The Horrible Truth About religion

The following topics are covered

*What is the basic purpose of religion?

Religion is designed to focus the people's attention and energy on a single, unchanging, uncompromising and invisible supreme being who allegedly created an inferior human race just for some extra companionship and love for himself and then supposedly foisted a set of oppressive and in some cases arbitrary rules on them, which if broken would be met with unimaginable punishment. This keeps the followers in a continuing state of fear and compliance. They are afraid to question the intentions of this invisible being and they are afraid of even expressing their own individuality in many cases. Christians and others are taught that they have virtually no power to do anything except pray, worship and do good deeds.



They are taught to practice self denial and are told that their own will is totally irrelevant. Religious followers believe that they are yielding their will over to a benevolent cosmic individual who has single-handedly created the whole universe and has their best interests at heart when in fact they are handing over their will and freedoms to hidden groups of religious elites for the elites own personal gains.

*IS THERE A GOD OR IS GOD JUST A SANTA FOR ADULTS?

Is there a white bearded old man up there creating and presiding over everything?


If there is then what are all the zillions of other smart and creative souls doing in the cosmos besides sitting on their hands?
For millennia people have been asking this question but there is one thing that some have thought might be the answer, and that is that maybe collectively WE are God.


God might be like a computer CPU and we might be the millions of transistors inside it.


There is no master transistor (God) which gives life to all the others and on which all the others depend. We each function independently and also as one. One of the transistors (Jesus) did possibly emerge briefly to show us an example of a better way to operate but we are all equally part of the CPU as was he.


Essentially we could be God's guts.


Why would we need a big master when in the higher realms (which could be our destination), we will know everything and we will be able to govern ourselves?


We really have no real need to be ruled and dictated to.

*What is worship?

*Is prayer effective?

*CHRISTIANS: GOOD PEOPLE OR UNWARY TOOLS FOR EVIL?

Christians believe they are good, however :

- They serve only their God who is king and anyone who opposes their doctrine about him is automatically damned. No questions asked.


- The heaven carrot is dangled in front of them by their religion so they do what ever it takes to get there. That is not "service to all" because many are only good so they can get their big rewards and avoid hell.


- They want others to go to heaven too but their religion has robbed them of their free will by instilling fear
and telling them that their will is irrelevant. They then go out and violate other people's free will as well by preaching their dogma and vilifying (and even killing) them if they don't comply. They believe that anyone who does not obey their god's rules is not worthy and are therefore classed below them. That is prejudice and bigotry. They pass judgment in the name of their god on those who do not accept their fear based tenets. They don't understand that you cannot judge someone if you don't know all their circumstances and reasons and no one can possibly know everything about what led to aparticular person's actions or what their true thoughts or intentions were.


- They preach disempowerment and ignorance which leads people into deception where they often become
accessories to evil. Evil in many cases uses ignorant and dumbed-down individuals to do its work.


- Christians etc. cannot avoid so called sin because their religion is based on sin. Sin is attached to them like a ball and chain and they cannot escape it or change direction until they're dead. They cannot stop breaking their god's laws, because due to the fact that they are oppressed, they are subconsciously in constant rebellion against those oppressive laws. Also they are all tared with the same "sinner" brush from birth so
that is the role they will inevitably play out.


- Their religion is based on three things - fear, distortion of information, and obedience. Fear is the basis of all negative emotions which they are told to avoid. Their god on the other hand has no qualms what so ever about expressing these negative emotions through his frequent acts of wrath and mass murder. He therefore makes a very bad example by his actions.

*Are religious followers including Christians "all serving" (good) or "self serving" (bad) individuals?

*JESUS: SAVIOUR OR TEACHER?

Saving or taking care of people is a high purpose but teaching people to save or take care of themselves and each other is an even higher one. Jesus tried to teach people to think for themselves and care for each other but Christianity twisted his words around to say that we have to always rely on a single supreme ruler to take care of us and save us whenever we screw up. Those who do not learn to take care of themselves will need someone else to take care of them for the rest of eternity whereas those who do, can not only take care of themselves but can go on to teach others to do the same, thus it spreads and humanity grows and evolves. The last thing religion wants is for humanity to evolve because then the religious leaders are out of a job.


If Jesus really taught us to rely only on him to be saved as well as everything else, and to just blindly obey an unseen god's simplistic rules and laws then he would have been a very poor teacher.

Humans who do not start thinking for themselves and throw off the doctrine and dogma of religion will never evolve to the next level.

*Did Jesus come here to save us or was it to teach us to save ourselves?

*HEAVEN: PARADISE OR EMPTY PROMISES

*What will Christians do once they get to heaven?

*SIN: EVIL OR JUST ANOTHER SCARY WORD?

*FAITH: JUSTIFIED TRUST AND BELIEF OR BLISSFUL IGNORANCE?

*GOD: KING BY PROXY OR CROWNED IDOL?

*Why God could not possibly govern this world

*DIVINE LAW: JUSTICE OR AN INVITATION FOR MISCHIEF?

