Down with all religion!

I veered off the path and went on this road you are on now. It is an interesting journey and there is much truth along it but it is not the way to everlasting peace and the Glory of God but then again you may get there as well. To be sure whether you know it or not this is the way you are going. I have never heard voices and God has never spoken to me but I live with Him in mind these days.
I had many years of "religious instruction." I balked at many concepts I did not believe in such as the idea that the unbaptized do not see God no matter how innocent. I believe some if not many errors have been accepted as truth. The Bible is the written history of the world of man and civilization. It is a story with a Hero and your way removes Him or does not call Him by name. I believe this saddens Him. In essence this is all He asks. You should say thank you and not try to convince those children of His who already know and love Him that He is not there. This is a very dangerous sin. God wants you to know you are not a fortunate result of natural selection but built to be who you are deliberately as a part of your long walk to Him. We have a Father and all we attribute to the natural world are gifts of the Father. When you get flowers and if you do not say thank you to the sender is this not rude? Does He not wonder if you know from whence they came?
I have no problem (and never did) reconciling Darwin with God. I remember as a child Religious study Wednesday and Sunday and Public school the rest of the week. I look up at the chart of evolution where we see the evidence of early man stooped over like an ape and gradually the shape of man was rising upward, the head held ever higher. Where does He want us to go I wondered. Where is God taking us with this? Our heads are held higher. I guessed He wants us to evolve away from the cushy sweet mother earth to Him. As a Father stands a bit away from a wobbly child....you are there with your mother...now walk, step by wobbly step... to Me.
Then well life happens and you just get so smart. For about 20 years I forgot about God. He did not fit in with so many other explanations that were more plausible. He was always in the back of my thoughts as a possibility though remote. About 10 years ago after 9/11 things sort of sped ahead in fast motion. I wanted my own home. I remember thinking if there was a God I am a good person, so what if I don't go to church. I have an open heart and yet He makes me a subject to landlords. One by one these cats appeared. Missy, Fluffy, Blackie and Coco. To make a long story short my building was sold and I had to find a new place. Now I was in a predicament with these pets. No way would I abandon them and later I understand God knew this. Him I would abandon. These cats I would not. Because of these animals and since we had become a family I was motivated beyond all previous reason to find a house. And find a house I did. But I can tell you were it not for these pets I would have got another apartment. I loved these animal beyond all reason. If you could have seen them and known what great personalities they had...I digress
Within 4 months at my new home all my cats were dead. One by one a month apart and in the reverse order that they came to me. When the first one was hit by a car I went into a funk. The youngest and my favorite by far. I tried watching the others more closely even recognized God as it was convenient for me and my heart was so heavy. I read quite a bit about death during that time, even picked up my Bible. I was attached to the heart or soul of this pet in a way that was physical..I would not let go... Meanwhile I made a vow to watch the remaining three better. Thank God you are so vibrant and healthy I said as I pet Blackie and within an hour he was dead. A raccoon got him. Then Fluffy had a cancer and even though I had his eye removed he passed then Missy. And I was alone in the big house.
God was trying to show me what was important and what was not. God used the cats. I will see them again, these innocent spirits because we all belong together. During this time I read all I could about death and the hereafter. What I felt as pain was purification. A necessary juggling of priorities. Now I know there is a God because He hates me. This is what I said during that time.
As things unraveled and the more I read I discovered I was provided for and protected almost miraculously through no action of my own. When I became so short of cash I could not afford my place I was robbed. It seemed the worst thing that could happen but the insurance money pulled me through.
I was online and "accidentally" agreed to a refinance proposal that helped me afford to keep the place when the next hurdle arose. I was forced to sell my place eventually anyway but I was very lucky to find a buyer who met my price.
Now my car was stolen and I was not insured…. After 5 days and no car I was ready to call God. I woke up out of a sound sleep crying over my predicament, begging God to help. That day an exterminator came to my house. I told him about the car and he said he was a Christian and he and his wife would say a Novena for me. I don’t even know what that is. Later that day I got the idea to look in a neighborhood a few miles away. When my house was broken into a few of my personal papers were found in a dumpster in an apartment complex and I decided to begin looking in that neighborhood. My boyfriend sat in his car refusing to get out. “This is a wild goose chase” he said. After looking around for about 15 minutes I came running back to him in his car. “I found it!” I told him and I had. It was parked by the side of the road. My key opened the door and though the steering column had been ripped up I had it repaired and was able to drive again in a week or so.
The buyers for my house were due to arrive for inspection and I had a wall full of bees. I drilled holes in the wall previously to try an exterminate them but the bees were back swarming all over the yard. If they see these bees they are going to try and get me to lower the price. I had great success with the car and so I decided again to call on God since this was way beyond my control. Please go away bees…I don’t want to kill you. The next day all was quiet, the bees had left and the buyers loved the place.
I believe in God because He steps in and helps me when I ask.

