Religion?

Some people wonder where my stance is on religion.
I think of it this way:
I'm supposed to be Catholic. After some thought, I could never be part of a religion that condones the abuse of children in any form. I don't care what they say, they were condoning it because they are undergoing a shortage of priests, and didn't want to discharge the ones they currently have. I can see their position, it's just unconsiciable (sp?).
I believe in Jesus, like Christians, and I believe in having a close, personal relationship with God – which many christians seem to decry, mentioning that all salvation goes through Jesus. Jesus may have saved me, but God created me. I pay my respects to both, thank you.
I believe that most, if not all, forms of organized religion are hypocritical, and many engage in sacreligious behaviors, some even cause their followers to leave, and depart from the faith, because they teach from the very beginning (contrary to the bible, IMHO) that you can't have Faith without Religion. I think that's the biggest crock of crap that any church has said. It's so obviously self serving. Faith in God is different than participating in religious exercise. Some places even teach that as long as you go to church, you're going to heaven, and if you don't, you're going to hell. It doesn't matter how you live your life to them, as long as you tithe weekly. Screw that. That's nonsense. Even the Bible states that those who don't believe in God (that's right, you don't even have to believe in God) will be given the chance to decide if they believe in God, and go to heaven, or they will go wherever else. I personally don't believe in Hell. I don't know where bad people go, but they'll find something undesirable in the afterlife, that's all I know about that.

Nothing bothers me more than fundamentalists of any religion. Baptists in particular I find quite insulting to me, personally, proclaiming I will burn in hell if I'm not going to their church. Don't worry, God has a special way of dealing with those who mislead the flock. (This I bring up because a local baptist minister was going door to door yesterday, and I finally had to tell him to get the hell off my doorstep because he just wouldn't leave. I was busy, and the last thing I wanted to do after a 14 hour day was debate religion with a baptist minister).

Either way, I believe that anyone who does good deeds, and lives their life to help others, will be rewarded in the afterlife. Those who choose to life a life of sin, have the chance to ask for God's forgiveness, and join us up there, and those who choose to deny the obvious will be sent somewhere undesirable.

But enough about me. Does anyone else have beliefs in religion that diverge from those of an organized one? I'm not talking about "alternative religions" like paeganism, or anything like that, but where your beliefs diverge significantly from any organized religion of any sort, including athiesm.

11 thoughts on “Religion?”

    1. Agreed. So if you don't mind me asking, what DO you believe in? I don't care if you're personal savior is a 5 liter V8, I'm just curious what you believe in. 8->

      1. I think I encompass some of the good parts of every religeon.

        I do believe there is a higher being. For this discussion, we will simply refer to this being as "god" (NOTE: There is no G in god).

        In respect to god, the entity is caring, forgiving, omnipotent and righteous. What it is not is vengeful, aggressive, hateful or vindictive. god made women for such things.

        I do not often pray, but when I do, it's too god. I do not often organize for the purpose of worship, but when I do, it's over a case of corona, some powertools and in the name of god.

        My house is my holy crusade, i shall not want. My cars are my "jihad", my means to thrive. Jesus built my hotrod. god is my co-pilot. your mileage may vary. offer not good with any other offer.

        Basically, there are no guarantees in life, religeon included. I would hate to be stuck in any label, be it "Buddist" or "Muslim" or "Christian".

  1. Hello…you don't know me. I have many of the same viewpoints as you do about religion. I was raised a Southern Baptist, but even at an early age, I didn't get much out of going to church, and got tired of the constant focus on the tithe and money and building fitness centers, etc etc. I consider myself very spiritual and I pray daily. I feel as if I can pray and feel the most in tune with God and with Jesus when I am alone or out in nature.

    I see most of organized religion as meaning well that went completely wrong. It's run by fallible humans after all. It's highly hypocritical and the interpretations that many preachers/priests have on "how you get to heaven"…well, it frightens me to think of the group think that they are trying to instill.

    I believe in Jesus. I believe in being a good person. I believe in asking for forgiveness when I sin but not in using that as an excuse to sin.

    I have friends who are Jewish, pagans, atheists…basically all faiths. I'm not nearly as arrogant to think that I am not going to be seeing any of them in the afterlife.

    My two cents.

    1. I know after some lengthy discussion with a friend who is Jehovah's Witness that at least in their religion, they believe that a finite number of people (It's supposedly a decimal number clearly put in the bible, i just can't remember what it is, it's like 49,000 or something) go to heaven, and the way to get there is to help people find God. I guess it isn't supposed to matter if they convert someone to Christianity, or Specicically to be a Jehovah's Witness, as long as they believe in Christ. I wonder if there's a similar thing going on for baptist ministers. :-/

      But hey, of all the religions I have studied, I have a certain level of admiration for Judaism. I think alot of the things you have by the altar are leet, like the torah scrolls, and the gold breastplate thing (sorry I can't remember what it is called, it's early), and the horn of sorrow (shofar?). I've read you guys have a whole lot of cool traditions too. I at one time considered converting, but realized that everyone in my family is Christian, and in the end, I was too. I beleive in Jesus, so that wouldn't have worked out. :->

      Anyway, I gotta get the day going, I've got a long one ahead of me. :-/

        1. right.

          So converting to judaism from catholocism is quite interesting. Is it over the whole priest thing? I found that to be a pretty obvious turning point for me. I was on the fence before, but it showed me that there is some serious deficiencies in any religion that can not only tolerate that kind of thing, but can actually hide it. :-/

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