The Top One Reason Religion Is Harmful

A quip like that deserves an appropriate response : if only that You Will Repent! And yes, the updates last forever : even though I supposedly disabled them.

@Jubal, you're an open minded intelligent fellow, so, since it's obvious you're bona fide and have asked a legitimate question, I hope the following will serve as a satisfactory answer. Restoring historical landmarks is at least something I see as their wanting to connect to the past. But noone can look back for any great length of time without being back. Being back doesn't necessarily involve progress in the Bhuddist tradition of fostering enlightenment and Peace. Though I haven't seen the artistic depiction of their ideas of gods(notice that I spell that with lower case letters),I truely hope for their sakes that they're more interested in the quality of the art than the lame idea of idol worship. It's idol worship that makes humans superstitious primitives. I'm a Bhuddist in the original Chinese secular spiritual philosophy of Kung Fu Tse whose Meditations we follow. I adopted that philosophy after smoking cannabis as a religious sacrament, and watching the episodes of Kung Fu starring David Carradine. I have them recorded in my DVR files. Mr.Spellman & David Chow were very careful to depict the "teaching life lessons through Nature" philosophy in an accurate way to educate people in cultivating virtues,their inner strength (chi), inner Peace and enlightenment. Bhuddists believe that Nature, being a creation of God, reflects the nature of God in the duality of the Tao. So if you study what the philosopher Aristotle called "apparent contradictions that confuse", your mind will stall its spurious random brain activity. And if you concentrate on a candle, the sound of ocean waves, waterfall, rain etc..your mind will empty, and you will be at Peace in an alpha brain wave state where you will reach a higher plane of existence.
"When the mind is enlightened, the soul is freed, and the body matters not" That's Zen Bhuddism in its essence, not idols or "gods". Now to answer your question directly, there are no deities or gods in my community to demonstrate religion. Nor can there ever be because Bhuddism is a conscientious objection to all religions. It is a NOT religion- a denial of religiousity which is a closed set. I believe in Christ because He was enlightened. His words are essential paradoxical following a close parralel course to Zen. I adhere to all His parables, His Beatitudes,and the Golden Rule. Jubal, religions only pretend to reflect God, which is why many people have become atheists. Religions are a socio/political stage play to form a non binding "private Government" Read a modern periodical on Bhuddism, and I guarantee you it will read more like an enlightened primer
much like Psychology Today. It will have no talk of political figures like the Dali Lama. It will have no depiction of religious idols. And it should clear things up for
you. As for any journalistic documentaries, if they cared enough to do their homework and research Bhuddism, they would not be promoting a con like that.
I don't trust media Corporations, they're the blind leading the blind. "Braile TV"
When Bhuddists properly represent GOD, they spell it like that. Philosophers have held that GOD represents INFINITE UNIVERSAL MIND, not "deities" GOD is
too infitite a concept for anyone but primitives to claim exists in 2 dimensions, no ?

@presscore, thank you for such a thoughtful response. I do understand and agree with the fact that Buddhism has branches in which some operate within the philosophy as a religion, practicing rituals and attaching themselves to idols, while other Buddhists practice something different, principles before personalities if I may use this phrase to summarize what you wrote. Their objective is to elevate principles above personalities to avoid idolatry when meditating about truths.

I fully concur that idolatry is the essence or crux of the human problem as it relates to dogma. People loose sight of the "truths" being expressed and get caught up in worshiping the messenger instead of the message itself. Through idolatry we surrender our liberty, we enslave our minds and shut out the light of understanding.

I did not write the article. I posted it as a coversation starter, not as a representation of my beliefs. I am a Diest. I agree with you that of all of the organized religions Buddhism is the least harmful to mankind.

