Religious fervour

[trialbyerror]

Hi all,
Many thanks for all your thoughts so far, What I would also like to throw out there is why the need to push a particular belief on people. To what purpose? what's the motivation?

rgds

Trial by error

[Miles]

Many folks might buy into their religion so much that they feel they're doing others a favor by trying to convert them to the correct faith (theirs). Which is a pretty terrifying mindset to me.

[partisan]

Hi all,
Many thanks for all your thoughts so far, What I would also like to throw out there is why the need to push a particular belief on people. To what purpose? what's the motivation?

rgds

Trial by error

If you believe something dont you want someone else to believe it too, and re-inforce that belief in yourself, after all dont majority have right.

And i think we want to be a part of something, a community; and religion is a strong binder.

[trialbyerror]

Try to clarify my position, as I understand the meaning of the two terms.

An athiest does not believe in a deity (no matter why, can and will never believe). Athiesm is restricted to religous "belief in a diety"

One who is agnostic:-
Because it is currently un-proveable (If a diety can be or is proven, he who is agnostic will then accept the proof and believe there-in)

It then follows that I might be agnostic about many other things, for example movement that is faster than light speed or sub atomic galaxies. It is not specific to religous beliefs.

So to simply state that I am agnostic, would then have to be further clarified by then explaining about what I am agnostic.

This is more simply or efficently done by the use of the word athiest.

Make sense?

EDIT:-
Whew, for an Africkaans "duckie" you guys really push my English mile:

Trial by error

[partisan]

I dont think so. dont the words particully relate to an afterlife/god and thats there definition, id say concerning light speed etc you could say skeptical or any number of words or maybe im completely wrong. And im agnostic and certainly not athiest.

[Bowyn Aerrow]

Hi all,
Many thanks for all your thoughts so far, What I would also like to throw out there is why the need to push a particular belief on people. To what purpose? what's the motivation?

rgds

Trial by error

The formula is:

mG>yG =I>U

Key:

mG : My God
yG : Your God
I : I (Me)
U: You

Therefore, My God is better than your God which makes me better than you.

Its real simple math, and reflects the selfish/greedy need of people (not Gods) to be better than (if only by perception) than anyone else.


The problem with most religions now days is also compounded by the Profits of their religion.

Yes I wrote it the right way, not the prophets - the Profits.

Christianity has a long history of a solitary 'unified' church which held sway and inflicted itself upon the people as a way to make money. Modern Televangelists are the epitome of such greedy and selfishness.

The last remaining aspect is power.

Power over others is why religions have such a hard on for 'winning' over converts, or threatening people to conversion, or even killing to win converts.

The Catholic church is a prime example of that, during the long period after the fall of Rome, the Church was the main political force and actually was a global 'super power' holding its power through religious convictions over the many empires, kingdoms, city-states.

Today it is still a practice to hold power over others. We see this in the Middle East where religion is the primary political force. We see it in the USA as 'church values' (Family Values/Traditional Values - whatever you want to call it) is tied into religion being used to hold power over people.

Greed and selfishness is the main driving force of all three of these main pillars.

It is also why the Catholic Church will not admit that Jesus' words said that all men are saved - period. No need for a Church, no need for some appointed high guru, no need to confess your sins to your fellow man.

You are saved, I am saved - even if you don't believe in Salvation, Jesus or God - you are automatically saved. THAT was the message - its has been perverted and converted into a weapon, a way to hold power over people, a way to steal from the poor and give to the ever growing rich.

[Counselor]

I'm beginning to come to terms with the idea that karma is recognizing what you've thought was not complete, accurate, or unbiased, and learning how to see things from more than one perspective.

[princealbertofb]

In other words, Bowyn, Christ's teachings are the complete opposite of what the church achieved.

[Bowyn Aerrow]

Hmm. I would prefer to think that the Church's teachings are opposite of what Christ taught as He set the standards.

The reality is that modern Christianity is actually Paulian (Paul/Saul of the NT). His teachings contradict Christs, such as the abolishing of the Law. Which Christ didn't Abolish but Paul taught that Christ did.

Paul is a 'sinister character' in my books. He was anti-christian and a persecutor who made the claim he 'found Jesus' and turned over a new leaf - however his actions, his writings hint at a purposeful plan to corrupt the word - which he obviously succeeded in as the Reformed Church adopted his writings over dozens of other witnesses for the majority of the New Testament.

In my mind the Church hijacked a religious movement, under the orders of Constantine who 'found salvation' after a long hard life of what amounts to a hella sinning. Rome was in dire straights and Constantine set up a secondary political power to keep the Roman Empire together. That worked, for about a century.

The Reformed Church wasn't really about saving souls, it was about saving the political power of Rome.

And about 2000 years later we have the huge mess that Christianity is today.

[princealbertofb]

So Jesus is still the good guy?