Why do people still believe in Religion?

reply to post by kyred


Christian and new age squished together.

And here I am not convinced he even actually existed after alot of looking within myself. Guess my soul is broken. Who do I complain to about my defective soul? Is my warrenty still good?

Ok I did have a point to that rather smarmy response. What speaks to you will not speak to everyone. People need to acknowledge and tollerate that.

[edit on 8-1-2008 by WraothAscendant]

People believe in Religion for one reason. To protect them from the possibility that this is all there is and there isn't any God/Higher Power that will welcome them or protect or allow them to make sense of their ‘lot’. So they construct (and there’s no end of helpers and organisations to assist in them in this) their entire life around this and somehow justify existence with meaning. Because the alternative to most would be truly terrifying! You see how people with this held believe defend it literally to the death and ‘pity’ those that differ or try to pursued otherwise.

Do you think people would be less sheep like if they knew that this really was their only shot at 'life' 'existance'? I don't think so!!!

They believe in religion because it was what was taught to them and embedded into their subconscious by their social milieu.

Thought patterns are hard to change. Especially if one doesnt have the key to unlock the symbols of religion, and thus go beyond eating 'babie milk' their whole life.

Maturity means getting beyond the basic dogmas of a given religion and seeking the unity between. As God lets the rain fall on the good and bad.

Again, looking past the words to where they are pointing is key.
The finger pointing to the moon...well, the finger is not the moon...

Seek and you will find.

Peace

dAlen

I wasn't raised in church.
We only went 'occasionally' to easter services, decked out in our new dresses, and gloves.

I didn't hear the Gospel until I was 23.
I opened my ears up.
It was a sunday morning and I had a hangover and THE ONLY reason I didn't change the channel was because I felt sick and couldn't find the remote!

I was going to hell????
I couldn't believe it. I tried to be a good person.

I believed in the supernatural, in the devil, but not Jesus.
But, what if he was real????

I talked to God, like a person, and he showed me he WAS real!!!!
I then asked Jesus to forgive me.
And He did.

Ok I have another point which has just occurred to me.

There is a school of thought that people need to have a belief in religion to help deal with their mortality and that inevitably we will all pass away and die. This afterlife gives hope that they will continue on in happiness for all eternity. Ok …

Now from the point of view of what the current benefit of religion is to humanity is there a case for it being a hindrance on our evolution and development?

Think of it like this. The idea of having an ever lasting place to go after death is acting like a sedative on the population. By having this blissful afterlife at a centre of your subconscious, you do not attempt to achieve as much as possible in this life on the grounds that if you play it nice and safe you are rewarded in the next. This life being only 90 years if you’re lucky.
Do we prevent ourselves from reaching our potential by reliance on religious dogma? "Easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than a rich man etc..." This is the only one that came to mind but I do not mean to just focus on increasing wealth. (I have a separate theory that it is actually selfish to not strive for wealth [ethically] as you can do more for your friends family and others by being wealthy than by being poor, that’s for another thread) How much could humanity achieve if our subconscious was wired with the desire to achieve our potential and to accomplish as much in the short time we have as possible.

A few side notes,
I believe that the above would fit in with any belief system, that the restrictive penniless, polite and smiling on your death bed gets you to heaven philosophy, does nothing but hider’s people during their life.

I do believe that a lot of good can be achieved by people who fervently stick to their religious beliefs, but that this is cancelled out or placed in a minority position by the apathy that is created by submissive dogma.

I am a Christian and so my comments are based on my own knowledge and experiences, don’t know enough about any other religions to include them in this.

Refer back to my first post, I believe that if the world was run according to the 10 Commandments without any reference to god or religion and separate from any religious organisation it would result in a much fairer society. Remove the first 4 commandments and that what I’m getting at.

I have no Idea if the above is explained well. Again I am not debating the existence of God or anything like that, just focusing on religion.

Originally posted by mlmijyd
People believe in Religion for one reason. To protect them from the possibility that this is all there is and there isn't any God/Higher Power that will welcome them or protect or allow them to make sense of their ‘lot’. So they construct (and there’s no end of helpers and organisations to assist in them in this) their entire life around this and somehow justify existence with meaning. Because the alternative to most would be truly terrifying! You see how people with this held believe defend it literally to the death and ‘pity’ those that differ or try to pursued otherwise.

