Yes fear, control and power..... and living in a predominately Catholic country.... corruption ughhhhh!!!
Lets reverse this, so is fear rooted i religion? And to find that out we have to decide if fear is any different from caution. Would it be cautious to be religious? So then is religion rooted in caution? Yes. Based on the fact fear is the same as caution.
To the first yeah I think so. Cause people need to fear something to compare themselves to. I think religion was mostly created to explain things to the uneducated in a way they could understand. Kyle
Here is maybe a better question... Is peoples rejection of religion rooted in fear. Fear that they might find a God waiting for them. Fear that maybe that God has an 'owners manual' but you dont want to know. Fear that maybe you will have to account to that God one day. btw.. there is no such religion known as 'religion'. There is no 'Church of Religion' and nobody is a practicing 'Religionite'. There are many different ways and some involve fear based worship and others do not and etc etc so on.
take it from someone who was kicked out of someones b-day party when i was 5 for not praying at the table. it for the most part is.
I agree. In my psychology lecture we were discussing Positive Psychology. My lecturer mentioned that when people are at a very happy period of there life they don't ponder big questions like ; Why are we here? Life after death etc... When we are depressed, we can think things like ; why did this happen to me? Why do I feel like this? I didn't choose to feel like this. Thinking like this can lead to one pondering such things and feeling maybe insecure. I think religion is this basic guide to life. Like the Bhuddists believe. The first Noble Truth.... I think religion fills a void and re-ensures people of purpose and a reason for being on the planet. Why do people (non-religious) turn to 'God' in times of need? God is hope in some sense. If people get hope by turning to a greater power, well that's fine but I think people can take religion fanatically and loose grip of the orginal reasons for religion. Some very relgious people let religion dictate their life. I like to learn from mistakes and hope I can do what's right when I can. I have feelings and emotions. I know the person beside me does too. My goal is to try make myself happy and others around me because I do believe when one is happy they don't ponder the bigger picture and usually long lasting happiness comes from being honest and doing the right thing for your mind and body and others. 1. Don’t equate happiness with money. 2. Exercise regularly. 3. Have sex. 4. Devote time and effort to close relationships. 5. Pause for reflection, meditate on the good things in life. 6. Seek work that engages your skills, look to enjoy your job. 7. Give your body the sleep it needs. 8. Don’t pursue happiness for its own sake, enjoy the moment. 9. Take control of your life, set yourself achievable goals. If I can achieve or TRY to acheive these things honestly I can't genuinely hurt others. Maybe people can too. This is my religion. Fear is used in religion. It certainly was in my catholic school. It was thought to us that all this stuff happened and I was a little confused as to why I was to just follow this and that's it. Don't question it. it's for the better. If your bad you go to burn in Hell. That's very dumbed down. There's too much emphasis on the repercusions and not what you can do to help or learn from mistakes. The Bible is very old. It's been told and thought pretty much the same way as since it was ever thought. I'm not sure it's relevant in todays ever changing society. I belive sociology gives me a better understanding of who I am and to respect others. Religious included. This is a science that can be used to see how we live and what we can do to make things better for ourselves. Isn't that what we do while we are here? Try make things better for ourselves? Isn't that what religion tries to provide? May be I got it all wrong. Whoah. Long post. My longest on these forums
speaking purely out of opinion i see religion as a tool, weakness, and continual source of feelings of fear and worthlessness. it is a wealth of opinions and perspectives for those without the courage or intellect to develop their own. it is a valid way to connect oneself to others in a world that has become increasingly more centered around people as individuals. i see both pros and cons to religion as both devoutly practiced and blatantly renounced a Christian faith. i believe that the thought of redemption for past actions and an incentive(if only in ones mind) to treat themselves and others better(heaven) can have very positive effects on anyone with a mind to believe in such things. however, i believe that constantly stressing and fretting over sins or behaviors one feels remorse for in the face of an allegedly eternally damning hell fire before the eyes of an angry god. i don't believe the positive outweighs the negative in terms of typical religion. beth
well there's religion and there's religion. if you choose to put it down to these dominant forms of religion then you're going to suffer. If however you follow that everyone is their own god (anton lavey i think) or that the stars planets and trees and shit are worth worshipping. basically a choice of neo-satanism or paganism then you got it made. but don't go blaming the whole plethora of religion. god exists. it is everything. the sooner people start contributing to everything the sooner everything, and thus god, will start working. its not working now. darkness is.
you create god and you create the devil. You can also choose not to create anything. nothing happens without you. find out what you are, free of what you are currently claiming or rejecting. Your existence belongs to you, your non existence as in the state of deep sleep or death also belongs to you. now find out who you are and make that quest your religion.
who am I?. what am I ?. what is it?. not questions to be consciously pondered, but mentally repeated like a mantra. will help you know. or be.
Hare Krsna! Not all religion is rooted in fear. Some religions, see fear as a weakness and encouarge strengthing the mind, body, and soul through devotion.
Hmm, a lot of you are looking at this differnetly than I would. Yes religions are sometimes rooted in fear, but not fear of God or fear of punishment. Of course this exists too but that's different. The kind of fear I'm talking about is the every day fear that plagues all of humanity. Life is extremely scary, and death is extremely scary. Fear is the opposite of happiness, and religion steps in to give us a little more happiness. Through religion, we can eliminate fear of dying, fear of moral failure, fear of the past, etc. In this way most religion is rooted in the elimination of fear, and rightly so, because if it didn't do that it wouldn't be good for much.
How could any religion be rooted in fear? Is fear sacred? I may be wrong but I don't know if I can believe in the sanctity of fear. Maybe it all depends on what you are afraid of. I guess you could be afraid of religion, but only if you don't know anything about religion and are afraid of the unknown. That, however, would be a temporary arrangement of conditions and hardly a lasting, fertile basis to support an honest faith. Of course, there is always awe, wonder, mystery, transcendence, etc. Maybe sometimes these things seem a little bit fear-ish. Who knows? Peace and Love
Religion is rooted in the people's fear of death. It's the fear of something else, not the fear of religion. Religion brings mental confort.
