Religion, what's the point?

Reddy Rederson said:
I knew a girl a long time ago, came from a small village and was quite religious. I'm not in any way shape or form. So I asked her about it and why she bothered and her answer was a very honest one. It was just something that brought the community together. They didn't care about converting others. They just didn't care if other people believed or not. They didn't care about gay people or any of that other stuff that gets so many religious peoples knickers in a twist. It was about them and their faith bringing them together. That aspect of religion I can understand. Like you, I think these things can be done without religion, but feck it, they're not harming anyone so if it works from them then, cool.
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I've always said that people like being in groups, feeling a part of something bigger and having other people around you who think similarly, and that can manifest in many ways, good and bad (gangs, political groups, even sports teams - obviously all very different but all unite people with 'a greater cause' at the centre). I fully believe the church falls in to this.
Often hatred brings people together too, and that's when you get the fecked up religious groups, or other groups that don't base it on religion.
 
CA_vampire said:
Voyager 1 just left the solar system. It has been travelling for 40 years, with a speed of about 40,000 mph. To arrive to the nearest star, it needs to travel for about 70,000 years. That next star is actually very close to us. There are about 200 billion stars in our galaxy. There are 2 trillion galaxies out there.

Stars in a galaxy: 200,000,000,000
Number of galaxies: 2,000,000,000,000

If you multiply these two numbers, you get:

400,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 stars.

And remember, we need to travel for 70,000 years to arrive to the nearest star.

This huge universe has been around for about 13,7 billion years. Life on earth has been around for 4 billion years, but for almost all of that time it was one-cell organisms that slowly (very slowly!) evolved. Humans have any short of civilization for only 20,000 years or so. A whiff of time, a whiff of space.

Now, religions say that there is an all powerful and all knowing God who created all these... and created humans as well, with a very special consideration for humans. And religious people believe that this god that created 400,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 stars, takes very special care of each of us, but more so He takes care of "His" people.

However, we don't see or hear that god ourselves. There are "holy people" and "prophets" who "talked to god" and learned a lot of "secrets" and they founded religions and they wrote "holy" texts. Yet, not one of these "prophets" had a clue about anything that science has discovered so far.

So ... should we believe these so called "prophets"? Did they speak the truth? Or did they sell us lies?

...

"Religion, what is the point?"

Well, the point is that it's a huge scam.
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Exactly.

And don't forget that the earth/universe is only a mere 6,000 years old.
 
cesc's_mullet said:
Strange that there are literally no first hand eye witness accounts of Jesus, and that everything written about him was done at least 30 years after he passed. Also there appears to have been at least 3 people named Jesus who were alive around that time, confusing the matter further.
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If he existed he was a charlatan and a madman who deserved a life of solitary confinement in a hole wrapped up in a straight jacket. Biggest lie ever told.
 
Has anyone ever thought that if it's all real, maybe God is the evil one? He sure causes a lot of war, generally holds people back, promotes close-mindedness, takes money off people and controls. What if Satan was the nice guy, trying to give everyone riches, open their minds and have a great time, but God had tricked everyone all this time? Think about that one while you eat your Cheerios this morning.
 
InfiniteBoredom said:
Salvation through the Church. That’s their rationale.

The debauchery of the Roman Catholic Church is hereditary. The office of Pontifex Maximus has been an empty vessel with money making purpose since the Middle period Roman Republic.
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Well put. Souls weren’t meant to be saved, that’s a nice byproduct for the church, it always has been about money & brainwashing people to give it to the church, often at a detriment to themselves. The Crusades were more about keeping trade routes open to the east than saving souls.
 
VeevaVee said:
Has anyone ever thought that if it's all real, maybe God is the evil one? He sure causes a lot of war, generally holds people back, promotes close-mindedness, takes money off people and controls. What if Satan was the nice guy, trying to give everyone riches, open their minds and have a great time, but God had tricked everyone all this time? Think about that one while you eat your Cheerios this morning.
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Afaik, the question of the existence of evil has been a longstanding problem for theology. I guess the introduction of the devil was probably an attempt to solve it. I also guess a lot revolves around the question of independence of human thoughts and actions from God's will.