Do you think people would be less sheep like if they knew that this really was their only shot at 'life' 'existance'? I don't think so!!!

You don't really know much about people and their faith do you?
You can't just believe in something because you are afraid or you have been told that it is the truth. It takes little more than that.

The above statements of yours are typical of those of a none believer. Just because you don't understand does not mean that there is something wrong with those who do.

This quote of yours made me laugh at the ignorance of the knowledge that you have on the subject.

"they construct (and there’s no end of helpers and organisations to assist in them in this) their entire life around this and somehow justify existence with meaning.

What an utter load of nonsense. I was 47 before i came to believe in God, so that throws that theory out of the window.

Maybe one day you will talk to some believers and find out why they believe what they do, and not just make up your own reasons why they do have faith.

Maybe it is you who is terrified in case there is a God.

Originally posted by Clearskies

Which god would that be?

Yahweh GOD
The same one who showed himself to Israel when Elijah said.."How long will ye halt between two opinions? If Yahweh be God serve him, if Baal be God serve him."

So how do you know Yahweh was Yahweh and not another god pretending to be Yahweh? Also how do you know Yahweh was a god and not some superior natural being or the figment of peoples imagination?

You notice there were not many atheists.

Notice there weren't any christians either. Most people in those days believed in some form of supernatural being(s) as they tried to make sense of the world around them.

Even tribal backwater peoples know there is more than meets the material eye.

I'm sure they did - that would be the imagination eye, still its not evidence that what they believed was in any way true. I agree that there are some unexplainables although I do not attribute them to any deities like the backwater people.

There is no way scientific or otherwise to prove the existence of any god

So many people have their spiritual eyes and ears closed to the truth.
No matter what Jesus does for them they dismiss it as 'coincidence'.

Whether or not you have spiritual eyes, ears or whole body there is no way to prove the existence of any god. What has jesus done for me except be the object of worship for a group of people who seem hell bent in trying to influence my life?

Oh, and BTW, We're not all God's children, You have to be Born-Again!

[edit on 7-1-2008 by Clearskies]

Born again into christianity no doubt? No thanks being born once will suffice.


G

people think religion is still good becuase they dont no any better

they r not tought the right thing like the best education

becuase i think most religions make people dumb if they think the world is flate or 6000 years old

[edit on 8-1-2008 by Dark_Ace]

[edit on 8-1-2008 by Dark_Ace]

www.rael.org...

The religion of the future

Originally posted by jpm1602
Atheism is a religion in itself. The belief on no God.

In defense of jpm1602, a doctrine or belief system that cannot be proven IS a religion. The dictionaries, if applicable in all cases, simply need to be revised.

There are religions that don't have a pope or a hierarchy of priests but still have a belief system. Atheists don't want to people to think that what they believe is a religion because they want to come across as "scientific and accurate" in their appraisal. But the truth is that they cannot prove that there isn't or wasn't a God any more than Christians can prove the current existence of a triune deity



[edit on 8-1-2008 by Paul_Richard]

reply to post by Quazga


The anwser to your question is simple.. The mind is amazing, it will believe a lie for the truth and the truth for a lie if its taught that way for along period of time, even when their is no evidence to support the lie and a abundance of evidence to support the truth. The Holy Koran, the Holy Bible and all the other Holy's of this world are not what you think they are.

Originally posted by dAlen
They believe in religion because it was what was taught to them and embedded into their subconscious by their social milieu.

Thought patterns are hard to change. Especially if one doesnt have the key to unlock the symbols of religion, and thus go beyond eating 'babie milk' their whole life.

Maturity means getting beyond the basic dogmas of a given religion and seeking the unity between. As God lets the rain fall on the good and bad.

Again, looking past the words to where they are pointing is key.
The finger pointing to the moon...well, the finger is not the moon...

Seek and you will find.

Peace

dAlen

Thank you for chiming in on this. This is really the subconscious answer to the question posed. Consciously though, why do those of us who may or may not belong to these religions, speak the truth you just did.

This is how we rose above our basic reflexive desires in the first place. Someone wrote down 10 commandments which challenged humans to do something different from the instinctive response, so as to gain a broader view on things.

