nohitters

I've been a christian all my life but as ive grown, I've started to think about it a little more. I guess the thing that bothers me the most is the fact that christianity basically tells you that worshipping any gods other that God himself is considered somewhat satanic and is a high ranking sin. This bothers me because christianity was created pretty much during Roman times and hundreds of other religions were created before it was a mere thought processed in somebody's head. What are some of your POV's on this?

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Seanland

Religion I think is a very touchy subject to alot of people. Me Personally am not very religious, Religion to me is more of a tradition passed on from generations. Your parents taught you what they believe and their parents taught them and so on. If your a christian and believe in christianity I'd say stick with it. If your having doubts, I don't know what to tell you. No one has control over what someone else believes in. Different people believe different things happened at different times, to me thats the main reason their are so many different religions
Just My Two Cents

Church

I was baptised a christian, but I don't follow the religion at all. My religion is this. I believe that there is SOMETHING controlling what's going on. Don't confuse this as me saying that I believe God exists, but I believe that some force has a say in what happens.

The reason I don't follow christianity is because I don't believe that religion should be controlling by using fear of hell, rather it should be controlling by good means.

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Slavakion

My thoughts on religion:
It doesn't matter who or what you believe in. Follow your personal morality and live a good life. If you're confused as to what your morals "should" be (you should really figure it out for yourself), then the 10 commandments are a pretty good guide.
If you're a good person, it doesn't matter what you worship or don't worship. If there is an afterlife, then you should be rewarded for your deeds.

TheFrogel

Ah, that's not entirely true. If you really want to get into it: Christians believe that their religion was founded by Jesus Christ, who was (as believers say) both fully human and fully divine. So it wasn't quite a 'mere' thought, it was a divinely inspired action.

Although some times I do think like you as well. "What the hell? They had crazy religions back in the day, someone came up with the idea of religion at some point." But I see it in a very weird way; yes, back before 30 AD, there were many religions, and a few main ones (Judaism for example), but most of those weren't inspired, they were all human creations. I think that Jesus came as a savior who kinda...organized what's going on, took all those disparate religions and basically said "Alright, this is the way it is, I'm the God that these religions were talking about. Believe it or don't." The thing that I really like about Christianity, and Catholicism in particular, is that it was founded by God, not just man.

Of course, believe that or don't, it's entirely up to you, as it's always been. That's the official standpoint of the Catholic Church though: it was founded by Jesus Christ, who was divine.

(Weird stuff about Jesus vs Jesus Christ: Jesus was the man who lived, breated, ate, drank, dueced, and worked on carpentry for 30 or so years, up until he died. He's only called "Jesus Christ" after His resurrection, and he could do some crazy stuff. Walk through doors, ascend to Heaven, raise from the dead, weird shit. He was physically there but not when he didn't want to be, it was called a "wonderful body". I want one.)

But I'm still trying to figure it all out, but I don't think I ever will, at some point it's gotta be taken on faith. I personally have some weird ideas, too, about religion, despite being baptised and confirmed Catholic. I don't like how there's the fear of hell, but if you just look at the Gospels, it's not as much about 'fear of hell' as 'love Jesus'. I like reading the four Gospels more than anything else, because it's...simpler, it's approximately what Jesus said and did during his life and ministry.

skysooner

Every different Christian religion has a different take on God and Jesus and their interaction. I had the same questions you had, and I tried different denominations till I found one close to what I wanted and then I tried different churches within that denomination till I found one that allowed me freedom to believe what I wanted to believe and made it safe to question things. Since that time I have decided to switch churches yet again as I have grown some more, and I needed something different to help me grow some more. I take my faith beliefs from many different sources to come up with something that works for me and me alone. Every person is going to have a different take on God and what it all means.

Cynthetiq

baptized a catholic...went to catholic schools until college. I became disenchanted with the church as I got to high school and started to seek out more knowledge. I learned all the eastern religions and philosophies and decided to just take what I can from them and live a positive lifelstyle.

I have not been back to the church in over a decade and no real interest in it.

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nohitters

[QUOTE=TheFrogel]Ah, that's not entirely true. If you really want to get into it: Christians believe that their religion was founded by Jesus Christ, who was (as believers say) both fully human and fully divine. So it wasn't quite a 'mere' thought, it was a divinely inspired action.

QUOTE]

This isn't exactly true either because if Jesus founded the religion then it wouldn't have been around in the B.C times which can't be right considering half the bible is written during that generally large era.

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Sweetpea

I think it's great your questioning . . . We're supposed to question, questioning ourselves, life and our theories of God, bring us closer to what we believe and hold to be true.
Questioning things = good.

I believe in a higher power, god, spirit, whatever religions like to call it. I don't believe in organized religions though . . . I was raised Catholic, went to catholic schools, the whole bit . . .
Why would God say . . . If you don't believe this small fact about a man named jesus, but you are an otherwise good person who contributes love and kindess to the world, but you're STILL going to hell according the the Bible because you don't believe said fact about Jesus. That doesn't make any sense, God is not hateful, if He really 'loves us all' then why on earth would he send good people to 'hell' for not believing about jesus?? . . . Why would God feel do that? The answer . . . He/She wouldn't . . .

