Are religious people misguided?

Religion is a pretty wide topic.

To the OP: When you say "religious people" do you mean any who practice any religion or do you mean Christians?

Okay Ras, we could go in circles on this for quite some time, I'm sure. And I know I don't have the inclination to do that. The point I'm trying to make is that it's a mistake to call the acts of a variety of individuals throughout history the fault of "Christianity". There was nothing Christian about the Crusades or the Inquisition or the witch burnings or the persecution of Galileo (among a myriad of others), or countless other atrocities perpetrated by men.

I'm not trying to convert anyone. I wouldn't have the power to do that, even if I were inclined to do so. I'm just saying that there's an enormous chasm between Christian belief and the acts of those commonly labeled "Christian".

And with that, I'll bow out of this one.

Yeahright,

I'm just pointing out that religion has a tendency to misguide people. This has nothing to do with any historical atrocities. This has nothing to do with Christianity's history. This has everything to do with following a distinct religious path.

As I said before, if all of a sudden Jesus came down from the heavens and said "BTW, I'm not the son of God, and never was" the entire faith would collapse, and Christians most likely couldn't handle it. In this sense, a general spiritual belief, rather than a rigid religious devotion is the best way to avoid being misled.

If you want to bow out, that's fine, but I'll avoid historical points from now on, as it does not necessarily apply to all religions, or necessary in the idea of religions misleading people.

Here's an Interesting read that breaks down religion into finer parts:

home.ica.net...

For the record: I'm not 'into' religion; I concider myself 'spiritual'.

Religions never stay the same.

People, from the beginning of time, have changed (belief systems are created and dismantled) and the rules of the game are always in flux.

It's like creating a mirror, then breaking it, then re-assembling the pieces:

What you're left with when you look in that mirror is a distorted view of what the original mirror looked like.

IMO, religion (i)stems(/i) from 'mutually' accepted beliefs that are integrated into our behavioral patterns from the moment we arrive on earth to our departure.

Some mainstream beliefs - can produce 'crack-pots' or 'fanatics' - I agree.

But even so, in order to understand why these crackpots are the WAY they are, it helps to have an understanding as to WHAT direction they came from.

We can take many routes on how we interact with these people:
Pity/Indignant Tolerance/Shunning/Redicule/ etc.

I prefer:
Compassion/Patience/Love

I think that those who believe in God and Judgement for your sins is not blind and wise and smart. For only its true. Any religion who says kill your own to kill others is stupid and heartless. Hey lets kill my son so I can kill our own people. hooooyaaaaaaa I doing the work of God.


Stupid

yeah, religious people are misguided into holding texts that are over a thousand years old above the texts of thousands of moral philosophers as the absolute truth on being good.

i do find value in religion... just not as religion

I find truth better than your pointless statements.

I think that misguided is the wrong term. I feel that many Christians are into it for other reasons than true faith.

I don't go to church because I don't like what I see in the mass population of the church.

A better idea, is to find a few true believers and create your own church.


I will tell all of you this. It's not how you god damb f'ing talk about this f'ing sh%^!

How you dress when you are in the public cathedral. You can talk down about how much of a fake christianity and the higher power is.

I do this all in some cases like now to make a point.

It's not what comes from your mouth, it's what comes from your heart and the higher power see's your true intensions.

Yes I say god damb all the time and people a apauld by hearing that. I appoligize to them for thier misunderstanding. I don't appoligize to god for it because he knows my true intensions behing the comment.

I will not explain because I don't want everyone saying god damb in places that it is just not right.

[edit on 13-4-2007 by Modemizer]

The problem is this, a few God believeing people did make churches on there own. They became bigger, then the church became bigger than those few good people. I think there should be more limitions on who a preacher. Like one who actually believes.

I think the title of this thread should be changed to 'are religious Christians misguided' because after reading through it there's hardly any mention of any other religion.

Even if it is only Christianity the OP is on about, which denomination are you meaning? From being on ATS for a while it seems to be that people think Christianity = Catholic, which isn't true. there's many (too many if you ask me) different aspects to Christianity.

BTW, I hate religion as much as an atheist does. I'm Christian, but not religious. I mean I don't follow all those Saint's days and rituals like only eating fish on Fridays and stuff like that. In fact if any of those type of people came to our church they'd think we were heretical!

Well if you believe that anyone can get an NDE through drugs, thats not exactly the case, as people sometimes go through into different rooms they couldn't possibly see, and as far as I am aware, no drug can do that.

www.near-death.com...

the conciousness cannot seperate from the brain, it is a PRODUCT OF THE BRAIN. if your brain goes out, so do you.

therefore, NDEs aren't really what those that experience them think they are.

Originally posted by superevoman
sorry, but i asked for evidence, you gave it , i refuted it.:shk:

You think you refuted NDEs? Okay. :shk:

Originally posted by SpeakerofTruth
You think you refuted NDEs?

something needs to be proven before it needs to be refuted. as far as i've seen NDEs haven't been proven at all so there is no need to refute them

Originally posted by kinglizard
No, I don't feel misguided in my faith in God....nor do I think other Christians are misguided in their faith.

Proof?

You should free to read my My Near Death Experience and Ascent to Heaven.

Blessings...

I recommend that you don't waste your time with propaganda that this moderator has stickied, which is in my opinion the same as abusing moderation powers for your own personal benefit.

[edit on 19-4-2007 by VladTheImpaler]

Originally posted by VladTheImpaler
I recommend that you don't waste your time with propaganda that this moderator has stickied, which is in my opinion the same as abusing moderation powers for your own personal benefit.

i second this. there is no reason for ANY mod to sticky their own threads about personal experiences in such a broad and open forum.

let's look at the other stickied threads in FST:

a thread that is a reference to islam, a-ok because it's a reference source
"Moving Past Religion 101 and Staying on Topic" that thread is needed
"Please Play Nice" again, needed.

but a personal ascent to heaven? not showing much fairness there KL