Author Anne Rice leaves Christianity over homosexuality

Nearly all religions are ignorant and violent lots.

Just saying.

 

good for her for leaving

 

Just wanted to elaborate..

The ones that aren't ignorant and/or violent are not really religions to begin with. Rather they are philosophies.

 

I read the entire thing she wrote about why she left Christianity and I was really touched. She is one of the very few people to openly admit to some of the most preposterous ideas behind some religions. I know she was talking specifically about Christianity, but like Steven said, nearly all religions are ignorant and violent.

 

religion is evil, its made for control and to push your views on others, religion is born to give justification to mans actions when they can not in good conscience justify them to others.

faith is belief of ones spirituality... faith has no politics it is what would you have done to you and to do that to others.

how i see it anyway.

 

I love her. She's an excellent writer. I just bought a book by her the other day in fact (I'm surprised there was one I hadn't read yet). She's awesome.

 

One thing I'd like to point out - she doesn't have to quit. It seems like she's doing this more for attention and fifteen minutes of fame. It's a well known fact that you can be Christian and disagree with policies of the Church. They don't force anything upon you.

 

Guys religion by itself is not bad is when the human element is added when it can go terribly wrong. It's all how you interpret it and there are some people who are corrupt and abuse it. But by it's self religion is not some great evil it's just how you interpret it.

 

She doesn't need the fame, she's sold like 100 million books already. Her son is openly gay so that probably played a role in her leaving the church.

 

After reading what she had to say, I feel like it is about time that I jumped shipped as well. Good for her.

 

As much as I hate many of the things that fundamentalists have pushed on society this, as well as many other statements is ignorant and offensive.

First: Not all Christians are fundamentalists, I know plenty of people who are wonderful good people who believe in christ, some of them are even gay themselves. There are even plenty of religious leaders who are wonderful people. Though I'm not religious myself, I can imagine that seeing "Religion is evil" on a site dedicated to helping people come out of the closet might only further confuse individuals who are trying to rectify their sexuality with their faith. Basically, let's avoid sweeping generalizations and calling groups of people "evil".

Second: Like it or not, our entire system of morals and values as we know it today are Abrahamic in root. Our entire western society has been so heavily influenced by Abrahamic religions that it's impossible for me to even begin to imagine what it would be like without them. What if the Roman empire hadn't fallen, had never converted, and we had continued to believe what they believed, what if the Celts had taken over? I have no idea what the world would look like, but it certainly wouldn't be a paradise.

I know a lot of us here are really bitter towards religion, but let's try not to let that bitterness turn into blind hate. Many great things have been done for the world in the name of religion, as well as bad.

Edit: Removed quote...this isn't a targeted statement.

 

Couldn't have said it better myself. Nice job.

 

Not entirely, the Greeks/Romans have had a set code of values that is in use today. Specifically, respect for the family unit and age/experience. We simply attribute most of our morals and values to Christianity because that was were we learned it. But it is not unique to the Abrahamic religions.

We would have had more opportunities to have advanced socially and technologically because we would not have had to suffer through the Dark Ages or waste our men and resources on crusades. The Roman religion was closely based on Greek polytheism and that society wasn't critically hampered by it's religion.

Impossible to speculate because they didn't possess the technology or manpower to conquer Rome.

No society on Earth was a utopia so even without the Abrahamic religions, it still wouldn't be paradise. Circumstances would certainly be different but just because Christianity had an impact on the West doesn't mean it's impossible to think of a West without it considering there already was one.

Saying ALL religion is evil is silly and no one should have to feel to defend their faith anywhere. Especially here.

But all the hate isn't misplaced and it didn't come out of nowhere. There is a reason for the hate, no matter how funny it seems.

Also, let's try not to exaggerate the good and bad sides of any religion. It makes us all look like retards.

ON TOPIC: Since she still believes in Christ, she is technically still a Christian.