I've actually had Christian people tell me . . . "well, you seem like a really good person (i'm in social work) . . . but if you don't accept Jesus as you 'personal savior' you're going to hell" . . . I felt like " !!!! " but i merely smiled and said 'sorry you feel that way.'

Almost every single religion in the world states that "our way is the ONLY way to God" . . . because they want you to stay with their religion. It's about control in some small form, if they wanted people to get closer to God, they would encourage them to find a way to God that works for them personally.

No one ever stops to say: hey, maybe there are all these different religions, because every person finds God in a different way

I think that God wanted us to be accepting of everyone's beliefs, buddhist, christian, jewish, taoist, catholic . . . whatever someone holds to be their belief, i respect and honor that and i think that the 'higher power' does too.

thanks,

Sweetpea

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SAM821

This isnt true as well.. though you are correct that Jesus was not the founder of Christianity, He was a reformer of Judaism. People like Paul, formerly a Jew called Saul, were the ones that took Jesus' life as a Holy one, and saw him as Christ

Christ is just another word that means messiah. Its not Jesus' last name... Christianity was created around 70 C.E. when the gospels were first written, The Gospels were the New Testament. Since Christianity spawned from Judaism, they believed in the Old Testament which is very very similar to the Hebrew Bible, just about the same.... The romans DID NOT adapt Christianity, as the religion of their empire until The Roman King Theodosius made it the official religion of the empire in 394...

Now enough for the history lesson....

My view on faith and religion is simple... I am a Catholic, but I am starting to realize that all religions have some clues to the "truth" that we all seek. you just have to really see all religions and find what there goal is... Buddhism is a kind of religion thats purpose is to train the mind by meditation to become enlightened and escape the circle of life by attaining nirvana (path of liberation). hinduism is unique because of there strong belief in reincarnation, and by the way they too have a trinity just like christianity... Judaism I believe had the correct Ideas, they just focused on the wrong practices. They believed that there Messiah would come to save them, problem for them is, Was Jesus that Messiah?... Unforunately, 2000 years have passed and no major revelations have happened since... so there is a question as to What are we doing wrong...

Anyway, bottom line is You HAVE TO BELIEVE... find a way to discover THE TRUTH, in become ONE with God, however it may be... all the religions in the world may all be connected in one way and we have no idea....

There is my two cents...

CoachAlan

Nohitters, the very first Commandment is that you must only worship YHWH. The first Commandment probably explains why Christians tell you "worshipping any gods other that God himself is considered somewhat satanic and is a high ranking sin."

As an affirmed agnostic, allow me to share some other insights. Zen Buddhists have a saying that "There are many paths to the top of Mt. Fuji, but there is only one summit." In the Baghavad Gita, Krishna tells Arjuna, "All those who worship other gods, with deep faith, are really worshiping me, even if they don't know it."

I would argue that there's nothing wrong with believing in God/gods. The teaching of Jesus will generally lead you down a path of kindness and goodness, as will the teachings of the Buddha or of Confucius or whoever. Likewise, I think that atheists can lead equally fulfilled and moral lives. Don't believe in God just for the sake of believing, though. That's Pascal's Wager, and it won't work. You need to look deeply, do some searching, and figure out what's in your heart.

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Kostya

What is to be said about this can be said succintly.

Firstly, I contest the idea that 'Christianity' even exists. Which is to say, that I do not think that anyone here would say that there is a definitive 'true' doctrine of Christianity, but rather a large number of doctrines which are lumped together under the same term.

Secondly, I do not actually understand what this sentence means: "This bothers me because christianity was created pretty much during Roman times and hundreds of other religions were created before it was a mere thought processed in somebody's head."

However, I think that it is probably far far less perturbing than other objections which could be raised.

This however is somewhat misleading since I do not think there are any objections which make Christianity impossible.

In terms of religious pluralism, the idea that all religions are different interpretations of the same God, I think there is something to be said. Firstly, it is entirely possible that this idea is true. However, I fail to see how one could believe this and the idea of Divine Revelation.

martinguerre

ditto kostya on Christianity being plural, multiple, and contested. from the very beginning to this day.

so...what i get from that is a freedom to make choices in my practice. i consider it my duty to respect and know the classic formulations, and to pay attention to what the rest of Christendom is doing. but i do consider it my perogative to tell the story in my own words as well. i don't treat the options of Christianities as binding litmus tests, but as the vocabulary with which i can speak.

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pig

nohitters, clarify your question, please. what are our thoughts on the question of the beginning of christianity, and the potential paradox concerning the possibility of worshipping in a Christian/Judaic fashion before it was a recognizable religion, or thoughts on religion itself?

As to the first, if you're Christian, then I guess those people are pretty much SOL. I don't really know, as I don't know whatever the official position of whichever flavor of Christianity you adopt is.

As far as religion goes, I would say that organized religion represents an natural tendency of a society to encapsulate it's citizen's spiritual/philosophical/scientific beliefs, and that they need to be updated every so often. I think the best way to go is to make up your own, after consulting as many sources as you can, and then update it dynamically. Other people like different systems. Do what makes sense to you and feels right. Whatever you adopt, live by those principles. If you can't, then change your principles to reflect your life.

Just a little pigglet's opinion.

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