here are some question for all you believers out there. why do you have to worship god? does god really need it? do you really believe that your bible is the word of god, and all the other religions bibles that are almost the same arent? why must you spread your religion to people who dont want it? why are there people knocking on my door asking if i accepted jesus? why are they handing out bibles at the university, out of a box labled "answeres to your exams"? why can you all just have faith in your religion and not worry about what us athiests believe? why do you need to protest evolution? why can we believe what we want? why do christians think athiests are somehow evil? why do you not see that most athiests are actually good people, with kind hearts? It is not your place to force god upon us. It is not your place to "save" us. If the rapture does happen, we will have our change to repent, we dont need all you missionaries, and self righteous dogooders, to tell us how to live our lives. If god existed, he wouldnt want this. He wouldnt want all these hundreds of versions of the same "word of god" wich are supposed to be infallible. God wouldnt want us to be protesting his beautiful creations from being taught in schools. He wouldnt want his christians to fund a crusade against the middle east, and he wouldnt want his muslims to bomb america. sorry about the rant. i guess my real question is, why can critians just leave us alone? it seems like i cant open my mouth in public without someone chiming in about god...
yes, but thats not the point of the thread. its about why religious people insist on spreading their beliefs, and then turn around and claim everyone is entitled to their opinion.
you know it's like..,if i get a brand new dildo, and it's the shit and i say here you should try it too! okay okay that's a bad example, but you get the point. i agree some followers go over the top in trying to convert you, but like you said with athiests how you want christians to realize they're good people or whatever i don't remember, but you're kinda generalizing christians too. i don't know man, just mythoughts
One word and one word only - FEAR. They're scared of their god, so they submit. It's like that for all 3 of the Abrahamic religions. Let me find one Christian or Muslim or Jewish person who says or admits they are not scared of their god. You will find none. You will find none because if you don't fear the god, you can't be brainwashed into the religion because the fear itself is the main controlling factor. I'm just at the point where I TRY not to argue with them. I only give them a run for their money when MY belief system is intruded on. Oh, and I'm agnostic BTW.
well im more talking about people who come to your door trying to convert you. they are very insistent and it takes a good five minutes to get them to leave without just telling them to fuck off, and even then sometimes it doesnt work. they say things like, "im trying to save your soul, do you really not care about your soul?" or "if you dont believe in god and your wrong, is hell really worth it?" they are like the tobacco company, they try really really hard to convert everyone they can. they wont take no for an answer. they do things like protest on campus at universities that the university is teaching lies. its a big problem, its like they are intentionally trying to destroy society
Oh, you're talking more about the evangelistic part of it. Good question... It almost seems like they get kickbacks or something for the more people they convert. It's fucking scary, and I don't like it at all. Keep that shit to yourselves!
exactly, it is scary, have you seen of of their websights. there are actuly milita and armies being rased for god. we can only hope our government doesnt let it happen, that they will keep the seperation of church and state, and thwart any religious invasion. im really hoping we wont let ourselves into another dark age
Assemblies of God (USA) Official Web Site= "Conserves the best values and DNA of each institution" neo nazis under the guise of christianity ill try to find more, there are some really crazy ones, some are activly trying to raise soldiers, american ones...
haha some people have a warped idea of god I take it.. I can't speak for everyone but it's anything but being out of fear. The main reasons for worshiping a god is to show your appreciation for it's creation it has made for us to experience. I see it as simply acknowledging the architect of the universe and giving it credit for doing so. Evolution is practically demeaning all the work and effort into creating every physical law, all symbiotic relationships in nature, the cosmos ect and saying it was all some cosmic accident with no cause. I'm not too much of a religious person, but I see the ten commandments and such as simple rules to follow to keep society in order. If you look at everything in nature, they all work together so seamlessly. Birds automatically fly in a V shape to do some shit with aerodynamics, all cells in your body seamlessly work together to enable something much bigger than themselves as a whole to work, the bees and the flowers work in perfect harmony.. the only real problem is humans which causes so much disorder in the world. If everyone were to follow the ten simple rules, I could imagine the world being a nicer place.
