Can you Critique my thoughts on Religion?

[Mike]

ok i had some time to kill so i wrote a very rough draft of some of my random musings on religion, ill probably end up revising it to make it easier to read and of course my opinions might change or i might have written them wrong from what i think in my mind (im human we all change our minds) but tell me what u think?

It was so much clearer in the shower (heh all my thoughts flow in the shower). Ok lets talk religion in modern day. I view it as outdated, not needed and more corrupt than its humble beginnings. It is a creation of man, a tool, like fire. It can be used for good or evil. I do not believe in god, or those miracles as I see no evidence in them. They are like fantasies and magical stories, like Santa or the tooth fairy, but there is great use in religion, and ill show my viewpoint upon it. Religion is a great source of guidance, community cooperation, morality, and extending beyond ones self. It was created to guide people to behave ethically and honorably for human progress. Religion was created as a good thing. One of my arguments that there is no god or any correct religion is look around the world. There are multiple religions all saying their own beliefs and what is right. You can view it kind of like culture and language; each human society invented their own guidance system. Religion allowed people to be controlled and curve their beliefs and create explanations for at the time what was unexplainable. People fear the unknown and try to reason what is going on. They also like safety and justice. Isnt it nice to think all the bad people in the world will pay and burn in hell and all the good people to be happy in heaven? It helped create an ideal just world. Now all of this is good if used the proper way, but over time religion ran into multiple snags. Unmoralful people used it to gain power and curb others to their will justifying by religion. Feudal lords and serfs, the holy crusades to gain wealth, power, and lands, to justify political action and policies, etc. I dislike that millions of people say god or jesus spoke to them to get what they want – see bush and many other conservative politicians. O ya I kinda skip around, this is just a free-write and I was bored. Religion in modern day has become very politicized, see republicans. Our founding fathers weren’t religious, they were deists (and know many people will fight that over me, but from my teacher, and various other readings and sources u can see many quotes like from Benjamin Franklin and George Washington that they were deists at best). Political people in modern times play this little game saying they are moralful Christians and family people, etc. to gain public support. Its kind of a requirement to be religious to gain high offices. One of the problems of religion is it closes ur mind in a box, u become less tolerant of other peoples viewpoints and ideas, citing ur own is the best, ignoring data against urs and citing data against theres. It’s a common human flaw, we hate being wrong. We hate admitting mistakes and changing. Religion tends to control people and make them dependent on thought, less capable of forming their own ideals. (now remember not to take this out of context, humans vary widely and this doesn’t apply specifically to any person, just in a general sense). Do decide if something is right or wrong they look to others, example the bible, when it may not even apply to the situation. Another thing, books like the bible, Koran, etc. can be used in a variety of ways. You just pick and choose stuff in it that supports ur idea, as these books can be interpreted in a variety of ways to suite ur need. People should look into themselves for guidance and gut down what is the right thing to do. Act as if they are on their deathbed and look back at their life and how would they feel on their actions, ashamed or proud?

So ya religion was a good source of moral teachings, but its imaginative use of a higher power plus corruption within has made is not very desirable. Fear is one of the controls of religion, follow our religion or u go to HELL! Now fear has it uses too, fear to behave badly or punishment, but fear alone is bad, one needs spiritual and well-being motives to be a good person. I don’t believe in religion or god, but I consider myself an extremely good, behaving moralful person. I believe in human progress and behaving good in the world. Not only does it make me happy and proud but I feel a sense of meaning and fulfillment. My suggestion as an alternative to organized religion is psychology. Scientifically teachings of the human mind and psychology to teach morals should be more widespread. It discovers how we think and why we feel the way we do. Teaches stuff like material positions have very little meaning and bring little happiness compared to satisfying and deep personal connections and bonds with friends and family. Try to focus beyond yourself and to others to reach self-actualization.

Some mi

[GeoffT]

I agree ... the main conclusion is .. there is NO god.
We should improve progress and scientific endeavour .. get rid of the parasitic pope ... convert all churches into science laboratories ... quickly find cures for cancer, aids, diabetes, etc.
Eradicate world poverty with the $$TRILLIONS$$$ raised by selling religion owned churches, temples, synagogues, schools, uni's, hospitals, homes for the aged, shopping centres etc.

[Crystal]

i agree with you for the most part. i don't think religion was made to teach morals though, at least not in the begining. i think it was probably just made to answer all the questions that had no answers at the time and some that are still around today.

[hizangel41]

Do deep, to lengthy and to confusing.

[Wry]

Too long and too long. Not many paragraph indents and stuff, too hard to read.
Can you rewrite it and keep in mind the word 'succinct'?

As for religion, it is holy emotion. That's about it.
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[»jaymie»]

i have better things to do today

[RogerHouston]

Religion is one big support network... supporting your faith. Some religions do it better than others. For some people, there's no religion that can support their faith.

I believe in the concept of a "faith community," but not subjecting personal faith to the scrutiny of the religion.

[SqueegeeYourThirdEye]

I agree with some, but " to try to focus beyond yourself and to others to reach self-actualization." is part of many religious teachings such as Hinduism and Buddhism. I agree more with people Like Carl Jung, Alan Watts, Bill Hicks, and such.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAT3YLP6WxE&feature=channel_page

[greenisgoodbitch]

Only you can do that. Look into yourself.