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I've finally discovered my true problem with religion.
14 years ago
General
PLEASE NOTE: If I make generalizations about all religious people or an entire group of people, I didn't mean to. But I do believe that this applies to way too many religious people.
It's hard to turn on the news without hearing something about politics, and it's hard to hear something without hearing about people bashing Obama for some reason or another. But, a lot of of hate I feel is due to people not agreeing with his beliefs. And I finally realized, that's why I can't stand religion.
People can argue all they want about Christianity and other religions preaching about peace and love, but that's not the problem. People can say religion is what makes them good people, but that I think is 100% false. People are good or bad, whether they have a religion or not. People may say that Christianity (I'll just use Christianity for my examples, since that's what I'm most exposed to, living in the Bible belt.) has brought them to a better life, but it's only the fact that they were good people anyways, I believe.
Let's say we have a man that kills someone. This man goes to prison for many years, and when he finally gets out, he wants to change his life around. Keep in mind, that he already wanted to change his life around. So he goes to a church, and becomes a Christian. He now believes it was Christianity that had saved him, but the fact that he sought help in the first place, means there was a way for him to change his life WITHOUT religion. If someone opens their hearts to change, they don't need religion to make their lives better. All you need is the want and desire.
Now, back to my problem. If a person is Christian, they believe themselves to be a good person because of it. But, what do they think of other relgions? What seems to me, and you may argue, but from what I've noticed is that a vast majority of Christians actually dislike other religions. They plain do not agree with them and don't even tolerate them. It sickens me, to think someone can hate another person for something they believe in. If someone is a Christian, I don't hate them because of that. Now, if they're a closed-minded Christian who thinks Christianity is the only way to be a decent person, THEN I might not like them.
Now, not all Christians or of all religion are like this, but it seems to me that some Chrisitians just can't handle what their religion is about. Christianity preaches peace and love, as do most religions. And a lot of people DO try and do that... as long as the other person is part of their religion. Preaching love and peace is fine, but what ruins that aspect of religion is that, that love only applies to people of their religion usually. If two people don't agree with their beliefs, there's a good chance that they won't like each other. People just can't handle being apart of something that preaches love and peace, because if someone else ISN'T apart of that, they automatically assume that they're bad people.
I know that people don't need religion to be good people. I'm not openly atheist in real life. If I were, I'd be likely to not have a majority of the friends I do. Here's how I know though. People think I'm a good person. What does that mean? People think I'm a Christian. I'm not.
Now, I'm not saying all my Christian friends would abandon me, because there's a lot that aren't real Christians, I don't think. There's a big problem with that too, is people don't follow through with their religion, and fake it. They say they're a Christian, but they don't obey all the laws a Christian would. But any of my strong-believing friends would most likely cut me off, but only if they're not the kind of people who CAN handle religion and accept other people.
I've ranted a lot here, but I'm still afraid my point may not have come across yet. I'll try and summarize everything into something cohesive.
Religion isn't necessarily a bad thing. I don't believe that. What's bad about religion, is too many people don't know how to follow the teachings. Religions split people apart, because of how strongly you're supposed to believe in it. Your religion may say that you're supposed to accept everyone for what they are, but too many people can't do that. Take for example, Christianity. It says that you should not judge people, but rather leave that to God. Many people can't do that. They take it into their own hands to judge people as good or bad.
Society has outgrown the need for religion. In today's world, we don't need religion to tell us what's right or wrong anymore. We have a moral system installed into our society now, and we don't need to follow old teachings anymore. I feel that the world needs to come together, but that just can't happen with religion still in place. The world is in extreme danger due to race wars in the middle east with Muslim countries and Israel threatening a nuclear war. If people could just abandon their hate for one another because of religion, there would be no war. There would be no Taleban, there would be no al-Qaeda. There would be no threat of World War 3.
I'm sorry if I still haven't made any kind of sense... if you have anything to say, please comment and I'll try my best to reply to you. I just want to reiterate, I don't hate people because they believe in a religion, but I do hate people that hate BECAUSE of religion, because that completely goes against the teachings in the first place.
It's hard to turn on the news without hearing something about politics, and it's hard to hear something without hearing about people bashing Obama for some reason or another. But, a lot of of hate I feel is due to people not agreeing with his beliefs. And I finally realized, that's why I can't stand religion.
People can argue all they want about Christianity and other religions preaching about peace and love, but that's not the problem. People can say religion is what makes them good people, but that I think is 100% false. People are good or bad, whether they have a religion or not. People may say that Christianity (I'll just use Christianity for my examples, since that's what I'm most exposed to, living in the Bible belt.) has brought them to a better life, but it's only the fact that they were good people anyways, I believe.
