jennifer45

I see religion as a man made concept , which was devised by those in power seeking control over the masses.
Behind nearly all conflicts in the world- religion appears to play a major part.

IMHO we are like all living things on this planet- we are born, we live then we die. I can see that clearly.{but I don't want it to be like that]
Even looking at it from a scientific perspective- whilst all creatures have a purpose, none have the advanced intellect or what many refer to as 'The Soul' the depth of feeling and emotions that sets us above other creatures.

I can't believe that the intellect that has developed in humans has no purpose other than to exist, procreate, work then die.

It doesn't explain how my mother still guides me in some things although she passed away 11 years ago.
How my sons will phone me as I'm phoning them with no pre arrangement to phone.
Telepathic thought = 6th sense. It may just be a further development in the human intellect, but it exist.

Perhaps as we develop, that which is referred to as our Soul carries the intelligence and the '6th Sense' part of our being and it is that which lives on in our loved ones, after we've died.
A lot of people my age turn to religion- just in case!
My ashes will nurture a flowering prunus/malus and each spring my children and their children will see that I continue to 'blossom'.

There is a power greater than all of us, but not man made. Natural- it's all around us. We can try and harness it for the good of man kind but we can never control it. You only have to see the increasing numbers of natural disasters.
Nature is all powerful and I feel we should respect it not worship it. Therefore I am not a Pagan just a realist.
I don't want to decry those who hold a faith but I do wish they would respect my lack of faith in the 'formal' religions.

I received a chain email from a very dear friend last month. It was extremely critical of anyone who did not let 'Jesus into their hearts' and did not spread the word to 10 others including replying to the sender. I deleted it and when I phoned her later she was very off hand.

I live in a small neighbourhood where there are about 9 different religions practiced. Everyone appears to believe. I keep my opinions to my self BUT as Genesis asked the question I've made an attempt to make sense of my muddled unknowledgable thoughts.

I mow the lawns on Sunday.

Sherlock Holmes

I beleive the Universe to be coherent.

Genesis

Sinner, sinner, sinner.

Charismatic

Too right. A married woman not pregnant and barefoot in the kitchen slaving away over a hot stove on a Sunday afternoon?
...And the, uhhh, small matter of evidence to support your latter claims?
I’ve read the bible, it makes no reference to Jesus being a cardiac surgeon. Just because a bloke is good with his hands (he was a carpenter after all) does not mean he is qualified to perform major surgery .

le plumber

Straight to hell - do not pass by Go, and do not collect £200

Genesis

I think white man speak with metaphorical tongue.

jennifer45

May whatever your faith be, comfort you and enable you to empathise with those of a different persuasion but never 'draw blood' or propagate hatred in the name of your faith otherwise it simply makes a mockery of your beliefs.
In the words of a wonderful Irish atheist "May your God go with you!"


Back to the serious problem of my lawns.
The man said they needed scarifying otherwise they would die.
I realised that no matter how many times I ran round them shouting 'Booo!' there was just too much to cope with and I'd scare the neighbours before the lawn!
I thought of asking the local Methodists [I was christened/baptised Methodist and they sure as hell scared the life out of me for the first 10 years of my life!
Then, as there is a large Jehovah's Witness following , I thought I'd turn to them, but the Mormons don't get on with them. The protestants weren't all that pleased to learn I'd got married in High Church and the Catholics wanted a $100 donation. The Christian Scientist suggested a laying of hands on the lawn until they saw the area to be 'healed'. The local evangelists are all for holding an outdoor fund raising concert on my lawn before the 'scarifying' but the Baptists confess to not agreeing with that. The Zen buddhists were too busy meditating and I haven't yet got round to approaching the numerous other faiths in the area not all based on christianity.
Guess I'm just going to have to get the right man for the job and one with lots and lots of experience [in SCARIFYING!}

Nothing to do with religion of course

jennifer45

Your referring to the new measurements of the coherent motion of galaxies based on observations of the large-scale redshift--space distortions seen in the two--dimensional two--point correlation function of Luminous Red Galaxies in Data Release Seven of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, are you not?

scrubbedexpat094

Not me, I'm a born again atheist

I do not tolerate religion & am exasperated that religious groups are given charitable status. Disgusting

crap coffee

I don't believe in god.

to me, religion - rubbish.

because I saw too many church ppl (I am not talking about catholic) doing crap (especially when I lived in Asia) and they all ask me to come to church all the time. I HATE tHEM. I DO NOT WANT TO GO TO CHURCH. But why do they keep asking? They are mental, aren't they?

Persephone

Yes I do agree that that is wrong. However I do think that some assistance towards maintenance of old cathedrals and churches is justified on historical grounds BUT purely for this and not for any other church business. Hard to separate the two though. Should be the same as any other ancient building- probably applies more to the UK than NZ
I am laughing but I do agree

Charismatic

The constraints are pretty tight on registering charitable organisations here IIRC .

vauxhallmonterey

This discussion goes round in circles and circles and circles.
To prove God or describe God accurately is beyond human ken. Its like asking an ant to accurately describe an elephant or to give a detailed explanation of the world.
There is no direct evidence of Jesus of Nazareth living. the closest documented detail occurs about 35 to 50 years after his death.
The accumulated documents available are either fraudulent or exaggerate his capabilities/miracles/teachings. If he existed and his teachings are accurately recorded, it is extremely difficult to fault his teachings, or to add to them in a way that we could consider them to be complete.
In a very simple way, we all exist after our deaths at least the next generation of what lives, be it trees, flowers, grass, etc, etc.
The Big Bang theory cannot describe what happened before the big bang, secondly, in a state of nothingness for eons and eons, what made the first change? We can predict with accuracy what happened x billions of years ago but we stil argue about the pyramids, Stonehenge, the Incas. Why are we to to scared/arrogant to be able to say 'we simply don't know"?
I've yet to hear a definitive argument against the "spirit world" which much evidence seems to support as existing.
My frustration is that many folk equate religion with the teachings of Jesus, to my mind the two are very far apart. Religion deserves it reputation, Jesus doesn't.
I reluctantly believe he did exist, and he knew the secret to life. I can't fault his teachings, tho I do have difficulty with some of his sayings. If only the majority of society could model their existence on his teachings, the world could be a very different place.

vauxhallmonterey

I'm also not asking anyone else to believe. As a human being you have every right to believe what you will.

Woodlea

I don't believe in God and so therefore I am not religious. However I believe that Christianity has done more good than harm over the years. We are so much more enlightened than 2000 years ago. I think 2000 years ago people did need to believe in God or Gods to help explain the unexplained. In the absence of democracy and representation they needed the guidance of a Messiah and religion to teach them the values (The 10 Commandments, family values, monogamy, charity etc etc) that have enabled mankind to progress and become more advanced. We have forgotten a lot of the benefits of organised religion as we don't need them anymore. Now education, government and the welfare state has taken over and religion has had it's day and most of us in the developed world have moved on. Where is religion still strong? Mostly in the developing world, where people still live in fear, uncertainty and a hand to mouth existence.

I think it is a shame to castigate the good that a lot of religious groups still do. The Salvation Army etc, and individual churches and church groups provide a lot of comfort to a lot of people, particularly the old. Good for them, there's lots of needy people in this world and anyone who comforts them deserves all our support.