I apologize that I didn't read the article you posted from the link first. I didn't mean to imply that you were the originator. I understand your motive as you expressed it. I only took issue with the actual author's allegation that Buddhism is a religion. It occurs to me now that I never gave reasons to justify my position. If you compare the other 3 to Buddhism you'll note major differences. 1 All the others have churches,temples, mosques. And though I don't doubt that in India, China, and Japan they used to have temples characterizing Buddhism as a religion, they're largely gone, yet the strictly secular spiritual philosophy remains stronger than ever because it has evolved into something beyond religion. Here in the States, which likely never had any temples, it's stronger still, as it is down under in Australia, in addition to India, China, Japan. Dominique Salerno is the resident guru representing the Buddhist philosophy for the TV series: Body, Mind, Spirit for the Lime TV channel out of Australia. Her words uttered at the end of each episode are truly enlightening and helpful to all, and never mention any specific ethnic groupings that separate them and exclude them from anyone. Which leads me to my point: religions are closed ended sets. Buddhism is an open ended set of spiritual beliefs. 2. religions require their followers to adhere to certain conventions, such as going to church/temple/mosque..,financially contributing money..,bringing in new converts etc. Buddhism will have nothing to do with any of that. The World that God created is our temple, the sky our ceiling, the earth our floor, and the element of water is what we emulate. We don't try to convert others. We don't taint our pure spiritual beliefs with money. Bhuddism teaches virtue through nature 3. Religions subjugate their followers by fear of punishment, promise of reward for believing in their dogma in the life after death. Buddhism only seeks to liberate people from their suffering in this life, and makes no pretense whether there may or may not be anything other than what you can tangibly see,hear,touch,taste, and smell of nature. It's obvious that lack of reality contact was the first and foremost objection by the author to religion per se. Ie: no reality contact. In any staged play you will find many props, such as statues of saints, books claiming one of the big 3 is "the one true religion", historical references, what the major and minor sins are, procedural manuals instructing followers to how to strictly adhere to rituals etc...The overwhelmingly obvious premis shared by all the big 3 is that there way is the only way. That has more in common with Communism as a political philosophy, because that system also seeks to have a Monopoly, to dominate, to subjugate and absorb. We only have one statue, that of Buddha as a simple reference to merely the originator of our goal of enlightenment. And we wouldn't even have that were it not for the still primitive evolutionary status of humans. People, like chimps, need to imitate in order to learn. This mimicry is like trying clothes on to experience how they fit. Buddha is merely a focal point and a memo that enlightenment can be achieved by anyone/everyone. No jew-gentile, Christian-pagan, Muslim-infidel, I'm OK but you're not distinctions. We have a primer entitled the Kung Fu Meditations which embodies the teachings of Kung Fu Tse aka Confucius who was a contemporary of Buddha, living 600 years before Christ. And we have one slogan: "When the mind is enlightened, the soul is freed, and the body matters not" And that's it. No tithes, no collections of money, no socio/politically central organization of trolls to maintain control over others' weak minds and taffee heads. No Jihads, No Crusades. No Spanish Inquisitions. And as John Lennon said (after the Beatles traveled to India to learn from the Buddhist Indian maharishi yogi) -"no religion too", believe it or not. Huh. "Imagine" that

Seems like you dont really understand what atheism is about. Its not fair to assume all atheists believe themselves to be Gods. Thats like believing all Christians are dumb, racist, hypocritical bigots. While it may be true some of the time, its not the case all the time.

I personally consider myself an atheist although that doesnt mean im completely shut off to the idea of a higher power. I just feel that the logical fallacies of religion coupled with my experiences in life tend to lead me to believe there is no God. Am i 100% convinced? Not at all. This is where my beliefs differ from Christians. How can you sit here and criticize atheists for being sure of nothing while you yourself have an absolute belief in something with NO evidence?

To answer your points

1) I dont believe i came from nothing. I came from a joining of my father's sperm with my mothers egg. Im the latest in a long line of humans that have been around for a couple hundred thousand years. As far as the beginnings of existence go i cant really tell you how things came into being. Science tells us there was a big explosion from whence everything came from. Personally i dont exactly understand the complexities of such a concept... its a little beyond my ability to truly comprehend. However, does it really make more sense to believe that some being that you cant experience with any of your senses on a whim created the universe and all things in it? Seems like an easy out to me. Where did you come from? God made me. How did this rock form? God did it. See my point?

2) I can see your point here. Historians and archaeologists believe that Greeks came up with the ideas of many creatures through their failed attempts to put together fossilized remains. However, many people all over the world who had no contact with one another believed in dragons. Does that mean they were real? Not at all.