I'm a hasidic Jew and I can tell you with 100% truth that I don't fear G-d. There is nothing to fear about Him. Us hasidim are radically different than all other Jews though
it often baffles me that religious foke don't realize that they are living in fear, especially when so many religions seem to speak against living in fear. it makes no sense to fear God, especialy if he is as nice as religious foke say. if there is a God, he ought to not be feared... unless its an evil God and in that case no wonder people worship God. seriously makes me think that all these people are worshipping satan sometimes.
Those guys are probably Jehova's Witnesses. Whenever they come around I just say "I'm a Catholic." and they fuck right off.
Then why do you type G_d and not God? I do respect the Jewish people (and Hasidics) in the case of religion, however. They don't seem to preach. My mom is 100% Jewish. Not religious. But observes certain holidays for tradition. That's what she likes to call it. Tradition. So you have the long hair and beard?
I type G-d out of reverence for His name, which is all to often used improperly and with malice nowadays, but the religious and the unreligious alike. I have no reason to fear Him because He is not a G-d of damnation. Hasidim know that His essence, called Ein Sof, has been described as harsh and destructive in the past (and in the Torah). This is no problem because G-d reveals Himself to us differently, because we are each Him anyway. All things are. A million different descriptors make up the One G-d who is so above our descriptors that the way He is described in almost all Scripture is false. And yes, I do have the beard and hair haha. Just recently though, as of November. I also wear religious garments under my normal clothes daily, so I don't see the need to sport a top hat and suit like most Hasidim
A lot of these questions seem to be directed at Christianity and especially at the idea of a "personal god". As a theist who is an advocate of an impersonal god (who can manifest in a personal way at times), I can say this. Why worship god? Well, I personally see god as the creative force of the universe, as the source and beingness of all things. Worshipping god is not good or bad for god. God is beyond that. However, surrendering to the higher forces in this universe, giving up your need to control everything and accepting the way things are, and admiring the universe's beauty, and the beauty of existence are all ways of bringing greater happiness and understanding into your own life. It is for your benefit, not god's benefit. In other words focusing on god's qualities allows you to begin to manifest those qualities in your own life. God is beyond benefit. God does not care what we do.... When I meditate, or sing a mantra, or do breathing exercises, it is for my own good, my own spiritual development. Not to help god, because god doesn't need help. However I find god's presence so overwhelming at times that I know of no way to express the profound joy outside of singing "Om Namah Shivaya" or "Hare Krishna Hare Krishna krishna krishna hare hare....etc". So that is done only for god but god doesn't need it, it is just an experession of my own joy, my own admiration for god's infinite greatness and beauty. I agree with you that we don't need to press god on anyone. People can believe what they want to. I no longer argue with atheists, because I understand that most atheists have already taken into consideration almost anything I could say to them in their decision to become an atheist, just as I have taken essentially any argument an atheist could make to me in consideration during my decision to be a theist (seeing as I once was an atheist). Many religious followers do follow a religion based on their own fear. There are however, many of us who follow a spiritual path based on love. A lot of spirituality is much deeper than the "fairy tale" version which so many atheists despise, and which, I will admit, many people blindly follow. AS to the last few, first of all I think to protest evolution is absurd. In my humble opinion physical evolution is simply the material mirror of our soul's evolution back towards divinity (after the initial expansion of divinity outward into a material nature, it begins to retract, or evolve, back towards divinity). Secondly, you ask why there would be so many "word of god"s. Well, again, you assume there is a personal god. Think of god as the divine dreamer, and reality as the dream, manifested by an infinitely powerful "mind", if you could call it that. God simply doesn't care what people believe. God is beyond caring and not caring. On top of that, I would be careful to label the different spiritual belief systems as seperate and different. If you interpret the various texts and belief systems as they are meant to be interpreted, you will find that many of them are saying the exact same thing. We are bound to go back to the source eventually. Religion is not the only way. It may not even be the best way. It is simply a reminder of who we really are and how we can get back to truly realizing our selves as we exist eternally, and how we can realize god everyday existence, as well as how we can understand the more profound mysteries of existence.