How do you "dumb down" enough to see past all of the contradictions in a religion?

Question

It would be nice to have all of that faith that life has purpose but i can only see the flaws in the reasoning is there some secret i'm missing ?

Answer 1

Anna Nicole Smith had it mastered - she was almost heavenly in her abilities to dumb down to the absolute lowest common denominator to see or believe anything. we could all learn from that

Answer 2

Yes. Instead of considering yourself " dumbing down" be more open and consider yourself on a different level spiritually. Some people see religion one way while others see things in a different way hence the different religions around the world. Some religions think they are the chosen ones and surely THEY are the ones going to heaven and not the other religions. However, that is what makes the world go around I guess. When someone doesn't agree with what you personally believe just chalk it up to the fact that he or she is on a different level of faith in their life than you are at right now at this time in your life. It doesn't mean that you or they are going to heaven or hell per say ( or where ever you believe we go when we die), it's just that they may or may not be as educated as you are on the scriptures or they may be of a different faith or they may be an athiest and so forth.... I hope that I helped in some way....in other words... don't let it bother you.....:)

Answer 3

I don't think it's about dumbing down - it's more about looking at it in the best possible light or interpretting in such a way that makes sense to you. I am not a christian, but I am married to a catholic man. I need to be able to see his faith in the best possible light if we are going to have respect and harmony in our home - and teach that to our children.

Oddly enough it has been easy for us to come to agreement on many core beliefs and find common ground in the bible itself. I mean, it is easy to corrolate God to equal the Universal Energy theory that I subscribe to - one is personified and the other works hard not to personify, and yet, essentially they represent the same "power" in this world. I believe in a higher spirit and reconnecting with the "source" in the end - how is that different than believing in a soul and eventually going to heaven?

There are important things that religion is meant to do - give us that nice protective faith, the understanding that we affect our existence (with prayer , meditation, etc.) and remind us that we go home in the end. The rest of it is fluff honestly. It's little stories try to help people get through the tough times by giving other (often extreme) examples of what stuggles you may come upon in your journey. It's woefully outdated, but much of the moral lesson is intact if you can turn a blind eye to flaws.

What I am trying to say is that we are the only ones in charge of unlocking the spiritual and religious mysteries for ourself - no matter how a minister might try to tell you his view is the only way - and it is a matter between you and your God, how you live and what you believe (even among those who claim to be of similar faith).

Having said that, there are great uplifting christians ministries than can help you see the positive and rise above the mundane problems of this existence (even Lakewood Church on TV: http://joelosteen.lakewood.cc/site/PageServer?pagename=JOM_homepage ) or you can go you own way and take spiritual responsibility for yourself or even change churches (try this one: http://www.ulc.net/).

Peace!

Answer 4

Maybe you need to smarten up, so that you can read the words and understand the context of the message, and your contradictions will disappear. And the flaws in the reasoning will turn out to be yours. The very fact that you make the assumption that you have to be dumb to believe in God shows that the lack of intelligence is on your part

Answer 5

name a contradiction and watch at least 1,000 of us christians crush it down with facts.

I had an IQ of 114 and I was 100% against religion....as I have aged and studied, I have grown that IQ to a 146...and guess what....I 100,000,000,000,000,000% believe in God, Heaven, Lucifer and the whole story.

Most get confused with the Bible and don't comprehend what they are reading. The key is, put yourself in the shoes of the men who wrote it 1000's of years ago. They saw visions of the future by the grace of Gods hand and they wrote down what they saw. So imagine, these guys never saw a tank, airplane, helicopter, TV, computer, car, tall building, steel building, glass building, paved street, street lights, blimps, balloons....getting the picture?

So they had to use descriptions and words they knew to describe what they saw. Few examples.....in Revelations....speaks of Scarlet and Purple....well that is the color of the robes of the catholic church (aka Pope). It mentions swarms of locus....this is army helicopters. Look at one then a locus, very very similar. When it mentions a lions head that breaths fire and smoke....this is nothing more than a military tank painted tan and looked directly at. In this view one could easily call it a lion. America is mentioned, Iraq (Babylon) is mentioned, China (red dragon) is mentioned, Russia (bear) is mentioned, even speaks of the United Nations, mentions its flag. This list can go on an on.

But to read in "tank" or "pope" is easier to start to understand it all compared to just the name of colors or the mental image you get of a lion breathing fire. When you think of an actual fire breathing lion....its easy to start saying.....ok, whatever....these guys were smoking some good grass when they wrote this book. That is why many today diss the book cause its not that its wrong....its that they don't understand what they are reading and take it litterally as words from today...and to do so, will make you think the book was written by a wacked out man on drugs, but thats not the case.

Answer 6

You dont have to believe every single thing that a religion teaches. but also the translations of some holy books can be difficult and skewed. So go and ask a religious leader what the contradictions mean irf anything at all, They may actually be exceptions

Answer 7

If you really look at the 3 major religions..Christianity, Jewism and Islam, they all talk about the same things, just have different names for it.
They all talk about 1 God, to follow him, the day of judgement. Although Jesus is mentioned in all 3 books and Jews and Muslims also beleive in Prophet Jesus, don't know why Christians claim him to be a character from their religion.
Why fight over it? Just practice your religion and let everyone else live in peace.

Answer 8

Head trauma? Lots of country music? Hang out with George W. Bush?

If you have to dumb down to believe it... you may want to reconsider. Why not embrace your logic and reasoning and accept that your faith simply needs to be bestowed upon yourself and your friends. Aside from that... don't believe something simply because "everyone else" does or because they are telling you to believe in it.

It's called enlightenment. Don't be ashamed of it.. it's rare these days.

Answer 9

"Dumb down?" Buddy if you're so closed minded as to look at it as "dumb down" then you should just move on to the next subject. You've done well today. You learned a new catch phrase, "dumb down" and managed to post it in a question and answer.

If Christianity is so insulting to your intelligence then why are you in Religion and Spirituality.

Answer 10

I don't know. The more I research, the less I seem to know. Maybe thats a good thing, because I've realized I don't know it all. Nothing ticks me off worse, then someone that is so convicted by their beliefs, that they can't keep their eyes open.

Answer 11

Do you know Who to believe is God? If you do, that may tell you who to listen to. If you believe that the true God is the God of the Bible, read the Bible and pray to God that you will understand it. Why not go directly to the source? If you believe everything people tell you, even if it's everything religious people tell you, it's no wonder that you're confused.