What would you say is the biggest misconception or outright untruth concerning your faith?

Question

Why do you think these misconceptions or lies were started and continue?
Peace Be With You,
Debra

Answer 1

That we Pagans worship demons and just looooooooove to curse!

The misconceptions started way back in the Middle Ages.

Answer 2

I am a Jehovah's Witness and the biggest misconception about my faith is that I am not Christian. I think this misconception started out of the lack of understanding what the requirements of true Christians are. They will continue as long as people refuse to be honest with themselves and what they read from the Bible.

Answer 3

properly, i'm happy you requested. I also favor to have precise solutions when I ask others about their beliefs, really than listening to a group of lies/rumors from those who do not extremely understand to commence with. listed decrease than are purely some about the Catholic Church. a million. That we pray/worship to the Virgin Mary 2. That we trust the Virgin Mary to be equivalent to God 3. That we pray to the saints 4. That we fee "guy-made" traditions over the recognize God 5. That we assume of the Pope is God contained in the flesh 6. That we assume of the Pope is a "ideal" being 7. That we worship graven images 8. that we ought to do the signal of the flow to ascertain that God to understand we are chatting with Him 9. That we are in ordinary words saved through works on my own 10. That we re-crucify Christ at each Mass 11. that we've crucifixes because we do not trust contained in the risen Lord?!? 12. That we confess our sins to a clergyman and in no thanks to God 13. That we are not Christians 14. We keep on with a pretend Gospel 15. we are a cult 16. The church hates homosexuals The record could flow on. Even some ex-Catholics would allow you to realize falsely a number of this stuff, even with the undeniable fact that it really is probably because they in no way totally understood the truth. i'd be more effective than satisfied to sparkling up any of those or the any of the different 5 million misconceptions human beings have. God Bless!

Answer 4

The biggest conception about my faith, Asatru, specifically that's out there now is that we are all racists/white supremacists/Neonazis. I think that came about a) because many people who are in the religion are Folkish, meaning they think of Asatru as a folkfaith and therefore that you must be of Northern European/Germanic ancestry to practice it. While a lot of these types will say they don't have anything against other races, they just can't comprehend why someone who is not of Northern European ancestry would want to worship Norse and Germanic Gods, it still sounds like a very racist philosophy. So this is kinda bringing it on ourselves here, though not all of us are Folkish. I'm not.

And b) because there are white supremacists out there who have decided to use the Norse Gods as examples of "racial purity" and will attach the Asatru label to themselves because they gain more legitamacy as a religious group than as a white supremacist/Neo Nazi group.

I think the biggest lie is that all Asatru practicioners belong to either of these two groups or that we all hate anyone who isn't white. Which just isn't true.

Answer 5

That we worship Satan.

This was a creation and fabrication of the Christian church from the Middle Ages in order to convert people because the church wanted to gain power. The 'devil' was created (or at least the image used) was taken from when the church was having all the Pagan temples of worship made into Christian churches. Pan, the Greek god of fertility, the hunt, and the forest, is a horned God who is half goat (a satyr) and had horns. This was just another example of Christianity's perversion of Pagan practices and beliefs to turn people against Paganism.

It is perpetuated because during the witch hysteria it was 'taught' through the Malleus Malificarum (see the link someone posted below) that witches are evil and make pacts with the devil for power. This, again, was a fabrication. At this point in time this was done, mostly, because modern medicine (if you can call the atrocious practices that had modern) was coming into the picture and being threatened by all the wise women who used natural healing methods. They began to find excuses to persecute any women who were independent, (not married, or widowed), and especially healers... it eventually turned into a power struggle when men started killing women who owned land or had any kind of authority. Witch hysteria became an excuse to kill any woman or person you didn't like.

In fact, the passage in the bible "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live" began as "Thou shalt not suffer a fool/poisoner to live". This was changed by King James. There was a women whom owned a piece of property he was interested in and the only way he could think of to get (steal) it from her was to accuse her of witchcraft. By changing it in the Bible it became law and she was executed. He even tried to change it back to the original translation afterwards, but the church officials refused.

In fact, the all of the anti-witchcraft laws in England weren't appealed until the 1950's!

Then, in the present day, we find that witchcraft is portrayed in all the popular media to include a 'pact with the devil' or using curses against people. Real witches do not practice cursing or any kind of harmful magick (including that which would influence a person's free will). Our symbol, the pentacle, is even used in all kind of horror movies to create a sense of mystery, horror, and evil, when it is a peaceful symbol and was even used by the Christian church for quite some time! It is the upside-down pentacle that is used by Satanists that people should be more concerned with than ours.

The only way remedy this is to educate the public, but with so many people unwilling to listen or too close-minded to listen it is difficult, if not impossible, to get the message across. But, that is the way the world works, unfortunately. And I know that posting this will not change this misconception, but you asked and that's my answer!

Blessings and Light

~RW

Also -- that people are incapable of being ethical with being Christian -- or without being religious. I don't know where it came from, but I think its pretty ridiculous!

Answer 6

A large number of fundamentalist christians seem to believe that because I am an atheist that I somehow lack an internal moral compass, that I believe there are no absolutes in morality, and that I believe I can do whatever I want because there's no god to tell me I can't.

I believe that those who believe this are so consumed by their faith and certainty that they are RIGHT that a moral atheist shakes their foundation -- if an atheist can be moral and decent without god, perhaps God isn't so necessary as they 'know' he is. My very existence witnesses against everything they hold dear, so they must dehumanize me and dismiss me to their idea of hell in order to remain faith-filled themselves.

Answer 7

misconception-that i worship mary, saints and statues. um...i really don't know where this came from. why they continue? probably so someone else can try to point out what's wrong with what i do so they can make what they do seem better or more correct...

Answer 8

The biggest misconception about faith is that it's truth. Blind Faith is as bad as being Blind Drunk.

When someone takes excess alcohol it affects their mind and body. Alcohol can drive a person into the evil world of insanity, violence, murder and hatred. We all read about crimes of passion and the killing of innocent life as a result of excess alcohol. This problem is known as being Blind Drunk.

When people are subjected to the brain-washing effects of excess religion it also affects their mind and body. Religion has a history of evil, insanity, murder and hatred. We all read about holy wars and the killing of innocent life as a result of excess religion. This problem is known as Blind Faith.

Notice the commonality of the two – Blind Drunk and Blind Faith, they both affect the commonsense and logic processing of the brain, and can turn otherwise decent people into savage insane murderers full of hatred.

Either way, when you are Blind Drunk or have Blind Faith you are Blind to the Truth, so religious people should say no to religion once and for all, and learn how to be a decent humans being again. Under the influence of Blind Faith the mind suffers a form of madness, and is unable to think or act rationally in many aspects of life's reality.

Answer 9

People miss the Christian gospel. They believe what the evil of the heart would deceive the mind into believing; namely that salvation is by works. The Christian gospel is a stumbling stone in that it teaching the counterintuitive message of salvation by Christ alone, apart from works. It’s the hardest thing to accept and the easiest thing to forget.