I know people who were raised religious and decided to renunciate their belief for this reason. My girlfriend, as a teenager, decided that God either didn't exist or, if he did, she couldn't follow him.
 
VeevaVee said:
Has anyone ever thought that if it's all real, maybe God is the evil one? He sure causes a lot of war, generally holds people back, promotes close-mindedness, takes money off people and controls. What if Satan was the nice guy, trying to give everyone riches, open their minds and have a great time, but God had tricked everyone all this time? Think about that one while you eat your Cheerios this morning.
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Oats Studios did.
 
VeevaVee said:
Has anyone ever thought that if it's all real, maybe God is the evil one? He sure causes a lot of war, generally holds people back, promotes close-mindedness, takes money off people and controls. What if Satan was the nice guy, trying to give everyone riches, open their minds and have a great time, but God had tricked everyone all this time? Think about that one while you eat your Cheerios this morning.
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I believe that Satan doesn't actually lie to people in the Bible. Whilst Yahweh does so many horrible things, including lying of course.
 
VeevaVee said:
Has anyone ever thought that if it's all real, maybe God is the evil one? He sure causes a lot of war, generally holds people back, promotes close-mindedness, takes money off people and controls. What if Satan was the nice guy, trying to give everyone riches, open their minds and have a great time, but God had tricked everyone all this time? Think about that one while you eat your Cheerios this morning.
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This is what I don't get about people who genuinely believe in a God. I mean, if you genuinely believe in a God, why would you love him? But when you point out all the horrible shit going on, they say 'God doesn't intervene, we ourselves as humans do the bad shit'. And then I ask 'how do you know that God himself refuses to intervene'? And then they're like 'shut up'.
 
CA_vampire said:
Voyager 1 just left the solar system. It has been travelling for 40 years, with a speed of about 40,000 mph. To arrive to the nearest star, it needs to travel for about 70,000 years. That next star is actually very close to us. There are about 200 billion stars in our galaxy. There are 2 trillion galaxies out there.

Stars in a galaxy: 200,000,000,000
Number of galaxies: 2,000,000,000,000

If you multiply these two numbers, you get:

400,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 stars.

And remember, we need to travel for 70,000 years to arrive to the nearest star.

This huge universe has been around for about 13,7 billion years. Life on earth has been around for 4 billion years, but for almost all of that time it was one-cell organisms that slowly (very slowly!) evolved. Humans have any sort of civilization for only 20,000 years or so. A whiff of time, a whiff of space.

Now, religions say that there is an all powerful and all knowing God who created all these... and created humans as well, with a very special consideration for humans. And religious people believe that this god who created 400,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 stars, takes very special care of each of us, but more so He takes care of "His" people.

However, we don't see or hear that god ourselves. There are "holy people" and "prophets" who "talked to god" and learned a lot of "secrets" and they founded religions and they wrote "holy" texts. Yet, not one of these "prophets" had a clue about anything that science has discovered so far.

So ... should we believe these so called "prophets"? Did they speak the truth? Or did they sell us lies?

...

"Religion, what is the point?"

Well, the point is that it's a huge scam.
Click to expand...

When I was young I went to church and Sunday school and at the time accepted the religious teachings without question.

At school I was fascinating with science especially physics. I began to look up at the stars on a cold clear night and my imagination ran wild. I began to read about our universe with particular interest on the Big Bang.

Science with verifiable evidence now provides us with an understanding of how our universe evolved from a few seconds after its birth.

The first tiny fractions of a second are yet to be fully understood due to the vagaries of Quantum Mechanics.

In fact it is now believed that the big bang was not the birth but a phase of our universe.
Moreover, our universe may well be just one of an infinite number of multiverses that can pop into existence although of course the mechanism is far from understood.

