Religion. Why don't you like it?

[KuriKai]

Please post up why you don't like religion.

Do you only dislike a certain one or all of them?

Please do not make up stupid reasons though.

Detailed description please

[rustyslacker]

I dislike religion because many of my friends who are otherwise intelligent, reasonable, open-minded people are turned into irrational monsters because of the beliefs that their parents have instilled in them. Mainly, I dislike all religions equally for this.

However, here in America, Christianity takes most of the heat from atheists and secularists because it has a chokehold on politics, science, and medicine. Unfortunate. I believe that organized religion, in its early days, was used as a tool of intimidation and control, and it works wonders in American government. So my dislike tends to be more focused on Christianity/Catholicism because that's the one I deal with most often and that I know most about.

Either way, most mainstream religions encourage behavior that is morally appalling.

[FreeLanZer]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bB2rt3IKJc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpHKMM-Z83A This one is the worst..
This explains enough.. I think it is plain and simple brainwashing to make people do something they didn't want to do on free will.. but people who already are brainwashed with christainity (imo) are sort of lost because they don't want to realize the truth..

[Harry]

Well I'm fine with religion to a certain extent, then it just gets stupid, with some extremists, who just blindly believe. Personally I don't think I need a religion, sure if there is a god, which there might well be, I don't feel I need to praise him/her, and god probably doesn't even like the attention :) some people just don't understand that the bible shouldn't be taken so seriously anymore, as society has moved away from alot of the things it did, like the stoning of adulterous women (I think there was something about that on some Richard Dawkins thing, hes great) and apparently the catholic church encourages homophobic bullying in schools. lol

Edit: Children under 18 should not be allowed to be brought up with a religious background, they should have to choose for themselves. Freelanzer's videos prove my point.

[FreeLanZer]

Well I'm fine with religion to a certain extent, then it just gets stupid, with some extremists, who just blindly believe. Personally I don't think I need a religion, sure if there is a god, which there might well be, I don't feel I need to praise him/her, and god probably doesn't even like the attention :) some people just don't understand that the bible shouldn't be taken so seriously anymore, as society has moved away from alot of the things it did, like the stoning of adulterous women (I think there was something about that on some Richard Dawkins thing, hes great) and apparently the catholic church encourages homophobic bullying in schools. lol

Edit: Children under 18 should not be allowed to be brought up with a religious background, they should have to choose for themselves. Freelanzer's videos prove my point.

That's exactly what I mean..

I also think it's odd to see those people who blindly beleive you need to form some sort of wierd meat antenna by folding your hands to be able to talk to a god.. otherwise it doesn't have strong enough signal? I don't get it.. imo

[Harry]

Jesus wouldn't have wanted that. His motto was probably 'be excellent to eachother' and then died for all our sins and all the sins we are about to make...so theres no point in trying to not sin, just be moral :\

[xbolt]

Since I happen to like religion, (Specifically Christianity) I don't have anything to say on the current topic of why you DON'T like religion.


In fact, the reason I'm posting here at all, is I noticed the quote in KuriKai's sig, and I wonder, are you a Christian, KuriKai?

[General Greivous]

I dislike religion because it's so easy for people claim it as reason for their wars, bigotry, and hatred. Actions which would, if performed under any other name than God, would be questionable; However, because there are so many who have been brainwashed by belief in an intangible being it goes unnoticed. Religions uses faith in something no one knows exists and because of the human need to know the answers to your questions, people accept and go along with it without any thought as to if it may have been twisted out of the original context of the teachings. The original idea behind it is fine, how it is used to manipulate situations and people due to a neverending supply of blind faith, is not.

