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What do you guys think of Religion?

Discussion in 'Chit Chat' started by Cheese on toast, Mar 26, 2012.

  1. Hey all, being gay/bi/trans and all, I was wondering what you guys have to say on the topic of religion/god. Personally I kind of shift between atheist and agnostic pantheist, but I am generally against organized religion for promoting dogmatic beliefs, being excessively homophobic, stifling women's rights, holding back scientific progress, and inducing a kind of carrot-stick morality. I was raised Catholic, but I really detest the church so I have left. I almost kind of believe in god in that wishy-washy "God is the beauty of nature and the universe" way, but not a god who listens to my prayers or whatever.

    What opinions do you guys have? Just curious :slight_smile:
     
  2. Jonathan

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    I was raised Catholic but I consider myself to be atheist. Personally, I am also against organized religion primarily for the reasons you have listed yourself. I consider it to be illogical because it would have you assume things to be true when there is basically no proof out there to support it. I think we've reached a point in society where reason should be key and not accepting things on blind faith. I see most religions used as tools for people to justify their intolerant beliefs. I think that religion was useful in the past as being a moral code and such, but I believe that it and it's religious texts (such as the Bible) are outdated and have no place in current society. It makes me cringe every time someone attempts to use religious beliefs in attempt to control the morality of the world (i.e. politics). Everyone is free to have their views on religion, but no one should be allowed to force their views upon others. Overall, while I do think that religion has brought some good things to the world, I believe the bad it has brought outweighs that good.

    From similar earlier threads on EC, I know that the topic of religion can become quite heated. I'm hoping that people can remain civil in this thread...but I guess we'll see :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:
     
  3. haha hopefully :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes: I mean, it'd be pretty hard to find someone on this forum arguing that gays are going to burn in hell xD that seems to be the most heated topic
     
  4. Atticus

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    I'm an atheist. I have been since... I want to say I really started question religions in about fifth grade. I went to a Christian school for two years and they taught us that if we "aren't Christian enough" we'll get physically sick. So basically, every time you got sick it was God telling you that you've been horrible. Oh and Santa Claus is of the devil. We were in third grade. My parents are religious (my father is a "born-again" and my mother is much more flippant about it), my sister is brainwashed by her boyfriend into some silly form of Christianity, and my brother and I are not religious. Honestly, I just don't understand it. At all. I don't understand how people can believe in any texts. My father says "well, the Bible is a thousand years old. Surely if it is that old, it has to have meaning." But I'm more inclined to think, "if we're supposed to take every word of this book seriously, does this mean Harry Potter is my new religion?"
     
  5. secretguyX

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    I was raised Catholic mostly, and just made my Confirmation in fall, but I also grew up a bit Jewish from my Dad's side. Now I don't know what to believe. Ever see the video "Why I Hate Religion But Love God"? That's it, for the most part. I can't stand to hear in the bible and from priests and such how much God hates gays. Because they're full of shit, God loves everyone. And you don't need to be religious to love him too. And I believe that all religion does is segregate people even more, when we should be together. I'm not saying that people can't have their own views.

    I've went to a Kingdom Hall (Jehovah Witnesses) a few times when I stayed with my Aunt and Uncle in the past few summers. This guy who was talking was saying how being gay was disgusting and wrong, and that they should go to hell. (I wanted to throw my chair at his face.) My Aunt and Uncle even agreed, which disgusted me. They have a gay son, who they disowned because of their religion.

    So pretty much I'm spiritual, not religious. Hope I didn't offend anyone by dissing religion.
     
  6. Travel Tech

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    I was sort of raised Catholic until I think middle school. During the beginning of the whole priest molesting scare we switched to some protestant church. After a little bit we simply stopped going, and sometime during middle school or high school I became an atheist. I gave my beliefs some serious thought and decided to base everything I believed on an open mind and critical thinking. I am against organized religion because it impedes progress and I hold nothing sacred, nothing is beyond criticism and questioning. I'm fine if people have their own spiritual beliefs as long as it isn't pushed on anyone else, but that doesn't mean I won't have a civil debate on why I think they are wrong.
     
  7. Zontar

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    I'm generally opposed to all forms of dogmatic thinking, organized or otherwise.

