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| Author |
Message |
sj2
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Why do i need religion?
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Feb 2 09:37 UTC 2000 |
Why do i need religion or the concept of god at all? All i know is that
i should treat my fellow human beings with respect, care about them and
be truthful. Is there anything more to it?
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| 19 responses total. |
i
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response 1 of 19:
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Feb 3 01:33 UTC 2000 |
Various religions offer all sorts of things: inspiration to be better,
spiritual feelings, community, reassuring ritual, simple & stable
world-views, rules to live by, divine love, inner serenity, etc. If
you don't need such things or find that you don't get them from
religion, then there's no particular reason to bother with religion.
Make sure that you aren't rejecting religion in general because of
unhappy experiences with bad religion (there's plenty of bad religion
in this world), and don't add to nonreligion's bad reputation by
sneering at religions or religious people.
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sj2
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response 2 of 19:
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Feb 24 10:53 UTC 2000 |
I understand that religion is all about beliefs and faith and there is
no bigger disrespect to a person that sneering at his/her faith or
beliefs.
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mary
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response 3 of 19:
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Feb 24 13:28 UTC 2000 |
Does it matter at all what those beliefs are about and how they
play out in action? Or should we simply not question anything
to do with a person's religion?
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md
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response 4 of 19:
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Feb 24 14:43 UTC 2000 |
He said "sneer at," not "question."
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mary
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response 5 of 19:
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Feb 24 20:53 UTC 2000 |
And my question was about questioning. Is questioning someone's
heart-felt beliefs okay in your book, sj2?
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i
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response 6 of 19:
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Feb 25 04:00 UTC 2000 |
The "...religion is all about beliefs and faith..." in #2 sounds
very much like one school of thought in Western Christianity. I
have my doubts about defining religion that way.
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md
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response 7 of 19:
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Feb 25 13:35 UTC 2000 |
I fear Sid has gone away. Before I would answer your
question, Mary, I'd be curious to learn whether there's
anything lurking behind your word "questioning." Do
you mean, "Gee, tell me more about the Sermon on the
Mount," or what, exactly?
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mary
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response 8 of 19:
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Feb 25 23:24 UTC 2000 |
Nothing was lurking there. I was just trying to figure out what sj2's
comment encompassed. Today I took care of a woman who was emphatic about
wearing a religious token all through her operation. So we taped the
plastic oval containing a picture of some saint and (what was stated to
be) a very tiny swatch of his clothing to her chest. I'd not comment on
something like that. She needs it and she isn't hurting anyone by
clinging to her fantasy.
But my question to sj2 is more like, is it okay to question, say a
Catholic, for financially supporting an institution which is responsible
for keeping poor people reproducing like rabbits. Or the whole annulment
for the rich and famous schtick. And what about child molesting priests
who are sheltered by the church. And, well, you get the idea. Those are
pretty fair questions but you'd be amazed at how many Catholics tend to
think they shouldn't be asked.
But I'm really not interested in getting into another big blow-out
discussion over religion. Been there, done that, and it hasn't been
long enough to be fun, yet. Which is not a snide remark. ;-)
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md
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response 9 of 19:
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Feb 26 00:02 UTC 2000 |
This response has been erased.
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md
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response 10 of 19:
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Feb 26 00:06 UTC 2000 |
Is it okay to question a Catholic for financially
supporting an institution which is responsible
for keeping poor people reproducing like rabbits?
Well, Sid is talking about sneering and how
disrespectful it is. If your "questioning" --
which I still don't have a very clear impression
of -- does not take the form of sneering at the
Catholic person's faith, then I guess Sid would
say it was "okay" (your word).
If you want to make someone feel like doodoo for
giving money to the Church, however, your right
to do so is unquestioned, at least by me -- as is
my right to suggest that making people feel like
doodoo is perhaps something we don't do.
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sj2
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response 11 of 19:
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Apr 3 16:23 UTC 2000 |
Nothing wrong in my books about questioning. I was talking about
disrespect. Maybe my view of life would help explain what i wanted to
say. I believe in helping others as far as i can, speaking truth to
myself and others and generally strive to be human. As far as religion
is concerned or any other beliefs are concerned, i believe in
respecting them as long as they do not harm others ( like the concept
of jehad or mujahideen ). The bottomline is if you believe in
something, its none of my business to judge you or try convince you
otherwise. And as long as the "religious" activities end up helping
people like the numerous religious missionaries running schools and
hospitals, i am all for religion.