3) Its rather simple. When a squirrel dies do you wonder where its spirit went? I doubt it. The body is eaten by animals/insects/bacteria and its nutrients are eventually returned to the soil. Its a cycle which has gone on since the beginning of life and every living thing is bound to this fate. Personally i dont believe in 'souls'. I think peoples personality combined with their view of the world around them shapes their reality and that every person is unique. Not only because of different genes, but also because life shapes peoples personalities in such complex and different ways. Therefore life is precious because once youre gone, youre gone for good.

So now that ive answered your questions how about i ask you a few brainbusters?

If there is a God who created us all in his image than shouldnt he have let people know as soon as they were created? Seems kinda silly to let people know you exist about 5000 years AFTER the dawn of civilization.

If Adam and Eve were the first humans than there must have been a LOT of incest to get us to where we are today. Also how do you account for skin color?

If humans were made in Gods image shouldnt everyone look alike? Maybe not identical but wed all have the same features would we not?

Seems funny to me that God looks so similar to apes...

To your second response, Dragons exist because they are made of things we know to be. This is not a good answer to the questions. Dragons are made of bone, skin, blood, teeth, they have life and death, they use fire, or claws, etc. All is conceivable by the human mind. The only thing on earth that has ever been imagined that is inconceivable is that of an immortal. How we created the image of an immortal being is beyond me, thus i believe it really must have been implemented in us from birth.

As for your brain busters, which thank you by the way for challenging me (i love this stuff), i'll try my best to answer.

If there is a God who created us all in his image than shouldnt he have let people know as soon as they were created? Seems kinda silly to let people know you exist about 5000 years AFTER the dawn of civilization.

How do we know that He did not let them know He exist? Maybe at the beginning of time He did and it was merely lost. Or through disloyalty other gods and ways of life were created. Since I believe that God lets us act through free will, without his direct interference in our lives, this belief leads me to infer that people, through God not showing himself directly, lose trust in him and thus create other religions or ideas contrary to Him. Once they feel betrayed, they would easily leave their religion for another one, the interesting thing is mostly they leave an aspect of their religion in the new one, which seems to have been done since almost every religion can cross reference with something of another. This is evident in our own history with that of the Aztecs. Once betrayed by their gods (when they were conquered they considered themselves betrayed by their religion) they accepted Christianity, but if you notice Cathedrals in the central americas there are mostly two towers, which is surprisingly close to aspects of their old religion having towers, one for the sun and one for the moon. This is how i believe we got so many beliefs today and how we don't know the original existence of God except through faith.

If Adam and Eve were the first humans than there must have been a LOT of incest to get us to where we are today. Also how do you account for skin color?

As for the incest question this is something that is commonly misunderstood by many people. You're probably referring to the fact that we would have birth defects like crazy if it was incest. Yet you must remember that incest does not CAUSE birth defects, it merely raises your chances You must also remember that in classical times when children were born with birth defects they were merely thrown out, not kept around. Thus even if you had three kids and one was born defected, it would be thrown out, and you would continue to have kids, until you had 8 normal. Thus many people could have been created out of incest and after so many family lines incest would not be an issue.

As for skin color my answer might shock you since I'm going to use the science of evolution. Granted, i do not and will never believe we came from apes or goo, or that whole creatures can develop fully new parts, etc., like birds coming from squirrels that evolved wings or something, but i do believe in an idea of evolution. Skin color has actually been proven by science. Based on where peoples moved and settled for long times their skin pigment would change. If they lived in tropic areas and areas close to the equator with higher UV exposure their skin would be darker to prevent low-folate levels, if they lived in less sun they would need to prevent low vitamin-D3 thus they had light skin. Thus many skin colors could have easily come from one peoples that migrated to different regions thus becoming many different races. 3rd question on new post.

If humans were made in Gods image shouldnt everyone look alike? Maybe not identical but wed all have the same features would we not?

This question i once again answer with evolution. Evolution could have easily caused those in different areas to grow taller or shorter, longer fingers or shorter, larger brows or smaller brows, etc.

