Feelings against Organized Religion

[two_shoes1mit]

Organized religion has certainly been front and centre in the news of late.
I pose this question:
As an adult, what is your personal fall-out from a childhood emmersed is organized religion?
Please state the religion, your general age, what you were subjected to and the baggage you still
carry into adulthood - even though you have left the church of your free will - when you were 'allowed.'

[Sparki55]

Organized religion has certainly been front and centre in the news of late.
I pose this question:
As an adult, what is your personal fall-out from a childhood emmersed is organized religion?
Please state the religion, your general age, what you were subjected to and the baggage you still
carry into adulthood - even though you have left the church of your free will - when you were 'allowed.'

Rebelled against catholic and protestant parents in my teens after taking science courses and learning about the universe. I continue to read philosophical books to this day on the topic and I find religion facinating. I wonder how all the different religions came to be and why it was such a natural way for humans to cope with the world.

[unclemarty]

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[GordonH]

Maybe it’s just me, I find it really *blanked* up that many believers tend to put their brains on shelf around their belief system.

[occasional thoughts]

No surprise here, mankind (m/f) has created God in our own image. Science, which comes with some inherent larceny, is slowly but surely debuilding the basis of religious belief. E ERY religious initiative on the White-European side of the equation starts with a man (human) claiming to have talked with God and the man will interpret for us. Religion will always be with us I believe because a certain number of people want to have something to believe in. Religiosity seems to be hard-wire built into the human condition.

Covid has been one of the most polarizing realities of the divide between who follows science and who relies on faith.

[motokelowna1]

Having worked with so called Christian, s who in my eyes were the worst self righteous Pratt's ever. Blindness is their virtual outcome. They (some ) are using this farce as a reason not to get the vaccine. With over 3000 religions in the world I feel that prayers to Valhalla are more appropriate.

[Ka-El]

The true nature of knowing God is knowing that God is unknowable.

[capleton]

The true nature of knowing God is knowing that God is unknowable.

So in other words, completely fabricated by man and imaginary?

[Ka-El]

So in other words, completely fabricated by man and imaginary?

No, that would be an assumption of knowing what is unknowable

[Babba_not_Gump]

The true nature of knowing God is knowing that God is unknowable.

What is there to know about a god?
And doesn't it depend on which god one is referring to? There are hundreds of religions and they all seem to have their own god.

[Ka-El]

The true nature of knowing God is knowing that God is unknowable.

There are hundreds of religions and they all seem to have their own god.

This is close to the point I was sort of alluding to. I'm not going to get into a debate of whether or not there is some infinite and universal energy or force that, for lack of a better term, we can call God. I've taken a few philosophy (including logic) and science courses in university myself and the one thing I know for sure is that the idea can neither be proven nor disproved. In fact, Stephen Hawking postulated that time began with the Big Bang, and although an atheist, acknowledged that premise would support the idea that God, if He/She/It existed, would be infinite and has always existed, exists now, and will always exist. I've also seen science that has supported the idea of consciousness existing outside of the body and this raises all kinds of other ideas, questions, and possibilities. There is so much we do not know and will never know.

My argument would be that if there is something that we can call God, then that is just a word to label something we can't possibly understand. Different religions have different understanding and interpretation of this one force, and anyone who has taken a course in cultural anthropology would have some appreciation of why that diversity exists - but any presumption they have an understanding of Its true nature and purpose is highly questionable at best. Thus my comment that the true nature of knowing God is knowing that God is unknowable.

For some organized religion has left people (and entire groups over history) carrying a lot of baggage, but it also provides some with community and comfort and in many cases these groups contribute to their communities in a positive way. There is also a big difference between religious belief and spirituality and the two concepts are not mutually inclusive. I know of people who regularly engage in prayer and meditation to try and achieve a closer conscious contact with this force (some trying to tap into some universal energy, while others just trying to be more in tune with nature and every other possibility in between) who are not religious in any way, shape or form, and of course, I bet we all know people who are religious and who we would not consider spiritual in any way, shape or form.

When we think we know all the answers then learning has stopped. It is easy to argue against the improbability of people walking on water or there being a place in the sky with virgins waiting for the true believers but dismissing all other possibilities (and there are an infinite number of them) out of hand only demonstrates a mind closed to other opportunities and potentials. There is so much we do not know and will never know, and many of us understand that the more we come to know the more we will discover just how much there still is we do not know. The true nature of science and knowledge recognizes the fact that the more we learn the more questions we will be faced with. When we think we have definitively answered those questions then the possibility of further discovery has ended.

[Bsuds]

I don't care one way or the other except for the religions who only want peoples money!

They can go to Hell...

[capleton]

So in other words, completely fabricated by man and imaginary?

No, that would be an assumption of knowing what is unknowable

I don't know if leprechauns exist or not but until I get actual evidence for their existence, I'm going to conclude they are imaginary beings created by man. Same with god. What is a god anyway? no one can really agree on a definition for her.

[Ka-El]

no one can really agree on a definition for her.

Yes, I believe that point was made pretty clear in my last post. It's unfortunate that you completely missed the argument.

[capleton]

no one can really agree on a definition for her.

Yes, I believe that point was made pretty clear in my last post. It's unfortunate that you completely missed the argument but it is a bit more complicated and involved than the existence of mythical wood creatures. I can appreciate it if taking the discussion a bit deeper than that doesn't interest you though. Cheers.

You said god is what something that people to refer to what people don't understand. guess what, we have something called "science" now. 2000 years ago people would ask the "wise man" why did volcano explode. The answer would be because god is angry, "why did the crops didn't grow" because god is angry. So you are just kind of trying to justify a god of the gaps argument which isn't convincing in the least.

Plus you still haven't explained the difference between mythical wood creatures and imaginary beings in the sky.