do you think religon scares people into believing it

Hi all/
Why do so many people many times over keep using the word''Organized religion'', and then simply bag the people who are believers of God?
If one was to look around,one would notice that nearly everything is organized in life besides religion....
One who believes in God would/should know that Gods plan began with organization when He set up the Garden of Eden and placed Adam and Eve in it.
He gave them all they needed and gave them one rule....''do not eat etc.....
That one LAW(organization for the benefit of mankind)was broken and everything changed and man began their own path in life.
The Priests of the Old Testament had an organized priest hood.....and that went well.
I'm not going to go further into what I have written above, because it would change the post entirely....leave this for another thread.
Original post ''do you think religion scares people into believing it ''
I personally do not believe that religion does this.
I think people themselves want an easy way out and make themselves believe that religion prohibits them from doing what they want because they do not want to believe in whatever it is eg/There is a Higher power and it scares them .....and so they go to great lengths to find faults in religions(whatever they may be)and that makes them have their own system set up and do as they want.
If only many would open their eyes and truly see that all religions and all of society is one big organization , full of Laws and rules, then maybe they would understand why rules and Organization is put in place of.....
I don't agree with all of mans laws, but that is not for me to judge, as I live in a society where I must abide by the rules or else there are consequences to be had, if I did not.
We also have the free will of choosing to follow them or not and agreeing with them.
God is the Sole Judge and whatever people may think or believe in, in the end,''whatever one reaps, one shall sow''.....Let God be the Judge of that!

If we behave in a manner of hate,then we will get hate back thrown at us.
Teach a child manners, we will get back manners.
It all begins in the early stages.....what we teach to our children in their early years, is what they will become and know as adults.
Our peers influence us as much as our parents, but when children begin their life as adults, they begin to see what they forgot and begin their true journey in life.
Sometimes we do things for the purpose of receiving mans gratification because we seek recognition only to benefit our own passions and not because we truly want to do it.....
Eg/giving money to some organization that helps the poor?
We may do this because our taxes would be lower and we get to have a tax cut.
We wave money around and make sure others are looking and feel 'proud' that we did something for the community.......
How about helping a friend within a group of people?
Then just go backstab them while no one is looking!


[[(it's really late and Im tired and if this dont make sense, I'll check in tomorrow and try and explain it better......]]]

To conclude this, what is Religion?
What does it mean?
Is the actual word 'Religion' itself, that scares people into finding knowledge and Wisdom?
Or from, Seeking the truth?
God is great, but man wants to be greater..this will be our downfall.
...I'm going off subject..sorry,
just real tired.

he;len

Religion exists because people want answers for why the world is the way it is. People mostly cant accept that they are the cause for many of the worlds problems and so they create a devil to blame things on. People are scared to die so they create a heaven that they can look forward too so that the fear and uncertainty of death is balanced by a blissfull eternal state afterwards. Then people step up and become good at giving hope to people, and so people follow them as a sheep follows a shepard. People just need to believe in something. People want there to be a god, people want to believe that there is eternal bliss if they do good things. And people are afraid of being exploited or murdered so people want to believe in a hell or a bad place that "those people" go to. We all need a higher power. No one higher power is greater then another. And that higher power for me is the earth and the universe itself. The mighty mountains, and the brilliant full moon on a clear night. There is no hell that lasts forever.

Nothing lasts forever in heaven or earth.

Believe whatever you want to believe, just dont force your beliefs down my throat. Dont call me evil or condemn me just because i believe in something that you dont understand.

Religion is the highest form of exploitation.

"A casual stroll through the lunatic asylum shows that faith does not prove anything." - Friedrich Nietzsche

One more thing. Do not mistake the finger that points to the moon to be the moon. Many people read the bible or the koran and they think it is truth. When in fact it is the finger that is pointing to truth. You are insane if you believe the earth was created in 7 days. Look past these details, and you will see the truth. Look past the finger, and you will see the moon.

wake up.

Some people this may be the case, yes.

You are supposed to be spiritual out of the love of God, and hope for his love. You should repent out of the love of God, and not out of fear of hell (the lower spiritual plane).

Graveytrain, I hope that is not truly your opinion, if so, may God have mercy on your soul.