So, as you say trillions of trillions of stars each with a possible solar system of planets.
With this knowledge why would anyone really believe that God sent his only son here to earth.
And if God really created all the species of animals why was his son a human. Why not an elephant for example.

Science has now laid bear the bible and religious teaching with facts about evolution.

I know which teaching I believe...
 
VeevaVee said:
Has anyone ever thought that if it's all real, maybe God is the evil one? He sure causes a lot of war, generally holds people back, promotes close-mindedness, takes money off people and controls. What if Satan was the nice guy, trying to give everyone riches, open their minds and have a great time, but God had tricked everyone all this time? Think about that one while you eat your Cheerios this morning.
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Doesn't Lucifer mean give of light?
 
VorZakone said:
This is what I don't get about people who genuinely believe in a God. I mean, if you genuinely believe in a God, why would you love him? But when you point out all the horrible shit going on, they say 'God doesn't intervene, we ourselves as humans do the bad shit'. And then I ask 'how do you know that God himself refuses to intervene'? And then they're like 'shut up'.
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He doesn't intervene in genocide or the rape and murder of women and children but his magical powers can be summoned if you are short of cash or late on a car payment.
 
CA_vampire said:
Voyager 1 just left the solar system. It has been travelling for 40 years, with a speed of about 40,000 mph. To arrive to the nearest star, it needs to travel for about 70,000 years. That next star is actually very close to us. There are about 200 billion stars in our galaxy. There are 2 trillion galaxies out there.

Stars in a galaxy: 200,000,000,000
Number of galaxies: 2,000,000,000,000

If you multiply these two numbers, you get:

400,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 stars.

And remember, we need to travel for 70,000 years to arrive to the nearest star.

This huge universe has been around for about 13,7 billion years. Life on earth has been around for 4 billion years, but for almost all of that time it was one-cell organisms that slowly (very slowly!) evolved. Humans have any sort of civilization for only 20,000 years or so. A whiff of time, a whiff of space.

Now, religions say that there is an all powerful and all knowing God who created all these... and created humans as well, with a very special consideration for humans. And religious people believe that this god who created 400,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 stars, takes very special care of each of us, but more so He takes care of "His" people.

However, we don't see or hear that god ourselves. There are "holy people" and "prophets" who "talked to god" and learned a lot of "secrets" and they founded religions and they wrote "holy" texts. Yet, not one of these "prophets" had a clue about anything that science has discovered so far.

So ... should we believe these so called "prophets"? Did they speak the truth? Or did they sell us lies?

...

"Religion, what is the point?"

Well, the point is that it's a huge scam.
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fecking incredible. Makes me shiver reading stuff like this. Just how insignificant we all are.
 
If anyone is interested I have watched a very interesting YouTube series by this legend AronRa - where he discusses evolution throughout the ages in detail.

Currently there are 35 videos in this series, all around 10 to 15 mins long. I found it fascinating so I hope others enjoy it too.

Be warned though, he looks exactly like a the devil worshipping heathen all bashers fear at night.

"Systematic Classification of Life" on YouTube
Systematic Classification of Life: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXJ4dsU0oGMLnubJLPuw0dzD0AvAHAotW
 
Buster15 said:
When I was young I went to church and Sunday school and at the time accepted the religious teachings without question.

At school I was fascinating with science especially physics. I began to look up at the stars on a cold clear night and my imagination ran wild. I began to read about our universe with particular interest on the Big Bang.

Science with verifiable evidence now provides us with an understanding of how our universe evolved from a few seconds after its birth.

The first tiny fractions of a second are yet to be fully understood due to the vagaries of Quantum Mechanics.

In fact it is now believed that the big bang was not the birth but a phase of our universe.
Moreover, our universe may well be just one of an infinite number of multiverses that can pop into existence although of course the mechanism is far from understood.