I know that was long. I am sorry. This is shorter.
My boyfriend lived in the US Virgin Islands and his only sibling, a sister works for Verizon, her husband works for the Post Office, they both live in Yonkers NY.

Frank and his sister are close but they live different lives and don't always communicate with each other. They had not spoken in quite some time.

Frank used to collect Curtis Print's (Presidential Commissioned photos of the American Indians in their native habitat before we seized their land) Read some Chief Seattle if you want another opinion of God...anyway this one print was of an old Indian Chieftain. Frank sold it to an obscure little Indian souvenir shop, a tee-pee, off the beaten path, down a lonely road in Maine.

On a spontaneous trip to visit a friend in Maine, from the VI - Frank decided to stop by and see if the Curtis print was still there. Sure enough it was. He took it from the wall to check the markings on the back and as soon as he did the tiny bell rang, someone else was visiting the obscure little Tee-Pee souvenir shop.

It was his sister and her husband.
None of them knew the other had planned a trip. Sally and Joe managed vacations from both their jobs and spur of the moment decided to do some traveling. They happened to travel down this road and then decided to stop at the little Tee Pee souvenir shop.

Of course all of them were quite taken aback and they and the store owner who is a native American himself, spent a silent moment or two...Thanking the Chief.





[edit on 21-12-2009 by rusethorcain]

To which I say....LESS clan-god based pseudo-Religion....and MORE True Spirituality (i.e. that ALL life is ONE)...

And YES, there is a BIG difference. Most of the 'truly' spiritual people I know are agnostic or athiest, believe it or not !

At least there wouldn't be any wars or genocidal holocausts in the world today if the concept of of True Spirituality were put into effect in the 21st century...

Just a thought !

reply to post by Sigismundus


...For some reason when I read "sprituality" in your post...I said "humanism"...wonder why that is....?

'Spirituality' does not have the idea of 'master races'...er (ahem) 'chosen people' who tend to have vicious hateful xenophobic sexist racist words placed into their desert clain gods' mouths which promulgate the extermination of say, Amalekites or the racial genocide of Girgu#es or anyone else who is DIFFERENT ('other') than them

Religion does. Including all the 'Radical Zionist Judaeisms' and all the 'radical Islams' and all the 'Fundamentaltist Christianities' being practiced on the planet today

Is that any clearer?

If the "rules" commandments or tenants of all religions were given as holes punched in a punch card and we lay these cards on top of one another and accepted as universal all those requirements in which all the holes lined up and put all the remainder of the various commandments or requirements to one side - as issues to be hammered out later, and we focused and agreed to maintain at least these few universal tenants...we would be doing alright.

It's true that athiests place their faith in science....so what happens when science get terribly manipulated and perverted for it's own purpose? Case in point, Climategate.

The athiests undying trust in "science" closes their mind and they are unable to accept that science is MAN MADE and subject to all sorts of manipulations and lies.

How can you have faith in science with out putting your total faith in the scientists? Geez, talk about a risky road.

reply to post by Sigismundus


What would make it more clear is if you defined what spiritualism is. Do you have a god or even gods? Do you have any particular codes of conduct? Is there a method of obedience and/or punishments for disobedience? Are there governing thought patterns as to what makes one a spiritualist and what doesn't? I'm a "Christian" by most definitions of the words. Can I be "truly spiritual" without having to circumcise myself of the "Christian" tag as well?

Reply to post by 13579

Considering you are arguing against an argument I never made? And in fact are going against the basic message of my post with your what I can best describe as a delusional interpretation of what I am saying? I never said religion was not man-made because IMHO it obviously was, it is nothing more than a intepretatin of a concept after all really. But that being the case it doesn't mean that what we would call "a deity or god" doesn't exist. Just that a great deal of certain type of conceptions are at least in part incorrect. Religion is most definantly some magical force that dictates exactly human behavior to positive or negative results sorry to inform you.


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Reply to post by 13579

Difference divides people by it's very nature. You crusade against just one possible source of difference. Unrealisticly I might add. And even then difference need not necessarily spawn conflict.


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Reply to post by predator0187

Um, the first and arguably worst in terms of loss, burning of Library of Alexandria to which you infer to happend due to Roman political unrest, namely Caesar's rise to and consolidation of power. Who was NOT a Christian as it was before you-know-who was said to be born.