I find it weak to need a God or anything to tell you how to live your life or to guide you towards being what is supposedly a "better person" when as a human you have the ability to decide that for yourself, and I especially dislike any faith that teaches it's followers that if other people don't believe what it tells you to, you're going to go to hell for it and anyone who doesn't believe it with you. You have to be saved, you have to accept an intangible force as your savior from a fate no one really know is even possible. It uses fear to convince you, by using the unknown of the after life and telling you that concepts such as hell exist, using the natural occuring human fear of the unknown against you. and uses it's "believers" to come along to any down and out person and tell them they need "God" in their life even though he ultimately has nothing to do with how we guide our fate through consequences for our own decisions and actions or ignorance. Ultimately, I find the need of faith in outside sources rather than yourself a flawed concept. It's the best brainwashing, fear-driving, political tool in history.

[jadeanderson]

i dislike religion because it has no evidenciary basis, just unfounded personal delusion. that's a bad basis for a belief system. any question that can't be answered empirically is one that should be left open, not arrogantly and rabidly defended on the grounds of blind faith.

[Nomad]

I dislike religion because many of my friends who are otherwise intelligent, reasonable, open-minded people are turned into irrational monsters because of the beliefs that their parents have instilled in them. Mainly, I dislike all religions equally for this.

However, here in America, Christianity takes most of the heat from atheists and secularists because it has a chokehold on politics, science, and medicine. Unfortunate. I believe that organized religion, in its early days, was used as a tool of intimidation and control, and it works wonders in American government. So my dislike tends to be more focused on Christianity/Catholicism because that's the one I deal with most often and that I know most about.

Either way, most mainstream religions encourage behavior that is morally appalling.

Pretty much my same response. Cheers.

[Pieter Enis]

Add one more to the list, except they're not my friends but Rusty's :p

Sadly enough, religion is an abomination of what it should be, in most cases.
[Edit: In the case of Extremists, kudos to Rusty for pointing it out (see post below)]

[rustyslacker]

Sadly enough, religion is an abomination of what it should be, in most cases.
I'm guessing you're referring to extremists? I think extremist behavior is an incarnation of what religion was intended to become, and moderates' behavior is a distortion of what religion "should" be. By "should' I mean how the designers intended it, not the way that would be most beneficial or whatever.

[KuriKai]

Please no theories about what you think religion is. I would just like to know why you personally do not like it.

[CrazedImp]

I personally dislike some aspects of religion because it is sometimes too strict and controlling on a person and some communities, and the people that take it too far to enforce their own beliefs upon others. There are a lot of religion differences between the friends I have, and with some (namely the Islamic based religions), the strictness seems a little unfair.

I don't understand why there are so many different religions, which leads me more to think a lot of them are just false and why many people say its all based upon personal belief. I respect all the different religions that my friends have, but personally I'm not a big follower of any. All religions seem to be based upon how you should act to be a better person and whatnot and I just don't believe in that. Not unless there was some kind of believable fact other than personal belief to back up all the religions theories.

Its a Catholic religion here at home, but I'm not a heavy follower (don't go to Church and don't really follow stuff like Lent). I don't have anything against other peoples beliefs, but I do get annoyed sometimes about how some of them work. It all seems a bit overrated and overused sometimes.

[Pieter Enis]

Please no theories about what you think religion is. I would just like to know why you personally do not like it.
Oh: It's abuse over the years. Mostly.

[blood imp]

I dislike religion for many reasons. Especially Christianity (only because here most folk are Christians, so it's the biggest issue), but others as well. For one thing, I dislike the belief in an intangible diety of any kind (God, Brahma, Allah, etc. etc.), as it is a belief with NO proof behind it whatsoever. I'm not saying that new ideas are bad, but after around 2,000 years (maybe more) of no results except for brainwashing, I think it's a bad idea.

Those videos FreeLanZer posted are sickening. Not only that, but they prove how much fighting is caused by religion. Even the little girl in the first one is verbally abusing others. ZOMG! WTF!? What is wrong with people?! And then there's the video in tHE MagICaL wORld oF CHRISTIANItY thread. And you call that good? If she could, she'd shoot everyone in the world, calling us sinners and thanking "God" for our deaths.

