The problem with religion

LoveTulips said:
Well, slightly digressing here. I had a colleague (friend) while I was working at UBC. She is Sikh and we hung around along with some other friends, colleagues. Anyways, I always thought her so open and accepting of anyone. Anyways, I met her a few years ago again and she told me she was very concerned that one of her sons was interested in a white girl. I thought I heard wrongly. But she said no, he had to marry within his own culture. Wow, you could have knocked me over with a feather!
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Marriage is difficult enough without marrying outside your culture! I would not encourage it.
 

Believing is not knowing.
Believing is a choice to simply have faith in knowing.
Someday soon we will all know everything.

I'd rather be on the side of Faith and Hope.
Of blessed assurance, echoes of mercy, love,
And a foretaste of glory divine. That's my choice.

It's easy for those who have seen signs.
We can choose to stop, look, and listen for signs.
They're everywhere. It's validation. It's peace.

Faith is harmless. Yet it irritates those without it.
Some actually hate those who have faith
and choose to spend their time persecuting them.
 
Lara said:
Believing is not knowing.
Believing is a choice to simply have faith in knowing.
Someday soon we will all know everything.

I'd rather be on the side of Faith and Hope.
Of blessed assurance, echoes of mercy, love,
And a foretaste of glory divine. That's my choice.

It's easy for those who have seen signs.
We can choose to stop, look, and listen for signs.
They're everywhere. It's validation. It's peace.

Faith is harmless. Yet it irritates those without it.
Some actually hate those who have faith
and choose to spend their time persecuting them.
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I have changed my reaction to those who "believe". I still have a lot of problems with church and state, and those extremist religious zealots. But, for those who find peace and happiness through "belief" I say "go for it". I have started enjoying your posts @Lara. Sometimes they remind me of time when I too was a believer. :)
 
gruntlabor said:
Cherokee grandfather: "You have two wolves within you fighting fiercely and to the death. A good wolf and an evil wolf."
Grandson: "But who will win, grandfather?"
Cherokee grandfather: "The one you feed."
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Worth repeating again and again:

Cherokee grandfather: "You have two wolves within you fighting fiercely and to the death. A good wolf and an evil wolf."

Grandson: "But who will win, grandfather?"

Cherokee grandfather: "The one you feed." :)
 
gruntlabor said:
Marriage is difficult enough without marrying outside your culture! I would not encourage it.
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Don't be ridiculous! Almost every American couple I know over the age of forty have been married and divorced several times. That having been said, most of the American males I know who have married foreign wives from East Asia are still happily married. So, needless to say, I encourage quite the opposite.
 
-Oy- said:
Religion.

They can't ALL be right. But they CAN all be wrong.
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I think many conclusions can be partially or totally incorrect, or correct, depending on the interpretation of evidence.
Some evidence that is relevant can be overlooked in one's conclusion.
Some evidence that is not relevant is sometimes included in that conclusion.
Some evidence is misunderstood.
Some is taken out of context.
Even a wrong conclusion can have some elements of truth, and still have value.
It seems wise to understand that discovering errors is not the same thing as discovering truth.
I think that our love affair with truth should be like an unfinished painting. We can admire it, but realize that we may not ever see the finished work. We may never know if every belief is wrong, even though it remains a possibility.
 
How does one know facts that are outside of mind (thinking) e.g., when in deep sleep?

Perhaps Faith is based on unexplained, uncommon, and undefinable experiences people may experience, e. g., during meditation.
 
gruntlabor said:
With respect, faith is not harmless. The choices made by the faithful are not based on fact.
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My faith is harmless. If you mean some people of "faith" who have misinterpreted what is meant to be the norm and they step out in front of a car to prove God will save them then that is downright reckless. Sure God may save their soul AFTER they die but they're probably on their own for stupid and sinful choices before.
 
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aei said:
Well, marriage is like religion. Everyone is "expected" to get married per se.

And both cause a lot of turmoil in life by believing in their respective "myths". ;)
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We are expected to do all kinds of things...get a job...eat well... stay within the law... ie. The analogy is true for all of those things. 😉
 
Paco Dennis said:
We are expected to do all kinds of things...get a job...eat well... stay within the law... ie. The analogy is true for all of those things. 😉
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Yes. Eating, drinking, shelter, and rest are basic needs. Others are well like religion -- societal, collective habits changing with time and place.
 
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Many (most?) of us have a frame of reference as the world was 50 years ago. Well, as much as I'm not happy about it, everything has changed (evolved?).

When I hear "we didn't dress like that when we were young", or similar observations, I like to point this out. When we were young, were we dressing like they did 50 years prior? I think not.
 
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Mobilman44 said:
When I hear "we didn't dress like that when we were young", or similar observations, I like to point this out. When we were young, were we dressing like they did 50 years prior? I think not.
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Hippies: the anti-fashion fashion ...
​
 
fuzzybuddy said:
...my problem is the religious...The type, who think it's perfectly great to
shout, scream , cajole, pressure, dog, and berate others into believing what they believe.
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Then you'd better not watch this little girl
praying for Steve Harvey :ROFLMAO:...just posting for laughs
(about the middle of the video...so cute)

 
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gruntlabor said:
Marriage is difficult enough without marrying outside your culture! I would not encourage it.
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Are you living in the Dark Ages? Do you know how many multicultural marriages there are? I'm Catholic, Caucasian, of Polish origins. My younger brother is married to a Muslim and my older brother was married to a Jewish woman. We are all Canadians.
 
First of all, we only know from personal experiences unique from one to the other. On that note we have different views and perspectives of things around us, therefore everything and everything is wrong by individual interpretation.

We fall short in assuming everyone’s circumstances are the same as yours or mine. Religion tries to mold people to be like Jesus or Mohamed or the Bible. This is where religion fails, instead of focusing on individual growth and awareness, religion tries to change believers into something they cannot possibly become.

Don‘t get me wrong modeling your life after religious leaders or holy scripture is not necessarily a bad thing but you may lose touch of who you really are. Jesus and Mohammed each had their own life to live and although religion would have you to believe you must become One with the spirit of which there is some is some truth to that, but it is not because of religion you choose what you to believe, religion serves as a reminder of whatever the religion sells to the public and chooses to support.
 
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My stupid oldest brother became a jehovah's witness. Jerk. He was different afterward. He could say cruel things and I was of no use to him if he couldn't convert me. He can have all his JW "sisters." He doesn't have this one anymore.
 
I think the problem with religion, is that no matter your faith it gets pushed on others. My faith is right, yours is wrong. Even within the same faith the different types or beliefs of that faith argue and disagree. I think that all religions are wrong. Because if any of them were right, would we not have peace? The very fact that you argue with me, her, him or them (whoever they be) over Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hindu, what have you, negates the validity of religion. Who created religion? Where did it come from? Did the earliest peoples need a belief system? Did they create it? Or was it given to them. If it was, which religion was given? So many questions, so little answers.

And as mentioned in many posts, the most devout believers in their religion are sometimes the worst people. Leads me to think that maybe religions(s) started out as something wonderful, but has devolved into chaos, anarchy and a reason to perpetrate hate, division and violence. The greatest amount of deaths in our history and some of the worst atrocities are committed in the name of religion.
 

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