    To me, everything that exists must pass the scrutiny of everything else; proven, rational, logical, and possible. If physics can either disprove it or fail to explain it, it probably doesn't exist.

    So yeah, there can be a deity/deities, but they'll have to be scientifically discovered like everything else before I take the concepts seriously.

    [​IMG]
     
  8. That's quite interesting. I probably started questioning religion in early middle school, but I always had kind of a wishy-washy view on it before that.

    @SecretgirlX, I detest that video about "why I love Jesus and Hate Religion" simply because the guy talks about how he hates religion, but how he loves the church, believes the bible, and believes in sin. What he's supposed to be doing is making an equation: religion minus something equals Jesus. But unfortunately he's not subtracting anything from religion that he doesn't add back later. It's like saying, "I love cherry pie, except for the cherries. But those red spherical things in the pie? Delicious."

    I can understand your point of view much better though. It'd be pretty tough to offend someone by dissing the homophobic parts of religion here :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes: Glad to see that people take time to think about these things!
     
  9. Ridiculous

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    I think religion is awful. Absolutely terrible. All of it.

    Some personal faiths I am fine with... but definitely not organised religion.
     
  10. amwm2wm3

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    I was raised Catholic but brought to a Methodist church because of a family dispute. I decided it was all nonsense at 11 but I was 17 or 18 before I admitted to being an atheist. I really tried to believe but it never seemed believable. So at 11 I started to read the Torah, Bible, and Qu'ran, and various other religious texts. I tried Wicca, but I still couldn't do the deity thing.
    I also grew up in a very conservative, religious area and I don't know if I would have stayed with the church even if I did believe in God. A lot of people here use religion to justify their homophobia, sexism, and various other forms of bigotry. As a queer female, it's hard feeling welcome.
    I find religion interesting enough but I don't understand how people could believe it. It seems more like stories to me. I don't mean that in a mean way, I really don't, but I can't wrap my head around the concept.
     
  11. Level75

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    I don't hate religion. In fact, when it's done right, it can inspire people to do great things. Take the Catholic church. On the one hand, the church would like nothing more than the godless gays to just shut up and sodomize in private and go to hell quietly. On the other hand, they do more charity work than the general population.

    Right now, I'm working for an agency that provides services for people with intellectual disabilities (for most people who don't keep up with the ever changing terminology, they're mentally retarded). And I hate to admit it, but out in the community, it is often religious organizations that will help provided services like clothing and financial resources. Even things people take for granted, like summer camp, it's a religiously affiliated organization that tailors services to our population.

    Some of our world's most beautiful arts and music were also born of religion so I don't believe everything that comes out of religion is inherently bad.

    I suppose it's not really religion in the end I hate. It's religion getting mixed up in politics. Separation of church and state and all that, you know. Relating it to the gay angle, not all religions across the board (or even within Christians as a group) are in agreement about how to relate to the LGBT population. It's only the very angry vocal minority. And Fred Phelps.
     
  12. I agree that religion has done loads of wonderful things, but, couldn't all of these things be done without religion? Without the fear of hell? I feel as though the good things religion provides can be accomplished without it, and it's incredible potential for justifying bigotry would be much better off in the sewer along with all the other failed religions of the world.
     
  13. Black Cat

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    I love talking about religion! My faith and belief in God is something that is very near and dear to my heart.

    I was raised as a very open-minded Episcopalian (which for those of you who don't know, is like Catholic light, without the all the guilt and punishment) person. For general purposes I consider myself a Christian, but my family has loads of other religions woven into our history as well, and they all influence me.

    Personally I don't subscribe to any one single branch of religion over another. I believe in absolutely everything. All religions have a place in my world, and as far as I'm concerned, they are all correct. Most of them have a concurrent goal anyway.

    I think of God as a force for good, as the will of the universe, rather than a person or thing. I believe God comes to people everyday and in innumerable different ways.

    Oftentimes I imagine meeting God. And every time I do I picture Him/Her as either looking like Whoopi Goldberg or Kermit the Frog. We sit and discuss the meaning of life, and He/She tells me exactly what my purpose in life was (I say was because when I imagine meeting God I am usually dead, having served whatever purpose I was created for.)