 

I suppose saying that the roots of our value come from Abrahamic religions is wrong as many core Christian values came from people like Aristotle and Plato (though many also go further back, Judaism is quite old). It doesn't change the fact that ancient Greece and Rome were practically moral cesspools. Whether or not people actually live it, the entire "Love thy neighbor" idea is VERY Abrahamic.

Also, do you really believe that we wouldn't have had massive wars that benefited nobody just because religion was out of the picture? People pit religion as the cause of lots of wars, but really, people found excuses to kill each other long before it was a problem. The Celts thing wasn't an actual possibility either, I'm painting a hypothetical situation based on the moral basis of society, militairy power doesn't really matter in this situation.

The entire point of my post is that religion isn't the root of all evils, and as a matter of fact, it's been source of some good. People do a lot of bashing of religion, but when I look back at the world before it was around, it seems just as bad, if not worse.

I'll get back on the important topic now: I agree that there is a good "source" of this great animosity towards religion in general. No, religion isn't perfect and religious conflict has been the source of many conflicts over the years. But people aren't perfect either, and I think that we'd find reasons to hate and kill each other with or without religion's influence.

And on that happy note: KITTENS.

 

Let's see, what wars in American history had nothing to do with religion...

1) American Revolution - Freedom of Religion came out of this, but the war had little to do with Religion, if anything. Just taxes, plain and simple that caused it.

2) War of 1812 - Failed British Invasion

3) Texas Revolution - Centralist Mexican Govt. vs. Federalist American Settlers

4) Mexican-American War - Border disputes

5) Civil War - Slavery and nationalism

6) Spanish-American War - Cuban Independence

7) World War I - Nationalism

8) World War II - Nationalism, Communism, Fascism, Nazis, etc. And the Holocaust was more or less about Ethnic Background, Race, Orientation, etc. Not religion.

9) Koren War - Communism

10) Vietnam War - Communism

11) First Gulf War - Saddam Hussein trying to take over Kuwait.

With the exception of the Iraq and Afgan wars, none of the other wars in American history had anything to do with religion. And you can go to any source and find that out. Few wars in history past the founding of Islam had a whole lot to do with religion, with a few major obvious exceptions.

So the whole "World would be a better place without religion argument" is crap. Without religion, we'd have a lack of art and order in the world. It's just how things go. Religion isn't always good, but without it doesn't make a difference. Mankind is a destructive race. God or no God, that's what we are.

 

I wonder why she went from Atheism to Christianity in the first place.

 

It's sad that she's chosen to overlook the positive aspects of Christianity. You don't have to believe in everything the Bible says. You just need to believe in Jesus and follow the basic teachings. The positive ones. The hypocritical "religion ruins the world and makes diversity impossible" argument also pisses me off. If you really believe in diversity, then you have to respect different creeds as well as colors, sexualities, genders, nationalities, and opinions. I think that Anne Rice is doing this for publicity. Although she has good intentions, she's being over-the-top about this. If you believe, then continue to believe. Don't let anyone else ruin it for you. The Bible is good. The misinterpretations of it are the real enemy here.

 

High five to you, goodsir.

Oh God, how I needed to hear that. Christianity is supposed to bring (&&&), if followed correctly. Live your life like Christ. It's simple. Like I said in another thread, just be a good person, and your a good Christian. That's it.

 

I'm tired of hearing the endless bitching (especially in the gay and atheist communites, which actually overlap a lot) about how their lives are being ruined by religion. This is not true. If they are being negatively affected by it, it's because of the people who use religion as an excuse to justify their hatred of people who are different than them. Also, a lot of the people who do that are very insecure and self-loathing as a result of others who have done the same and set a bad example. Christianity is meant to unify, not tear people apart. It's sad to see something that can be so beautiful being given such a bad name just because of the people who claim to "represent" a group of people that preach hate. People from the LGBT community need to ignore those people and respect the good Christians that make the world a better place.

As you said: (&&&)