Religion...

I have my reasons for being an atheist. I have my reasons for hating religion. This wouldn't really be a rant if I didn't explain would it?

When I was around 7 I specifically remember me constantly asking my mum if god was real. She always answered me the same way: I don't know. Is it really wise to submit your life to a religion based on ambiguity? My Dad raised me and my 2 siblings to be Christians, now we're all atheists. When I was 5 my papou (Greek for grandfather) got smashed into by a car as he walked down the street, I don't exactly know the details, but he was on his way to give me and my siblings presents... That's right, my Grandfather died on Christmas day. And the driver of that car survived the crash and was never seen or heard from again. Barely a year later my Uncle Steven (who I loved very much) left Sydney to lose thousands of dollars gambling, become a pot head, and not contact our family until he needed money. I'm not blaming religion for him getting addicted to gambling and drugs, I'm not blaming a random crackhead for smashing into a helpless old man and then disappearing, but when you pull everything together it looks a little like this

God + bright idea = Earth and people
non religious people + God = Pain
religious people = God = Pain

That sounded emo I know. I don't want to bring up the same old world war 2 excuse again so I'm not going to. But if God is real, would he let people suffer? Would he create a world with murder and torture? When you look at the 10 commandments they look like God needed a few for himself, then got lazy with the other 6 and made up a bunch of crap. If God was real (which we are assuming he is) then shouldn't his intent have been to make a perfect world? Kind of like Heaven? What kind of sick experiment is he running? Creating people just so they can be tortured and murdered and raped.

I have a few more reasons for hating religion and being an atheist but I'm tired, its late, and I feel I've contradicted myself at least once throughout this rant. Post if you must, I expect people to flame me for whatever reasons they may have.

 

I can actually relate, while my life hasn't had as bad incidents, it still can make people think "life sucks"

That said, people use religion just to "keep believing" as some people need it to keep living.


I for one, don't practice it, but I acknoledge it, and respect those who have something to cling to, if they don't it means nothing.


Some could say...those deaths are a test of faith, but you don't have to believe that (if god was real) you HAVE to believe that he made these happen just so you know where you stand.


Afterall, religion was a form of control that has changed in society, with politics combined it creates a deadly mix, hence why violent supporters for both politics and religion exist.


OBVIOUSLY not everyone is violent, but the cases that are make you think "why has believe in this created more pain"



I suppose for you, christmas is a painful time rather than a happy one, it's a terrible shame, and it is your choice for what you are...





And if god is real, this could be an experimentent JUST to see what we become, from savage beast to violent killing machines, to prehaps thru heart ache and suffering become a perfect race that has learnt their mistakes...or prehaps he's just letting us go about in our own pace, as if he's watching tv.


It could just be the balance of life, not everyone can live on thid world, a shame as it is death is a constant, all the terrible things that happen to people are part of it, there needs to be something other than purtity.

I know if not for the pain I endured, I wouldn't have made the friends I made (they stood by me despite the horrible acts I done), nor would I have got as far as I have, heck I wouldn't have been here at romUlation posting all the time (I would have been just another lonely kid in the corner in parties...which I still am but now I found out HOW to socilze)



I...hope what I said made some sence, that just came out of the top of my head, I bet I contridicted myself here somewhere

 

haha don't worry you didn't as far as I could tell. What you said made perfect sense, whats happened to me and the people around sort of shaped what I wanted to be. Same with my bro and my sis.

 

Myself, being a Buddhist, have many beliefs, which I will not share.

But, I must agree with what you have to say. I do question the existence of God, even if it is not in my religion to do so. If God supposedly made everyone equal, why are there people suffering around the world? Why are some people better off than others? Why do pain and suffering even exist? It just makes no sense.

 

Taoism or Buddist? many people belive they are buddist, but in fact they are Taoism.

i'm not the expert but IIRC Buddist belive to break the cycle of rebirth by gooding good deeds and live a happy but simple live (or something similar) while Taoism belive in many gods including Buddha himself and offen offer something to them during certain days that belongs to certain gods.

anyway even though my grandma and my mom a beliver, I'm not. IMO religion is nothing more then a scare tactic develop during the dark ages.

 

I'm not religious. In fact I have no religion at all. My Mum is Catholic and my Dad is Muslim, in the end the two religions were so different that my parents decided that I'd be better off without either.

Now I'm the guy that questions everything. I don't believe any of the religions we see today are actually "legit". As Calvin said, I believe it was a somewhat scare-tactic developed a long time ago that eventually caught on with a community.

