Religions are fairy tales for adults. Should we encourage them to grow up?

and the sky is blue.

 

From my perspective (viewing from my living room window) it appears to be a bit cloudy -- overcast -- kinda grayish.

 

oh lost irony, found.

 

And back to the topic of the thread.

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...give-religions-more-than-82-5-billion-a-year/

82.5 billion a year.

Regards
DL

 

That is just my real initials.

How do I know what is just about equality. I know because I agree with every legal system on the planet that is based on equality before the law.

Do you not believe in equality?

Regards
DL

 

Jews never ate Jews so why would you read that passage literally?

Regards
DL

 

So you're saying you believe in those laws based on the 10 commandments as well,correct?
What if something isn't covered by one of those laws,then what?
How do you know the difference between right and wrong?

 

Interesting that you would think that two words used by different authors that are divided by who knows how long would relate to each other.

I guess that you have not seen this bit that shows that Jews used to add and subtract words and move them about just to stimulate the seeking after God.

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/03132009/watch.html

Rabbi Hillel, the older contemporary of Jesus, said that when asked to sum up the whole of Jewish teaching, while he stood on one leg, said, "The Golden Rule. That which is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor. That is the Torah. And everything else is only commentary. Now, go and study it."

Please listen as to what is said about literal reading.

"Origen, the great second or third century Greek commentator on the Bible said that it is absolutely impossible to take these texts literally. You simply cannot do so. And he said, "God has put these sort of conundrums and paradoxes in so that we are forced to seek a deeper meaning."

Regards
DL

 

Not hurting!

The mainstream religions are responsible for most of the homophobia and misogyny in the world. They have institutionalized those immoral tenets.

Further.

I will give you this and if you still feel that religions should not be questioned and even put down because of their beliefs, you are not a moral person and I would prefer you did not bother with me.

-----------------------

For the evils of religion to grow, read any scripture literally.

Any and all harmless beliefs are allowed by Gnostic Christians. We know that any myth can be internalized for good results and as esoteric ecumenists, we enjoy knowledge of all the myths that man has created about Gods.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oR02ciandvg&feature=BFa&list=PLCBF574D

When there is a victim is when that view changes. Then you see why Christianity annihilated Gnostic Christianity. We do not let the evils of forced literalism go unopposed. To a tyrant like Constantine, we were poison. One of his first commands to his new Church was to kill off the free thinkers and of course, his new tool, his Church, did as bid. It was quite a ride for free thought for the next 1,000 years.

How can a Gnostic Christian, --- and any other free thinking moral person, --- not judge other's morals when seeing someone hurt other because of the same Church's teachings today?

Can you ignore such things if you have decent morals? Impossible. Especially with Islam pulling the same murderous, freedom stifling ****.

We must discriminate and judge constantly. Every law is a compulsion on all of us to judge.

It is my view that all right wing literalists and fundamentals hurt all of us who are moral religionists, --- as well as those who do not believe. Literalists hurt their parent religions --- and everyone else, be he a believer or not. Literalists and the right wing of religions make us all into laughing stocks. Their God of talking animals, genocidal floods and retribution has got to go. So must beliefs in fantasy, miracles and magic. These are all evil.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2zhlDbMfDg

They also do much harm to their own fellow adherents.

African witches and Jesus
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MlRG9gXriVI

Jesus Camp 1of 3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LACyLTsH4ac

Death to Gays.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyuKLyGUHNE

For evil to grow my friend, all good people need do is nothing. Fight literalism when you can. It is your duty to our fellow man.

Regards
DL

 

Our instincts are hardwired to know that and then society and it's teaching take over when children mature.

Right and wrong are subjective. The same thing, killing for instance, can be wrong in 99.9% of cases but the other .01% could be good under the right conditions. Did you ever watch the T.V. show 24? One or two of their episodes had what one might call legal murders.

Regards
DL

 

Gee... a smart man such as yourself not being able to recognize a metaphor. tsk tsk.

 

When you receive the gift of discernment, come back and talk to us about religion. Otherwise you might want to stick to your sci-fi jargon. BTW: the opinions of other men mean little to me.. however the words of the Holy Spirit take precedence over anything that a man can say.

 

Incorporeal: I don't see how your post is relevant to the discussion.

 

Now we are getting to it. Metaphor for what?

IMO, One of the possibilities could be, as elsewhere in scriptures, the debate between shepherding and farming.

