Your views on Christianity?

[kite]

i'm still waiting for a valid argument on a few points:

-what validates a religion from spirituality or even an occult status?

-has anyone attempted to read passages from the original bible or is it all the rewritten to appease past royalty editions such as the king james/old testament etc.

-and are people still waiting for a zombie jew to appear back in human form? and yes, like that song "what if god was one of us?" how do you know he hasn't come back?

i consider myself earth based, looking at what around me and act accordingly. i don't have any one god or goddess (although the earth is quite beautiful) so i wouldn't know what to consider myself.
as far as religion goes, the pope and/or who ever presides over the christians should really adopt "thall shall not piss other people off" status since, in some instances, this harms people. think about it, all our public officials feel the need to become some sort of christian derivative to be even thought of as a candidate for a municipality. not only that, but don't you think that handing out flyers to unwanted people or singling out certain groups like minorities or gays or people in 3rd world countries harms them? most missionaries people in 3rd world countries feel like it's the new inquisition. it's perceived (although i don't know if it's true) that either accept christ as your saviour or you can screw the aid we were going to give you and build you that shelter.
and going on more of a current event, what the hell is with people going "oh god saved me from..." or "god has damned our land," bs?! so you're telling me your bulbus self would have magically fell through your burning structure on your knees praying going "god, i'm too fat and lazy to move my own self out of here. please bless me with the power of levitation so i can float out of here." give me a break...
and again, anyone basing any debate or "scientific" evidence by using the line "in the bible..." should be immediately be considered a baseless liar. might as well say "well when i was in harvard i studied x which makes me more knowledgeable than you."
still trying to figure out why christians still celebrate euro-pagan traditions too. hasn't anyone ever thought "hey guys, how can pine trees grow in desert conditions?"
or any of the contradictions in the bible...
anyways, i'll cut it off here. lost my train of thought amongst all the points i had.

[Priest]

I don't care about religion, whether it be christianity, buddhism or wiccan. Don't think about it, doesn't concern me, nuff said.

Which is odd, I come from a religious family, but their religious ideals were never pushed onto me. I attended church once as a child, thought it was mind numblingly boring and I felt silly singing, never went again, that's as far as my religious career ever went.

[snydead]

I go to an Evangelical church (close to being like a Babtist church). From what I have learned on my own is that one doesn't have to go to church to be Christian and one doesn't have to be babtised to be Christain, but these things are here to help a person live more comfortably or more happily and they also help a person change there life for the better, like me for ex. I was not a very good kid but until some girl had took me to her church youth group, my life started to change into a better person.

Lastly my personal view is that I see that religeions are trying to make a world a better place, making it a utopia. I think that it's trying to help people turn good for ex. a person who's always angry and is abusive would turn good and non violent. In conclusion I can see that religeon is trying to make the world a better place.

[Akira]

Originally Posted by snydead

I go to an Evangelical church (close to being like a Babtist church). From what I have learned on my own is that one doesn't have to go to church to be Christian and one doesn't have to be babtised to be Christain, but these things are here to help a person live more comfortably or more happily and they also help a person change there life for the better, like me for ex. I was not a very good kid but until some girl had took me to her church youth group, my life started to change into a better person.

Lastly my personal view is that I see that religeions are trying to make a world a better place, making it a utopia. I think that it's trying to help people turn good for ex. a person who's always angry and is abusive would turn good and non violent. In conclusion I can see that religeon is trying to make the world a better place.

In my opinion, all religion is doing is increasing the hatred.

[Target]

I've lost my faith becayse I've opened my eyes and I've realized that I don't need a God and, in my opinion, he doesn't exist.
Remember What Karl Marx said? Religion Is the opium of people.

A God is something in which people believe because:
1) They are scared of what will happens after death
2) they can't belive they can do something with their own strenghts
3) they can explain why somethings happen if they don't know how or why

Well, Death is Death, nothing can save you, Your body will remain 6 feet under earth.
When I achieve something is because I've fought and I've obtained it, not because god Helped me.
When I had a car accident, people used to say to me "you are saved, you must thank god". No, I haven't to thank god.
Finally I believe there is nothing that science can't explain..

Ps: about my previous post, they say all men are equal, But gay people are less. they are men, like me or you. Why are considered less equal?

[snydead]

Originally Posted by Akira

In my opinion, all religion is doing is increasing the hatred.

True, Some parts of religeon can do that, to me it depends on who's sharing it for ex. a person forces one in christianity, I know that will cause more hatred and plus confusing others about something unexplainable will also cause hatred. Lastly there are lots of people that try to teach christianity but yet some of them might not get the meaning of the message and then interperate it wrong. Like I said it all depends on who's sharing it. I know what your talking about and I use to think the same exact thing.

[neverdry63]

i went to church until about age 17 - mostly christian and the last church was baptist (i lived all over the usa so we went to whatever was available in the neighborhood) - i was baptised in the church and sang in the church choir - i left the church at 17 when the deacons of the church blocked all the door ways to stop black people from entering the church (passage of the civil rights act) - i was totally turned off by the hypocrasy and everything the bible taught -

i realized i was gay at 15 - no god could create me and then have all of his minions hate and dispise me on earth - i no longer care about any religions - for me religion is like finding the right kind of shirt or dress to wear or the right kind of club to join that represents your beliefs and rules you will abide by - i believe there may be some super being out their - i do not believe in heaven or hell - maybe there is a spiritual world i do not know -

i also beieve religions are doing themselves great harm by not speaking out at the atrocities their church leaders are condoning or not saying anything about (aka the catholic church and pedophile priest, islam for allowing terrorist to kill without vocally putting down that they do not represent the church, the catholic church stating they are the only true church and so forth) -

i would think that all religions would realize that their cooperation among themselves and administering to their flocks is for more important than who came first and then to use some common sense on how to deal with the diversity of humanity and stop the literal translation of scripture that was written thousands of years ago and may not be appropriate in todays world -

[Peachy]

Originally Posted by Lukie

I believe in the underlying ethical and moral values, but I don't believe in the religion itself. I have my own swing on things.

I share Lukie's attitude - I believe in the moral values embedded into Christianity and most other religions, like don't steal, murder, rape, envy others and what not.

Originally Posted by Akira

Well. However harsh you may think this is, I think Christianity is both a plague on humanity and a blessing. [...]

In order to cut down on the size of my post, I'll just say that Akira did an awesome job in summarizing all the pros and cons of religion as a whole, or Christianity in particular.

Originally Posted by snydead

That will do it. No one can ever force a person into Christianity, that will only lead the person further away. I believe that people have to come to it willingly and not forcivly.

Agreed. My parents and my uncle/aunt both let their kids decide on whether or not they want to join a religion without shoving anything down our throats. Turns out my niece does enjoy religion, while I don't believe in it. 'tis all about choice (maybe someone should include that in the commandments: "Thou shalt not shove thy religion down other people's throats" ).

Originally Posted by kite

-what validates a religion from spirituality or even an occult status?

In addition to justifying moral values, relgion used to be a way to explain things people had no explanation for, like natural disasters or what happens after we die. So with our advances in science, religion may seem less important now.

Peachy

[gamebaby]

im get too confused with cristanity. im all for gowing to heaven but some things i dont believe.

[Cupcake]

I'm a Catholic. I don't go to church often, and I don't read the bible, but I do live as a Catholic, and try to live by the rules I was given as I was growing up. I have also been to a Catholic school my entire life.