Is Religion Designed To Hold Us Back?, page 1


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Topic started on 16-11-2012 @ 09:51 PM by Grimpachi
I really wonder why people still believe in god and or gods in this day and age. There are even new religions like scientology which are just as crazy which people are following. Science has advanced to the point where we understand and know for a fact that these stories from long ago are just that (man-made) trying to explain the unknowable at the time. Now religion is more of a hindrance to mankind progressing than anything else and we know it has been that way for such a long time.

People have been and still are being killed because of fairytales. Churches, popes, clergy……the list goes on have in prisoned, tortured, murdered… and on and on because science disproves what is in their text.

Seriously what is it going to take for mankind to finally snap out of the delusions of religion?

For myself I am more agnostic than atheist only because I think there is a possibility that there may be some guiding force however I fully admit that there is absolutely no proof or evidence pointing in that direction I think it is the remnants of my upbringing that has ingrained that possibility in my mind.

There was a period in history when religion was useful but that age ended a very long time ago. We know religion was and still is a tool to control the masses. It promises a reward in death for compliance in life but we are smarter than that now. We no longer live in caves for the most part the human race is civilized except in places where religion is upheld as fact. Maybe I am wrong and the human race is still for the most part an ignorant superstitious race that can’t learn from its mistakes. Is it in our nature to hold ourselves back or is it religion that holds us back. I tend to think it is religion.

I think that if the world could discard religion we would be much better off without it. Is religion itself designed to hold us back? It’s just hard for me to except that people are so willfully deluded.


reply posted on 16-11-2012 @ 10:06 PM by charles1952
reply to post by Grimpachi

Dear Grimpachi,

It usually takes me one or two tries to understand your message clearly, care to help me out again? It seems you're saying that religion (I assume you mean all religion) is entirely made up. It is fiction to control people, keep them stupid, and only mentally slow people believe in it. (Or was that Boncho's idea?)

Am I even close?

With respect,
Charles1952


reply posted on 16-11-2012 @ 10:33 PM by Grimpachi
reply to post by charles1952


Hey Charles

I just do not understand why in this day and age we as a human race still accept religion in our lives. It has nothing to do with individual intelligence because I know many very intelligent people who are extremely religious. I am speaking in general as a species.

It had its purpose at one time in our history but now in this day and age I find it is an obsolete thought process. It has been used to divide more than unite to instill fear, hate, prejudice, and so forth.

You take any religion and you can disprove much of the stories with our current understanding through science and archeology.

I know many people feel pressure to follow religion from family I know I have before but my logical mind tells me these stories are false. I just cannot understand how religion is still so prevalent in this day and age.


I look at the Middle East and see so much death. I can understand wars fought over resources but most of this is over who follows which division in a book of stories. It makes me wonder if the human race is ever going to wise up and stop killing each other over what someone wrote over a thousand years ago or if we are doomed to destroy ourselves over nonsense.

It is not much better here for example my uncle a man of God who is considered an upstanding big to do in his church is every bit as bigoted as some of the people I fought against while in the military and his reasoning comes from his Bible. Religion is destructive more than anything nowadays. This world would be so much better if it was thrown out of our lives.
edit on 16-11-2012 by Grimpachi because: remove



reply posted on 16-11-2012 @ 10:38 PM by Joneselius
It's strange that people who doubt religion always pose their doubt as questions, rather a definitive statement. I can only chalk that up to their self doubt. I was an atheist for a long time; hated all religions and I certainly wouldn't entertain a Christian! Well, here I am 6 years down the line, a hardcore Christian. So what happened?

A myriad of things happen to make someone religious, not just ignorance as most 'atheists' will espouse. The reason for me was was things I couldn't explain happening to me on such a frequent basis, no one would believe me and so I turned to external powers for help. Nothing did help for a while, the emptiness and coldness kept growing inside me, that was until I surrendered my well-being and spiritual safety to Christ. Now I'm NOT preaching here, just telling you my personal story! I've never felt more spiritually safe or loved. It's a strange feeling that you can really only sum up with the vague sounding "you have to feel it to believe it" rhetoric.

Those who meditate will know the feeling, but only slightly. As meditation can be highly dangerous given the spiritual aspect of 'opening yourself up' lets anything in, thus lying spirits.

I suppose to answer your original question, no, religion does not hold anything back, unless it passes itself of as a political ideology COUGH Islam. We are told to "render unto Caesar that which is Caesars" that includes his wanting to discard religion, if he so chooses. A true Christian holds no one back as the true Christian understands that everyone's life is a personal journey, mapped out only by God and perceived from a higher perspective, one that sometimes isn't apparent to us.


reply posted on 16-11-2012 @ 11:03 PM by Grimpachi
reply to post by Joneselius


I think you mistook what I said. I stated I am more agnostic than atheist and I do not doubt your personal experiences or feelings however those feelings are chemical explained through science and the study of our physiology and psychology much like chocolate can bring on feelings of love.

I am open to spirituality in a sense that energy cannot be created or destroyed only transformed/changed but I do not consider Christianity any better than the teachings of Islam especially when you consider that they are branches of the same faith. Buddhism is the only religion (which really isn’t a religion) that I would consider nonviolent or destructive to civilization and humanity itself.

There are many different forms of meditation which I have practiced but at no time have I ever considered these practices dangerous in any way or form.

Religion has always been used as a tool to control the masses through a simple method of reward and punishment. It is used on a grand scale understandably however the entire premise is flawed in nature.

Edit to add

In essence all religions (Excluding Buddhism) teach their word is absolute and the only truth consider what the world would be like if no one challenged that. The world be considered flat no one would have discovered America we would have never gone to the moon or attempted to fly for that matter because that was gods domain slavery would still be prominent forget most science and all that goes with it. It was designed to control and hold back the human race and not inspire us to move forward.

The argument I hear from most people is that without religion we would not have morality yet I do not need religion to instill my morality am I just different from most of humanity in that aspect or is the entire premise false and used as another control technique to keep religion prevalent in society?

On a side note I have found in my life that some of the most immoral crimes that have been committed against humanity have been in the name of religion.
edit on 16-11-2012 by Grimpachi because: add



reply posted on 16-11-2012 @ 11:21 PM by boncho
reply to post by Joneselius

I suppose to answer your original question, no, religion does not hold anything back, unless it passes itself of as a political ideology COUGH Islam. We are told to "render unto Caesar that which is Caesars" that includes his wanting to discard religion, if he so chooses. A true Christian holds no one back as the true Christian understands that everyone's life is a personal journey, mapped out only by God and perceived from a higher perspective, one that sometimes isn't apparent to us.





Here we go with the "my religion is better than your religion" spiel. As I said in my first post, religion skews all logic in people. They all believe they are chosen ones, that their god is better and everyone is forsaken, misguided, lost for not following.

On the other hand, history shows us exactly how people have been manipulated for thousands of years under the guise of salvation or appeasing religious deities. We have factual evidence suggesting religion to be a tool of men to bend the will of other men for political and personal gain.

And thank god I'm not religious so I don't have to compare penis sizes gods with others and theirs.
edit on 16-11-2012 by boncho because: (no reason given)
edit on 16-11-2012 by boncho because: (no reason given)




reply posted on 16-11-2012 @ 11:56 PM by Sissel
reply to post by Grimpachi


By the way, I love your threads. You give us all pause for thought. I think you are getting one over on us though, because this is something you never want to discuss with people you love, unless done very delicately. There is a time and a place for everything, even a discussion on a topic like this.

Do you live in America? If so, I can tell you, this is something you never want to discuss around a Thanksgiving table, before the bird is carved.
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