I am displeased with philosophies such as "Everything you do in life is sin" (or almost everything), or "All pleasure must come from God", and stuff like that. Did you know, Baptism is actually "cleansing" you of the sin of birth? That's right, birth is a SIN! I have a friend who's parents won't drink at a party because their faith forbids them. That's retarded, although it's not the most serious of examples (yet it does represent the effect of religion on social life).

Above all, I HATE that people think that if you don't believe, you go to Hell (or any other place of suffering). And they say God left us with free will. I suppose he did, although he/she also put in a catch: You can have free will, but it WILL cost you. Nice, eh? In fact, all dieties have tricks up their sleeves, the good and the bad. At least Greek gods and Norse gods were capable of getting angry, or killing people in their rage. Modern God? NOOOO! He/She is all knowing, and would never do anything that is wrong. He/She in their all-knowing judgement can do no wrong.

So yes, lets thank God for death, suffering, cruelty, and disease. After all, He/She is all-knowing, and in their "infinte wisdom" they have put this stuff on us. Lets thank God for Global Warming and the possible threat of nuclear war. After all, Jesus will save us, eh? It's all good then, right?

HOW THE HELL CAN PEOPLE LET THEMSELVES BELIEVE IN THIS CRAP??!!?! How can we make ourselves mice in a experiment, or rats in a cage? How can we call ourselves the creation of another being? We are the most powerful race on the planet Earth! Quite possibly the Solar System! We have the capacity to destroy a world, to extinguuish life! We can also do great things, like saving races, expanding our reaches, making our technology limitless! And yet, there are those that believe that we are all robots created be a "God" in its "all-knowing wisdom." Those that will push and push, doing horrible things, just to provide fake proof that their God exists. Those that use pure stupidity, like proving to religious folk who ALREADY BELIEVE that God exist.

I'll tell you what. Humanity is great. We have survived and evolved. We are the true gods. We are even coming close to the greatest feat apart from creation: manipulating our body on such a scale, that we can repair eyes using an infant. Humanity has split atoms. We are coming close to seeing even smaller things. Somewhere around 1996 people CLONED A SHEEP. What does that mean? Humans have become gods. We have created LIFE. We can reproduce without intercourse, making Virgin Mary being a Virgin insignificant.
And yet, all of this is wasteful. As soon as God gets bored, he/she can wipe us all out, eh? We are all his dollies, Earth being a giant doll house, eh? And those that believe are SO SPECIAl they get to go to Heaven and rejoice, while those of us that don't believe, God in his FAIRNESS, WON'T SAVE. A just creator indeed.

No matter how much you believe something, you can't be sure until you KNOW it. I wonder, has anybody, religious or not, actually SEEN proof of dieties and whatnot? And even if they did see something, how do we know they weren't high? How do we know that those the claim to have witnessed miracles weren't on an early form of Crack? Hmm? Just try to answer that. Maybe God will put the answer in your mind, eh?

There are those who say it's in people's nature to believe in something greater than all else. Really? Because if that's the way humanity really is, I don't want to participate. I don't want or need my "nature" to make me believe in something great. The greatest thing I can think of that is actually important and necessary for life here to exist is the sun. An ordinary sun with some planets orbiting it. To me it's as close to God as you can get. Except for one thing: It's actually there, and I know it, because I can come out any day, look up, and see it. I'm not the only one, because I'm sure that most people here agree that there is in fact a sun in the sky, and I'm not on crack. God, on the other hand, has no proof of himself. I can't come out everyday and see him. How do I know he exists? Do I trust "faith"? No, I'd rather believe in a huge ball of gas than an intangible being that created everything.

I hate religion because of its lack of proof, its brainwashing faith, and, above all, its view on something as great as the human race. No God is ever going to control me, and if it does, I'll ignore it. If God exists, he is a bully. He makes those of us more willing to be "robots" seek him, and those more enlightened deal with the others. If that's what God is, than it can kiss my atheist ass.