Each Topic is discussed with detail

Source

You don't seem to care to understand anything....

Santa is a shaman!

God is the Big Bang!

You are a spark that emanates is year 093840328403284023804 of the Big Bang!

this is a very offensive thread in my opinion. lets state the facts on my beliefs.

1. I believe in GOD.
2. Religion is not horrible. it has helped many families become happier.
3. Religious people help others in need.
4. Socializing is a GOOD thing. it opens up oportunities.
5. religion covers what's good and bad and it helps you focus on learning from history.


Therefore, there is nothing horrible about religion as you put it.

I'd say this is the most narrow minded reply ever ..

Originally posted by jedimiller
this is a very offensive thread in my opinion. lets state the facts on my beliefs.

In what way is this offensive ?

1. I believe in GOD.

So what .. Bush allso believe in GOD, I dont .. whats the difference ?

2. Religion is not horrible. it has helped many families become happier.

A major vague statement ??? Religion has allso killed millions of people .. Btw: a very few religions help unless you convert or aknoledge their believes. In this point, I could give you 1000 examples ..

3. Religious people help others in need.

Or else you go to hell ? .. As i stated above .. the same BS..

4. Socializing is a GOOD thing. it opens up oportunities.

Socializing has NOTHING to do with religion .. even the zebras in the serengetti planes of africa socializes ..

5. religion covers what's good and bad and it helps you focus on learning from history.

You have probably not READ the OP. The bible is NOT history, its a fairytale. No one can walk on wather, make a lake divide itself, collect millions of primates and stuff them inn a boat, resurrect etc ... Thats just fairytales ..

I rest my case ..



Therefore, there is nothing horrible about religion as you put it.

Originally posted by jedimiller
this is a very offensive thread in my opinion. lets state the facts on my beliefs.

1. I believe in GOD.

and exactly that, you believe. you can't back it up in any way at all. it's just your unfounded belief in some fairly ridiculous claims.

2. Religion is not horrible. it has helped many families become happier.

ah, but it's also driven many families apart. how about all the homosexuals ostracized from their families because of their religion?
how about all the families torn apart because someone wants to marry someone within the religion but not within the sect?

3. Religious people help others in need.

but they don't help others in need because they're religious, they help because they're good people.
atheists contribute as well.

4. Socializing is a GOOD thing. it opens up oportunities.

and you don't need religion for it

5. religion covers what's good and bad and it helps you focus on learning from history.

it definitely covers what's bad. look at the bible or koran. those books are full of things you shouldn't do... and then praise for those things.
like genocide and misogyny

Therefore, there is nothing horrible about religion as you put it.

nothing?
now THAT is a ridiculous statement

god's slaughter of innocent children?
god's command of genocide?
the praise of genocide in the bible?
and so, so, SO much more

reply to post by SerpentPath


thanks for the info and i dont doubt it.

Im open to anything. but can you give evidence

reply to post by madnessinmysoul


the homosexual thing was a good point people c an feel seperated from their family when they doing "whats wrong" according to religion.

Originally posted by jedimiller
lets state the facts on my beliefs.

I stopped reading after this.

good one.

but seriously the only good thing i can see coming out of religion is faith, faith can keep a person going like nothing else, its also good for an armies morale.

i believe that people should help eachother not because god says to, but because the people want to help other on their own. Why should everything we do be done because of fear of something will happen to us,

did you know that there is much more bullying catholic schools than in public. Why they are all the same religion, why do they pick on others of their kind. The guy who started this thread is my new ATS best friend (im only joking, i said that for litterary effect in imposing my view that this guy knows what he is talkin about)

I think this is mis-understood. In my opinions

Religion it self is not evil. Is not corrupt. Is not an argument to be had. Everyone has religion. Even those who say they have no religion, have religion in not accepting. The mis-understanding comes in with church and sacred texts.

Just to clear that up.

Originally posted by jedimiller
1. I believe in GOD.

Originally posted by jedimiller
2. Religion is not horrible. it has helped many families become happier.

heroin makes people happy. you can take drugs that will make you so happy that you wont be in the slightest bit of discomfort as you see your family get tortured and killed right before your eyes, while just smiling away. would you want this?

Originally posted by jedimiller
3. Religious people help others in need.

they also kill innocent people.
crusades anyone? holy wars? death to witches? suicide bombings?

Originally posted by jedimiller
4. Socializing is a GOOD thing. it opens up oportunities.

i don't even know what you mean by this..

Originally posted by jedimiller
5. religion covers what's good and bad and it helps you focus on learning from history.

no it doesn't, morality doesn't come from the bible. the bible says a lot of things, the readers pick and choose what they want from the bible and ignore the rest. why is slavery abolished in religious nations? do you agree with stoning heathens? are you RACIST? are you SEXIST? what ultimately makes you decide these behaviors are wrong? NOT religion.