So, as you say trillions of trillions of stars each with a possible solar system of planets.
With this knowledge why would anyone really believe that God sent his only son here to earth.
And if God really created all the species of animals why was his son a human. Why not an elephant for example.

Science has now laid bear the bible and religious teaching with facts about evolution.

I know which teaching I believe...
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I think that one is at least explainable within theological logic. There's a hierarchy in creation: humans were created "in the image" of God, and he has a special relationship with them. Animals are living creatures like humans, but part of nature, which humans are supposed to rule over. They have no will, can't sin, and don't have an immortal soul, so no elephant messiah.

Just a side note, as I totally agree with your general reasoning in this post.
 
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I recently learned about "Tithing" and the fact that my mates ex wife gave the church 10% of her gross salary (before tax), and actively pressured my mate to do the same because she "didn't want him to go to hell while she ascended to heaven"...

He argued that sometimes they struggled to make it month to month, but she refused to stop her tithing (about £200 a month), and this is one of the (many) reasons why she's now his ex wife...

The church must turnover a pretty penny from these nutters...
 
Big Andy said:
I recently learned about "Tithing" and the fact that my mates ex wife gave the church 10% of her gross salary (before tax), and actively pressured my mate to do the same because she "didn't want him to go to hell while she ascended to heaven"...

He argued that sometimes they struggled to make it month to month, but she refused to stop her tithing (about £200 a month), and this is one of the (many) reasons why she's now his ex wife...

The church must turnover a pretty penny from these nutters...
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I thought tithing went out with King John I. Christ.
 
Baptists certainly do, or at least they did when family members dragged me there in my early years and as I continued on the religious road into my late teen/early 20s (early 2000s) before leaving religion by age 30.
 
Grinner said:
I think Mormons still practice tithing.

Nutters
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Hardly. They're raking in millions. Some of the really big churches need bullion trucks to take the money to a bank, and this money is not taxed by the US government as far as I can remember.
 
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VeevaVee said:
Has anyone ever thought that if it's all real, maybe God is the evil one? He sure causes a lot of war, generally holds people back, promotes close-mindedness, takes money off people and controls. What if Satan was the nice guy, trying to give everyone riches, open their minds and have a great time, but God had tricked everyone all this time? Think about that one while you eat your Cheerios this morning.
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Mate, the greatest trick the devil ever played was convincing the world that he didn’t exist
 
Reddy Rederson said:
One of things I've never been able to wrap my head around though is how the catholic churched survived the child abuse stuff.
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It’s because they expect the Church to have bad things happen to it. The Bible tells them that “Satan” will attack the Church, but ultimately the Church will be victorious.
The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons (1 Timothy 4:1).

It is no great thing therefore if his ministers also fashion themselves as ministers of righteousness, whose end shall be according to their works (2 Corinthians 11:15).

For certain intruders have stolen in among you, people who long ago were designated for this condemnation as ungodly, turning the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ (Jude 4).

I will build My church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it (Matthew 16:18)
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Carolina Red said:
It’s because they expect the Church to have bad things happen to it. The Bible tells them that “Satan” will attack the Church, but ultimately the Church will be victorious.
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That's not Satan attacking the Church, that's the believers and pretend-believers doing heinous things that are being exposed.
 
Carolina Red said:
It’s because they expect the Church to have bad things happen to it. The Bible tells them that “Satan” will attack the Church, but ultimately the Church will be victorious.
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Makes sense I suppose, but wouldnt that mean that they would have been the most upset and demanding of the church to "clean house" of satans influence? It seems they were just as happy to turn a blind eye as the church hierarchy were. Even current pope who by all accounts seems to be a universally well liked and progressive has had a finger pointed at him for being complicit in the cover up.

From the outside looking in, seems like catholics were more interested in protecting the churches reputation than being angry about a satanic influence. For example when they blamed the boys and made excuses for the priests, which if you believed still wouldnt answer why it was hidden and those priests just moved to be tempted again by more young boys.
 
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