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Reply to post by Watcher-In-The-Shadows

It is most definantly NOT a magical force I meant to say.


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reply to post by audas


It was not a war per say. It was the systamatic destruction of the people by the government. This was done by communist Russia, and people are still being killed in China for practicing religion.

War can be raged in the name of anything, and yes atheist have killed people for believing in God, because it did not serve their purposes.

In Russia they wanted the people to look to the government for all of their answers instead of a higher power. This gave the government more control. They killed anyone caught worshiping anything but the government, Stalin, or science.

I still do not understand why someone elses beliefs offend atheist so much. What are they really afraid of. They can make all of the excuses in the world for why they hate a belief in God. But what it really boils down to is they do not want to be criticized for their actions or told what they are doing is wrong.

A person made the statement earlier that Christians should just kill themselves so they can go be in heaven. What reasons do athiest have to live. There is no reward or punishment outside of this short life that we have.

If I believed there was nothing beyond my life I would kill myself because nothing I do would matter. It would just go black and I would not care anymore because there is nothing left to care about.

I know I said I would not post again, however, I am truly shocked by the war being raged on Christians in this thread.

Human beings are evil and will find or make up reasons to persecute one another, with or without a God.

I also asertain that every war that has ever been fought was truly about power, and who would have control, not religion. Religion may have been used as a rallying cry however.

[edit on 21-12-2009 by russ212]

I know I should bite my lip about the word religion and race. I know they are gonna kill me because of both of those words. I don't know why do I respond to religion topic.
First, in my view, I never think that my religion is the only truth and the only way to heaven. IMHO, there is profound truth in ALL religions devoted to moral principles and honoring righteous Divinity (whoever your God is).
Second, even if people don't believe in the God of the universe, they must believe in some higher power within themselves or outside themselves. Blessings and Regards.






[edit on 21-12-2009 by greenelectrictrain]

Originally posted by bignick


Why have they not taken Iraq's oil yet, since you so sure?

[edit on 19-12-2009 by bignick]

i think the oil fields in iraq were one of the first things they took control of wen they got there

It actually was and for good reason. You don't have to be an evil force for taking control of the oil fields. Any good and decent country would protect the livelihood of Iraq as well as resources millions of people depend on. If they hadn't taken control of oil fields, airports, communications, etc, they run the risk of many lives being affected negatively.

In the first Gulf War Saddam's oil fields burned throwing up large amounts of toxic pollution, crippling the economy, and leaving vast fuel shortages to the public. Why would any rational human being want to allow that to happen again?

Call it what you will, it was still the right thing to do.



[edit on 21-12-2009 by libertytoall]

who do the US pledge allegiance to? god, swear on the bible? God, defense force has a high christian tone to it. And of course who couldn't forget. The currency, the national anthem.

Just because you are christian doesn't mean religion isn't heavily embedded in your nation.


A clear example of one christian zealot in the US is Sarah palin, she needs to be taken off to the pound and put down!


Im so happy RON PAUL is running for office in 2012.

lets get the twisted and bent democrats out,

Its not often do we get a 'champion' of the people running for office. Sure as hell beats another term with barrack osama bin bastard.

reply to post by Agree2Disagree


Ahh I see, thanks for the findings, very informative.

I think I'm done with this topic, I believe what I believe you believe what you believe, the more I read my own posts the more I see this entire topic is very pointless. Sorry if I've offended anybody, I was only trying to inform but some of my posts could have been worded and constructed differently to get my point across.

btw A2D, did you check out that link I posted about t4T? Pretty luny stuff eh?

Thanks again.

reply to post by Perplexity


Yes I did visit that link and I found it to be absolutely appalling. Especially the part about a bible being more important than a transformer for a 6 year old. I just don't see where this guy gets off thinking that a 6 year old needs to be reading a bible. Six year olds are about as close to innocent as a human being is going to get. Let them enjoy their childhood for crying out loud. In just a few more years they're going to see the world for the dreadful place that it really is...there's no point in speeding up that nonsense.

Toys for tots...a tool of satan....GIMME A BREAK.
I don't think satan can put a smile on a young child's face and brighten their day in any way whatsoever.

""Let the little children come to me, and do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it."

Little children have faith without even picking up a bible or turning it's pages. I believe that's why we're called to be MORE like them.

That guy is definitely off his rocker....

A2D

Religion bad,
spirituality good!

They seem to get all smooshed together and mixed up often!

Does that help make it any clearer?