Your opinion of religion?

Question

Here's mine.

The Institution of Church:
The idea that you have to go to a physical building is just rediculous. If you have faith and believe and live your life well, what should it matter if you do it in a building or at home with the love of God in your hart? Don't get me started with priests who are guiding my life and molesting childeren.

The Bible:
I am a very spiritial person. At one point of my life, I was going to go to theology school and become a Lutheran Priest. Circumstances have arose that caused me to lose faith in the Church but not my faith in my God. I have also read three versions of the bible, cover to cover. In so reading, have found different interperations in each versions. Now the question is, why do people take the word of the bible, will even quote phrases of it to me in circumstances, so literally? The Bible was ment to be a guide and a way to discover your own spiritallity. It is not ment to betaken at face value.

What is yours?

Good now I get to add on. I didn't mean to broad storke priests with that broad paint brush. What I ment was that people who are just as flawed as me are guiding my spiritial growth and my destination? Heven or Hell in the hands of a drunk, gambler, or worse? (Believe me on the drunk and gambler. Personal experience.)

Answer 1

MY view is by and large in line with yours. I was born a Catholic, and bigger bunch of two-faced, self-opinionated bastards you would hard-pressed to find. The cop-out being Confession every Sunday to dump the sins of last week with a clean bill of health for the coming week.

Answer 2

As a Catholic, I feel we get additional graces from receiving the sacraments which you can only do at Church (with some exceptions of course) and you can benefit from worshipping with others - man is by nature a social being. However, you do still have to have God in your heart and live your life as an example of that the rest of the week also, I don't think an hour on Sunday is going to save you. It's still the old "you'll get out what you put in" addage. And priests aren't saints - there are some very good ones but also some very bad ones, just like doctors or dentists.

The Bible: I think it is a guide also, that's why Jesus spoke in parrables. Things didn't mean the same then as they do now and unless you're a historian I don't believe you can take everything literally. Hopefully, if you're reading with a sincere heart, the right messages will come thru.

I believe God's spirituallity IS in each one of us and that you can discover that if you work on it, but therein lies the problem -- not too many people take the time unless it's scheduled (some not even then but they have a better chance).

Answer 3

I think, a former Lutherean Priest like you should have known many important reasons why people went to a building to listen to your preaching. Now you left the place, it doesn't mean that the place has become useless. Since God is omnipresent, people can worship Him anywhwere, in big cities and in isolated mountains, they can also serve Him individually and collectively. Now, you really want some good things for yourself, or you just interest in calling the disappointed Priests and believers to leave the church and start talking about God without learning and practicing the Creative Word?
Here is the warning of my Master about people who seek to promote their own interest:

"Today, all the peoples of the world are indulging in self-interest and exert the utmost effort and endeavour to promote their own material interests. They are worshipping themselves and not the divine reality, nor the world of mankind. They seek diligently their own benefit and not the common weal. This is because they are captives of the world of nature and unaware of the divine teachings, of the bounty of the Kingdom and of the Sun of Truth. But ye, praise be to God, are at present especially favoured with this bounty, have become of the chosen, have been informed of the heavenly instructions, have gained admittance into the Kingdom of God, have become the recipients of unbounded blessings and have been baptized with the Water of Life, with the fire of the love of God and with the Holy Spirit."
(Abdu'l-Baha, Selections from the Writings of Abdu'l-Baha, p. 103)

Answer 4

A church is a dwelling to go worship, it can also be done in the home or for that matter anywhere, no one is trying to push anyone into a church, and maybe some priest molest children but that is a very broad generalization and does not happen as much as people would like to believe, it's also something that the press adds onto...

The Bible to me is Gods way and I will try to live by it as much as possible, I'm not saying that I do not sin and there is plenty of sin in the Bible but I believe in the 10 Commandments and I believe Bible study helps and I also believe when I study and read, it brings peace to me, and that of course is my individual basis...

I love the Lord, I love to worship, and sing Praise and I pray for you, me and those in need, and I also Thank God for the many many things he gives us daily...

Answer 5

Remember the incident Jesus and his disciples witnessed where the righteous man went to pray in the marketplace? A common practice it seems. Probably his servants dropped a carpet and stood guard while he completed his ritual. All who saw him were impressed by his piety. What a guy. But Jesus told his friends, don't pray to be seen of men. Don't make a public display. Instead, go into your closet and shut the door. He said something like, pray in secret that your Father in Heaven may reward you openly. However, you still have to assemble in a church for fellowship and for mutual support.
You mention you're very spiritual. What a wonderful thing. People who worship trees are spiritual. But what is the sound of one hand clapping? You need to be with other people who read and study the Scriptures and by their wisdom offer guidance. My opinion of going to church is you have to get your butt out of bed on a Sunday AM, wash and groom yourself well, dress in your best clothes, and present yourself before God in His house. Catholic, Lutheran, Baptist, whatever. And put money in the alms basket. This shows respect to God. And don't let them rope you in to joining if you don't care to.
The Bible was written to preserve the Law. Jesus said he didn't come to do away with the law, he came to fulfill it. He was the Promise of the Law. Buy a good set of commentaries from CBD and you'll learn a lot. Barnes' Notes are especially good. Stick with the King James Version. I like the lyricism of the words.

