Alan,
But at lest you are honest in your feelings.
Thank you, I am glad you recognize that, I take that as a great compliment. I try to express myself with my mind my heart and with the truth.
I am all in favor of common sense, common decency and common honesty.
How many times have you been told you are going to Hell if you do not bla bla bla.................... with your mouth or whatever.
Hmmm let me think, how many stars there are out there, in the Universe ?? A = millions.... millions.... billions, upon billions ... etc., etc...
It clearly states he came to save the world not condemn it. But I do believe that one must confess sin at some point in his life. All anybody can do is to be an example the way they treat others. Not the attitude of I am bla bla bla so that makes me a better person than you. Religion is no representation of who God is.
I live my life, according to what I see, to what I can touch, and to what in my mind I can prove. My experiences, and what I can learn from provable sources teach me what I should do in the future.
My family did their best to teach me under what they believed it was best under their eyes. Good manners, (the fundamental rules of social interaction with others), good morals, (determine what is good and bad), and good ethics, (specific standards of conduct in specific fields), common sense, (do not brake the law), fairness, etc.
From there, I can use my mind and I can think and I can arrive at specific conclusions. These conclusions should be honest as I can not lie to nor deceive myself. In addition, I must believe in myself, have confidence in myself and self-respect. However, I must be open because I do not "know it all", and simple experience has thought me that there are smarter people out there, and simply I can make mistakes.
History is a great teacher, and if the correct book is read, it is a window to the events of the time, but reading about history one must attempt to put oneself in the "mindset" of the time. in other words, strip oneself of the knowledge that by mere "default" I have given the era in which I lived.
Such is hard to do, can you imagine reading about the middle ages, when there was none (or many) of the conveniences of today's world, for example electricity, running water etc.
Once the lessons are learned, one must take advantage of such and return to our world, as it is the world in which we live. Likewise, history can not be applied 100 % to our world because things have changed, former mysteries are mysteries no more, we must live in our world. It is the practical thing to do, it is the thing of common sense.
All religion is to me, is further evidence of yet another way in which man's incessant attempt to control his neighbor.
Religion has been almost the perfect tool for such control, I do not say so, history has taught me that.
The complete control based in the use of fear, guilt and terror.
The possible benefit that humanity has had as a reward, due to religion, in the field of morality and ethics is completely OVERWHELMED by the restraint of free thought, witch hunting, infidel killing, knowledge burning, and driven by no more and no less than very human power hunger and un-refrained greed.
In my eyes, your belief in a god is the mere result of the success of a master tool created by the different religions, be this religion, "a", "b", or whatever. The belief in a god is in your mind, you can not prove otherwise.
If to you, (as well as many others), you absolutely need this "belief in a master and powerful being", (that you and others call god), to live your life in a "fulfilling way", then I have no right to tell you can not do that.
In fact, so long you do not brake the law, nor infringe upon the rights of others, then I have absolutely no right to tell you otherwise, indeed my beliefs tell me that I must respect such belief.
The belief in god is a personal, private, and individual act that must remain so. personal, private, and individual.
Since man is imperfect so will Religion be. Also one must not Judge who God is based on people who profess to be religious. God is perfect we are not, I believe one must find their own way to have a relationship with God, if one is sincere in achieving it the truth will be revealed.
Well, I agree with the fact that religions are imperfect, in fact I believe it to be evil. I do not believe in your fact that "god is perfect", nor "the relationship between man and god" as I simply do not believe in its existence. As to finding our own way.... yes please, will we be rid of religion, so we can indeed find our way to greatness ? I am hoping for it.
I believe however, that man has the potential to master this world, so far, man has done a poor job, but we are learning. In the last 100 years, our knowledge and science has advanced more than in the entire history of humanity.
I believe that the human mind is incredibly powerful, however we are mere peasants that only now are beginning to find more about it. Former mysteries are now being dispelled and slowly we are learning to use more and more.
In general, humans have had a delay in progress of about 1,000 years, thanks to the courtesy of religion which at times, simply burned thousand of books upon which, untold quantities of human knowledge disappeared.... and then the fear of the inquisitions further impaired human progress..... all in the name of "good morality" (the strange morality of extreme zealots, that is).
Again, it has been only until recently that human thought has freed itself from the evil influences of religious bishop and their fear mongering, that we are finally seeing true progress.
The recent "upswing" in religious cults does worry me, but at large, it is a more like a "retracement" in the graph of progress of human free thought.
Some of the damage may be temporarily concerning, for example the rampant growth in the populations of the third world countries is definitively a big problem that unless it can be corrected, by increase in education and skills, and eventual reduction of its growth, these countries are truly condemned to suffer chronic economic deficiencies.
Clearly, all this is thanks to the intransigent attitude of the religious bishops of keeping entire nations idiotiziced by the lack of family planning, while their populations (particularly the miserable and dispossessed), multiply like mindless imbecile rats.
Where are those "multiplying fishies and loaves of breads" I would like to know.... how come every baby does not come with his/her sandwich under the arm ??
All one has to do is to read Emiles words who claims to be a Christian and it is obvious that he clearly is misrepresenting Gods words based on the above Scriptures. So does that make God bad.... I think not. As far as religon..... thats between me and God and who I am.
He is the perfect example of what blind faith is capable of manufacturing, great thanks to all of those who have expose him and his cronies.... they are indeed dangerous.
Can you imagine the difference in history if Prime Minister Chamberlain would have dealt different with Hitler and treated him as the criminal he was.... in stead they allowed him to take the Suddeten region.... to "appease him".... except that he was an insatiable assassin.... so much for "public opinion".
Even in the early stages, Germany should have recognized where Hitler was taking them.
I hope we have learned from history and our authorities deal with these zealots promptly upon their first actions outside the law.
The danger lies in the current attempt by the religious right's attempt to take control of the educational system and indeed the US Congress.... the so-called Republican Congress, has almost succeeded in such. Luckily there are still a number of moderate Republicans that may thwart such evil attempt.
However I am hopeful that reason will prevail, zealots can pray all they want in their corresponding churches.
If they want to influence public policy, I say, Tax the churches, imagine all those beautiful buildings, all the religious wealth getting a free ride.... it boggles my mind!!! how blind can people become... (I shake my head in disbelief)....
Once again.... what is bad are the human acts that have been performed, "in the name of god".
As far as I can prove, it is the humans that perpetrated those acts the guilty parties, in the past and today.
Religion harbors these men and beliefs, therefore such is a mere shield. As to god... once again, I do not believe in its real existence, therefore it all reverts to what each individual wants to believe, if someone wants to believe that he must go kill "in the name of god" then I consider such belief evil, and the man who perpetrated the act should be brought to justice period.
If you choose to keep your personal and individual belief of god to yourself, then I can not do anything but respect your privacy, and deal with you as a human being and according to your deeds.
If, however, as I have expressed countless of times, you choose to impose on me your beliefs, then I loose respect, and I have the right to express what I think about your beliefs.
Save your biblical references, to me the bible is just another history book, rather difficult to read due to its old prose, besides I can think of many other books I would read before I read the bible.
Communicate with me from your mind and your heart, and indeed with truth, I will probably will give you more credence than reference to antiquated prose.
And by the way I have heard quite horrible references from the very same book.... so I guess it is a matter of opinion.
Alan, the little I have interacted with you tells me you are an intelligent man and indeed a reasonable one, I fail to understand your beliefs in gods, demons, heaven and hell.... So long you do not preach the stuff to me (and I do not think you are doing so), I respect you.
I wish to you and your family the best.
Z.
May you have warmth in your igloo, oil in your lamp, and peace in your heart.
- Eskimo blessing |