Also, all humans do look alike do we not? Although for minuscule changes in noses, ears, brows, height, weight we look strikingly all the same. And we do have all the same features. We all have the same design of eyes, mouths, noses, ears, fingers, etc. so that we can all complete the same tasks of seeing, speaking, smelling, hearing, etc.

To me, the human race is strikingly all the same and does have all the same features. The differences i notice are too small to seem like a large difference.

Also, I must add, I think you are more agnostic than atheist. I think you need to look at the definitions more closely and choose more wisely which you would like to be called. you said it yourself that "I personally consider myself an atheist although that doesnt mean im completely shut off to the idea of a higher power. I just feel that the logical fallacies of religion coupled with my experiences in life tend to lead me to believe there is no God. Am i 100% convinced? Not at all." Just to help you out, here are the definitions of Atheism and Agnosticism.

Atheism: a⋅the⋅ism  [ey-thee-iz-uhm] Show IPA
–noun
1. the doctrine or belief that there is no God.
2. disbelief in the existence of a supreme being or beings.

Agnosticism: ag⋅nos⋅ti⋅cism  [ag-nos-tuh-siz-uhm] Show IPA
Use agnosticism in a Sentence
–noun
1. the doctrine or belief of an agnostic.
2. an intellectual doctrine or attitude affirming the uncertainty of all claims to ultimate knowledge.

Thank you for your questions by the way, always good to challenge my beliefs and I learn more about items i'm not well-versed on.

@402Chicago, if you took your statement #1 about atheists and substituted the word God in it, I think you would be surprised to find that statement true, as well.

1) God's being. God merely came from nothing and God merely exist, but how can God come from nothing? How can God just "be here" without a beginning and without an end. To admit that God is here, just here, leaves an incomprehensible question, how did this being come to exist. This is something the mind will always ask, which is why to be God you merely trick your mind into thinking you "just exist" and put to the back of it the biggest question about life. There must be something that created us, the world, etc. There must be something that created existence, thus non-Belief is the victor over God.

Atheism doesn't mean you "know it all" -- to the contrary, it means that you are humble and accept reality on reality's terms. You have an open mind in which truth is not a constant but is subject to "fine tuning" as new discoveries and explanations are tested and proven through the scientific process. Spiritual truth is not fixed and static, it is spontaneous and evolving. Even scientific truths are subject to change when a new discovery is made. A huge example is the atom. It was thought for quite a long time that the atom was the smallest particle unit in terms of mass and dimension. Molecules were made up of atoms. Then after the atom was torn apart, out spewed all sorts of particles and tremendous amounts of energy and huge amounts of money have been invested in identifying and classifying all those even smaller particle units and identifying and harnessing the energy released. Then even smaller particle units have been theorized and are in the process of being proven, strings.

Another example is dimensions of space: X Y Z. X and Y are well known in elementary mathematics. The Cartesian plane. Three dimensional space adds the Z axis. But now with the smashing of the atom, theories are pointing to more dimensions. Time is not considered another dimension, the "fourth" dimension. These are the most obvious to our human minds in every day reality, however, there are many, many more dimensions being proposed.

These are examples of how scientific truth is "fine tuned". Spiritual, religious, and philosophical truths are all speculative, based on belief and logic (sometimes), but these things cannot have and never will have absolute, unchangeable, infallible truths. Every single assertion is subject to interpretation and manipulation. As a species, it is unconscionable to allow these truths to become our masters, to enslave our minds, and to dictate our social norms. It is criminal for anyone who is honored as being great in their field of spirituality, religion, or philosophy (social or political) to be enshrined, venerated, adored, followed blindly, and not subject to criticism and reproach.

Atheist are the ones who are truly liberated and free from the constraints demanded by spiritual, religious, and philosophical mandates. Agnosticism is not superior merely because it preserves a place in the human mind for unprovable truths.

agreed.

I agree this isn't news, and not worthy of being in the top Ten. Is there an "editorial" section, or "opinions" or "religion" section? Those would be more appropriate.

There are several such groups.

wholeheartedly agree.