    Which brings me to my final thought in this jumble of mumblings and general craziness: I believe, quite passionately in fact, that everything from the highest of trees to the smallest of ants has a purpose in this world. I believe that God is the only one who knows how everything fits together, and somehow communicates to us what we are here to do. :slight_smile:

    I know it may seem crazy, but it works for me. And it's a damn hard road out there for most of us, so why not have a little faith in something greater than you and me?
     
    #13 Black Cat, Mar 26, 2012
    Last edited: Mar 26, 2012
  14. dairyuu

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    I stopped being Catholic in 3rd grade when I thought to myself, "If God's real, why doesn't my nanny have a house as nice as mine?" and went from there. I don't believe that any religion is bad, per se, as long as they don't force their beliefs on others. *cough*WBC*cough*
     
  15. Browncoat

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    This:

    [YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R66r_XMoDkk[/YOUTUBE]

    There you go, atheist-leaning agnostic, or "theological non-cognitivist" fits well. I probably am a little different from a lot of atheist-leaning people, though, in that I view scientific or "secular" explanations for "the point/meaning of everything," while better researched, to be just as silly and meaningless as religious explanations. Even if we do discover "such and such" about the origins of the universe, we have only discovered it in terms of human perception. In the same way as a cockroach cannot understand the human perspective of the world, other (perhaps more complex) sentient beings could quite easily see the world very differently, or possibly even be capable of measuring an entirely different perspective on "how everything came to be" and "what it all means."

    So yeah, I'm rambling and have no idea if that makes sense. Checking out now..
     
    #15 Browncoat, Mar 26, 2012
    Last edited: Mar 26, 2012
  16. Ridiculous

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    Yeah, it seems a bit insulting to say that a lot of those good things wouldn't have occurred if it wasn't for religion. And even if it was the case, I can guarantee they are far outweighed by the bad things that religion has caused.
     
  17. Cascade

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    I don't believe in religion. It's all a bunch of words used to control people and explain how the world works. It was first used to explain why things are the way they are and we know some of this now. Religion has always held back society and science, from Galileo to Copernicus to homosexuals.

    And it was also used to control the population of the people. In Ancient Egypt the kings declared themselves divine in order to keep power. In Ancient Greece each city had a patron god whom they worshipped. In America today the political system is still backed up with outdated religious viewpoints.

    Religion has no business in our lives today. It has outlived its usefulness. Religion is holding back society, science and modern thinking because religion is stuck in the past. It can't change with the times so instead of changing to reflect our modern views it prefer to have a firm hold on us so we are stuck in the past along with it.
     
  18. Kidd

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    This basically sums up everything for me.
     
  19. Artemicion

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    What do I think of religion? Not much - it should only be preserved for the sake of cultural purposes. I think religion is "old" technology and should be abandoned altogether.

    Religion is a crutch for many to cope with their situations when they have no power, or knowledge at their disposal to change things for the better. In other words it is a way for people's minds to "understand" things when no one has a for-sure answer - usually entailing the future.

    From my own reasoning, religion is a placebo as well as a nocebo. It can inspire people to do good and evil, but so far, to me it seems like it has a tendency to have negative effects than positive ones. On a side note, religion can easily be replaced by other ideals, as religion itself is just an idea.

    Another point is that religion often instill fear through its doctrine, which is usually used to control the masses. The one that most often comes to mind is the concept of hell. Additionally, it allows people to push all of their responsibilities on to something else, which in my mind is irresponsible.

    As for organized religion, I dislike almost every single aspect of it except for the part where you have people gathering at a place. Which of course can easily be replaced by other events for more useful things.

    Oh and I should mention I'm an atheist, but wasn't always. I was agnostic for the longest time. I grew up in a taoist/buddhist mix household. Thankfully my parents were hardly religious and I suspect they only kept it because of my grandparents. Additionally, the effects of religion were minimized since I moved to Canada at a young age. Never had to attend this thing called church.
     
  20. Kev

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    I'm not religious (I'm agnostic), but I think it can be a good thing for people. It can become a problem, I think, when people take it too seriously and force it onto others. It's also a huge problem when it's used to decide between what's "right" and what's "wrong". Think for yourselves!