My Views on Christianity and Relgion

The bible is just a bunch of stories, none of which can be proven true. Jesus was good but his disciples were twisted. Jesus didn't write the bible (the new testament), his disciples did. His disciples were, of course, human and therefore lied and sinned. They had a lot of power in their hands being the disciples of Jesus. When humans have power, they sin. They had the power to make Christianity whatever they wanted to. All of the New Testament is just the disciples telling you what happened. Who’s to say they didn't lie? After all, they are human.

I am not saying Christianity is false, I am merely saying the bible is not something that you can base your faith on. I say, in order to be a Christian, all you have to do is believe Jesus was the savior and be, in general, a good person. And I also believe that if you aren't a Christian you can still go to the Christian heaven (assuming Christianity was the correct faith). But I will never be 100% no matter what religion I end up choosing in the end. Being 100% sure of something that cannot be proven is ignorance. But people don't like to say that. They just call it faith. What makes you so faithful?

Ticket to Heaven: Be a good person. You repent when you feel bad for doing bad things. You don't need to prey directly to God to repent. As long as you have the basic human morals you are born with you will go to heaven. Even if that heaven is not a Christian heaven. Everyone is born with basic morals. Religion (ANY religion) helps keep those morals.

I say religion is necessary to sustain life. But at the same time, religion is a major cause of war. There really isn't any way to prevent it. We will, in time, wipe out our own race. It's only a matter of time. God knew this. It is even in the bible. The apocalypse. But that all goes back to if the bible is even accurately depicting what Jesus preached.

 

I agree with some of what you say. I don't believe heaven is a place, this belief is based on Jesus' words "The Kingdom of Heaven lies within." This doesn't sound like a zipcode or address for some divine place in another dimension, in my opinion. But I digress...

Anyways, I agree that religion can contribute to our world. Although this may sound cynical, there will always be people who NEED a set of absolute rules for their life. This is called the conventional level of morality according to Kohlberg. Basically, this includes the 3rd (interpersonal accord and conformity driven) and 4th (authority and social order obedience driven) stages. In summary, outside influences such as society and government reinforce morality of people in these stages. Although some people may remain at the Conventional level, there are those who embrace principles the laws and norms are based on and incorporate them into their lives, thus becoming their own morality enforcer.

Religion can help establish the laws and norms of society, as well as the principles that individuals follow in the post-conventional level. The problem can arise when society, government, or institution uses the innate power it has for destructive and even violent acts. If asked to fight in a war approved by an institution or government, people in the Conventional level would say the use of force would be appropriate b/c the establishment ordered it. However, those who were operating at the post-conventional level might protest b/c killing others was a violation of their principles.

Long story short, it is not religion that in itself is not good or bad, but the institutions and governments which claim power based on the religion that have either negative or positive effects. A group that helps underprivileged citizens based on Jesus' teachings of loving, helping, and not judging each other has a positive effect, while a group that tries to force people to believe that "without a faith in Jesus would damn their eternal souls to hell" has a much more negative effect and torture has been justified for this reason. I think Augustine said something to the effect of "It is better for them (non-believers) to suffer here than be eternally damned."- not too Christ-like if you ask me.

Here is a link to Kohlberg's morality development. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kohlberg's_stages_of_moral_development

Peace and love

 

why do you say that we are born with a set of morals?

 

I 100% agree on what you are saying

 

We may wipe ourselves out, but I dispute the assertion that "religion is a major cause of war". Historically, religion hasn't been involved in most wars.That would include the Pelopponesian war, the Punic War, the conquests of Alexander and the Mongols, the Battle of Hastings, the War of the Roses, the American Revolution, the Civil War,World Wars I & II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War,etc.

 

All wars are about power. Either over people or resources.

Religion becomes a tool to such people because its where the people's hearts are at. Use their religious beliefs against them to lead them where you want them to go.

This is the calling card of zionism as well as several other political movements.


x

 

ticket to heaven: storm the gates. you are divine after all.

cultivating / recognizing purity is a lifestyle, heaven is a form of conciousness that results. get up off your knees and look god in the eyes. you got to rise to "his" level. "he's" not going to lower "himself" to yours.

p.s. good is a point of view. to live peacefully in heaven one must disolve duality internally.

 

I think that before we all judge Christianity we should learn hebrew and read the old bible that hasn't been changed so many times.

 

The Roman-Catholic latin bible is just much better.
The original bible is rather primitiv, and says more about how people lived in that time, than actualy giving an accurat defenition of Christianity.
It was just necessary to addapt it a bit...

 

Better, or newer?

 

Better

Catholic view on Chrisitanity, allows the possibility that other religions, such as celtic believe, are (partly) on a right way to god.

Aquino say once:
thare are two ways to find God:
1) Use or Bible
2) Search God in nature

And infact, Celts were searching God long before any Christian did...

 

As were a list of religions a mile long.

Why would a newer adapted bible give a more accurate picture than the original? It can only be better for one interpretation, no?

 

pseudo-intellectual apologetic ramble....

 

Why prefer people a new BMW above an old one...?

Just how things go. You can say they are inferior or obsolete, but in the end they exist and there is nothing to do about it...

 

Picking a religious belief is not like picking a car. A newer version of the bible has no new information to add. Only interpretation of the old information. Therefore it is not a more accurate version unless you are talking about just that one interpretation.

 

Are you refering to Celtic Catholicism or Celtic Heathenry? Heathens had not search very far to find any god, they saw how the abound in nature.

 

Actualy both.

Nature come from god.
If you worshiip nature, you worship God as well.

I know Evangelical Christians say something completly different, but they are wrong. They faill to understand their own believe...

 

If you apply the word god to nature, yes you are correct...but if you mean that if you worship nature you worship the biblical god, then you are incorrect. As a heathen, I prefer to not be associated with any sort of attempt to justify nature worship through christian apologism.

God is a Teutonic collective singular word for a beneficial thing greater than the human system....not a hebrew mountain spirit....you guys just usurped it and brandish it wantonly.

 

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