Grex Reality Conference

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Grex Reality Item 47: Why do i need religion?
Entered by sj2 on Wed Feb 2 09:37:10 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?

19 responses total.

#1 of 19 by i on Thu Feb 3 01:33:12 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.

#2 of 19 by sj2 on Thu Feb 24 10:53:25 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.

#3 of 19 by mary on Thu Feb 24 13:28:14 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?

#4 of 19 by md on Thu Feb 24 14:43:05 2000:

He said "sneer at," not "question."

#5 of 19 by mary on Thu Feb 24 20:53:33 2000:

And my question was about questioning.  Is questioning someone's
heart-felt beliefs okay in your book, sj2?

#6 of 19 by i on Fri Feb 25 04:00:10 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.

#7 of 19 by md on Fri Feb 25 13:35:23 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?

#8 of 19 by mary on Fri Feb 25 23:24:33 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. ;-)

#9 of 19 by md on Sat Feb 26 00:02:35 2000:

This response has been erased.

#10 of 19 by md on Sat Feb 26 00:06:34 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.

#11 of 19 by sj2 on Mon Apr 3 16:23:04 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?

#12 of 19 by kmizuno on Sun Nov 10 05:49:12 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.

#13 of 19 by vishruth on Fri Jan 24 05:59:22 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.

#14 of 19 by md on Thu Feb 6 21:13:01 2003:

But what if somebody is really really annoying?

#15 of 19 by styles on Sat Feb 8 05:53:16 2003:

wanna hear the most annoying sound in the world?



                AKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAK
                AKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAK
                AKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAK
                AKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAK
                AKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAK

#16 of 19 by vishruth on Thu Mar 13 15:28:01 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.

#17 of 19 by stormy on Tue Jun 17 00:43:19 2003:

I was wondering where all of the INTELLIGENT conversations have gone. It seems
I have found them. :D .

#18 of 19 by squier on Thu Nov 11 01:46:44 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.

#19 of 19 by jondoe on Tue Jan 11 06:14:41 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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