Ban religion

You think you dont live by set rules? im sure you do. Im sure everyone does to a certian extent! like going to work.. earning money.. If people go to work everyday say on average 5 days per week who wrote that law? and why do we follow it! if everyone decided to not work the WHOLE day im sure massive multi billionaire comanies could do without! now thats control! forget religion!

Some people just do not like religion thrown at them and that is fair enough but sometimes people who are afraid of just listening and understanding a different view point makes them closed to staying in their set rules. I think everyone needs to be open and accepting.. taking religion or emotion or thought and locking it away in your own homes only leads to others getting worried about what the others are doing and thus causing seperation and fear of the "other" by all means anything religious is personal to each person, and then these people can come together as a group and share their thoughts and ideas and give freely others the right to see what they believe.

I think hiding religion away will only cause a certain degree of supression. After all sharing something that is meant to be focused on other "higher beings and higher selves" in a positive way is important to the uplift of positive conciousness. if others see this as a threat then they have issues within to over come so they loose judgement and learn that their negative ego and mind is controlling their being and not their own spirit. in spiritual form im sure you wouldnt find judgement in someone talking about religion in a positve manner.

If there is any problem with religion is the humans EGOS that cause what happens in this world today!

Believe what you want but why must any type of religion be shoved into peoples faces. Why not believe and worship in your homes. why must people continue to put up with these religious people. you ask for for freedom to worship but will deny those of us that do not want any part of it. You call us athiest or satanist or that we are just p[lain lost souls. I don;t want any part of this but am forced to deal with it when i go to work, walk down the street, and watch tv.

[edit on 17-6-2007 by soulstealer2099]

Originally posted by soulstealer2099
Believe what you want but why must any type of religion be shoved into peoples faces. Why not believe and worship in your homes. why must people continue to put up with these religious people. you ask for for freedom to worship but will deny those of us that do not want any part of it. You call us athiest or satanist or that we are just p[lain lost souls. I don;t want any part of this but am forced to deal with it when i go to work, walk down the street, and watch tv.

People have the right to believe in anything they want to and they do. People have the right to turn a TV on and a TV off if they do not like the show they are watching. Im not sure what country you are from or what type of work you do.. but i suggest you look at your leaders and why they are making its people to be forced to have to deal with religion at work, walking down the street and on the TV. There is a great deal of control and organised religion can be used to but "fear" in people which in my view is not a good way of looking at religion, if religion makes one fearful then id start to look at the person preeching it and then i would use my own judements to choose to listen or not. On the contary athiest or satanists are not lost souls just people who do not agree with religion and its ethics or motivations and i think thats fine. find the true within yourself but dont let your Negative Ego or seperation get in the way.. or Negative Ego get in the way full stop.. If anyone has an issue about how religion is thrown at them I think they need to stop and ask themselves why it annoys them so much. I agree when i walk down the street and i hear a man at the top of his voice shouting something out of a religious text and it annoys me.. it annoys me because why does he do it and why so LOUD. but there is a part of me that thinks.. this guy has faith.. he is sure of what he is saying so much that he wants to tell us that. so long as he hasnt got a gun and isnt shooting down people who dont take a leaflet im fine with him to a degree because it sparks off inside me even if its only a little spark the sentence, "is he happy doing this everyday... would i be happy if i had a faith, and more to the point am i happy doing what im doing today." things like this can question our own thoughts to how to better ourselves rather than just shutting everyone up and no one expressing their views.

sometimes we dont even listen to ourselves, let alone a man shouting religious text... maybe its a reminder to listen to ourselves more, look beyond what he is trying to foce upon you, use it to better yourself and what you can do within to learn how to accept that it may make this man happier that he is doing something that isnt harmful just annoying at times to togethers and how you when you are alone.. when you have none of these external influences can think about life and how everything you achieve is internal.