It's high time to do the same... Tell stories about Santa, while at the same time, getting people to focus on what is being pointed at, as opposed to the finger.

Originally posted by XcLuciFer
reply to post by Quazga

 

The anwser to your question is simple.. The mind is amazing, it will believe a lie for the truth and the truth for a lie if its taught that way for along period of time, even when their is no evidence to support the lie and a abundance of evidence to support the truth. The Holy Koran, the Holy Bible and all the other Holy's of this world are not what you think they are.

They're not!?!?!?!?

Uhmmm... What btw, do I think they are?

What if I think they are books? Perhaps collections of cultural concepts? Are they not that?

If you tell me they are not that, I'm going to flip :-)

What i think is funny about how people worship jesus is that he was not the only person who was historically considered to be the messiah. Other candidates would include Saint John the baptist, Simon Bar Kokhba, and many other. Jesus was only chosen because his case looked sexy to the masses as he was a simple, peaceful man who sacrificed himself for humanity as opposed to a guy who led a major revolt which eventually failed or a guy who dumped water on people.

Here is the problem. I can interpret the bible in a few different ways. Metaphorically it represents the battle between good and evil which does exist inside all of us. We are capable of both and throughout history you will see it has been happening and one side can never truly be victorious.

Another way i can see it as a propeganda machine. It speaks ill of Lucifer the main oppisition of God who sparked a rebellion in heaven. I ask this, if Heaven is so great why is there a need to rebel? During times of war one side or both sides would likely spew propeganda about the other side. Let us also observe that in war, neither side is good or evil, only the reasons they may have gone to war for and depending on the situations and the perspective of the people involved either side can profess to be justified. The winning side or more powerful sides propeganda machine would most likely prevail. We can see this example in modern times as many people still associate German people as being nazis and hating jewish people even though this really is not the case anymore.

So if there were a Lucifer or Satan, this does not necessarily mean he belongs to the dark side, nor the side of light, it only means that one side of the story has been told. Whether the story is true or a metaphor for our ongoing inner battle we do not need religion to teach us these values and teaching it through religion only leads to misunderstanding a simple part of human nature.

Originally posted by metaldemon2000
Jesus was only chosen because his case looked sexy to the masses...

There's a new theory. Hey Christians! We love Jesus because it's sexy! I'm putting this on a t-shirt, traveling the world on foot with my new message, and starting a revolution.

reply to post by AshleyD



Its a figure of speech. You dont get out much do you?

Originally posted by metaldemon2000
Its a figure of speech. You dont get out much do you?

No, my basement chains prevent this. Apparently your chains are pretty solid, too, as my above comment was done in jest.

reply to post by AshleyD


Yes the drawbacks to text communication

My analogy on religion is hard to understand. However I cant emphasize enough the mysteries and similarities of different religions. I believe some science and the bible, which rarley work hand in hand, actually have true meanings within each other. In example: it took god to create the earth in 6 days and the earth is aproximately about six thousand some odd years accordingy to the bible, scientist calculate the earth is about 4 to 5 billion years. 2 opposing and very contraversal calculations. However if to god 1 day =1,000 human years and if calculations are correct it really took god alittle over 2 millions years to have created the earth, and if the earth is 6 thousand years old in the bible, well then wouldn't that make the earth about 2.19 billion years old? People dont understand that sometimes people back in these days only related objects and events to a way that they only can understand based on their society and culture. In other words i see the kingdom of heaven as a state of mind. Heaven is what you experience the most happiness of your life, and hell would be the worst time in your life. If you can understand how the secret works, then I would reccomend to study the bible, but not in litteral sense but in the same philosophy as would understand the secret.

This man is one of the many reasons I refuse to hate Religion. Hating religion and religious people is just as easy as hating 'sinners'. As Prabhupada said, all fools believe that everyone else is a fool. Human beings are foolish, we don't know what it is to think with the 'universal mind', so we assume that no man can think with such a mind. But many have, and Religion was just the first stepping stone they took to that path.

All religions have produced ascended masters. Say what you want about your illusory-God complex, these men understand the pragmatic and holographic, infinite universe because they traveled it themselves.









[edit on 8-1-2008 by NewWorldOver]