[Jethro]

stuff
Goddammit, I spent hours writing something almost exactly like that! Ya beat me. *Deletes rant* Jerk. Hours wasted 'cause of you.

[blood imp]

Haha! You know you could have posted it too, right? In any case, I'm glad you share my views.

[Jethro]

Well, NOW I can't post it. It got Dell eated. *snub*
Now only if I had the balls to rant that to my parents. Hm...

[blood imp]

Lol@Dell eated.
I could imagine a conversation with your parents. Mother, I wrote a super-long rant on religion, but just as I was supposed to post it, some a-hole posted almost the same thing! So then I deleted it, and now I can't post it anyway.
That would be intresting, eh? *wink*
Sorry about getting there before you :p
Wait a minute, are your parents... them? In that case, I can't help you (except maybe let them read my comment (which wouldn't help, would it?))

In any case, goodnight, I'm going to sleep. PM me what happened.

[Jethro]

They're... pseudo-them. only on Sundays or whenever something akin to religion is brought up. Yet my mother works at a health center, where she prescribes different drugs to different forms of AIDS that form in different environments, due to natural selection, yet refuses to believe in micro-evolution? *what*

Anyway, I'm going to pass out. I've not slept since Friday.

[+Acyclitor+]

I dislike some religions, specifically Christianity, Juadism, and Islam, because they are virus-like proliferating plagues that destroy human potential and intellect, campaign against any voices that oppose them, and support the destruction of freedom and will, as well as our mother Earth. personally, I feel there may very well come a point in my lifetime when I and those like me will have to resort to armed insurrection to defend ourselves from the vile monotheist pigs.

religion/spirituality, or the lack thereof, is something that can only be achieved through personal journey and conviction.

[General Greivous]

This may be a slow forum nowadays, but holy shit, there's sensible people here (not that I didn't think so before, this thread is just further proof). Made my day a little bit better to come back and read after my post :p

[Pieter Enis]

I don't think there's much left to say after impy made that post except for: Aye!

[Nomad]

I'm curious to know why people believe what they do as well. As far as I can see there is no good reason to believe in god. I expect pretty much "that's how I grew up" and "the bible says I should".

[rustyslacker]

I am sorry, Kurikai, but I must comment.
If you take the time to look at it, the universe just screams out intelligent design.
*plop* *plop* *plop* *plop* *plop*

That is all.

[Nomad]

Have you ever seen a building without a builder? A watch without a watchmaker? A piece of software without a programmer? The answer is, no, you haven't. Since simple things such as these cannot happen without a designer, how is it possible for something as big and complex as the universe to appear without a designer?

If you take the time to look at it, the universe just screams out intelligent design.

As complex and unlikely as the universe is, God is infinitely more complex and unlikely.

[rustyslacker]

As complex and unlikely as the universe is, God is infinitely more complex and unlikely.
Improbablity is not support for design. It is evidence against abiogenesis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spontaneous_generation) and other ways of life just "randomly" appearing -- and natural selection is not random.
Have you ever seen a building without a builder? A watch without a watchmaker? A piece of software without a programmer? The answer is, no, you haven't. Since simple things such as these cannot happen without a designer, how is it possible for something as big and complex as the universe to appear without a designer?
Science is working on it and will get back to you. ;)

[Pieter Enis]

Have you ever seen a building without a builder? A watch without a watchmaker? A piece of software without a programmer?
My problem with the aforementioned examples is that none have a mind of their own.

Don't know how that would help the case, but maybe it takes thought to construct things without thought and to create thought, no thought is required?
Whiiiii, what am I saying?

[xbolt]

Alright. I'm starting a new thread to avoid derailing this one, as we did with the death thread.

[Heidi]

Religion works for some, but it is of no practical use to my life.

[+Acyclitor+]

frankly, religion and practicality aren't issues I've ever had enter my mind simultaneously.