Religion is a perversion of intention

By that i am referring to how it is practiced

people preach words from a book, these books are filled with allegory, NOT historical accounts
the purpose of which was to unify people's belief and philosophical behaviours

instead we have hyper zealous people on all sides pointing angrily at the actual words of the allegories and screaming like monkeys

more to come later
typing on my phone is not efficient

I would agree with you that the religions that have come from holy books have defied its original intent. Religion is a man made concept, the interpretations of some to dictate how others should view the stories in the books. I do not see how any man can claim the right to know what god's plan is for any other person besides himself.

reply to post by Davood


Therein lies the problem, those people think the books you referred to as historical documents.

It is strange though, because Confucius tried to use aphorisms to sell his moral guidebook, it didn't take
until Mencius showed up 100ish years later and wrote allegory based on Confucian aphorism

so this means that either people are unable to convert absolute rules themselves or they are missing the point and are attaching to allegory for the wrong reasons

Furthermore, all philosophical and religious texts reflect some of the ideals of the age when they were written, they may not all be relevant or inclusive enough for today's world

for one simple reason
they were all planned, and penned
by us humans

there was no divine insight, there was only human insight

by no means am I invalidating the ideas, only the followers

It is more likely that the 'intention' of religion was corrupted early on by the 'process'. It is worth remembering that all monotheism is theological, a very human intellectual undertaking. But is theology even valid? and it may only exist because nothing has been revealed. That is to say that whatever happened two thousand years ago was probably lost in the sands of time. One the few things scripture is clear about is that there must be numerous false teaching using the name of Christ. The number of warnings are considerable. What doesn't exist is the means to know which is the valid form and which is not? Could all be in error? We may be about to find out with the first wholly new interpretation for two thousand years of the moral teaching of Christ and it's spreading on the web.

Using a synthesis of scriptural material drawn from the Old and New Testaments, the Apocrypha , The Dead Sea Scrolls, The Nag Hammadi Library, and some of the world's great poetry, just as in the beginning, it describes and teaches a single moral LAW, a single moral principle, a single test of faith and offers the promise of its own proof; one in which the reality of God responds directly to an act of perfect faith with a individual intervention into the natural world; 'raising' up the man,  correcting human nature by a change in natural law, altering biology, consciousness and human ethical perception beyond all natural evolutionary boundaries. Intended to be understood metaphorically, where 'death' is ignorance and 'Life' is knowledge,  this personal  experience of  transcendent power and moral purpose is our 'Resurrection', and justification for faith. Here, on a perfectly objective foundation of moral principle and virtue, true morality and 'Life' begins.

Here then is the first ever viable religious conception capable of leading reason, by faith, to observable consequences which can be tested and judged. This new teaching delivers the first ever religious claim of insight into the human condition, that meets the Enlightenment criteria of verifiable and 'extraordinary' evidence  based truth embodied in action. For the first time in history, however unexpected, the world must now measure for itself, the reality of a new claim to revealed truth, a moral tenet not of human intellectual origin, offering access by faith, to absolute proof, an objective basis for moral principle and a fully rational and justifiable belief! 

The first proof of God for faith known to human history now exists.

Revolutionary stuff for those who can handle it: Check it out at www.energon.org.uk...

I wonder why all these posts against religion?,if you don't believe why would this upset you so much,when I don't agree or don't believe I just ignore it,why dwell on something you have no control over,or something you don't believe in?

I think you missed the boat my friend
I didn't attack religion per se, I attacked its followers for perverting religion

Originally posted by taccj9903
reply to post by Davood

 

Therein lies the problem, those people think the books you referred to as historical documents.

And the unbiased truth of the matter on every subject, and the only Divinely inspired book in existence. The true facts are none of these are true. You do have to give credit to those ancient priests, and their controllers for coming up with such a plan, it has worked really great for all these years. Now, man/womankind is smarter, and is waking up to the lies, and the Church is showing it's true colors in damning Gays and others who go against the grain.

Originally posted by taccj9903
reply to post by Davood

 

Therein lies the problem, those people think the books you referred to as historical documents.