Like i said, all the religion is okay as long as it helps people but
once it starts doing otherwise, it is serious time to drag it into the
court of humanity. So it is like do whatever you want to, believe in
whatever you want to, eat anything, wear anything, sing anything but
try and be a human. Ok, i am sounding like a saint which i am certainly
not and don't intend to be one but the entire human thing struck me
once when on some kind of show participants were asked how they would
be liked to be remembered and people made long speeches but this guy
simply said he would like to be remembered as a human being which made
me thing about what and who a human is?
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kmizuno
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response 12 of 19:
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Nov 10 05:49 UTC 2002 |
i think this is all kind of a "lame monk at the waterfall" question... if i
think one way, and somebody else thinks another way, and i believe that their
thinking this way will hurt them (make them go to hell, or whatever) should
i try to change them and make them not be hurt, and crush their beliefs with
my feet, or should i leave them alone, let the possibility "of them going to
hell" remain, and leave their beliefs intact?... to tell the truth, i think
one should simply try to open the minds of others... because that's all we
can really do in the end,.. is let them make their own decision.. that's where
life (or god, perhaps) draws the line, i believe.
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vishruth
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response 13 of 19:
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Jan 24 05:59 UTC 2003 |
"to tell the truth, i think one should simply try to open the minds of
others" - Kuma Mizuno.
Why do you think that it is somebody else's mind that is closed and not
your own mind? If you were to think that others are wrong and you are
right... that is to say, if you think that only your views are the
correct ones and the others' views are baseless... I think that your
mind would be a closed mind in itself. First, I'd say, open your own
mind. And why shouldn't we all let the people do their own choosing and
thinking? Trying to thrust our views upon others only shows that we
think we are superior and others are inferior to ourselves.
Well, I've used a lot of 'we's up there. But I was merely expressing my
opinions and was not asking anybody to follow my opinions.
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md
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response 14 of 19:
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Feb 6 21:13 UTC 2003 |
But what if somebody is really really annoying?
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styles
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response 15 of 19:
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Feb 8 05:53 UTC 2003 |
wanna hear the most annoying sound in the world?
AKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAK
AKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAK
AKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAK
AKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAK
AKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAK
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vishruth
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response 16 of 19:
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Mar 13 15:28 UTC 2003 |
"But what if somebody is really really annoying?" - Michael Delizia (in
post # 14)
When somebody tells me about something to think about... I do think
about it. And when somebody persistently pesters me, I just ignore him.
No matter how I deal with them, I definitely don't try to use their own
methods against them just because I want to get even.
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stormy
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response 17 of 19:
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Jun 17 00:43 UTC 2003 |
I was wondering where all of the INTELLIGENT conversations have gone. It seems
I have found them. :D .
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squier
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response 18 of 19:
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Nov 11 01:46 UTC 2004 |
As a firm believer in Christianity, I believe that you need to believe in a
lord and savior, and that that is Jesus Christ. But everyone has their
beliefs, and I am just sharing mine. So there is a reason to believe in a
God.
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jondoe
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response 19 of 19:
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Jan 11 06:14 UTC 2005 |
Re: #0 . i don't even really know if i should 'care about and be
truthful' to others. if we detach religion and our believes from what we
see happening in nature we ( atleast I) should that self care is the
best and only purpose one should have. everything else is secondary.
someone is trying to end his life, then no one else shd try to interfere
as others don't really know what that person is going through.
we inherently know that to do good to others is ... well... good and to
hurt others is bad in someway. i think we have developed religion to
account for this.
one more way to explain religion is that when we are young( when even
fulfiling our basic needs is out of our hands) we have someone to look
over us andwe feel safe in the thought that our parents wish our good
even when it conflicts with what we think. when we grow up, we still
need this "god figure" above us, so that we can relegate all the
responsibility to him if something goes wrong.
when something too terible hits us, we tend to give up( surrender t
thee) otherwise it may be difficult to continue. like in the recent
tsunami calamity, if there had been no religion ( people accepting that
things done by god) there would have been more chaos than is already.
( I need to better organise by thoughts!)
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