Life is im afraid full of external influences... to be honnest with you i think religion is not a really major thing compaired to Advertising!!!! look at how we are influenced by brands! if anything i think we should address the subject of advertising corperate capitilism and how to stop the human race dumbing themselves down with all the bad stuff they eat and drink and smoke!

Something like New Age where all sorts of spiritual practices are mixed and you use whatever you want is probably the best solution. That way spirituality is not forgotten, just organized religion and cults.

Originally posted by benevolent tyrant

Originally posted by rodandlana
Can you see Jesus murdering?

Actually, I can. After all, Jesus did have a bad temper. Just consider Jesus overturning the tables of the moneylenders in the temple. This is the action of a Man of Peace?

Later, in the Garden of Gethsemane, shortly before Jesus is arrested, we see the Romans send a cohort of soldiers. They sent a cohort! A cohort of Roman soldiers was 600 men! Why would they send so many troops to arrest one man and, possibly, twelve disciples? Could the Romans have been expecting trouble? Add the incident wherein one of the disciples takes a sword from one of the Centurions (???) and cuts off his ear. Would one really expect a fisherman to be able to disarm a trained soldier and use his own weapon against him?

Jesus was a revolutionary, an Essene or zealot. He was a man who had the makings of armed revolution surrounding him.

Jesus a murderer? Perhaps not. Jesus a revolutionary ready to kill for his political movement......hmmmmmmm?

[edit on 6/17/2007 by benevolent tyrant]

Interesting info. I read about his temper somewhere too. I would like to see more info, if you have it. His ideas were revolutionary and no wonder he got so many dedicated people following him. And no wonder primitives wanted him killed.

Many religions have had wars and mass killings in the name of their god/s. YET, I do not find anywars or mass killings with BUDDHISM. Albert Einstein wrote:
The religion of the future will be a cosmic religion. It should transcend a personal God and avoid dogma and theology. Covering both the natural and the spiritual, it should be based on a religious sense arising from the experience of all things natural and spiritual as a meaningful unity. Buddhism answers this description... If there is any religion that could cope with modern scientific needs, it would be Buddhism.

Such compassion, love and careing with Buddha.
So far I have found no hate in his teachings, no killing of animals, or your children, or sexual orgies, or killing in his name, or killing someone for eating the wrong food, and the list goes on. HAVE YOU PEOPLE READ THE BIBLE? No wonder there is so much hate.
HEY, I'm not a Buddhist yet...still working on that compassion thing. hehe

PEACE OUT

i hate to point out

but freedom of religion is a human right. but of course, atheist (who claim to support human rights) don't support that part. or do you?

[edit on 17-6-2007 by infinite]

A lot people are describing religion as if it is the opposite to evil. This just isn't true. I am not religious at all, I can't believe in something I can't see any proof exists. However, I am not evil, to the point that I don't kill any bugs, I capture them and release them outside. I find war despicable -- are we really that primitive that we have to kill one another.
I agree to some extent with the opening post. Wars have all been down to one of three things:
1) Money (land also)
2) Sex
3) Religion

It is not bipolar that you are either religious or evil.

Lets just ban war.

[And I don't want any religious types telling me that they feel sorry for me not being able to experience the love of God or any of that nonsense. Just because I am not religious doesn't mean that I don't know the difference between right and wrong.]

soulstealer2099 you do no understand religion is the laws before laws it gives many hope shows people how to live their lives and how to achieve happiness sure many religions have their problem and flaws but so does every man on this earth i believe that your looking at history from its plain perspective however if you look inside you will easily reconsider your present thoughts so if you target Christianity read the bible Buddhism read their books and s n so forth

Let's try a little experiment with Soulstealer's idea, shall we?

Original Idea:
"You can practice your religion in the privacy of your own home, but we should remove any and all public reference to religion"

Here's the experiment. Let's do a cut-and-replace of the word "religion" with some other words that denote lifestyles or belief systems, and see if this sounds like a good idea, shall we?

"You can practice your homosexuality in the privacy of your own home, but we should remove any and all public references to homosexuality".

