Organised Religion. Is it more trouble than it's worth?

Question

Do you think the established "churches" are now outdated. I was brought up as a Roman Catholic and even though I still believe in god I do not feel that the Pope represents me and I haven't been in a church for a long time. I always felt that mass was nothing but going through the motions and that I had repeated the prayers so often they no longer have any meaning. I feel that "most" individuals try to live their lives by the so called 10 commandments so do we really need to label ourselves Catholic, Christian,Sikh,Muslim etc? From what I see on the news and read in the papers it only causes problems anyway. (Crusades etc)

Answer 1

in this day and age with all of the crimes against humanity I don't see how anyone could even believe in god or religion. just what type of god are you trying to portray. just because you no longer attend church services doesn't mean you see the light. you're only 1/2 of the way there.

Answer 2

>>>From what I see on the news and read in the papers it only causes problems anyway.<<<

"The news" and "the papers" are overwhelmingly liberal, left-leaning, and secularist. So it's no surprise that they would leave you with the impression that religion "only causes problems anyway."

Did you know that the Catholic Church is the single largest non-governmental source of charity and humanitarianism in the world? (Not exactly an example of "causing problems," I'd say.)

Of course you didn't -- because you're letting your views on the Church be formulated by an institution (the media) whose pro-abortion, pro-gay, pro-secularist agenda is very much at odds with the Church.

That's one reason why the media left many people with the impression that sexual abuse of minors was rampant in the Catholic priesthood (it was not, percentage-wise) and that it was only a Catholic-priesthood problem (the vast majority of child molesters are not Catholic priests).

One question for you -- you say that you don't feel the Pope represents you, but are you fully qualified to make such an assessment? After all, you admit that you haven't been to Mass in a very long time.

So, no offense, but given that you checked out of the Church years ago, I don't see why anyone should take you for an expert on anything Catholic. Nothing personal.

Besides, the Pope doesn't "represent you" or me. He represents God. His job is not about winning popularity contests -- it's about propagating God's truth and message to a badly broken world. Whether we choose to hear him or not is up to us.

.

Answer 3

I was brought up too, in the RC church. I started questioning their man made doctrines at the age of 13, and left many years ago. And as you said, "I always felt that mass was nothing but going through the motions and that I had repeated the prayers so often they no longer have any meaning." This is how I felt then, and still, many years and many churches later. Churches don't mean anything to me; true worship of Christ and God, ( Spirituality) are where it's at for me. Most churches have man made rules anyway, designed to keep people in line, to make them check their brains at the door, and to "relieve them of some of their money!"
No need for most churches, unless one finds one that teaches them to become closer to God, without taking over their mind and their cash!
God and Christ are still extremely important to me; the name of the group IS NOT!
God knows His people anyway, and the name of the group doesn't matter to Him..It's our hearts that God sees.

Answer 4

I think you may feel that way about Catholicism and the Pope because of people telling you how to worship and how to pray. The point of a church should be to have fellowship with other Christians and praise God in an environment where you can feel His presence. For me, that environment is a Protestant church. You just have to find where you like to worship. Words mean nothing if you just say them over and over without a worshipful heart, and for many people, a scripted prayer is not worshipful at all.

Please try some other churches before you decide to leave the church altogether. I belive you will find a church home that is fulfilling to you and where you can serve the Lord with His presence in your heart.

Answer 5

I was also born into the Roman Catholic faith too, although my parents were not practicing. But yes I agree with the things you say there about the going through the motions, and some other situations made me even doubt God's existance and I therefore left the Catholic Churcj years ago and have never looked back, it was the best thing I could have done!

Answer 6

Religion was the first organized way to control groups. Now we have governments. They all have the same goal to control and allow a small group to maintain power and avoid "work". Conflict is the justification of these structures and provide the drive to make them stronger. Some day humans will out grow this.

Answer 7

Problems are increasing, enmity is aggravating as long as the followers of various religions keep on going behind other men or imitating their neighbors. They better read, meditate and independently practice the sacred verses of their Prophets in order to save themselves and to make the world better. Children in this mature age of mankind are no longer imitating their elders; so the adults should learn to get along with their juniors.

Answer 8

Yes, they are. 2006 years ago Jesus Christ said He had more to reveal, but humanity couldn't bear it at that time. He also promised to return when we could bear a weightier Revelation. To think that He has left humanity to itself for over 2000 years is not logical. He has returned (1844) and He has revealed an incredible Revelation that will guide humanity for the next 100,000 years. His purpose: to establish The Most Great Peace and unity. That so many humans are fighting over which Messenger is best is a grave error:

“Know thou assuredly that the essence of all the Prophets of God is one and the same. Their unity is absolute. God, the Creator, saith: There is no distinction whatsoever among the Bearers of My Message. They all have but one purpose; their secret is the same secret. To prefer one in honor to another, to exalt certain ones above the rest, is in no wise to be permitted. Every true Prophet hath regarded His Message as fundamentally the same as the Revelation of every other Prophet gone before Him. …
The measure of the revelation of the Prophets of God in this world, however, must differ. Each and every one of them hath been the Bearer of a distinct Message, and hath been commissioned to reveal Himself through specific acts. It is for this reason that they appear to vary in their greatness. …
… God’s purpose in sending His Prophets unto men is twofold. The first is to liberate the children of men from the darkness of ignorance, and guide them to the light of true understanding. The second is to ensure the peace and tranquility of mankind, and provide all the means by which they can be established. …”

Answer 9

Organised religion is like organised politics; they both involve building structures on the principle belief in some kind of harmonic or utopian 'order'. A cascading pecking order of control from the king down to the local warden is structured in the hope of achieving the objective of 'order'. IN this respect, both religion and politics have a common enemy called 'individual free will'. Both organisations rely on the collectivisation of individual free will into a common will for the common good.

The universal fallacy is the belief that humans are born with a natural instinct to surrender their free will to values and beliefs for which there are no authoritative empirical definitions..

Both religious and political dogma therefore is required as the glue to bind people to a system of control. War and Violence are prerequisites in every culture regardless of so called level of enlightenment to harness individual / collective egos to a system.

Currently the economic system of global enslavement to the American model is empirical in nature and its dogma of Democratic Socialism (a euphemism for another kind of tyranny) is at constant war with free thinkers and individuals and groups who are unwilling to surrender to ideas and ideologues whom they believe are inherently corrupt and untruthful.

Any organisation of people is more trouble than its worth becuase people are born to be free and hate being 'organised' by something or someone they can't identify with or believe in as trustworthy or true.

This is why Jesus went to great and extraordinary lengths to lift Himself up on the cross as a piece of meat and then to lift Himself with dignity out of the grave was to try and draw the attention of humanity to the principle of government by a vertical method of control via God's Power rather than a highly corrupt and suspect horizontal method of control via man power that always ad infinitum resorts to bloodshed and violence.

So, human organisation is inherently despotic by default whilst the government of God made possible in Christ is a power quite unlike the brutality of man.

Answer 10

No it is not worth the trouble!
We are human beings, we are social creatures. We tend to band together in little groups, within these groups are cliques. There are those that are leaders, then even more followers.
If a leader is a bad leader, then the whole group gets corrupted. If people think for themselves this is the only way I see that one can truly find his or her own way....it is not supposed to be easy...