Answer 6

Religion is Like Wine:

Too much will kill you for sure.

Long before that it makes you stupid, tedious to have around, and a danger to yourself and others.

In moderation it makes many people happy, which is reason enough for it, I guess. Too bad even a little makes some people mean. It just makes me sleepy.

Some claim it has health benefits. Maybe so, but I can't help wondering if grape juice would work as well.

If you enjoy it, and can handle it, go for it. But I won't be joining you, and I'd rather not have to say so twice.

Really, drink up. I'll be happy to have you around until you get annoying. Just remember, if you turn into a loud-mouthed asshole or start a fight, the wine is no excuse.

Finally, if you ever find it's ruining your life, and can't quit by yourself, I'm here to help.

Answer 7

I am a Muslim. I cannot say religion is part and parcel of my life because it is life. There isn't anything in life, literally, that religion, Islam to be specific and sure, has not addressed.

I agree with you that religion is not stricted in certain places. Allah is in my heart everywhere and I perform my prayers wherever I am; at home, at work, etc. However, I sometimes go to the mosque for more spirituality. I guess this is where places of worship differ among religions. In Islam, there are no mediators; no one to go to to confess my sins. Why do I need to confess my sins to a uman being who could be no better than myself, sometimes even worse, as you stated, and using religion as a cover up for corruption.

The link between myself and Allah is direct. If I want to talk to Allah, I do it from the heart. If I want to hear Allah, I read His words, the Quran. And no matter how many versions I read, they are all the same, no alteration, because it is the word of God, delivered by His prophet.

Peace be upon you all.

Answer 8

Spirituality has nothing to do with religion. Religion is another insurance scam for the ignorant and the gullible. People for the most part are born into a religion and never get beyond it. Their parents, meaning well but not really very knowledgeable either sent their kids to the local church and Sunday school because it was the thing to do. As the kid grows up he or she becomes very resistant to outside criticism of their faith because we don't want to think our parents and teachers might be wrong. That then becomes the first hurdle to becoming an adult - you've got to start thinking for yourself. Meaning just because you were born there does not mean you have to stay there. However, we become so busy with family and career and bringing home the bacon we're usually just too tired to think much beyond it. Indeed 95% of people never get beyond this point. They spend their entire lives ignorant and gullible and seldom even dreaming there might be something better. That is just exactly where religion seeks to keep them. They want to keep you deaf dumb blind and stupid where you are, so they can continue to fleece you. And you, too busy or too tired, let them do it because it's easier to give someone some money and ask to be told what to do than to figure it out for ourselves. It's easier to fork over some dough than read a book or do anything that might threaten our time. We think we have bought some insurance with the man upstairs if we give some money,even though we never took it very seriously.
Spirituality, on the other hand will try to enlighten you and show you how to think for yourself. Exactly what the religious people will not do because then you might get away,then they couldn't control you.
Then when they preach hate and violence and promise you 70 virgins in heaven if you only kill some people you won't believe it. Then you have learned to think for yourself.
Now you have graduated to the top 5% of humanity who are at least open to the possibility that there might be something better. If you are smart enough to realize you need to read up on these things and study with an open mind,then everything you encounter becomes an avenue to it, to further your understanding. By now you have discovered Hinduism and Buddism and maybe you have read Plotinus and Plato and Alice Bailey and Jane Roberts and A Course In Miracles and a thousand and one other worthy authors each with their own variation on things,and you begin to discover these people are really all saying the same thing, each in their own way. They are all talking about truth, the same truth. Indeed there are as many paths as there are people but they all lead to the same place. They all lead home. No matter how diverse you were when you started out you begin to suspect we might really be all the same. Not only the same point of view but the same person. Beginning to suspect we might be playing all the parts all the time and only pretending to be different we arrive at some clarity as to what the "son" really is. He is us and when we begin to accept that is the "second coming". The Holy Spirit, long a trusted companion and guide and infallible advisor begins to be seen in a new light as our higher self. And with further clarity we realize no difference between us and we are one. And this is the Grail Quest, and we realize we have been on it all our lives,and we are the "Grail" and we have discovered ourselves and all the time we thought we knew ourselves and didn't even know who or what we were looking for. We look back and marvel at how far we've come and we see it's but a single step and all the others are still there, still blind in their cocoons of unknown search and to some of these we reach out a hand and they bite and kick and we endure and try again and seldom do they listen or even seem to care and we see ourselves in them and we know it's as it should be and we smile and go among them as the road unfolds before us.

http://360.yahoo. com/dvdewalt

Answer 9

That it is a personal opinion and a personal choice. If god wanted you to follow one way,then it would have been so. But there is a bigger picture which people fail to see.The essence of every religion is the same.do good and stay away from evil.First things first, one should try to be a good human being and then a religious one!

Answer 10

I agree 100% with you. People that go to church are allowing themselves to be brainwashed. They have no good explanation for going. Church is more or less a social meeting ground. I don't go, but I still am a good person. Church does not define who I am.