Are you religious?

[Toadstool]

While I'm not much of a churchgoer, my mother is a very active Catholic as was my late father but both have strong theology backgrounds and tend to be of a more live and let live attitude. There are a lot changes my mother would like to see happen in the Church and most of her circle of church lady friends are a lot like her (i.e. most would like to see female priests one day, most are for gay marriage at least in the legal sense, most are for birth control) Her joke about the rhythm method - Vatican Roulette.

It's a shame that the loudest religious voices in the world today seem to be the most judgmental and hypocritical. I doubt they represent the majority of religious/spiritual people but it does lead to suspicion about all things religious, Christian or otherwise. I guess it's human nature. Too bad the real followers of Christ's philosophy, in practice and conscience, people like our Erica, don't seem to have the eyes and ears of the world like those who would use religion as a tool of imposition.

[SpiritualJunkie]

Great post and I agree 100%. While I hate going to church, not everyone who has a religion or goes to church is a judgemental fundamentalist. In fact, the majority of people I've seen at church are extremely nice.

People are always looking for a way to shoot down any religion. With Catholicism, it's the child molestation going on with the priests. In Islam, it's the fundamentalist terrorists trying to make a literal jihad come true. But these arguments are based on only a very minute fraction of the people involved in these religions and they are blown way out of proportion. If people wanna believe that the majority of Catholic priests are going after altar boys and that the majority of Muslims are trying to bring the Western world down, they really know squat and are just ignorant morons.

[KLN]

You're right. I really didn't intend for it to sound that harsh, but upon reading it again... yeah, it sounds pretty bad. Sorry, guys!

[Toadstool]

I think it's a normal reaction given what we're fed by the media. Religious moderates and liberals don't have the press in their back pocket. Until they do we'll be hearing from the hate-mongering types that post their crap on Al Jezeera and the likes of Pat Robertson blaming gays and single mothers for Hurricane Katrina.

ETA: Kenny might have been a little harsh but I don't believe he did anythng wrong. Religion and politics are more intertwined than ever and that means one can't express a political opinion lest it be construed as a religious slur. Or in the same vein, one might make a statement that may sound anti-religion when it's really political in nature. Neat trick, huh!? Now anyone who makes certain political statements will be seen as prejudiced or bigoted (choose your word) against certain faiths. Secular people didn't create this problem.

[SpiritualJunkie]

Yeah, but do we need to eat what the media feeds? Are people truly that stupid to believe everything portrayed in the media? Personally, I think the media is just plain irresponsible most of the time...especially those that are heavily controlled by the government. They WANT people to believe such false views and unfortunately, it's working.

No doubt that politics and religion are basically one and the same...that's why I don't care for organized religion. Religion was created to control just like politics. But to assume that everyone who has a religion or believes in a higher being or believes some form of spirituality is stereotypically..whatever..is just as bad as pidgeonholing a whole group of people based on what very few do just because they share a few similarities.

[Toadstool]

Of course you're right. Televised ministries are already part of the media game and most ready to step up to the plate. There might be a "moral majority" but I wonder if 100 years from now "moral" will mean something different because a few of them have publicly and foolishly chosen to blame natural catastrophes like hurricanes on human sexuality... like the way "Liberal" is a bad word in the US.

There is no cohesive "It's none of my business" voice or "Live and let live" voice.

[Andre]

I wish my parents were able to brainwash me when I was little. Because as an adult there is nothing that makes sense about religion or God to me. Nothing. I just don't understand how you can believe in something with no proof. I believe death is the very end of everything. It is horribly unsettling, but when you're dead you're really not that worried about it. Religion just seems to be very very good at pacifying this fear, and I can appreicate why so many people all around the world have developed hundreds of different religions and denominations to help cope.

The fact that there are so many people who believe in different things makes it hard for me to believe in any one particular religion. No matter HOW you cut it, there are a LOT of people who are wrong. Take a devout Sikh and a devout Christian and tell them they are wrong; if at least one of them is right, the other is very wrong, but no less firm in their belief.

[rxcats]

I agree with Andre. I don't understand how so many rational and inteligent people can embrace such supernataural beliefs. I can understand wanting to believe something, but I personally find in impossible to believe in it (religion/God) just because it would be nice to exist forever. Wishing something is true does not make it true; just like believing in Santa Claus or the tooth fairy. I don't believe in ghosts or spirits either, although I know many (adults) who do... and not just uneducated loosers either.

[WTGH]

How does having faith in a superior being make ANYONE stupid or irational?

RUDE

[Andre]

I don't think it is stupid or irrational. It seems like a very rational thing to do. I just can't wrap my mind around having faith in something. I mean, the existence of something more than what is on this mortal coil of ours would, in essence, be supernatural. God created nature--is he part of nature himself? If he is, then it is merely a mistake in terminology.

[Toadstool]

One of the things most religions seem to agree with is life after death. I don't necessarily believe that but there was a big push for commonality among different faiths in the early 90's--- Ecumenism. "Christians" seem to have forgotten that common thread. Indeed, the religious ecumenism of the early 90's even included aetheists and agnostics who shared a respect for humanity.

Now so-called "Christians" have the loudest, meanest and most judgmenatal voices in North America. Have they forgotten the New Testament?

Sorry guys, but JESUS really was a LIBERAL.

[rxcats]

I don't believe I said that having faith in a supernatural (superior) being makes one stupid or irriational; as a matter of fact, if you reread my comment I implied that intelligent and rational people DO believe in God. The thing about this that makes it surprising (to me anyway) is that USUALLY I think of people that are superstitious as being perhaps less educated. I hope that you are just being overly sensitive and I am not coming across as RUDE just because of my opinions. If others feel that I am being rude, please let me know and I will stop replying on this board.

[Toadstool]

I don't think you are being rude and I hope you do not stop replying to this board. If anything, most religious people have a lot to answer for before labelling anyone else as rude.