The Decline Of Religion As We Know It?

Communists always try to wage war on one they will never beat. God

reply to post by Analyze76


What's there to beat?

I for one hope that the trend of formless, vague spirituality continues and increases. The only valid spirituality, methinks, is the one that you find for yourself. Anything else is ideology, forced on you from an early age. Anything other than self-discovered religion is child abuse.

reply to post by v1rtu0s0


Former Governor of Minnesota, Jesse "The Body" Ventura said it best:

"Organized Religion is for the weak minded..."

So this means that sheeple are a dying breed... Who say's Darwinism isn't still alive and well!

reply to post by SmedleyBurlap


Exactly. Just as we've had to "rescue" our culture from the clutches of organised religion in order to create a more tolerant and compassionate society, we've now got to take back our spirituality from them as well, because it was never the church's or the mosque's or the synagogue's to take in the first place. Religion does not enhance spirituality, it stifles it under a smothering blanket of dogma, that the leaders dont even follow themselves. I mean, if he's serious, shouldn't the Archbishop of Canterbury be living in a tent in the garden so that his palace can be used as a shelter for the many homeless of London?

These religious leaders are only as religious as they need to be without having to reduce their bank balances and earthly privilages.

I think humanity has probably been spiritually starved, and I think that organized religion has a large part to do with it. I just look as all the hate that is spread, especially in this country, through the guise of organized religion and shake my head. I was raised catholic, but rejected my religion when I realized that it was more of a detriment to spirituality rather than an aid. Organized religions don't put much faith or power into their followers; followers must follow a set of hierarchies in order to interact with "god"...and religious leaders dissuade dissent and questioning among the ranks. One thing we were constantly "taught" in sunday school was to "just have faith", we were not encouraged to ask questions, and the ability to just unquestioningly accept what we were told was like a measure of our religious dedication. Competing or alternative views and religions are seen as threats and followers are told that adherents of these other belief systems are destined for hell and eternal damnation. One of the big clues to me that organized religion was a bunch of crock, was the attitude that many religions had towards women and black people (see the "Hamite" theory of racial origins that was used by Abrahamic religions to justify slavery and black oppression). I also wondered, why, in the eyes of religion that humans were considered superior to animals. I didn't see anything inferior in animals even though they may not have conscious thought (but then again, they could and we just don't know). Although I don't necessarily believe in god anymore, or creationism (I'm more of a scientific mind anyway)...I do believe that there has to be some unifying force in the universe, I think there's a lot of things about the universe that humans don't understand...and I wonder all the time, what existed before the big bang (although, again, I don't believe in intelligent design or creationist theory)...I think that there's probably going to be a scientific reason for most things, even things that seem to be "supernatural" or "ethereal"

I think it's a good development that organized religion is becoming less and less popular. Contrary to what most religious fanatics will tell you a sense of "right and wrong" and "morality" is not dependent on religious belief. I found the following article quite interesting, talking about how those who aren't religious can be just as much, if not more "moral" than those who are religious. It certainly refutes the common religious extremist claim that "atheists are godless immoral heathens" (here)

This is totally unrelated to my last post, but I wanted to put it out there as a side note...I'm interested to know, from those who live in countries other than the U.S. (where I am)...I have heard that the U.S. is perceived as having a lot of religious extremists. I perceive the U.S. as having a lot of religious extremism and I live here. And for those living here...do you know WHY the U.S. has such a high number of religious extremists? I watched the documentary "Waiting for Armegeddon" and it contains some pretty scary information regarding these American christian extremists.

reply to post by meeneecat


Eventually, there will be no talk of the "supernatural", either because science will establish that there is no supernatural realm, or that it will discover that there is one, in which case it won't be called "supernatural", but just "natural". So if you wanted to buy a book on ghosts, instead of looking in the Paranormal section, you'd go to the Natural History, or Biology section. Remember, "Scientia" is simply the Latin for "Knowledge".

Then the people will accept anyone who does many miracles and won't be prepared for the end times deception. Tribulation comes after the apostasy.

reply to post by 547000



But once we have a scientific description of the mechanisms involved, then the label "miracles" will no longer apply. And what exactly would people be apostasying from? A God of the Gaps? We all do that to some degree every time we learn a new fact about nature.

Human reason and godly things don't seem to mix. Hence why, despite philosophers using all their intellect, people don't know of God, and believe the Abrahamic God cannot possibly exist, even though all they have to do is open the heart to the idea and ask Him to show them. I don't believe miracles are deterministic, so how will science explain miracles? You can't really do empirical testing of miracles.

reply to post by 547000


I understand what you mean, but I believe that ultimately, God is not something to be found external to reality but is
ifnstead a higher part of our minds, collectively. Therefore the key to finding God will not be a case of searching beyond space, but searching within the "innerspace" of our own individual and collective psyches. The key to finding an empirical description of God then, is to be found in gaining a much greater knowleedge of the mind. If
or when that is accomplished, then God would no longer be an external entity, but rather a much deeper part of
ourselves, and what we now call "miracles" will be revealed to be anatomical processes of our own being.

I hope that made sense; I know what I'm trying to say but can't quite think of the right words, so I appologise, friend
if that came across as gibberish.