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Jadey · 10-20-2003, 11:35 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by NiceGuy
Hope. Religion gives one hope in a society where it is hard to find hope in anything. Never underestimate the power of hope. As a society, we can only live without religion if there is another great source of hope. Yes a nation can be civilized without being spiritual, as long as the laws of the nation are founded upon being civilized and good, and as long as there is another great source of hope. Can strong religious beliefs be a hinderance to living a full life? No. Only if the religious beliefs are taken out of context, and only if the person has closed their mind to outside ideals, will it be a hinderance. If a person closes their mind and doesn't respect others who believe differently than oneself, then that person is causing the hinderance living their full life. Not the religion. The problem is too many people blame the religion for the belief and attitude of the person, when it is the person that is at fault. This is obviously assuming that by religion, one is talking about the root believes of the religion, and that the religion is not a cult, or cult-like offspring of the religion that although claiming to be a part of a major religion, belives nothing that the real religion believes. I say root of the religion because many religions, including my own, catholicism, are corrupted by people in different parts of the world, causing many to believe in something which goes against the core of the religion. It is many of these false beliefs that make good religions look bad, and are a root cause of false generalizations. Don't generalize religion by what you hear from others or see others do. Instead look at what the people are suppost to be believing in, the core of the religion. Just because a person says that their religion believes something, even if that person is a priest or preacher, it doesn't mean that it's true. One must look deeper into the text(s) of the religion if they are to find the truth.

I think you pretty much summarized my feelings on this whole thing. As I said before I think many people use their religion as a crutch. Though I do not mean that in a bad way necessarily. Many people need to believe in something to explain the unexplainable and to help give them a sense of meaning and belonging. As you said without that sense of belonging this is usually an overwhelming feeling of despair and hopelessness. So, hope is a VERY big part of it, as you and Rubyee said above.