Do you believe in religion ? Yay or nay ?

Religion has always been the cause of Hatred and the division of people.... It really should have no place in any society.. Note: See I said RELIGION:::

Religion is a human creation. Its existence can't be refuted.

Not at all

Thanks Jenny !

Yes. I believe in religion.

I do not believe in religoun,...my religoun (catholic christian) IS my belief...I believein God, the father the almighty...I believe in Jesus Christ..I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of Saints , the forgiveness of sins

Thanks bluelady !

Nope. Not gonna happen.

Thanks tredzwater !

Thanks Anne !

I love Carlin and I'd never seen that one. Thanks, so much, for linking it.

I'm a believer in Jesus. I believe that to those who except Jesus as Lord & Savior, recieve a new heart, & a new nature. Old thing are pass away, and we become a new person. Therefore that what we should be living by. Religion is a theory that some sales person has sold you.

Then, a huge number of people who have ACcepted Jesus as Lord & Savior need to do it all over again. The heart and nature they got the first time sucks...big time. Jesus wasn't all that terrific a person and he's a miserable excuse for a god, according to the Bible.

I see no reason why anyone with even a hint of ethics would want to worship him.

...most follow the their own selfish desires and not the heart of God. In the name of Jesus they do what they want and how they want it, but they still want to be affiliated, it doesn't work, causes a bastard belief system, not the original.

No one knows the original.

The New Testament wasn't officially compiled until hundreds of years after the beginning of the Common Era. It was then chosen, by the vote of a bunch of old men who nearly came to blows over it, by which myths were most popular among professed Christians. It was, quite literally, a popularity contest.

Since then, layer upon layer of mythos has been added until I doubt if the earliest proponents of the religion would recognize it. Particularly as the extant foundations, prior to the start of the Common Era, were gnostic in origin. Whatever Christians believe about the Jew they call Jesus, any possible real-life connection to an actual person is lost in the mists of time.

It's just a touchy-feely, Disney construct.

One must be willing to search for truth with an open and honest heart, the problem we have is that there has been a twist of trust and honesty resulting in a loss of true Christianity. This is by far the most confused and misled generation that there ever has been in America.

I'm not of this generation. And, when it comes to "true Christianity", neither you, nor anyone else, can say what that is.

My point was that Christian writing and iconography are so far removed from whatever Gnostic group started the original mythos that no one knows what it was. So, they just make it up out of whole cloth.

The earliest references to Christians were not positive. Tacitus said that Nero persecuted them, not because of their faith, but because they practiced "abominations" and were so universally looked down upon, Nero figured they'd make good scapegoats. He thought no one would care.

Once Constantine gave Christianity political power, in the early 300s CE, it's adherents proceded to slaughter anyone they saw as a threat. They were nothing but a bunch of thugs.

Why would emulating them be a useful thing to do?

One cannot use pure intellect to understand the things of the Spirit. Just as the genesis of a primordial pool must be accepted by a chance strike of energy, so do others accept the genesis of faith by an intelligent being that provided for a system of eternal justice and grace.

Demonstrate that there are "things of the spirit". Demonstrate that there is an "intelligent being".

Human mental processes are electric and we can easily measure that electricity. I've never seen a scrap of evidence that there is anything usually accepted as a definition of "spirit".

You seem like a nice guy but, I'm sorry. You can't just state things as fact without backing them up. If you say. "I believe" I have no quarrel with you. If you say, "It is" and can't provide evidence then I'll call you on it.

Every time.

If you choose to believe the complexities of life were evolved, rather than a genetic selective mutation, from that electricity you can see, you have great faith.

Evolution isn't a matter of faith. It is a matter of fact. The electrical impulses of the brain have been well-mapped and can even be manipulated by internal and/or external means. These are facts.

I asked you to provide evidence that there is a spirit. You haven't done that. I can only draw the logical conclusion that you cannot.

You lose.

I believe I win.

Not the debate.

Have a good one!

That might be so. I think they need to break away from the religious structure that the churches is selling them, and start looking within for what is truth. When you mix theory with religion it has a potential to become dangerous. Because it has no guiding light to go by. I think this is what Jesus taught the people to be pure in heart when he was here on earth. Not some religious code that was foriegn to our hearts.

John, I'm sorry but you haven't the tiniest bit of evidence that the man, whose name is transliterated as "Jesus" ever set a sandalled foot on Planet Earth. Outside of the New Testament, he doesn't exist.

You don't *know* that he existed in reality. You don't *know* what he "taught". You know nothing except 4 stories about his life (out of HUNDREDS) accepted because they were popular, 300 years after the fact and by a committee of old men. Men who nearly came to blows over the issue and who had to be pulled away from each other.

