Religion: defeating it's purpose?

I have noticed that conversations regarding religion and it's beliefs, both on ATS and in real life, almost always take a venomous turn. I will admit to being part of a recent one, and holding at least some of the fault, but it got me thinking.

Why all the hate?

Inter-religious conflict seems pointless, but yet it has existed for thousands of years and taken thousands, if not millions, of lives. In my honest opinion the minor differences between them are hardly worth a fight to uphold, but people seem to be driven by it, or inspired "divinely".

However, I, with very high certainty, believe that most of the original teahers of religion, Jesus Christ for example, taught noble ideals and peace between humans. So why do most of his modern followers deviate so far from these original teachings?

Most likely, if there is a god(s), he/she/them is clearly incomprehensible to us, and most likely cannot be bothered by our human problems.

So why follow a religion? Why not simply be a good person?

To be honest it seems like religion is a set-up to make people fight.

The only solution is to either destroy or unite religion, and no current method (eg, missions) is getting near that goal.

reply to post by SlyCM


Great thread, SlyCM. I couldn't agree with you more. I have often wondered how many people actually come to agree with the opposite view of their own...you know? Like..what is the percentage of people who actually convert to a religion or political ideal because of an argument set forth by another...??

I'm sure the number is quite low....if any.

Regardless, I agree that if Jesus and Buddha and other religious figures existed and lived lives of great humanitarianism, why are followers sometimes filled with a bitter hate???

Thanks for the thread...I'm anxious to see the ATS community's take on the matter..

Starred and flagged..

Anti-Religion is honestly, pathetic. Is it so wrong to keep faith? or to follow someone that led a great life and gave people hope? It's the followers. Jesus never preached violence.

This is what I don't get. Alot of the people I talk to who conform to a certain religion, I ask them well why can't I just be a good person? They say that ill go to hell if I don't do exactly what their "god" says. I despise this really.

It really does seem like religion is defeating itself. They say their god is loving but they say that we are wrong and were going to hell if we don't follow every law or what not.

Lets just all get along. None of these religions realy seem to be helping humanity in any way at all.l

i just wanted to note quickly something. the purpose of religion isnt peace. never was.

the purpose of religion is to worship god (or gods or whatever your religion worships). there may be "religions" that have the purpose of peace, but traditional religion is about worship.

/start my pov from christian standpoint

yes, jesus said to love you neighbor as yourself. but this command is second to loving god.

love god first, love neighbor second.

part of loving god is getting to know him isnt it? if god was this incomprehensible being then why would he tell us to love him? he we love him, and he loves us, wouldnt we follow his commandments (including the one about loving your neighbor?)

religious partition is closely related to man's thirst for power

bible says one thing, but man twists it to his own means. hellfire is a perfect case study.

Originally posted by SlyCM

Why all the hate?

Why all the hate indeed.

That is a good question, the devout followers of religious belief could be defined as the weakest among us needing the most love.

If you actually practice a religion such as Christianity or Islam it reduces you to slavery and leaves you vulnerable and powerless.

Religion is a denial of the power of God.

Either for the sake of religious governance or the systematizing of worship, you lose your individual rights and ability to manifest supernatural power and have an active and real spiritual relationship with the creator.

One of the ways religion exploits the weak-minded among us that I have been hearing more talk about lately, which few people seem to take serious, is through exorcisms of devils possessing people within to subject and subjugate them to a greater possession without.

I have witnessed and participated in the commanding of spirit beings on several different occasions and have some first hand experience with both the real thing and the con game.

What I am seeing going on with religious exorcisms in the news is a spiritual con game, it is not the deliverance of the individual from possession it is the assigning of people to a greater possession

Religious authorities are doing what the religious authority accused the Jesus of the bible of doing when they said he was casting out devils using a prince of devils.

It is the commanding of spirits which are possessing a person from within the mind and / or body to leave in order to manipulate and trap the individual more deeply to possessions of devils from outside the mind and / or body..

It is a con job and it is the work of daimons under the influence of entities such as anti-christ spirits, like the ones responsible for the Christian religion.

The whole idea of spirit possession is not necessarily the notion of an entity literally occupying the mind or body though that does occur, but it is more about being forced to do the will of an outside entity much like possessing a pet gerbil and forcing it to run a maze for snacks.

Possessions can be both from within and without and it is more prevalent from without than within.

What is going on is a freeing of a person from the possession by a spirit within, in order to deceive them more deeply, to blind them to a possession by a greater force from without.

It is a process that allows a person to think they have been freed some how, which they have to a degree, but it is only in order to increase the level of trust and faith for better manipulation, which is normally the reason reason for the inward possession all along.

You guys would be amazed how many people you talk to and pass everyday that have their minds and bodies possessed from without and are spiritual slaves, fully convinced they are somehow free, being forced to jump through religious hoops endlessly like mice in a laboratory.

Religious people are the weakest and most vulnerable among us, the strong like the atheist and the spiritual minded have a moral obligation to help them be free from the bewitching of religion.

Hate is the last thing we should have for religious people they need our compassion and the power of God to live free.

Here is some recent discussion about the kind of exorcisms I am pointing out, it is a total fraud by anti-christ spirits.

Catholic News Agency 6 June 08

/6xsr52

What a great idea - to create Anti-religion religion. Then anti-crusades can be launched against all religious centers, anti-inquisition can burn religious people and anti-churches will preach anti-views.
No hate!!!!
You think that individual can be a great moral decent person without being religious - well i totally second you on that. But once number of those great and cool guys will get organized the result will also be a religion. It is need of social groups - just as there always be a leader (not always good or deserving this position) there needs to be a religion (with same problems as leader role) and there are other parts.
"All world a stage" thing and since there is a role for religions, they are also merely players.