As Joseph Campbell said, in the Jewish heyday, they were seen as killers because of all the rape and pillage they did as shepherds and at various parts of their history, they had to choose between farming and flocking.

Regards
DL

 

Yes they are.
"14For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: 15Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another "
http://biblehub.com/kjv/romans/2.htm
So yes,We agree there.

 

Then you just go ahead and listen to your holly spook.

I can't compete with your supernatural buddies. Hell I don't even have a Pooka.

Regards
DL

- - - Updated - - -

He was looking to salve his wound from an earlier encounter. Just a bit of childish hurt pride.

Regards
DL

 

I am pleased we agree even though that quote is quite difficult to dither out. It seems that the Gentiles had the law written in their hearts which is what Jesus preached we should all do.

Is that how you are reading it?

Regards
DL

 

May be they do not want it but they have got special rights. They have no responsibilities but only privileges it is not how laws should work in civilized country.

 

Indeed."Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness,"

 

What? Are you asking me to explain something to you? My goodness that would imply that science has failed you in all the tutoring that you received studying all those theories, and proposals, and speculations. Ahhhh... that's the answer.... it is always the answer for folks of the scientific mindset.... SPECULATE. ... or spend an equal amount of time in studying the Word of God (not the 'Bible').

Shepherding is a form of farming. So your perspective is skewed on that subject.

And you close the input with another OPINION of another man. No wonder you are having such a problem.

 

"holly spook".... A spook that is made of holly... Wow.... do you have a picture of that design? I am curious as to what it would look like.

As for your closing paragraph: I already knew that you could not compete with the Holy Spirit... so does your statement "I can't compete with your supernatural buddies." mean that you are abandoning any discussion with me on this issue?

 

How I wish they were limited to adults. The real shame is when children are indoctrinated into a religion in a cultish manner. The fact is that no matter how big and "mainstream" a religion gets, it is still a cult in its essence, and it is as a cult that all religions start as well. People are lied to and otherwise indoctrinated into religions the same way that they are indoctrinated into nominal cults, and the end result is comparable as well.

 

Indeed as I am speaking in the context of the individual whereas you seem to focus on the group level. Religion is not any one thing as it is but a reflection of billions of people who are an amalgam of good and bad... just like the rest of humanity.

Religions are not responsible for anything as religion is an amalgam of inanimate objects (Church/building, Bible/book) and subjective theological interpretations based upon a tangible book/scroll/tablet/etc. Blaming religion for the bad actions of some of its practitioners makes about as much sense as blaming forks, spoons and knives as the cause of obesity. People are responsible for their actions and to place blame on religion or a fork is blame misplaced.

I argue that people are the problem, not religion. There are plenty of people outside of religion that do horrible things also, should we blame their despicable acts upon not being religious? Religion or lack thereof is not the cause of the strife we see in the world as humanity has only itself to blame. Perhaps your overall argument would hold water if not for the many instances of non religious people doing horrible things also. Theism and atheism is just a convenient scapegoat for the unobjective.

I disagree as there are 2.2 billion Christians on the earth and they do not speak with one unified voice as to what is or is not moral or immoral. I personally know Christians who support same sex marriage and reject misogyny but see a relationship as a 50/50 partnership. To stereotype all by the actions of some is illogical by my measure of logic.

My morality is based upon the thought that the boundary that separates an action form an immoral action is harm and without harm I see no justification to assign a judgment of immorality. To judge all religion as a negative is illogical by my measure of logic, but to judge an individual by their actions is in line with my moral litmus test. It is immoral by my measure of morality to judge the whole by the actions of the few ergo IMO it is immoral to judge all religion by the actions of some within that religion. To judge all in a group as a negative by the actions of some is to ignore those of the same group who act in a positive way and reject the negative actions of the few.

You have mastered pointing out the negative but the objective will also see the positive. You point out the exceptions and imply that they are the rule. Religion is a reflection of humanity thus both good and bad... to think otherwise is to lack objectivity by my measure of objectivity. So if you want to throw mud at religion, be my guest as if you take a look at my posts on this very forum from two years ago you would find me doing the same. But after much angry rants I came to see that my anger was misdirected as I was erroneously attacking the whole for the harmful actions of the few... which I now see was illogical and lacking any objectivity.

 

Still trying to fit people into little neat boxes so you can tell then they're wrong I see.