I do not believe in a God. I understand why some people are religious. It really can help you get through some tough problems. I admit that I used to be religious and when I was prayer and the belief that there was a being comforted me. Sadly it caused me more pain that relief. When I didn't get an answer I felt alone. While religion can help many people, overall I feel like it cause more problematic issues such as war, bigotry that comes from religious dogmas. Now in my life I meditate. And I would say that is spiritual. Also I believe everyone has a soul and we all make up one universal soul. I feel that we all have a spiritual connection.
keeping it simple, the moral concept of organized religion came into being with the goal of bringing people who share a similar belief system together to live in peace and harmony. when in reality organized religion fulfills the exact opposite purpose that it was conceptually intended for. if even ONE person has been killed in the name of religion, then the entire concept and its practice have been a catastrophic failure. it divides people, incites hatred and dissention across religions, and has been (and still is) the cause of billions (trillions?) of lost lives. the fact that, collectively, we haven't learned anything from the Crusades and have since continued to promote this irrational behavior and ideology just goes to show how much we truly suck as a species. religion is a PERSONAL belief and as such, should be kept to one's self.
If you wanna see organized religion being bad just look at all the shit that went down in europe purely because of religion. If you didn't follow the church of the country you lived in you got fucked. I say modern christianity (and many other religions like it) were long ago made as a tool to teach their children morals / have a way to control them. That is all it is, a way to control people. I mean what do they teach you as a kid? if you think anything that is against god you just sinned and are in big trouble if you don't repent. They also tell you that anyone with a decent arguement is just a slave to satan that is sent to lure you away from faith. This statement has nothing to do with the bible itself or its teachings there are many great lessons in the bible on how to do the right thing and live responsibly but it's been misinterpreted and twisted to fit the churches agendas so i don't associate organized religion with the text itself i mean it's not the books fault people are fucking nuts. Although i do not believe in their god or religion, i was raised a chirstian/quaker so i know all about the bible, this is just what i've gathered from my experiences with the quaker school i went to and also the local churches i had a part in.
I dont like to get caught up in the whole "religion" aspect or lables, but I consider myself a bible believing person.
I don't participate in any organized religion, but i am spiritual and i believe in a god, but I also think that we should not try to force our beliefs on others. Let everyone do their own thing.
im sort of buddhist and i do believe their is a god or somethin like that but i dont worry about that