I was talking in more general terms, religion, bread ,water, air whatever, it's all there, in our lives, and the trick is in moderation Iguess, and it's also about how people manifest whatever it is that they choose to believe in, how they apply themseves to the knowledge, and this doesn't apply to just religion. Most religion is based on controlling the masses through fear and guilt, and I beleive in order to understand that you have to be open to all of them without judgeing. Use it for whatever personal growth that applies to you in time and move on. The harm comes from misuse and attaching personal labels to them, good ,bad, right ,wrong. Religion has been a great thing for Certain people and at the same time a plague upon the land. I just try to keep an open mind.

exactly. mankind is the reason religion is harmful

"Without people would find just as stupid reasons to fight each other."

You don't know that, at all, so that was a stupid thing to say.

"Also religion can show how much imagination the humankind has."

Completely irrelevant. So do fantasy novels.

"mankind is the reason religion is harmful"

Maybe your alluding to something else here, but I laughed when I read that. You can probably guess why. Without mankind there is no religion, so that was also stupid.

Post your own then.

so go ahead and do so, but expect a variety of discussion. Post an article, give a better response, just don't sit there and complain.

This article was posted by a user and you can post your own if it merits sharing. I encourage you to do so and have your voice heard.

That statement is non sequitur.

Atheist speculate about the unknown, but how can religious people speculate the same when their theologies lists all the "facts".

God isn't unknown. He/She/It is fact right?

OK metalcookiesxy70, my views are that people are people, and that we all have something missing that is inexplicable. If this is all we have and what we have today is a forum today to share our views, than my hope would be that some notion of peace and mutual learning can come out of a discussion about an op-ed about a religious op-ed. If not, then I'd rather spend my one life learning from people who have more positive things to say about religion and life in general.

ii386, I agree with you, and sincerely hope that Current continues to encourage intellectual variety, as opposed to Fox News' ideological homogeneity. I happen to enjoy the variety of marijuana articles that pop up on the top 10 every day.

Weepowopo, the relevance of my previous post was not as much about the article itself, but the agenda-setting nature of the post. I'm completely about free speech and ideas, and that's why I just wanted to point out that we might be turning into the liberal parallel of Fox News. When the number one "news" story is an op-ed about religion, I have to wonder...

Peace to all three of you.

Read all about: "The Case for The Tooth Fairy" on www.makingshitupandclingingtoancientfears.com

This moron Armstrong is an apologist for Islamofascism and is making it her mission to peddle lies about what is a totalitarian and supremacist political ideology that seeks to dominate the world and establish a global caliphate. She systematically covers up the truth about Mohammed and Islam, glossing over the hatred and violence in core Islamic texts. She is either an imbecile or a determined enemy of freedom and democracy.

Well Mr. Eddie I had never heard of Islamofascism until a few years back. Typical Rovian Duckspeak misses another point about the virtues of Islam too : and a balanced viewpoint allows for that. One is that they will not tolerate institutional corruption.
No wonder they are the enemy !

OK ...list the virtues of islam.

Those people in that picture are not atheists. Get you facts straight.

Carl Sagan: "My view is that if there is no evidence for it, then forget about it. An agnostic is somebody who doesn't believe in something until there is evidence for it, so I'm agnostic.

"Science with religion is lame and religion without science is blind." Albert Einstein.

Uni your demotivational is FAIL.

Neither Thomas Jefferson or Ben Franklin were atheists. They were Deists.

Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin were Unitarian Universalists. Einstein was raised jewish, and is credited as saying that he studied physics because of his desire to know the mind of God. Abraham Lincoln was not an Atheist either.

In fact the only atheists in that photo are Hemmingway and Sagan.

From the horses mouths:

Benjamin Franklin: "I have found Christian dogma unintelligible. Early in life I absented myself from Christian assemblies."

Thomas Jefferson: "I do not find in orthodox Christianity one redeeming feature."

George Washington: "The United States is in no sense founded on Christian Doctrine."

Abraham Lincoln: " The bible is not my book, and Christianity is not my religion. I could never give assent to the long, complicated statements of Christian dogma."

John Adams: "An alliance between government and religion cannot be to carefully guarded against....Every new and successful example therefore of a perfect separation between ecclesiastical and civil matters is of importance...religion and government will exist in greater purity without, rather than with the aid of government."

