The whole idea of religion is to take faith which is natural and innate in all of us and chain it. We have faith in each other, faith that the sun will come up, faith that one day we will die, faith in finding love, faith in having children, faith in having happiness, faith in humanity, faith in god. None of this faith is bound it is just humanity. Faith is an act of humanity. Faith is instinctive within the human race. Our faith when allowed to be naturally human is the purest faith.
Religion is the rules that bind faith. Religion is not faith. Religion is a control doctrine which inhibits our natural faith. It uses our faith in that which is greater and purer to sullen and dirty us all.
That is religion.
bigstick1
how you know about God? Have you seen God? Or you learn about God through religion?
The answer is no one knows God. The concept of God is a feeling of something beyond our understanding. Religion is one of the primary teachings of a God concept. Here is my stance I will never discount the belief that there is something more beyond my concept, beyond my reality and beyond my understanding. Now you can call that concept God or just a equate it to a different reality. However, I will never believe in religion. That is a manmade doctrine. That doctrine harnesses this concept for its own selfish reasons.
What are the selfish reasons as far as Jesus is concerned?
Jesus is a person or a concept that organized religion used to put forth a political agenda under a Roman Caesar. Many of the supposed doctrines surrounding the story of Jesus were destroyed when compiling the Bible. Now all we have is the church’s story that they did not differ in context. However many of the findings of the Nag Hammadi shows further discrepancies from the original gospels. That includes that Judas was abiding by Jesus’s instruct to turn him over, that the 12 apostles were not the best of men, etc. To me the story of Jesus is nothing more than that a story. In addition, many different factions of Christianity were persecuted as could be seen with the Gnostics. Who is to say which version is correct. In addition the Gospel of Mark which is the earliest known document appears to be read in a manner according to scholars as an allegory. It also stops abruptly according to scholars meaning that there may have been more that the crafters of the Bible didn’t want known. Then in Mark it alludes to the fact that the 12 apostles were also not the best of them. So who is to say what really went on back then. I however do not believe that Jesus was real but if he was then he was no more than a ordinary man whereby people embellished the story of Jesus, 50 to 100 years after his supposed death.
The faith you describe as natural is hardly unproblematic in itself. At least some of its features (e.g. faith i God) are inextricably linked to specific tenets of religious traditions.
Yes, some aspects of spirituality are linked to religion. However, that is only because spiruality and faith was needed to ensure that the religion could draw in people. Often times when people have started the religion they are then required to adhere to a certain set of rules and moray. Now you have entered into a doctrine designed for societial control. So you are now required to enforce the rules and often times those who don’t follow are ostracized, shunned, shamed, or worse. Religion was designed as a political tool to ensure control of the masses. Religion incorporates an Us against Them doctrine. It incorporates men against women, women against men, heterosexual vs. homosexual, chosen against the not chosen, Free thinkers against Narrow thinkers, Christian against Islam, Islam against Christians, etc. Religion is often used by charlatans, dictators, and profiteers. This is what religion is to me.
Now that is not to say there are not good religious people, however; often times it is because they don’t adhere to many of the tenets of their religion that make them better people. At least in my view.
That’s an interesting interpretation. the trouble is there isn’t much empirical evidence to favor it over the possibility that at least some of those concepts (e.g. God or specific family connections) aren’t so basic at all. There is no reason to suppose that they would be objects of faith in the absence of religion (or some comparable social system).
This is true however, there is no empirical evidence for the existence of god or that religion has any connection to such an entity.
However, more could be said for the person’s ability to have faith in something even if it is your husband/wife coming home for the day or that tomorrow will exist. However, there is no evidence that any of that will happen until husband/wife actually arrives or you awake to the next day. So in that aspect faith is something that can be quantified by the person but the outcome, reliablity, and validity of the belief is dependent upon outside factors.
I should clarify that my belief of faith is that it exists separate from religion and also faith is not dependent upon God or religion. As some people have faith that such an entity does not exist or that religion does not do a body or soul any good.