Religion: A play off of guilt or misinterpreted? (did I speel that rite?)

Heh... Yes its good, builds morals and ethics... but a lot of that changes

it's not for everyone

Explain I really want to know why you think so... I have people after people tell me how great it is.

Define 'religion' in the first place - organized? No? Well then my religion is the best ever. I wake up every day and wonder what the fuck is going on, then about 18 hours later I fall asleep again. By practicing this faithfully for nearly 25 years I have reached a state where I now can eliminate approximately 9% of all possible explanations for what the fuck is going on, such as 'a very smug sort of intelligent flightless bird is hiding in my shadow everywhere I go, controlling my fate' and 'I am actually Luke Skywalker and this is a dream'.

Well, I know it's not for me, and I'm a subset of 'everyone'.

I have never gained any solace or fulfilment from the idea of a higher power. 'Worship' as a concept does not sit well with me at all. There are other reasons but I'm sure other people will word them better than me..

I'm amused by the concept of prayer. So.... you're going to tell God something he doesn't know? You're going to tell him how to do his job? Maybe after your hundredth "prayer" you might notice the lack of a "Thank You" response and bugger the fuck off, right?

How about guilt, most of you have grown up with some sort of religion that you all never joined willingly or consciously. DOnt you feel guilty for breaking some big ol rule? I think its kinda dumb since you break em all the time.

No, no guilt at all

What about other religions?

There's a school of catholicism which is particularly extreme, and states that when faced with the light of god after we die we will all repent our sins and therefore get into heaven, NO MATTER HOW BAD WE HAVE BEEN. Which puts all the crock about morals into perspective, because you don't actually have to live a good life according to this at all, you don't even have to confess before you die. Nice thought.

Religion (or rather the three main monotheistic religions, ie; Judaism, Islam and Christianity) is the single biggest cause of most suffering and pain and fear in the world. It's not for me. A book called The Miracle Of Theism (can't remember the author's name off-hand) was one of the core texts when I did a unit of the philosophy of religion for my degree, and in this book all the arguments for the existence of god ar analysed in depth, cosmological, ontological, etcetera, and the guy's conclusion for each argument is that god can't exist. But that book's not going to convince anyone who believes in god, or allah, or whatever, to stop believing. You either have a sense of the divine or you don't, and all the arguing in the world isn't going to change your mind either way.

For me, there is no sense of the divine. I'd much rather believe in people. I wrote this a couple of years ago and still largely agree with it (it's not very well structured, but gets my point accross);

"There are so many amazing things in our world. All we need to do is stop for a moment and see them. In our culture, in our hearts and in our minds, there are things that are so astounding that they almost go beyond our ability to accept and understand them. We need to cultivate faith in ourselves, belief that we can, if we try, do wonderful, magical things, and more than that, appreciate and comprehend these things. If ‘God’ exists, then, for me, it’s not as some external, inconceivable force of divinity, not a creator, it’s as an explanation, an angelic elucidation of ourselves and what we do. And if this is the case, then we allow ‘God’ to devalue humanity. Because we’re guilty, almost, and jealous. When someone stands before us and presents a work of art, an achievement, something they have poured effort and life into, and it touches us deeply in our souls, it’s easier to give credit to ‘God’ and divinity then it is to accept that another human being, another flawed, faulty human being, is capable of moving us so powerfully. Because we’re jealous. And we’re guilty of that jealousy, guilty of our own inability, ineptitude and failure of effort. Not only that, but in a society, in a cultural space where such achievement is explained away from the individual and worth given to something intangible, divine and external, when we as specific souls create something of worth of our own, something of beauty, something that moves ourselves and others, then we too feel guilty for creating it, and allow, encourage even, our achievement to be explained away. To accept that we are, at our potential peak, wonderful, creative, artistic, glorious, beautiful entities capable of greatness, is to begin to expect greatness of ourselves, and therefore incur responsibility. So if ‘God’ exists, then it is in the wonder that we create by and for ourselves. This isn’t meant as a definition or a description of ‘God’, just an impression of how I feel about the concept, and an affirmation of my belief that people, ultimately, are more valuable and more important than any conception or perception of what mankind might call ‘God’. We need to stop apologising and excusing our talents, and learn to praise and value them, in the same way that we should learn to praise and value ourselves."

These days I'm more prone to think we should each find our own godhead(s), as it were, and for me approaching the world with a degree of thoguht and care and balance is enough. Non-dualistic (ie; not dividing the self into body and soul) approaches appeal so much more than the idea of the soul being seperate, and so I've pieced together my own understanding from bits of western philosophy, bits of Buddhism and Taoism (much closer to philosophies than religions) and anythign else that comes up. And I'm as happy, or happier even, than I have ever been. It's cool. Believing in god takes away responsibility for your self.