I do however find myself contradicting myself in real life, as before my Year 12 Exams and my Driving Test guess what I did? I preyed. I got my 2 hands together and put my heart out there telling "Who ever is up there" that getting a good mark and a Driver's License were the 2 most important things to me at my young age. Luckily I did well in both, and I credit my somewhat faith for making me feel less anxious in both the Exams and Driving Test.

Now I want to say something about what many people wonder why we have a God(s) that don't treat us as equals and how many people are better off then others. Yes, some people have family members that either pass away or ruin their lives...but I believe everything happens for a reason. This is just a little example; My Dad split from my Mum about 8 years ago when I was only 10 years old (I also had a young 3 year old brother). I always thought, "Why us? What did we do wrong?", but after years of good realisation, I finally found from my dad's stupidness that I would become and try to be a better man then he was, and make sure that my future family will be treated right.

I think death is something not many want to talk about, including myself. As I said before though, I still think something always happens for a reason. I'm certainly not the right man to talk about this sort of stuff, but all I know is if you think negative....positive things will never happen. As for the death of your Grandfather on Christmas Day, that is so sad that my thoughts of something like that happening to me make me really sick in the stomach.

Anyway I think that's it for me, as it seems I've typed up an ugly short story!

 

I was baptised a Catholic at 1 year old.My mother chose to do this-so how could I choose a religion at that age.Religion is the cause of many problems throughout the world-thats how Im not religious.

 

What i hate about religion is not the religion, but the people using religion as an excuse.
In my opinion, all religion has 2 side, the good and bad, you are good, great. If your bad, you go to hell or suffer and stuff.

Their are a lot of people forcing me to go to mass every sunday. Which i did for a time, and kinda like the sermons of priest about doing good all year round. But the people who forced me to go to masses, are hypocrites. Ok, they do go to church, but do they practise what that person in front said? do they do good things? do they stop gambling? do they give to the poor and in need? do they help the helpless or need help? NO!NO!NO!!!

Thats why i dont go to mass and just worship the way i will worship my GOD. I do pray, i do good things, i live a good life despite the hypocrites that tells me that it is not enough. I dont need to belong with them cause whatever that priest says, i'm doing it. Not like them that just go to church cause they think they will save because they are complete in attendance.

I'm a teacher and i do not pass my students because they always attend my classes, I pass them because they do what is instructed and what they need in order to pass.

 

In my religion, there's a saying
"For you is your belief, and for me is my belief "

Well, I never really ask or questions these kinds of things.
All religion are basically told us to do good things either for ourself, or for other people around us.
Besides, nothing's bad coming from having a religion isn't it ?

 

i dont know, some idiot i know let starve from 6am til 7pm for a month just because thier religion say thier can eat or drink anything til 7pm.

also my mom refuse to eat any cow just because her religion said so, she have no idea what she is missing.....

 

I know about those.... kinda hard to explain eh ?
But still.... I have my own belief though.

 

the thing that is my issue with religion is the dumbing down it does. take for example the creationist movement in America, they actively lie to people, they twist and lie about facts and make them look false.

another example of this is someone said to me in the meaning of life thread that i should watch a ben stein film saying that it is a good film with an explanation from both sides, now everyone should know that it is creationist propaganda and full of lies yet he still thought it was a factual film.

it's the stupidity and unwillingness to gain factual knowledge against blind belief that gets me.
also that it's delusional, i used to respect those that believe thinking that that it took some sort of courage to have that sort of faith but now i think the complete opposite, it is bad for the brain and is almost bordering on insanity sometimes.

 

You have Catholic priests sexually assaulting young boys.You have Muslim gits blowing innocent people up.The place that Jesus was supposed to be born is probaly the most dangerous place on Earth.You have a religion (Protestant) thats sole purpose is to be against another religion(Catholic).
Theres no harm in normal people being religious,but each one attracts extremists....

 

Dude, best idea is to ignore religious people, reasoning with them never works.

 

The funny thing about religion is that parents treat their Children a lot differently when it comes to religion. For example, the common parent wouldn't force a Child to be a Movie Star at 3 months old...so why force them to become a certain religion at such a young age? A great thing that should take place is that you have to wait until your 18 years old to make a decision on whether a certain religion or no religion at all is what you want. We all know this will never happen, as every religion would end up with considerably less numbers.

It's a bit sad to know that our parents and our parents' parents were pretty much brainwashed into believing that their religion is the real deal and they believe in it so much that the ludicrous stories of how their God became a God somehow makes sense to them.

Either way, my life has not changed a bit without religion. I may not have the best faith in the world, but at least I get one day extra in my week.

 

may i know what that extra day in your week? or do you have a strange week? 24/8?

 

Sunday.

 

Buddhist. Theravada Buddhist in fact.