Originally posted by newday

Originally posted by SlyCM

Why all the hate?

Why all the hate indeed.

That is a good question, the devout followers of religious belief could be defined as the weakest among us needing the most love.

If you actually practice a religion such as Christianity or Islam it reduces you to slavery and leaves you vulnerable and powerless.

Religion is a denial of the power of God.

Either for the sake of religious governance or the systematizing of worship, you lose your individual rights and ability to manifest supernatural power and have an active and real spiritual relationship with the creator.

One of the ways religion exploits the weak-minded among us that I have been hearing more talk about lately, which few people seem to take serious, is through exorcisms of devils possessing people within to subject and subjugate them to a greater possession without.

I have witnessed and participated in the commanding of spirit beings on several different occasions and have some first hand experience with both the real thing and the con game.

What I am seeing going on with religious exorcisms in the news is a spiritual con game, it is not the deliverance of the individual from possession it is the assigning of people to a greater possession

Religious authorities are doing what the religious authority accused the Jesus of the bible of doing when they said he was casting out devils using a prince of devils.

It is the commanding of spirits which are possessing a person from within the mind and / or body to leave in order to manipulate and trap the individual more deeply to possessions of devils from outside the mind and / or body..

It is a con job and it is the work of daimons under the influence of entities such as anti-christ spirits, like the ones responsible for the Christian religion.

The whole idea of spirit possession is not necessarily the notion of an entity literally occupying the mind or body though that does occur, but it is more about being forced to do the will of an outside entity much like possessing a pet gerbil and forcing it to run a maze for snacks.

Possessions can be both from within and without and it is more prevalent from without than within.

What is going on is a freeing of a person from the possession by a spirit within, in order to deceive them more deeply, to blind them to a possession by a greater force from without.

It is a process that allows a person to think they have been freed some how, which they have to a degree, but it is only in order to increase the level of trust and faith for better manipulation, which is normally the reason reason for the inward possession all along.

You guys would be amazed how many people you talk to and pass everyday that have their minds and bodies possessed from without and are spiritual slaves, fully convinced they are somehow free, being forced to jump through religious hoops endlessly like mice in a laboratory.

Religious people are the weakest and most vulnerable among us, the strong like the atheist and the spiritual minded have a moral obligation to help them be free from the bewitching of religion.

Hate is the last thing we should have for religious people they need our compassion and the power of God to live free.

Here is some recent discussion about the kind of exorcisms I am pointing out, it is a total fraud by anti-christ spirits.

Catholic News Agency 6 June 08

/6xsr52

I'm sorry to say that i have never read such a load of nonsence in my life. You obviously don't go to church or have a relationship with God. So Where does your knowledge come from?
All your statements are not true. If it were only the occasional one i would put things straight but the whole post is so far from the truth that it's not worth bothering with.
May i suggest that you talk to a few Christians and find out what they have to say on the matter.

Originally posted by jon1
...the whole post is so far from the truth that it's not worth bothering with.
May i suggest that you talk to a few Christians and find out what they have to say on the matter.

Why should he talk to yet more christians when the first (you) cannot be bothered with it?

Why all the hate? Because when you get it in your head that your truth is the absolute and only possible truth, every other belief is a threat. They're either an evil cult to lure you away from "the truth" or they're an evil cult that has been led away from the truth and couldn't really care about you.

Other religions either need to be subverted or exterminated, in the singularist worldview. Aten worshippers in Egypt did it. YHWH's followers have been doing it ever since they migrated out of North Africa. Buddhists have done it across the breadth of East Asia.

Religion is about 2 things: Control and money.

When "religious leaders" realize that their less than intelligent flock can be fleeced in the name of god, there is nothing to stop them.

Religion will be the downfall of humanity.

Originally posted by SlyCM

Why all the hate?

In the words of pop-culture's most recognised wise-man/goblin;

Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate.

The same fear our political masters are inflicting on us is working in more than one way in their favour, you realise?

Originally posted by QuetzalcoatlAlien
Anti-Religion is honestly, pathetic. Is it so wrong to keep faith? or to follow someone that led a great life and gave people hope? It's the followers. Jesus never preached violence.

if is the "followers" that are causing the problems, then wouldn't they really just be admirers and not so much followers? i mean, if they were truly followers, then they would be following the teachings through their actions..

reply to post by jon1


Don't believe me about reliigious people being weak minded and needing the most love and help out of all of us.

High IQ turns academics into atheists

/4fvdh4

If they were of average intelect they would not be relgious.

Reliigion is exploiting the weekest among us we need to stop it.

Apparently, biologists are also more likely to be atheists. The theory of evolution by natural selection tends to, as Dawkins puts it, raise people's consciousness. Physicists, on the other hand, seem more likely than biologists to be theists unless they have backgrounds in biology, since they are exposed to cosmology with no explanation or analogy (Darwinian evolution) as to how the universe could have come about. So "IQ" is just one of the many things likely to govern a person's theological opinion.

reply to post by QuetzalcoatlAlien


Lol Read the bible(the words of god herself) it preachs of much violence,and contradiction,take away the fear aspect and few would believe,the killer and rapist of a 6 year old child will ask for forgiveness
and go to heaven,the nonbeliever goes to hell or pergatory(gods ego is more important then the little girl)Fortunatly the non believe live within reality knowing once the heart quits pumping and the brain quits funtioning theres no pain no fear no pleasure no nothing,its time to put faith in ourselves and the others around us