Long before the Common Era, the ancient Egyptian religion taught people to be "pure in heart". In fact, in the declaration each Egyptian made to the gods are the words, "I am pure. I am pure. I am pure." And, the Egyptian declaration of purity was hugely more comprehensive than the Decalogue.

Before Egypt was more than a few nomads killing ostriches for food, Hammurabi developed a code that taught people to be "pure in heart"...a code that was secular. The sort of living that is helpful to society was codified millennia before Jesus was plagiarized from popular mystery cults. It's what keeps societies together and, without it, civilization falls apart.

No gods are necessary.

We have a guide for establishing what has happen in the past. With that being said, My studies have found that there is more proof that Jesus walk this earth than George Washington was our first president. Granted all history is written from the view of the eyes of the beholder. Now if the bible was the only proof that God exist than you might have a point. But just look around you, there is all kinds of proof in nature that we have an inteligent designer. This designer is not human. Now this all being said, The bible is not what is devine. Its was written to introduce us to the devine.

I don't consider "looking around me" as evidence of anything except that my eyes might be functioning normally. I find the scientific explanation for the development of the stars, planets and other bodies and the explanation of how the various flora and fauna arrived at their present state MUCH more compelling than "goddidit". Mythology is for the ignorant and superstitious.

If you have more evidence for the existence of "Jesus" (which is NOT his name, BTW) than for George Washington, present it here. Although, I must admit that if it is along the same lines of the drivel you posted, above, as evidence, I'm not particularly sanguine that I'll find anything compelling in it. But, you're welcome to try.

*gets a snack, a drink and another pillow*

OK...I'm waiting.=====================...

@JOHNPAUL - I'm still waiting. Where is your "proof" that Jesus existed that trumps evidence that George Washington existed? YOU made the claim. Now YOU must support it.

Remember, your evidence must actually be evidence...neutral, scholarly and, preferably, contemporaneous. I'm not interested in the thoughts that come to you when you are staring at your navel.

Well if we can't look around us at nature and see that their is an inteligent designer, than we are not speaking the same language. If you believe what some scientist says rather than the facts around you, you are living in some fiction world. Just because someone says its scientific don't mean a hill of beans if it denies reality. To me we have to go after truth. If I go outside and it 20 degrees out, I conclude the it cold out. No matter what some educated nut says. Like wise when I look at nature I conclude that there is an inteligent designer.

And, you conclude that based on no evidence, whatsoever. Simply the desire of your own mind to think there is a purpose to earth and to life.

You say "educated nut" as if science has nothing going for it while the maunderings of your untrained mind are the onlys thing worth following. If science is so bad, why are you on a computer? Without science, there would be no computers. Why do you have enough food to eat? Because science has figured out how to get more food per acre than your "intelligent designer" ever provided. Do you go to doctors? If you do, and you still say "educated nut" you are an arrant hypocrite.

I'd be willing to wager serious money that if you found a lump on your testicle, you'd be at that "educated nut's" door 5 minutes later.

Evolution has over 150 years of rock-solid evidence that it is the best explanation for the forms of life we see on this planet. Cosmologists can explain the universe in ways that make complete sense and they check each other's findings for accuracy. All you have is goddidit.

And you wonder why people like you disgust me?

When are you going to provide that neutral, scholarly, contemporaneous evidence that "Jesus Christ" existed which is greater than the same sort of evidence for George Washington?

Or, are you going to blow that out of your arse, too?

You are so full of wind, as far as evolution go it a fiction of their imagination. There is no proof of their theory whatsoever. It was concocted to reduces human to animals to be able to enslave the people, because animals have no rights except what government give them. As far as the evidence of Jesus is concern, we have no common ground to work off of. Its a waste of time. If you don't except that 1+1=2 we need to come to terms on that first, before we can move on.

You have no evidence for the existence of Jesus, huh? You just admitted that. And, we are both animals. I don't know about you, but I'm free.

And I've just realized that I'm talking to a person outside the realm of human sanity. You are insane, sir, and I don't debate insane people.
I consider it cruelty.

Please...see a mental health professional. They have very good medications, nowadays. I mean that with all sincerity.

Define religion.

re·li·gion/riˈlijən/Noun: 1.The belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, esp. a personal God or gods.
2.Details of belief as taught or discussed.

3: DELUSION

Yes and No.

I'm Spiritual...

Its like adding a 5th wheel to a car, we don't need it but will add it to make ourselves feel more special.

it causes too much hate to be yay in my book.

I'll say Yay, because I am Christian, but really I think religion can cause lots of problems because it is as much about man and power as other human institutions. I will say Yay to God, to my Savior, to spirituality, and to the Bible, as I wouldn't want to go through this life without any of them.



Man unlike God is fallible, so religion often confuses and wounds the people it is meant to help. But God's love is always available to us and never harms us. Unfortunately when man and religion fail and hurt people, they often lose (at least temporarily) their ability to trust God.