Let's say we have a man that kills someone. This man goes to prison for many years, and when he finally gets out, he wants to change his life around. Keep in mind, that he already wanted to change his life around. So he goes to a church, and becomes a Christian. He now believes it was Christianity that had saved him, but the fact that he sought help in the first place, means there was a way for him to change his life WITHOUT religion. If someone opens their hearts to change, they don't need religion to make their lives better. All you need is the want and desire.
Now, back to my problem. If a person is Christian, they believe themselves to be a good person because of it. But, what do they think of other relgions? What seems to me, and you may argue, but from what I've noticed is that a vast majority of Christians actually dislike other religions. They plain do not agree with them and don't even tolerate them. It sickens me, to think someone can hate another person for something they believe in. If someone is a Christian, I don't hate them because of that. Now, if they're a closed-minded Christian who thinks Christianity is the only way to be a decent person, THEN I might not like them.
Now, not all Christians or of all religion are like this, but it seems to me that some Chrisitians just can't handle what their religion is about. Christianity preaches peace and love, as do most religions. And a lot of people DO try and do that... as long as the other person is part of their religion. Preaching love and peace is fine, but what ruins that aspect of religion is that, that love only applies to people of their religion usually. If two people don't agree with their beliefs, there's a good chance that they won't like each other. People just can't handle being apart of something that preaches love and peace, because if someone else ISN'T apart of that, they automatically assume that they're bad people.
I know that people don't need religion to be good people. I'm not openly atheist in real life. If I were, I'd be likely to not have a majority of the friends I do. Here's how I know though. People think I'm a good person. What does that mean? People think I'm a Christian. I'm not.
Now, I'm not saying all my Christian friends would abandon me, because there's a lot that aren't real Christians, I don't think. There's a big problem with that too, is people don't follow through with their religion, and fake it. They say they're a Christian, but they don't obey all the laws a Christian would. But any of my strong-believing friends would most likely cut me off, but only if they're not the kind of people who CAN handle religion and accept other people.
I've ranted a lot here, but I'm still afraid my point may not have come across yet. I'll try and summarize everything into something cohesive.
Religion isn't necessarily a bad thing. I don't believe that. What's bad about religion, is too many people don't know how to follow the teachings. Religions split people apart, because of how strongly you're supposed to believe in it. Your religion may say that you're supposed to accept everyone for what they are, but too many people can't do that. Take for example, Christianity. It says that you should not judge people, but rather leave that to God. Many people can't do that. They take it into their own hands to judge people as good or bad.
Society has outgrown the need for religion. In today's world, we don't need religion to tell us what's right or wrong anymore. We have a moral system installed into our society now, and we don't need to follow old teachings anymore. I feel that the world needs to come together, but that just can't happen with religion still in place. The world is in extreme danger due to race wars in the middle east with Muslim countries and Israel threatening a nuclear war. If people could just abandon their hate for one another because of religion, there would be no war. There would be no Taleban, there would be no al-Qaeda. There would be no threat of World War 3.
I'm sorry if I still haven't made any kind of sense... if you have anything to say, please comment and I'll try my best to reply to you. I just want to reiterate, I don't hate people because they believe in a religion, but I do hate people that hate BECAUSE of religion, because that completely goes against the teachings in the first place.
am I a bad Christian now?
anyways, what im trying to say is that, religion isnt what makes or breaks a person for being good or bad, its the person themself, not whatever bullshit they try to say and believe in
I'm atheist for basically what everyone here already agrees with and the ideal i have with religion as well.
Religion is just a way to try and control the masses, like a government.
"Be good and go to heaven/paradise/etc. Be bad and go to hell and be tormented for all eternity."
To say that there are souls and an afterlife is just stupid.
A: You don't have proof
B: Even if you did, there ins't a single person who can't go through their whole life without committing a sin. So technically you're not good, you're bad and therefore are going to hell.
C: This is the same thing as subliminal messaging & propaganda.
You can't win with religion, it only causes more problems.
Christians, especially Christians just before the Catholic/Protestant split, believe in something called Purgatory. Purgatory is where people were cleaned of their sins/tortured for a few thousand years before moving onto heaven. The irredeemable souls were sent to hell.
I get it that not all religious people are insane or force their beliefs on people or whatever, but I still hate religion as a whole. I won't bash people for believing in one or following one, I just can't stand the extremists like all groups. Extremists are the cancer that kills all groups. Plus it's sad how many Christians don't even know what the Bible says. Seems like that for a lot of religions, too. How can you believe something you don't know anything about?