As a fundamental christian who believes the King James
Bible to be the INSPIRED word of God.I know,through the
Holy Spirit,that the Bible is true.Since I walk by faith and
you,obviously, walk by sight.YOU have to show your proof.

reply to post by Oldtimer2


The reason why "they" get upset is because
the Holy Spirit is convicting them!

To say that the Bible is definitively not a historical accounting of the past is rather naive.

Has it been embellished? Most certainly.
Are there fabrications? I'm sure several.
Is there any truth? Absolutely.

The Great Flood is the perfect example.

Numerous civilizations had depicted the Great Flood around the same time as the Bible claims it occurred. However, and this is exactly where its historical value is replaced with religious message, the Bible puts a face at the forefront of the flood -- Noah. To dismiss the notion that a man built an ark and loaded it with thousands of animals in order to salvage life does not negate whether or not there was actually a flood.

What people have trouble understanding is that the Bible can both recount historical happenings and still not prove there is a God. Further still, the majority of scientists are in agreement that Jesus was an actual man. However, and this is again where religion and history separate, is what significance, if any, the role of this man actually played in the course of history.

If you study the Qur'an, the Bible, etc., you will see many similarities. The difference of course lies in the meaning of those events, not necessarily in the event itself.

The Qur'an, the central religious text of Islam, contains references to over fifty people also found in the Bible, typically in the same or similar narratives.

It's not whether or not these people existed, which is generally accepted as historical fact, it is what significance, what meaning, these people represented -- which is exactly where history ends and religion begins.

Source: Biblical narratives and the Qur'an

Edit for source.

[edit on 2-6-2010 by lpowell0627]

I'll meet you half way.... man has corrupted the teachings of God and His word. The organized "churches" have poured out hate and misunderstanding since they became organized. Most peoples negative views of christianity come from the man-made traditions and manipulation of the word.

The TRUE Church is more akin to Jesus' teachings in Matthew 5-6-7...the serman on the Mount.

And wether you admit it or not, there is quite a bit of history in the Bible, and it is confirmed and validated by newer discoveries and cross referencing ancient texts outside of Chritianity.

For example, one of the newer finds is that cuniforms from ancient Assyria depict reciepts for monetary exchanges. These reciepts show interaction with Issakesseni or Isakesseni.....the Sons of Issac...the 10 lost tribes exiled to Assyria after the conquest of damascus circa 780 BC. Just like the Bible says.

You have your right to not believe, I have my right to believe.

The problem is that religious people accept fiction as facts! Like children believing in Santa or the tooth fairy.

Originally posted by AlreadyGone
I'll meet you half way.... man has corrupted the teachings of God and His word. The organized "churches" have poured out hate and misunderstanding since they became organized. Most peoples negative views of christianity come from the man-made traditions and manipulation of the word.

The TRUE Church is more akin to Jesus' teachings in Matthew 5-6-7...the serman on the Mount.

And wether you admit it or not, there is quite a bit of history in the Bible, and it is confirmed and validated by newer discoveries and cross referencing ancient texts outside of Chritianity.

For example, one of the newer finds is that cuniforms from ancient Assyria depict reciepts for monetary exchanges. These reciepts show interaction with Issakesseni or Isakesseni.....the Sons of Issac...the 10 lost tribes exiled to Assyria after the conquest of damascus circa 780 BC. Just like the Bible says.

You have your right to not believe, I have my right to believe.

Well Said! I couldn't agree more!

Man has corrupted the teachings of the bible with our own beliefs outside of the bible we input these beliefs into the interpretation of the bible and get so called "different" interpretations. there is only one interpretation of the bible. The bible is fact and has been proven time and time again to be so. Many people claim ohhh that story or historical account was embellished beyond what really happened or they simple state that this just couldn't of happened. Yet they provide no hard proof to discount the stories and historical accounts of the bible. As a matter of fact in all my years of personal religious studies I have yet to come across a single creditable source that could discredit the bible based on its historical facts.

to the readers of this post: If you have a problem with Christianity today its most likely because you are not being taught true Christianity! Everything that people have a problem with in Christianity is usually due to a sect of religious fanatics that have taken scripture out of context to fit their own personal beliefs.

reply to post by MrXYZ


With some religions that may be the case but not all and definitely not in all cases. To state what you said is a fallacy.

