Quote:
Originally posted by harry
For me being a Christian is more a matter of philosophy than religion. I am convinced the world would be much better a place if everyone lived by the rules that Jesus taught his followers. I try to share what I have, I accept others the way they are, I commit myself for what I think is right. I try to be a good person and the New Testament gives me a set of rules on how to do that.
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My problem is the values that christianity push are not necessarily any better morally - if we all had to observe christian ethics there would be no homosexuality, sex before marriage, and a whole slew of other things that are only bad because 'God said so' (or were quite possibly added in by the Church at some point) - this can lead many people to the wrong conclusions about things, example being 'that homosexuals are bad people'
There may be another religion without the gratuitious values but still promotion of kindness as the 'be a good person' mantra is certainly not unique to christianity. Although it would be nice if everyone was kind and considerate to one another, it is unrealistic - it would never happen even if religion was universal. Many people are just naturally self-orientated.
I think religion is only a personal weakness if people believe they have no reason to live without it, or that is alright to kill/rape/torture if they won't be eternally punished, or if they will only do kind things because of the lure of an eternal reward. It is certainly not running away from the "truth" (that we live in a materialistic world, also please note the quotation marks) - it is quite possible that we don't and will never be able to figure out the metaphysical truth to the universe to know for sure.
$0.02