and most often these topics are seen as religious and therefore automatically untrue. The result is that many today almost make no effort to evolve spiritually, and so are in danger of becoming creatures void of respect for life and beauty. The kind who start violent wars. (I say violent wars because a war can be fought without violence).

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Coming from a religiously fanatic family, I know first hand how damaging religion can be. I think any religion. once it becomes fanatic becomes dangerous as well.

I think religion should be used as a tool for teaching right and wrong. I think it teaches good morals like treating people right, don't steal and that sort of stuff. Beyond that it doesn't really matter.

If you live your life well (Don't beat yor wife, kill or toture people, lie, cheat, steal, etc) what does it matter if there is a God or not? You are either a good person or not. Either God will forgive you or not. I think it is more important to live your life than worrying about the afterlife.

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Quote:

I think religion should be used as a tool for teaching right and wrong. I think it teaches good morals like treating people right, don't steal and that sort of stuff. Beyond that it doesn't really matter.

It doesn't unless it is a personal interest. But unless it is a personal interest you are less likely to consult religious texts for any reason. You are even likely to condemn the religion as a whole as worthless because the question of god does not concern you. But the question of god is not the core of the religion. It is only the core of the misconception that allows people to go to war for any reason in gods name...

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Cyracuz wrote:

It doesn't unless it is a personal interest. But unless it is a personal interest you are less likely to consult religious texts for any reason. You are even likely to condemn the religion as a whole as worthless because the question of god does not concern you. But the question of god is not the core of the religion. It is only the core of the misconception that allows people to go to war for any reason in gods name...

I was thinking more as using as a tool for children who don't yet know the difference between right and wrong. Once you are old enough to think for yourself you shuld come up with your own beliefs.

What war are you talking about?

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Bush's war? He thinks he's God's little helper doesn't he?

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Bush' war for one. And all the muslim extremists who use Jihad to inflame their supporters.

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Why does a religion have to be the teacher of right and wrong? I thought that was the parents job? :-)
Right and wrong are not a concept monopolized by religion. All religions' definations of right and wrong vary, that is why there are diffrent religions. Life 'right and wrongs' are simple. Respect other people, love those you can and help someone when needed. That I think is basic humanity not religious teachings. In my opinion, religion isnt necessary to teach someone how to be a respectful human, it is only necessary for teaching guilt for certain actions that the religion deems inappropriate.... but... that is my opinion. :-)

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shewolfnm wrote:

In my opinion, religion isnt necessary to teach someone how to be a respectful human, it is only necessary for teaching guilt for certain actions that the religion deems inappropriate.... but... that is my opinion. :-)

One of the problems is that over the years certain religions have made people feel guilty about things which they really shouldn't be ashamed of - like sexual feelings for example.

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I hate when I read 'Bush's War' and the person is not from America.

It makes me want to oppologize for being American. I hope and pray and will be voting against that emerpical bastard in a few months - but alas I am in Texas - the home of the gun rack - so I fear this state is already lost to Bush and his evil Haliburton empire.

As far as religion goes - you have to remember the thousands of people in church's mosque's and other places of worship who are enriched by religion and doing great things. We only hear about the shitty things religion does - crusades, car bombings, 9-11, and the like.

TF

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Apart from the violent things which obviously are only done by a minority of religious people (my parents, for example, are christians, and they wouldn't hurt a fly), I think there are other problems with religion, like what cyracuz said about monopolizing the term God. There's also the attitude that a woman is a 'temptress', that sort of thing, which still survives amongst non-violent religious people. The nicest Christians can be the nastiest people in some respects. My Sunday school leader used to tell me off for watching South Park, can you believe that??? The greatest, funniest satirical cartoon ever created and they told me not to watch it! Shocked

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jpinMilwaukee wrote:

If you live your life well (Don't beat yor wife, kill or toture people, lie, cheat, steal, etc) what does it matter if there is a God or not? You are either a good person or not. Either God will forgive you or not. I think it is more important to live your life than worrying about the afterlife.

i realize this all seems logical to you....to me it only demonstrates that you have zero understanding of the gospel...

what you fail to realize the bible says is essentially this:

God is a good God. in the afterlife, he can not look upon sin. it can not be in his presence. being human means being under a curse. in other words , original sin. being good or bad is irrelevant. we are all 'bad' simply because we are human...

for forgiveness to occur something must be sacrificed....much like a child, human spirituality will 'grow up' over the millenia. at the right time, God sacrificed himself for everyone who will accept it in the form of Jesus.

the ultimate act of love....

yes 'evil' has done all it can do to deceive as many as possible...and it's doing a great job....