The "afterlife" Is where we were before we came to earth. We do not remember. Life is everlasting, eternal, and cannot be destroyed. WE cannot be destroyed, our bodies can, but not our consciousness. All of us have existed forever, we did not come about when we were born, only came about into this world from our own choosing. We all have a small sub-atomic particle somewhere in our head that is our soul/conscious. The brain itself cannot think without the aid of this particle, this particle just uses the brain to think on these planes of existence. When our bodies die here the particle (us) are returned to Godhead back to the spiritual plane. If you have allot of bad karma, you will exist in the lower planes (hell) before you can rinse them off by good deeds and raise up. There are several dimensions of the spiritual world. People who are truly evil or do not exist in the higher up planes, will choose to stay in the lower ones forever, thus, an inescapable hell.

God exist, its only the people who go to him who see him. He will knock on the door, but many choose to ignore or pass it as something else. The world would not be the way it is today if everyone turned to god. I think we all came to earth to escape god, or do things on our own. I think the sole purpose of life is to find God again, then return. Or you could try to do things on your own, this is society, and it is failing.

Those who think death is just blackness, or non-existent, or in for a big freaking surprise, for this is not possible, because consciousness always exist. They are ones who think they do not have to pay for their sins/bad karma, or do not want to exist any longer, they will be in torment, and will choose torment forever.

[edit on 17-10-2007 by 1337cshacker]

Originally posted by Clearskies
Kevkevkev,
I'm telling you because I believe it!
I used to be an unbeliever until I had enough of this world!
I felt like an OLD lady at 19!
I was suicidal and depressed because of MY sins, but I didn't understand why. When I was 23, I asked Jesus to forgive me, Whoosh!!!
I became a new person in the blink of an eye. Like a child again!
I've studied the bible for 14 years and it's MORE true to me, now.

Same thing happened to me but heh I found someone else.

And it wasn't your chauvinistic god.

[edit on 10/17/2007 by Kacen]

reply to post by 1337cshacker


Hey why do you say that god should have mercy on my soul? I dont believe in god the creator. But that is because i am a buddhist. I do believe in karma. I do believe in hell, I do believe in higher spiritual planes. I am a good person, I do good things, and I bring happiness to peoples lives or at least try my hardest. I believe that the best thing people can do for the world, is first find inner peace. But why do I need a god for this? or for that matter an old dusty book? My consciousness exists, thats all the proof i need for karma. As for god? I just dont worship like the chritians do. I do pray, and i meditate. As i said i am a buddhist. I just dont at all agree with the bible.

Like i said the bible is the finger that points to the truth. But the finger itself is not the truth. Meaning simply that the stories in the bible are not to be taken litterally, but the meaning behind those stories, beyond the stories, are truth. I have read the bible, the koran, the bhagavad gita, and the dhammapada. Buddhism makes the most sense to me. Buddha said that the soul is the last great illusion to be liberatted from to attain nibbana. The illusion that we are separate from god, When i think that we are all a part of god. Therefore god did not create us. God is Us. And everything we see.

I dont want to get into this because i could talk for hours and hours and hours and write multiple books supporting this. But what is wrong with this view? To me it makes my life a rich spiritual journey with deep meaning and connection all around me. I do not live in fear. I do not live bound to the teachings of one single book. I do not live in the shadow of anyone else. I just live. And i live as best as I can. I plan to do an 8 hour stanza this weekend. I do not worship myself. The only thing i worship is compassion. No god. Just compassion. I do not force my beliefs on anyone. Enstead i try to be as compassionate as i can be. And I find that some people ask me how i can be so nice, even when people are angry around me. I just smile.

So please do not tell me "may god have mercy on my soul" although that is a catchy phrase I challenge you to read all the religious books you can get your hands on. Challenge your beliefs dont blindly accept them. Challenge yourself. Learn all you can. Meditate, and be humble. And i promise you that you will be very surprised at what you find, and where you find it.

WAKE UP

I do believe alot of what religions are spitting out today, and in the past, are mostly to scare people, or shock them into believing. i think this is mostly wrong, if you want someone to believe in something you cant force there hand in that matter. Hence they will not truely believe, but will only do so out of fear.

Sure, just as a hot stove scares people into not touching it.

reply to post by gravytrain

Then I am sorry sir, I have misunderstood you. Good day!

reply to post by gravytrain

There is a lot of truth in that post. A lot.

Personally, I think Richard Dawkins hit it pretty squarely when he said (and I paraphrase, quite liberally) "If there really was a hell, it wouldn't have to be terrible at all. Simply being barred from Heaven should be bad enough, shouldn't it? The whole deal feels like a gross exaggeration, and for what reason? To make the alternative option bad enough that not only would people move away from it, but that they would move away from it without question."