Alexander Hamilton: "Of all the tyrannies that affect mankind, tyranny in religion is the worst."

haha! :)

haha yes, similar to the one about the catholic church threatening to close down their churches that help orphans and homeless etc if the government gave gay people the right to marry.
how nice.

"All it means it that you dont believe that everything that happens is of pure coincidence" . . cause and reaction isnt sufficent enough? decisions & outcomes of those decisions dont make sense? your right, things do not happen by coincidence, but using thought & reason helps with those confusions better than, "god has a plan"

i wholeheartedly agree Atalanda.

"Few if any give there hearts (metaphorically) to modern medicine or the theory of general relativity but that’s exactly what most religious individuals strive to do. The cultivation of faith is the personal strengthening of love (for the divine) in the face of doubt. Without doubt faith is impossible or in other words the “reality check” the author failed to locate is herself."

Thats kinda the whole point. Belief in spirituality and the divine is an unnecessary evolutionary trait. So why struggle to lock yourself into a specific belief system? It tends to lead people to be close minded and prejudice for NO REASON.

There's a reason : it might not be the one you expect, though. People are built differently and think differently. If you like, natural selection predisposes to diversity and to patterns and schemes which are not always obvious to those participating in them.
Happens I read an article just yesterday which claimed that people were predisposed to believe in things unseen since before birth. No, I didn't bookmark it : though it might get blogged yet as I check my notes. But the point is that it doesn't matter what people believe or don't: what matters is that they are not frantic to promote their adopted viewpoint.
There's a great deal of difference between leaders and followers. Leaders take off where the Muse leads : followers smother themselves and those they control in a straightjacket of fear...and call it Faith !
Idiots.

'Unnecessary evolutionary trait'
So now you're the arbiter of what evolution has found advantageous as well ?
Point : I never told you what to believe...nor promoted slavish 'belief'...an impossibility to any independent mind. All I said was that basically I had the common human condition : irrational optimism, without which one is likely to do away with the frustration of living in a self destructive manner.
That's philosophy...not Sky God worship.

"Without doubt faith is impossible" -

I take it you have never encountered blind faith?

“So faith is devotion based on love now is it? Never knew you could love something that you cant experience.”

That doesn’t make any sense whatsoever. The act of devoting oneself to a belief or philosophy IS the experience. Come on now, its time to start using that brain of yours.

“No cant say ive locked myself into any belief system.”

Uh-huh, that doesn’t sound like bullshit at all.

“I prefer to keep my mind open and let my own experiences shape my view of the universe”

Right so your entire view of Christianity is an organic concept, untouched by the perceptions or viewpoints of anyone but yourself and most importantly that opinion somehow escapes the classification of a belief system?

“Not that Christianity is based on love anyway, more like greed and power.”

Christianity did not start out as a unified movement. At best the belief that Christianity is based on greed and power is ignorant and at worst simplistic bigotry.

“I fail to see how my lack of belief in a higher power separates me from family and friends”

Well because that’s a point I never tried to make. The entire family unit (immediate and extended) is utterly dependent upon a belief system heavily influenced by the concept of love. The overwhelming majority of humanity accepts and lives by this philosophy, granting special consideration to individuals of close relation. They raise and teach, provide for and associate, forgive, entertain and defend those of close relation based upon a belief system which is for the most part supported by nothing else than the concept of love and devotion.

So what’s next, are you going to tell me the idea behind the family unit is an unnecessary evolutionary trait too?

“Who says im closed minded?”
I did.

“What because i disagree with you im the close minded one?”

I’m not the one running around condemning the whole of Christianity or religion as “based on greed and power” even through neither share a unified creation or belief system. For fucks sake man there is no way you can be an expert into the motivations behind every religion ever to exist yet you have no problem whatsoever with a blanket generalization of the religious. You’re a bigot man, admit it or be delusional. It’s your choice not mine.

“So now you're the arbiter of what evolution has found advantageous as well ?”

No I’m just the guy who called bullshit on the guy who thinks he’s the arbiter of what evolution has found advantageous…..HAHAHA oh wow.

“Point : I never told you what to believe...nor promoted slavish 'belief'...an impossibility to any independent mind. All I said was that basically I had the common human condition : irrational optimism, without which one is likely to do away with the frustration of living in a self destructive manner.
That's philosophy...not Sky God worship.”

