The problem with religion

Mobilman44 said:
As I see it, the "problem with religion" is there are so many of them, and every one believes they are the only true religion and every other one is false.
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I understand there are more than a thousand, if not thousands, of religions. When you pick, are you choosing the one with the best rewards or the one with the least punishments? With these odds you're probably going to lose, so you might as well just go ahead and resign yourself to whatever damnation or hell there might be.
 

Jewish religion seeks no converts. However, within the community, various groups seek to convert other Jews to their sect.

They stand on street corners and will not push their spiel unless their mark confesses they are Jewish. Usually always ultra-orthodox.
 
oslooskar said:
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.
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Sorry, you know nothing of Americans, probably because to many movies and your sample size is way too small.

All most all of my family and friends are over 40, married and have not been divorced.

I have been married to my wife since 1969 and we met in 1967. We will not be separated until one of us dies. Also, many of us have kids that are grown up, married, and have kids of their own. America is much more complicated than you may know. So, move on....
 
Timewise 60+ said:
Sorry, you know nothing of Americans
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That's strange, because I've been an American all eighty-two years of my life.

Timewise 60+ said:
All most all of my family and friends are over 40, married and have not been divorced.
I have been married to my wife since 1969 and we met in 1967.
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That doesn't change the fact that divorce rates are lower for American males who have married women from Southeast Asia.
 
oslooskar said:
That doesn't change the fact that divorce rates are lower for American males who have married women from Southeast Asia.
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Individual data vs statistical data, eh. One must always be extremely careful in dealing with data. :)
 
gruntlabor said:
With respect, faith is not harmless. The choices made by the faithful are not based on fact.
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With respect, we all have faith in something. For some it is in material wealth, for others it is in their own strength and intellect. A small child has faith in its parents, that the mother will always be there to comfort them and the father will protect them. Some have faith in the law, others in justice.

Fowler wrote a book about the stages of faith along the lines of Piaget and Bruner. When I was younger I placed my faith in science and my own intellect. When my father died suddenly I was devasted and neither my cleverness nor my knowledge offered any comfort at all. When my younger sister gave birth to a still born baby I was bereft of words of comfort.

Later, I faced the question, "Where should I place my faith?" I decided that faith placed in finite things is exactly like building the house upon the sands. It was then that I chose the risky decision to place my faith in the infinite and the eternal.

I began to pray.

I still have doubts, but mature faith is quite separate from mere belief. Mature faith is able to absorb doubt and live with it.
 
Warrigal said:
With respect, we all have faith in something. For some it is in material wealth, for others it is in their own strength and intellect. A small child has faith in its parents, that the mother will always be there to comfort them and the father will protect them. Some have faith in the law, others in justice.
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I have "trust" in many things. I trust that when I sit in this chair, it will hold me up and not break. I trust this because the chair is rated for 250lbs weight. I trust this because I have sat in this chair hundreds of times and it has always held me up. My trust is based on facts and evidence, not faith. If we're discussing religious faith, that is something entirely different. Religious faith is not based on facts or evidence. If you know something, if you have evidence, there is no need for faith. Religious faith is simply believing something in the absence of facts or evidence.
 
Warrigal said:
With respect, we all have faith in something. For some it is in material wealth, for others it is in their own strength and intellect. A small child has faith in its parents, that the mother will always be there to comfort them and the father will protect them. Some have faith in the law, others in justice.

Fowler wrote a book about the stages of faith along the lines of Piaget and Bruner. When I was younger I placed my faith in science and my own intellect. When my father died suddenly I was devasted and neither my cleverness nor my knowledge offered any comfort at all. When my younger sister gave birth to a still born baby I was bereft of words of comfort.

Later, I faced the question, "Where should I place my faith?" I decided that faith placed in finite things is exactly like building the house upon the sands. It was then that I chose the risky decision to place my faith in the infinite and the eternal.

I began to pray.

I still have doubts, but mature faith is quite separate from mere belief. Mature faith is able to absorb doubt and live with it.
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I have a measured, qualified faith that the sun will rise tomorrow. I've never been disappointed.
 
We all see "God" differently. We see everything differently. Then we give it a word, which has different associations for each individual. We can never really know what another thinks or feels. Communicating about our lives is all we have to get along with each other. We are learning, ever so slowly, to understand, that we don't understand, and that by communicating we participate with each other in constructive ways.
 
Warrigal said:
With respect, we all have faith in something. For some it is in material wealth, for others it is in their own strength and intellect. A small child has faith in its parents, that the mother will always be there to comfort them and the father will protect them. Some have faith in the law, others in justice.

Fowler wrote a book about the stages of faith along the lines of Piaget and Bruner. When I was younger I placed my faith in science and my own intellect. When my father died suddenly I was devasted and neither my cleverness nor my knowledge offered any comfort at all. When my younger sister gave birth to a still born baby I was bereft of words of comfort.

Later, I faced the question, "Where should I place my faith?" I decided that faith placed in finite things is exactly like building the house upon the sands. It was then that I chose the risky decision to place my faith in the infinite and the eternal.

I began to pray.

I still have doubts, but mature faith is quite separate from mere belief. Mature faith is able to absorb doubt and live with it.
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Wow, thank you for the insight - I see myself in it.
 
oslooskar said:
That's strange, because I've been an American all eighty-two years of my life.



That doesn't change the fact that divorce rates are lower for American males who have married women from Southeast Asia.
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Perhaps your time outside of the USA, has left you short of knowledge about the USA today! Or maybe you are just 'different'?
 

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