I'm sure that one would sit well with some folks (ironically, most of them very 'religious')...but I'm also not sure this one sounds good.

"You can practice your political beliefs in the privacy of your own home, but we should remove and and all public references to political beliefs".

Well...if anything has started as many fights as religion, it's probably politics, but this one doesn't sound too good either.

"You can practice your freedom of speech in the privacy of your own home, but we should remove and and all public references to freedom of speech"

Hey...if we're going to restrict one right to the privacy of the home, why not restrict another one? I mean, think of all the fights that have started because somebody shot off their mouths! This 'free speech' crap has GOT TO GO!

Shall I continue, or do you begin to get the point? If you have no desire to practice a religion, (or any religion), that's your perogative. If you don't like the Mormons knocking on your door (Pet peeve of mine, since I work a night shift), just tell them (politely) that you aren't interested, and want them to stop visiting you. One of the terrible things about living in a free society is having to tolerate all those OTHER PEOPLE who think they have freedoms too.

And just to vent on another pet peeve of mine....I love the fact that people who find it utterly rude of me to push my religion onto them have no problem playing their craptacular 'music' at a volume that makes it impossible to ignore. Why is it wrong for me to 'impose' my beliefs on someone else, but perfectly fine to have their cultural 'taste' imposed on me?

The Dark Side of Buddhism

Originally posted by tator3
Many religions have had wars and mass killings in the name of their god/s. YET, I do not find anywars or mass killings with BUDDHISM.

You didn't look hard enough.

Sri Lanka's Buddhist Monks Are Intent on War

or sexual orgies

I suggest you study some of the more esoteric Tantric works.

In Vajrayana Buddhism tantric sexual practice is one aspect of the last stage of the initiate's spiritual path. Within the Tibetan tradition the role of such practices has always been somewhat controversial, since they lend themselves to abuse, and is therefore often shrouded in secrecy.

or killing in his name

Actually, some of the more extreme tantric sects, such as that of the Indonesian Buddhist monarch Adityavarman, practised human sacrifice. There are several different strains of Buddhism, and in the past there were many more. Not all were as blandly benign as the version promoted by the Dalai Lama.

or killing someone for eating the wrong food

That one I'll grant you.

Buddhism, like every other religion, has its dark side. To the degree that it has less of one than some of the others, it is also less satisfactory as a religion. But that's another can of worms and we don't want to slide off topic.

Originally posted by Astyanax
Buddhism, like every other religion, has its dark side. To the degree that it has less of one than some of the others, it is also less satisfactory as a religion. But that's another can of worms and we don't want to slide off topic.

Hmm that's a topic I actually would like to hear more about in another thread. Less satisfactory since it is more focused on our psychological state or because Buddhism does not look to the "external" for unknown answers? Sounds like a good discussion.

Originally posted by TheB1ueSoldier

Originally posted by soulstealer2099
Why does the world not wake up and ban religion outright!

Because not too many people take religious advice from people who name themselves "SoulStealer."

For some reason I was rolling on that one

The first thing that came to mind when I started reading this thread was that South Park episode where Cartman freezes himself to the future. I think they had a valid point about human nature. We will always find something to fight about; race, culture, land/resources, politics, ect. Not just religion.

Aside from that though, I hear many people speaking of having religion shoved in their faces, but quite frankly have never seen it. Why is someone promoting a religion at your doorstep any worse than a door to door salesman. And aside from that little annoyance, when is religion ever really shoved in your face? I would love to hear a few examples.

I just want to add if we won't fight wars about religion, we'll probably find something else. That is how pathetic the human race is. It can be over racism, money, or even sexuality. I'm afraid wars will continue long after religion. Getting rid of religion will not bring world peace.