Whatever man I just thought it was funny that you claimed to disagree with proselytizing while you proselytized and then had the audacity to claim your proselytizing was original content.

"That doesn’t make any sense whatsoever. The act of devoting oneself to a belief or philosophy IS the experience. Come on now, its time to start using that brain of yours."

Hahaha thats too funny. I should be the one using my brain? Your devoting your life to a belief that a magic man in the sky loves you with zero evidence in support of there even being this man. Its called reality maybe you should grow up and start living in it.

"Right so your entire view of Christianity is an organic concept, untouched by the perceptions or viewpoints of anyone but yourself and most importantly that opinion somehow escapes the classification of a belief system?"

Everyday i get to see christians make total asses of themselves and it continues to shape my view of religion and well people in general. For example a simple peaceful sign put up by atheists in Cincinnati was up for 1 day before they received enough death threats to get it removed. Yeah Christians sure are the epitome of love and tolerance.

"Well because that’s a point I never tried to make. The entire family unit (immediate and extended) is utterly dependent upon a belief system heavily influenced by the concept of love. The overwhelming majority of humanity accepts and lives by this philosophy, granting special consideration to individuals of close relation. They raise and teach, provide for and associate, forgive, entertain and defend those of close relation based upon a belief system which is for the most part supported by nothing else than the concept of love and devotion."

The thing is you dont need religion for this. Im atheist and i still enjoy a loving relationship with my family and friends. I forgive and forget, treat others the way i would wish to be treated and im generally kind and giving. Just because your christian doesnt make you more loving than any other family. Its encoded into our DNA to love our family. Its a survival mechanism. And no its not an unnecessary one like the spirituality center of the brain. See i can actually prove this because there are millions of people who live without religion. Shocking right?

“Who says im closed minded?”
I did.

Oh thats right and youre obviously an expert on me right?

"I’m not the one running around condemning the whole of Christianity or religion as “based on greed and power” even through neither share a unified creation or belief system. For fucks sake man there is no way you can be an expert into the motivations behind every religion ever to exist yet you have no problem whatsoever with a blanket generalization of the religious. You’re a bigot man, admit it or be delusional. It’s your choice not mine."

I didnt make a blanket statement about religion being based on greed and power, i said christianity was. The Eastern religions such as buddhaism or taoism are spiritual religions that dont benefit a few people. Cant really say that about Christianity. The pope and the archdioceses are unbelievably powerful and spend their time in some of the most luxuriously decorated places on Earth. Can you guess who owns the most land around the world? Oh thats right the Church does. Seems to me they could have spent that money a little better say on people who are less fortunate? But no they gotta keep the gravy train rolling and suck more money out of the masses.

And wow you actually called me a bigot. You know NOTHING about me and yet you slander me. Just wow. Im sorry you cant handle the truth and instead feel the need to insult me. Thank you for proving everything that ive said before about Christians being close minded and the like.

Ok you caught me talking out of my ass about that Buddhaism line.

Honestly im tired of arguing this since apparently neither of us understand what the hell the other is talking about.

Actually Buddhism , is a philosophy , not a religion . No deity .

Nietzsche, in Thus spoke Zarathustra, describes man as being on a tight-rope between creature and creator - I like that image.

Beautiful graphic immage, Jan. You never cease to amaze me. Humans do have the
capacity for the divine in them. If you follow the psychic science of Astrology, each Constellation of the Zodiac belt has a pictograph which represents each major part of a human's body from the glyph of the nose where it meets the brows being pictured as the Ram's horns in a V formation, down to the feet as represented by a pair of fishes. I have too much humility to reach to the Gods assertion, but it's
a given at least that humans are a Universal Being. I think of the concept as a UB(S) port, in which divine inspiration is channeled. Thanks also for the Tao immage. As our headmaster Kung Fu Tse aka Confucious once said: "You are as you think, having become all you have created yourself to be" Life moves in cycles.

Jan thank you so much for saying that. It is what I believe. My inclination of late is pantheistic solipsism. We are all gods and I am the god of my reality is essentially what it means.

Preach it.

I shall. hahahahahaha