The Religious Time-Out

Attacking one particular religion is not the best way to get a point across.

Here is how I see religion, all religion, not just Christianity, because everyone thinks their religion is the right one.

We are all born, which I am sure everyone can agree on here at ATS.

When we are born we are born with a blank slate, so to speak, we don't understand words, we can't process thoughts properly, and the best we can do is eat, sleep, cry, and poop for a couple of years, so being this blank slate, we can easily be programmed to whatever is constantly around us.

For instance, indoctrinated by whatever dogma our parents are associated with, which most likely would be re-enforced by the people they associate themselves with, and so on.

As our ego develops, so does the strength of our beliefs, beliefs that should never be challenged, because if so it will certainly send the ego into an emotional melt-down.

Religion is just words, words put together by men, changed and manipulated by men. Religious text is what is called circular argumentation, in the world of philosophy, because one story proves and points to another.

Now I am not saying a supreme being does not exist, just that religion is something we are subjected to very early and many accept blindly, because that is the way it has always been done.

A little background on me. I was born and raised a Christian, but I always questioned everything. I attended Christian school from an early age, but many times sent the teachers into an emotional melt-down, that always ended in a trip to the office. I was a respectful child, but had valid questions.

I remember a particular time when I said the Bible was not literal, and was changed many, many times and I could prove it in class, so the teacher said "Go ahead show us!".

I proceeded to instruct my classmates that we were going to play a game, and everyone should get a piece of paper out, all 25 of us. The game was for the first person, which was me, to take one sentence from the bible write it down, then verbally tell the next person. The next person in line was to write down what I just told them in their ear, this person was to write down what I just said, then on to the next person, until it reached the last person.

As the last person wrote down what was passed onto them, I quickly went over picked up the piece of paper and read it to the entire class. It made absolutely no sense, and the class was in absolute laughing chaos.

The teacher, then said to me "Mr.###### what is the point of all of this" which I replied "if this is what happens to story's in a short time, just think of what happened to the Bible, over the passed 2000 years." Guess where I got sent to?

Back then I didn't seem to have an option, because many people around me believed the Christian doctrine, just as I did, but I used to still question it. Today I am without the dogma of any one religion, but respect others views. My paper trick in class years ago is not just about the Bible, but all religious text.

Today I try my best to tolerate people religious views, whether I think they are right or not it doesn't matter, because that is what they choose to believe. What I do have an issue with is the one sided and blind hypocritical judgments that many religious, or non-religious people live by each day. "Do as I say and not as I do, attitude."

Peace Out,

RT

reply to post by Realtruth

Nail hit firmly on the head.
Is it really so hard to let go of animosity if you have polar opposite religious beliefs but both parties have similar morals?
Aside from being rewritten there have also been mistranslations. Even when it's not a different language words take on different context. There is a difference between an 80yr old saying ''That's sick''..as in not right!..and a 16yr old saying ''that's sick''..as in that's awesome! There's only 2 ways to take doctrine..theres literal and theres figuratively. When it is figurative different people come up with different answers. Look at how people feel a song relates to them. Sometimes the meaning is simple for people to agree what the lyrics ment but sometimes you hear cryptic lyrics. 50% will say something like ''It's about the plight of war'' where the other 50% is hearing something about the artist plight with drugs.

I like christ I believe his message

reply to post by Realtruth


There's no reason why people of differing beliefs can't debate or discuss the issue of what is actually true. Personally I'm an atheist, I have no religion, and I think all religions are false. People are free to have their religious beliefs but I am also free to debate against them, discuss them, and fight against them if those beliefs infringe upon the rights or freedoms of others. This is especially true here on ATS, if someone puts their views out into the public fora they are inviting discussion and criticism.

I'm all for politeness where it is called for but in the end the pursuit of real truth is the highest ideal. I will tolerate other people's views as long as they tolerate me disagreeing with those views

Well said.

Arguing over religion is futile. First off faith is not something you can force someone into, you might be able to force them into acting as if they share the same faith, but doing so would just be a false show and cause more animosity to and rejection of the beliefs you are trying to share. Second,it would be better if people first considered how firmly they hold to their faith and whether they would just dump their beliefs for another's, and then consider that the other holds their faith and belief just as firmly.

Just my thoughts.

Originally posted by Titen-Sxull
reply to post by Realtruth

 

There's no reason why people of differing beliefs can't debate or discuss the issue of what is actually true. Personally I'm an atheist, I have no religion, and I think all religions are false.

Being an Atheist is just another religious dogma, just without a God or text. The arguments go round and round, have you noticed this?

If you enjoy arguing then I would say you have pick the best topic possible, because trying to prove there is or isn't a God is futile.

But everyone should respect another's beliefs, that is why your choice should be respected, just as someone chooses their particular religion.

Hi,

You may get a stronger response to your thread if it was posted in the Religion, Faith and Theology subforum. It's not as popular or well visited as CiR, but it's designed to be an area to discuss religious topics that don't have a focus on conspiracy.

Happy New Year!

Eric

reply to post by Realtruth


ha.... the pieces of paper thing makes me think of this joke....(ref to why are there so many versions of christianity, all based on the same book)
\


God and the Devil are walking on the beach. God sees something shiny in the sand. He picks it up and says "look its religion". The Devil replies "give it to me, I'll organize it"

If I were to teach you this simple chapter:

Kul huwallahu ahad.
Allahu samed.
Lem yelid we lem yuled.
We lem yekullehu, kufuwen ahad.

And you teach that same chapter to 5000 people, all of them recite it EVERY DAY, and FIVE TIMES A DAY, while at the same time the same chapter is written on many materials - so that even if there were one written falsely, there would be at least 5000 people, who are all still alive, and recite that same chapter 5 times a day, each day - they would immediately notice it is written falsely.

Now, these 5000 people teach the same chapter to their children, their relatives, their friends, and they ALL TOGETHER recite that same chapter 5 times a day, FOR YEARS. Day after day, year after year, wouldn't it not be noticeable when after 1400 years, and 1,7 billion people rediting the same chapter (no matter on what part of the earth they live, they ALL recite it like I wrote it above - NO TRANSLATION) - again, wouldn't it not be immediately noticeable if say, there would be one case when someone recites it this way:

Kul huwallahu ahad.
Allahu samed.
Lem yelid we lem.
We lem yekullehu, kufuwen ahad.

The "melody" has changed. Not only that one word is simply missing - you immediately NOTICE based on the melody you are reciting it, that it is not complete. Something is not right.

The difference between Bible, christians etc., and muslims is: While you have countless VERSIONS of the Bible, where in one version there are some verses missing, some sentences are rearranged, the translations (even of the SAME language) are not the same, etc., - in the case of Qur'an: there is only ONE version!

No matter if you ask an arab child of 5 years, or an 98 yr old Albanian - they will BOTH recite that chapter EXACTLY THE SAME.


And BTW, there are THOUSANDS of hafidhs (memorizers of Qur'an) living today: People who have memorized the whole book! And indeed, the youngest of them are only 5 years old.

reply to post by Realtruth


The institution of religion is evil and it causes more problems than it solves especially between different religions. I don't follow religion, i just want to follow Jesus and you don't have to be in a religion to do that.