Here are a few thoughts about religion.
Religion came from our species need to believe that help was always available, especially in circumstances that could not be exspained.
It also has one of the best selling points of any known philosophy.
I call it after death security,this is for those that are still breathing of course.
No individual would like to believe that when they exit planet earth for whatever reason,the only future they have is to keep the grave diggers and crematorium workers employed or fatten the worms in the local cemetaries.
Now for a comment on the churches or should I say the corporations .
How about they forget their philosophical differences and quests for power and start a quest for the betterment of humanity.
After all isn't that what the religion and the churches are all about.
If anyone of the many Gods exist ,they will all be popping Valium like there's no tomorrow.
Ooops sorry about the pun.
I am sure religion and the churches were'nt designed to be used the way they are now.
Maybe the only thing that would bring all of our species together in a common cause is an inter planetary war.

[Mep]

I was with you up to the interplanetary war bit :-)

Actually though quite a lot of the threads here either end up in political or religious debate / argument..................so at least the forums remain true to life!

[GBDG1]

go on.. be honest, you're a scientologist arn't you... Tom?

If you only knew

No Tom, not a scientologist mate just an old sceptic mate.
But I know some one who is , he believes everything came from the enterprise.

Would that be the Starship Enterprise ??????

Big Ted

[GBDG1]

My name's not Tom... However I may have been suggesting you were a famous scientologist named Tom... possibly.

Originally Posted by mep

I was with you up to the interplanetary war bit :-)

Actually though quite a lot of the threads here either end up in political or religious debate / argument..................so at least the forums remain true to life!

Yes ,I believe they do mate .I'm starting to feel at home here.

Beam me up Scotty


Big Ted

Sorry Lawrenzeni, nope never been anywhere near a scientologist church old son.But one day when I'm in the grip of the grape I might.

I know mep, the enterprise was a bit much even I had a hard time swallowing it as I was writing the post.

[GBDG1]

The thing that gets me about organised religion is the contradictions... god is all forgiving yet there is a place called hell... where those people who this all forgiving god... well... err...


I don't think that the idea of some sort of god is such a bad one, we all need abit of humility. However organised religion is just nonesense...

I'm so bored of the way religion gets a bad wrap because of the misunderstandings and subsequent screw-ups of its adherents. Religion should be known by its principles and those able to live up to these, not by its weaker practitioners and their garbled interpretations of the system they claim to represent.

I thoroughly agree lawrenzeni the whole thing is a contrived load of crap , on Australian TV the other night there was a program about how the KGB tried to bump off a not to sypathetic pope, and how the super powers were vying for the massive political influence he had.

Shadowritten
There is merit in what you say, faith without the need for power,
and adherence to a humanitarian based philosophy is indeed noble.
The only problem is except in a very few cases ,it is swept away in manufacterd populous belief.

Thank you all for the pleasure of your company, it's late evening here and I am going to have a cup of tea . I hope to speak to you all again.
PS.
what dose the bad post sign indicate other than the obvious.

[Mep]

its for reporting a bad post to the mods

[Mr.D]

If it looks like a duck...

[shahedz]

Originally Posted by shadowritten

I'm so bored of the way religion gets a bad wrap because of the misunderstandings and subsequent screw-ups of its adherents. Religion should be known by its principles and those able to live up to these, not by its weaker practitioners and their garbled interpretations of the system they claim to represent.

agreed!

[mjn]

Religion? Biggest scam going.

Originally Posted by shadowritten

I'm so bored of the way religion gets a bad wrap because of the misunderstandings and subsequent screw-ups of its adherents. Religion should be known by its principles and those able to live up to these, not by its weaker practitioners and their garbled interpretations of the system they claim to represent.

Again agreed .... there are a lot of secular fascists out there at the moment.

[Miyazaki]

Not really the most sensitive time of year to be bagging religion IMO.

[Nick_UK]

Originally Posted by shadowritten

I'm so bored of the way religion gets a bad wrap because of the misunderstandings and subsequent screw-ups of its adherents. Religion should be known by its principles and those able to live up to these, not by its weaker practitioners and their garbled interpretations of the system they claim to represent.

Not difficult to get "garbled interpretations" when you look at the Bible and the Kuran, and see how many contradictions are contained within

Originally Posted by Nick_UK

Not difficult to get "garbled interpretations" when you look at the Bible and the Kuran, and see how many contradictions are contained within

These aren't the only holy texts in the world. Besides, there are claims that these books have been heavily tampered with by people not qualified to do so. For example, see below from the Rosicrucian website of the late Max Heindel:

Words of the Hebrew language, particularly the old style, run into one another and are not divided as those of our language. Add to this that there is a custom of leaving out vowels from the writing, so that in reading much depends upon where and how they are inserted, and it will be seen how great are the difficulties to be surmounted in ascertaining the original meaning. A slight change may entirely alter the signification of almost any sentence.

In addition to these great difficulties we must also bear in mind that of the forty-seven translators of the King James version (that most commonly used in England and America), only three were Hebrew scholars, and of those three, two died before the Psalms had been translated! We must still further take into consideration that the Act which authorized the translation prohibited the translators from any rendition that would greatly deviate from or tend to disturb the already existing belief. It is evident, therefore, that the chances of getting a correct translation were very small indeed.

Nor were conditions much more favorable in Germany, for there Martin Luther was the sole translator and even he did not translate from the original Hebrew, but merely from a Latin text. Most of the versions used in Continental Protestant countries today are simply translations, into the different languages, of Luther's translations.

True, there have been revisions, but they have not greatly improved matters. Moreover, there is a large number of people in this country who insist that the English text of the King James version is absolutely correct from cover to cover, as though the Bible had been originally written in English, and the King James version were a certified copy of the original manuscript. So the old mistakes are still there, in spite of the efforts which have been made to eradicate them.


Not that I'm in any better a position to authenticate these claims, but it certainly makes for interesting reading.

Anyway, it's Easter. Good will to all, of any faith or none.

[Miyazaki]

One thing that I found interesting is satan is hebrew for adversity.

The bible took on a deeper metaphorical significance for me after I found that out.

[Nick_UK]

Originally Posted by shadowritten

These aren't the only holy texts in the world.

I didn't say they were, but Christianity and Islam (including all their variants) are two of the world's major religions.

[Ethics Gradient]

Originally Posted by jakal

Again agreed .... there are a lot of secular fascists out there at the moment.

that's nice ... I suppose if you are happy to lable secular types as facists you are happy to accept terms like fundamentalist muslim and christian terrorists, bigots .... or should you be more forgiving, understanding and tolerant according to your faith

Hitler was a Christian btw

Originally Posted by Nick_UK

I didn't say they were, but Christianity and Islam (including all their variants) are two of the world's major religions.

Quite true. And I wasn't having a pop at you, just so you know.

Hitler believed in and abused the occult. The Swastika is actually the Runic sun symbol Siegel (from where the Nazis got their salute), only with its points reversed. Some occult authorities suggest this abuse of an important ancient symbol contributed to Hitler's downfall. Whether there's any truth in this I couldn't say.

[M-C-P-M]

Originally Posted by nickii

Maybe the only thing that would bring all of our species together in a common cause is an inter planetary war.

i think you and L Ron will very happy together as you hyperjump away