Originally posted by cheeser


no it doesn't, morality doesn't come from the bible. the bible says a lot of things, the readers pick and choose what they want from the bible and ignore the rest. why is slavery abolished in religious nations? do you agree with stoning heathens? are you RACIST? are you SEXIST? what ultimately makes you decide these behaviors are wrong? NOT religion.

If i remember correctly, this man never said he believed in the bible. HE never proclaimed his religion.

your statement is out of line. You've assumed he believes in the bible. And what you quoted to argue against, was a statment about religion, as a whole, not one in particular.

To clear it up about the bible. The bible does promote morality. Re-read it sometime, you don't have to believe to read the bible. I treat it as any other book.

You said the bible says alot of things, the readers pick and choose. Im sorry but you've done the exact thing. You've focused on all the bad things that come from the bible. Ignoring the good.

Everyone is racist and sexist. you can say you're not, and you probably will. But wether you like it or not, everyone is. Some are more vocal about it, others are not. go ahead and deny it, most who read this will. But i assure you , you are, in your own way.

jedi, i would like to revise your list as to how I interpret it (not necessarily making assumptions about you personally, but the general mindset of religious folk)

Originally posted by jedimiller
this is a very offensive thread in my opinion. lets state the facts on my beliefs.

1. I believe in GOD.
2. Religion is not horrible. it has helped many families become happier.
3. Religious people help others in need.
4. Socializing is a GOOD thing. it opens up oportunities.
5. religion covers what's good and bad and it helps you focus on learning from history.


Therefore, there is nothing horrible about religion as you put it.

1. you believe that your god is the only real god, and that everyone else is wrong, and misguided

2. religion has helped many families break apart, and sow division among people worldwide since it's creation.

3. religious people exclude others that do not share their beliefs

4. socializing... is not exclusive to religion.

5. religion forces you to take one look at history, and calls you a blasphemous heretic or asking difficult questions, or for not accepting simple answers to complex questions.

I find that for the most part, religious people are good people. They try to get along well with other people, and sincerely hope to better both themselves and the community with the help of their church. And they have good bake sales.

Of course, in any large group of people there are those who aren't so nice and who use their beliefs as a tool to try to gain undeserved power. But the same can be said about Congress.

But overall, religious people are generally not interested in killing people who don't believe what they do, as they might have been in the past. I think that's a positive step forward. One good thing about this is that you are certainly free to choose whatever religion you like, or none, if you prefer, and nobody's going to be burning you alive as a heretic.

You should realize, however, that religion in a variety of forms is here to stay, and you're not going to be able to do anything about that. People still prefer to maintain their organizations and their irrational beliefs, since this existence tends toward the irrational, regardless of your feelings about it.

Twice I've written a long report on this ridiculous piece. Ridiculous, not because it criticises religion or questions a higher conscious being but because the writer is peddling his own metaphysical beliefs that have no more empirical proof than the religions it ridicules.

Another major reason why Christians cannot evolve or ascend is because they have allowed themselves to be trapped in the low vibration of fear, prejudice, judgment and ignorance because of what they've been taught. As mentioned before, fear is the basis of all negative emotions and has the lowest vibrational frequency. Because the higher realms consist of high frequency vibrational energy, one has to have equal vibration in order to merge into there. Until one releases themselves from fear based emotions, they will remain trapped in the cycle of this mortal dimensional matrix indefinitely.

Those that believe in a religious way of life are blinkered, shackled and unable to excercise free will, as the writer says, but it turns out that to reach these higher planes of existence man must be as equally emotionally strict as these awful religions requires moral strictness.

Twice I tried writing but each time something rendered banal the criticisms. Hopefully, this time I can post, having found the core of the article.

It's nothing more than a Diet Coke sponsored article about how much sugar Pepsi has.

Originally posted by Woland


It's nothing more than a Diet Coke sponsored article about how much sugar Pepsi has.

I love that.

I predict that this thread will be moved to BTS where it belongs.
What is the original posters point?
Where do they state any sort of CONSPIRACY?
Cut and paste, cut and paste.
Stir the pot over at BTS, this doesn't belong here.

Originally posted by spaceman16

you ignored my main point.

what ultimately influences what the readers picks and chooses what they want uphold morally from the bible? don't SAY the bible, because it says the opposite. it has to be something external from the bible.

its a simple question.

Why is it so important to some people to discredit religion?

If there is one thing I have learned, it is ultimately that those who jump all over religion, have absolutely no true understanding of it, and you can argue them to death over it, but you won't change where they are, where they are coming from or where they are going....muhahahahahahaha.

Surprisingly enough I honestly believe the joke will be on them when they get to the other side and see all the opportunities they wasted and missed in this life - just like the rest of us - religion or not.

Originally posted by cheeser

you ignored my main point.

what ultimately influences what the readers picks and chooses what they want uphold morally from the bible? don't SAY the bible, because it says the opposite. it has to be something external from the bible.

its a simple question.

Actually i have no clue what you were asking. Your question is perhaps one of the most jumbled and confusing i've ever been presented with.