Originally posted by soulstealer2099
Believe what you want but why must any type of religion be shoved into peoples faces. Why not believe and worship in your homes. why must people continue to put up with these religious people. you ask for for freedom to worship but will deny those of us that do not want any part of it. You call us athiest or satanist or that we are just p[lain lost souls. I don;t want any part of this but am forced to deal with it when i go to work, walk down the street, and watch tv.

[edit on 17-6-2007 by soulstealer2099]

I'm not christian and every X-mas I have it shoved down my throat too. But all I have to do is ignore it. You can too. I've told all my family and friends that I have no interest in their little "holiday".

Why should people have to worship in their homes? How does it harm you to see a church on the street?

See, their rights to worship in public and go out there to spread the message is EXACTLY the same as you coming here and spreading your religious message. It's the same right, and it's freedom of thought, and all humans have that right regardless of which imaginary nation they live.

It sounds like being exposed to religion just offends you. Well, sorry, but offense happens inside of you, not from external sources. It is your belief system which is causing the offense.

If the above paragraph offends, please reread the last sentance of it.

Vas

Originally posted by benevolent tyrant

Originally posted by rodandlana
Can you see Jesus murdering?

Actually, I can. After all, Jesus did have a bad temper. Just consider Jesus overturning the tables of the moneylenders in the temple. This is the action of a Man of Peace?

Later, in the Garden of Gethsemane, shortly before Jesus is arrested, we see the Romans send a cohort of soldiers. They sent a cohort! A cohort of Roman soldiers was 600 men! Why would they send so many troops to arrest one man and, possibly, twelve disciples? Could the Romans have been expecting trouble? Add the incident wherein one of the disciples takes a sword from one of the Centurions (???) and cuts off his ear. Would one really expect a fisherman to be able to disarm a trained soldier and use his own weapon against him?

Jesus was a revolutionary, an Essene or zealot. He was a man who had the makings of armed revolution surrounding him.

Jesus a murderer? Perhaps not. Jesus a revolutionary ready to kill for his political movement......hmmmmmmm?

[edit on 6/17/2007 by benevolent tyrant]

This is an absolutely ridiculous. Since when does becoming angry and flipping over tables equal to being a dangerous/murderous revolutionary? There's one account of Jesus becoming angry in the Bible and all of a sudden he had a bad temper. Have you even read the Bible?

This whole thread is an unbelievable example of ignorance. How is religion different from any other belief? No entity can ban thought, I'm pretty sure that's what all the government conspiracy heads here are afraid of. I'm personally not a religious person but it doesn't change the fact that all belief systems should be respected as opinions.

[edit on 17-6-2007 by DMSpizzirri]

Originally posted by DMSpizzirri
This is an absolutely ridiculous. Since when does becoming angry and flipping over tables equal to being a dangerous/murderous revolutionary? There's one account of Jesus becoming angry in the Bible and all of a sudden he had a bad temper. Have you even read the Bible?

Most people haven't read the bible, I'm afraid. They just use what they hear and claim they read it. This was the one time Jesus raised a fist, not even injuring anyone. Many others have done much much worse, yet have not been condemned.

It's really really sad that people can't sit down and read the freaking book. It's done so much to shape human history it's a crime that people can be so uninformed on such an important subject.

What's really sad is that people take the bible as fact and not fiction. Maybe jesus existed maybe he WAS a great man...but there is no proof he did the miracles he did.

Ban religion? Keep it out of the public eye?

That's called intolerance.

Let's say you like the Oakland Raiders. Let's also say I "don't" like the Oakland Raiders. Ok, so let's just ban Oakland Raiders shirts from public viewing.

Do you see where I am coming from? It's like, here we go again, we must be very careful not to offend people with things like Christmas trees.

Troy

Originally posted by soulstealer2099
What's really sad is that people take the bible as fact and not fiction. Maybe jesus existed maybe he WAS a great man...but there is no proof he did the miracles he did.

Not quite my wording, but this is true none the less.
Religious people seem to be the ones that can't open their minds to the fact that it could all be just a story.




(Bet I am accused of not having an open mind in the next few posts!!)