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Civilization is based on religion. There are no examples of any civilization that evolved without religion at its core.

Religion meets basic human needs and has evolved as part of human nature.

Aside from Mao, and Stalin and the 21st century United States, can anyone give me an example of a civilzation that even tried to get rid of religion?

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the point is the bible has never been found to be wrong archeologically speaking.....

of all ancient texts it is the most reliable when it comes to translations thru the ages....

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21st Century France, there's one.

Abu, understanding of the gospels or knowledge of the Bible should not be necessary for one to know/love/understand worship God, if he/she/it exists. What kind of crazy deity demands we read some book before we talk to him? What was God like before the bible was written? Did he let anyone into heaven or did he send them to hell for not understanding a load of books that hadn't been written yet?

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Abu Ishaq Al Juwayri wrote:

of all ancient texts it is the most reliable when it comes to translations thru the ages....

How come?

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you must also understand that God is infinitely understanding....

you don't have to read the bible before you talk to him....

of course many will not be held accountable for things due to:

the age in which they lived....
mental illness....
not reaching the age of accountability
etc.....

let's take a tarzan character for example....(by the way, the bible answers many of your questions) but in those instances God will judge the persons heart...

these things can not be accepted based on feelings or emotions as many try to do.....

they must be based on knowledge, facts, and faith...

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agrote wrote:

Abu Ishaq Al Juwayri wrote:
of all ancient texts it is the most reliable when it comes to translations thru the ages....

How come?

it just is....any expert will say the same....

finding the dead sea scrolls proved the reliability of biblical texts....

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Abu Ishaq Al Juwayri wrote:

let's take a tarzan character for example....(by the way, the bible answers many of your questions) but in those instances God will judge the persons heart...

If that is what you believe then why do you disagree with jpinMilwaukee, who seemed to be saying that being a good person is the important thing? If you believe that God will judge a poerson's heart to determine whether it is 'good,' then how is that different from what jpinMilwaukee said?

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agrote wrote:

If that is what you believe then why do you disagree with jpinMilwaukee, who seemed to be saying that being a good person is the important thing? If you believe that God will judge a poerson's heart to determine whether it is 'good,' then how is that different from what jpinMilwaukee said?

because he is aware of the gospel....ie, accountability.....he is able to make a conscious choice of whether to accept it or not....he knows....

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Abu Ishaq Al Juwayri wrote:

the point is the bible has never been found to be wrong archeologically speaking.....

of all ancient texts it is the most reliable when it comes to translations thru the ages....

Of course it has, if you take it at all literally.

If you don't take it literally, than using a science like archeology is foolish.

The Bible is a matter of faith, not of science or history or archeology. If you take it as a religious text or a cultural phenominon it does wonderfully.

Let's take the two first (and easiest) ones.

1) The Earth was not created in the same week (or same year or same millinium) as human beings.

2) Dinosaurs lived and died and went extinct long before modern day animals. The left their fossils and footprints behind.

People who have studied these things without a bias will tell you that it is nearly certain that the Exodus didn't happen and that Jerecho and Ai were conquered about 700 years apart (making the Biblical claim that Joshua conquered both impossible).

Of course people whose religious faith make it important for their scriptures to be historically accurate will find all sorts of reasons that the Bible (or some similar sacred text) is somehow uniquely accurate.

I am a good example of a person who was once sure the Bible was the inerrant word of God, until I started looking at it closely. When I dared to question my faith, there were a lot of things in the Bible that simply didn't add up.

For me, the thing that I simply could not accept were the passages in Joshua where God ordered his people to commit genocide (i.e. kill men, women and children). When I started looking them it also became clear that the scientific and historical claims were impossible to believe.

I have a respect for much of the Bible. It is a core part of our culture and has inspired many good things.

But trying to use it as a historical text with no errors leads to beliefs that cause you to deny logic.

The fact is, many people make the same claims about their religious texts that you make about yours. When you look at them objectively, there isn't much difference.

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Christianity: Damaging to our civilisation?

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