Originally posted by APOCOLYPSE DAWN
reply to post by MrXYZ

 

With some religions that may be the case but not all and definitely not in all cases. To state what you said is a fallacy.

I agree that some religions do it more or less. But Christianity and Islam, two of the major ones, definitely accept fiction as fact.

please post the source of your information instead of opinion. I would like to see an example where Christianity relies on fiction rather than a proven fact.

edited:
by this I mean to give me an example where christianity is using fiction and you have the proven fact to back up that it is fiction and not that of fact. remember this is in reference to where the bible states that something is a fact like a historical account.

[edit on 2-6-2010 by APOCOLYPSE DAWN]

personally, i see the chasm as lying between
SHOWING
and
TELLING

take christianity for instance, since it is one i know about and which best fits the following example:

Jesus said to love your neighbor as yourself and then he took that up a notch and said LOVE your ENEMIES - be good to those who do not have any good for you!

did he just SAY this?...i think that he lived it...if he forgave his murderers as he was dying, then to me, that is truly walking the walk. and it is written that he did.

FORGIVE THEM, Father, for they know not what they do.

also, there was that incident in the Garden of Gethsemane, on the night of his arrest.
Peter got overzealous as usual and ended up slicing off the ear of the one of the high priest's service staff, named Malchus.
Jesus put the guy's ear back on and told Peter to pipe down.

the servant of the man who spearheaded a committee intentionally planning on killing Jesus received a boon from Jesus, himself.
without fanfare or words, or anything

but what do we see, generally speaking, these days in the group that claim to be following Jesus the closest?

preaching to the choir
proselytizing to the recipients of their alms
meddling and judging, both internally and abroad in the community
arguing about heuristics, semantics, and politics
an air of spiritual superiority ranging from the subtle to the obvious
hypocrisy (especially in the public eye)
separatism, dogmatism, escapism

on the darkest part of the scale, we find such things as bombing abortion clinics and killing innocent strangers in the name of saving unborn babies of other strangers...large-scale jihad type aggression such as the crusades and the near-annihilation of the indigenous North American tribes...extreme racism and bigotry as in the KKK (and yes they do claim to be christians) and gay-bashing (in the literal sense!)

i'm not trying to put anyone or anything down...i'm just describing the depth of the chasm borne of the difference between
SHOWING
and
TELLING

this thread is very well titled - religion IS a perversity of intention!
if the intention is to make the lives of others as good as one's own, because of GOD, then surely it has been perverted!

if church were something that had little to nothing to do with pulpits, sermons, and lectures, and everything to do with community action and active altruism, then there would be no perversion of intention.

what if church was something we DID instead of somewhere we WENT to listen to someone TALK?

Originally posted by APOCOLYPSE DAWN
please post the source of your information instead of opinion. I would like to see an example where Christianity relies on fiction rather than a proven fact.

Well, let's see

1) To start with the giant elephant in the room, Christianity claims the existence of a deity. The existence of said deity has NOT been proven...trust me, if it were, the MSN would go all "OMGOMGOMG, God exists" on us

2) Creation...again, no proof whatsoever, only claims in the bible...the book that was written by MEN.

3) The arch! The whole idea of being able to stuff all animals in one boat around that time is beyond crazy...yet a lot of Christians take this FICTIONAL story literally.

There's plenty more, but those are some of the most evident ones...also, they're quite important considering they form some of the cornerstones of Christianity.

I can't wait for the first posters claiming "the existence of god is a fact, and the creation as the bible tells it is the full truth, and Noah really had a giant boat that hosted all animals and saved them from a worldwide flood". Those are just fictional stories, and you can learn something from their moral statements, but that's about it...they are FICTIONAL and we don't have proof that they're FACTUAL.