Is All Religion Just Fiction?

[tch]

Prydonian: if this is the only world we get it'd be utterly boring and repetitive?
Seriously?
Have you looked out a window?
The world is ( to borrow a phrase that might seem familiar to some people out there) cool.

[Clara Listensprechen]

Prydonian: if this is the only world we get it'd be utterly boring and repetitive?
Seriously?
Have you looked out a window?
The world is ( to borrow a phrase that might seem familiar to some people out there) cool.

I for one can't argue with that!

[Clara Listensprechen]

Things would be utterly boring and repetitive if this is the only world we get. I do beleive in an afterlife where we will live with our Father in Heaven and His Son Jesus Christ. I think both are far more merciful than the Bible or other books of ancient and modern scripture would have us believe.

If you don't trust any version of Bible for accuracy, then how are you so sure there actually IS a Jesus Christ? Or a Father in Heaven? The Bible actually mentions 3 heavens, so which one are you referring to? After all, it's The Bible that would have you believe that there is any Jesus at all, or any Father at all, or any one of 3 Heavens at all. Proof please.

I amy not be good at the history aspects of the Bible, as stated earlier, but I did learn a few things in my studies as a Mormon in the 1990s. When all else fails us in worldy religions, true spirituality can bring us closerto the being we call God. And we can know peace through his Son's sacrifice if we accept it as such.

That's what Sufis say about the Sunni/Shiite rift, as it happens. That's why there are non-denominational churches, too...and yet scripture enforces tribalistic divisions nonetheless.

Yes, Clara, the councils of those centuries is indeed what I was referring to. They are the uninspired scholars who took the many, many books and epistles of the Church and changed them or left them out entirely of what they called a canonised Bible. A shame as there is something to be had for reading both Testaments if one has an inquiring mind.

Well, Bibles aren't the exclusive source for those good things as Bibles have plagiarized older religions. Inquiring minds do best when they don't confine themselves to a single source, or even a few sources. The more you read, the more you know.

[Prydonian]

I don't just rely on the Bible as I already stated. I was raised Mormon which has its own set of scripture, ancient and modern.
Both testify of Jesus as the Christ and I have what is called a personal testimony.
No further 'proof' is required.
As for the three Kingdoms of Glory, Mormons believe God and Jesus dwell in the highest-the Celestial-Kingdom.


tch, I respect your opinion but you do not seem to respect mine.

[tch]

I mean no disrespect,Prydonian, it's just my own personal brand of atheism was formed by looking at this world and saying 'I like this place. It's enough for me.'

I've heard people speak of the 'next world' ( which ever one you believe in) being better, but your statement that this one was boring just left me a bit gob smacked and bewildered.
My response was meant to be light hearted, not laughing at anyone or their beliefs. It was just a comment on that specific statement.

[Prydonian]

tch, no harm done. I am just a bit more tainted about the world in which I find myself living in. I have had reason to not be happy here. But I still live here and try the best I can as any man or woman would. But I do believe the so-called 'next' world will be better, as I hold no athiest views though I understand them. Again, no harm done at the end of the day.

[tch]

See, I really don't understand the 'next world' concept. It gives the impression that this one is just the waiting room or something.
and yet, everybody seems content to stay here. There are no mass suicides of religious folk, no huge groups of believers signing up for really dangerous jobs. The military has trouble meeting recruiting quotas.
Not even a Christian bungee jumping team.
It puzzles me that the people that know where the really good party is stay here.

I've stood on the beach, with my daughter, watching the waves come in from Long Island Sound, sipped my coffee and been quite happy that this is all I get. I'm planning on sticking around as long as I can.

I honestly don't get it that there are people who look at the world and think 'it's okay, but there's got to be more'.

[Prydonian]

If that is how you truly belive, nothing I could possibly say would convince you otherwise, so I am not going to even bother.

[Clara Listensprechen]

That's how it is with religion--faith is blind, and the blank in "I believe because ________" remains blank (aside from poor excuses, that is). If there was a good reason for it, it wouldn't be FAITH.

All the more reason to build a solid wall between religion and state; elected people who rely on faith to govern really don't know what the blazes they're doing.

[bcm77]

Although I respect anyone's right to believe in what they choose, I personally don't believe in it simply because there's no physical evidence.

I'd be far more open minded to something like life on other planets than some mythical entity who supposedly created everything and is going to return to judge us all one day..........fairly soon if you choose to believe all the doomsday theories that are out there.

It's like the Tooth Fairy or Santa Claus.......it's fun when you're a kid but as one grows older it seems increasingly ridiculous.