[edit on 17/10/2007 by Thousand]

Agreed. If you were supposed to follow because God loves you for being his children, he wouldn't say:

"I want you to follow me, because I love you no matter what your sin is...oh but if you don't bow and worship my son and I you'll burn and be tortured forever and ever and ever so...who wants me to sign their copy of my book?"

If you follow a religion out of fear of the pain, than that's pretty much spitting in his face. You don't fear the people deeply love, and someone who really loves you would die before letting harm come to you, so obviously the belief is based on control. If you told your lover "If I say you're not allowed to do something, and you ever do it, and I find out, I'll beat you within an inch of your life", how long do you think they are gonna stay with them? Sadly, most women would be to afraid to break up with her bf is they said that in fear of him punishing her for even saying she would.

The reason I said that is to ask this of the over religious people. If you're you're supposed to praise God and ONLY praise God or suffer...Than it's the same thing with an abusive spouse is it not? people with abusive spouse's that they are afraid of are repeatedly told by friends "just leave him" and they say "no, he'll hurt me". It's the same thing, only difference is you can call the authorities for spousal abuse. We should be able to call like(TDWPP) The Divine Witness Protection Program to protect ourselves from God's drunk with power killing sprees. But we can't, because his killing is carried on by his followers. Ironic how people will tell others to leave someone who threatens and is abusive when they themselves continue to follow a belief that threatens pain for disobeying.

Religious followers always say they've had the "feeling" and they've felt their version of the creator. Then they say the rest of the world that has the "feeling" are liars, fakes, evil, going to hell, etc?
Sorry, but you can't say that YOUR feeling is real and they are wrong unless you are 100%, no doubt, content with the fact that your belief could be wrong as well. If you don't than that makes you a hypocrite, and proves that your version of the divine creator either doesn't exist, or has done a good job at keeping you ignorant of human morality.

I used to be Christian, not anymore. I stopped as soon as I was old enough and smart enough to see the hypocrisies, the lies, the mistakes, and the amount of bloodshed that has occurred all through it's history against those who were different, in order to scare people and keep them within the boundaries of the books covers.

I am like GravyTrain although I am not declared Buddhist. I try to live well and do good, not by fear of punishment if I do wrong, but because me, myself, and I WANT to. To do it without thought of the punishment or reward one may receive is better than doing it because you're told to. If you have to be told to do good, that means the good deed you did was false. since you were doing what you were told, rather than being naturally compelled to do it.

The world itself is divine. Take away any 1 part of world we'd die out. Add more and more, we die out. It's lucky the Earth is at the right area to sustain the life it has, but that doesn't mean it was divine providence that did it. There are fossilized microbes in Martian soil! Birth is birth and death is death and in between them is where you're supposed to have fun since you're not gonna be here that long And think about this...not one place in the bible does it say that after death that you can't create your own world within your own soul with the energy you'll have from the good deeds you've accomplished. So that's what I'm doing. I'm gonna use my karma to create a limbo realm for those who turn away from religion and continue their search for spirituality and the knowledge of the universes life force.

Have a good day

reply to post by UnderCoveted


Hell is there for the fallen angels, was created for the fallen angels.
Satan TOOK our security in God by convincing Eve and then Adam that HIS way was better.
Hell is there because we lost our deed over this Earth to Satan, just like Esau sold his birthright to Jacob for something to fill his belly!
Jesus WAS the tree of life, which they never partook of, and Satan was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
They had been warned. But God knew they might sin, so he had a back-up plan. Blood sacrifice. Adam and Eve had never seen anything die until they sinned. Then after they used stupid fig leaves to try and cover thier sins, God killed an animal(probably a lamb) and made coverings for them.
God accepted Abel's sacrifice, his ONLY gift to God our father.
Cain thought vegetables would do, but he was wrong!
and then his jealousy caused him to murder Abel. This whole Earth of mankind was corrupted, not by God, but Satan!!! But, when the time had come, when the Abrahamic religion and the Temple, had become too corrupted by Rome, and for profit, Jeshua(Jesus) came to become the final and complete sacrifice for our sins! You can either accept it, or close your eyes and ears to the selfishness and Evil that fills every soul not regenerated by faith.
You can't TRUST in anyone but GOD!