You ever read the bible? In the first chapters humans eat the fruit and gain wisdom and are then kick out in to the world to die and reproduce...Later in the tower of babel story all humanity comes together as one and trys to take down god...later after moses frees everyone god asks the people do you want me to rule you or a man? they choose a man thus king david and all that...then theres job that gets his family killed of and what not so god can show the devil he will love him no matter how many times he hits him with pain...finally theres the book of revoations that talks of world peace being achived by the "devil" only to get destroy by a war with god.
Seems like a common theme...Believing in a religion aways brings a downfall. what do you think?
2007-06-12 22:00:53 · 19 answers · asked by lost 2 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
The stories you quote are all from the old testement. Take the book of Job for example. I believe it talks about the devil being in heaven and talking with God. Since the devil was kicked out of heaven, what was he doing back there? I don't see how you ask the question about religion being the worse thing to happen to humanity and then base your discussion on the bible. I think there is more to religious beliefs than just the bible, the Koran, the Book of Mormon, etc...
2007-06-12 22:10:55 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
You are trying to force a meaning on life which it will not sustain. The Universe was not built around human concepts of good and evil. There is very little order in the Universe, it is mostly random and chaotic. We can try to impose our own local order on life, by setting social rules and cultivating good government. We can ease people's passage through life by having social assistance to help get over some of the bumps. Our increasing scientific knowledge can make our lives more comfortable and help us to live longer. Life would be a lot easier if humans were not so determined not to learn social lessons preferring traditional prejudices and superstitions instead. Patrick has a point about coping mechanisms, but there is no doubt that some people meet with far more of life's misfortunes than others. We had a priest run a phone-in show on our local radio station and some of the stories which were broadcast were truly tragic and it was hard to see how anyone could be expected to cope with them e.g. loss of close family members in rapid succession, serious illness, job and house loss all happening in a relatively short period of time. You wanted to weep sometimes just listening to it.
2016-05-19 00:18:53 · answer #2 · answered by ramonita 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
As someone already pointed out, except for Revelations, the examples you cite are all OT. The OT serves to show us our human nature----we cannot be "good"---our human nature is sinful and we need saving.
I know many do not agree with this, and think they are "good" people. If so, just consider how "good" you would feel if everything you had done, said, and thought for the past month was broadcast on YouTube. How about for the last 24 hours? For most of us,(Christians and non-Christians) the shame of that would be intolerable. Why? Because our human nature is sinful. We need saving.
The good news is the NT. God himself came to earth and subjected himself to death on our behalf, and now we have the prospect not only of being forgiven in this life, but one day living a perfect life with him in heaven. I used to think "BORING" I don't WANT to be perfect, until I found out more about what that meant and found out more about the nature of God in Christ.
Anyway, all this to say.... yes, maybe believing in religion seems to bring a downfall here on earth, but it's a pentultimate one, and one that ultimately brings great joy and glory.
2007-06-12 22:44:03 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 2⤋
I think people are always going to have an incorrect understanding of the world, if only because people will always have an incomplete understanding. The approximations we must make in order to have a discourse at all are very similar to the metaphors which are taken as literal in many religions.
Religion right now is the easiest major problem to fix, that's the way I look at it. We'll always have confusion and error and 'short answers', but we can strive to improve ourselves.
2007-06-12 22:08:59 · answer #4 · answered by The Instigator 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋
You're accepting a literalist version as the only way to do religion.
Consider the texts as a people trying to make sense of themselves, their place in a frequently violent world, and how to live with each other.
Literalists try to make texts that were appropriate for a very different time applicable today. That rarely works. Judaism has a very different way of understanding and working with the old texts. Please don't let fundamentalist Christianity define religion for you.
2007-06-12 23:51:00 · answer #5 · answered by The angels have the phone box. 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
I don't agree with the stuff in the Bible but I do agree that religion is the worst thing that happened to mankind. So many division and hatred is due to the disagreement in religion.
2007-06-13 00:53:50 · answer #6 · answered by Hardrock 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
As an atheists,paradoxically, i think religion is important for humanity...ok,i agree some tales in the bible/Torah/Quran are so aweful( i indeed had no will to believe in such a god) but i think that man needs to fear god...as a severe punisher who does hesistate to punish sinners etc.... man needs the superior being to correct their behaviours,way of life...man needs to keep in mind that much sinning may send him to hell.
i did not experience none of them, but when you hear of the atrocities that a human can do...see violent murders,rapes, human traffficking...all these are aweful and disgusting, so i think that people should have someone to guide them even if it doesnt exists. it can exists through 'sacred texts',temples priests....and so on.
2007-06-12 22:42:59 · answer #7 · answered by rapstar 3 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Religion is a way to control ordinary people with fear and threats and pictures of hell and the 'devil'. Many good souls have lived their whole lives in fear and the joy of living has been taken from them with 'thou shalt nots' and 'woe unto thee's', It has caused wars and conflict throughout history and people have died needlessly in its name. ( A few million witches are included in that) Not only that, it has given a false picture of our Creator God and turned good people away from Him. If there is evil in this world then religion is it.
2007-06-12 22:11:27 · answer #8 · answered by hedgewitch18 6 · 2⤊ 1⤋
The God of the bible is evil, violent and cruel. Yet, people still worship him.
2007-06-12 22:05:56 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 5⤊ 1⤋
YOU PEOPLE MAKE ME SICK!
if the bible is sooooooo evil why do you speak about it, why? why why why do you speak about christianity like this? god is greater than you buddy your a lil ant! the bible IS TAKES A SMART PERSON TO UNDERSTAND IT........you need to read the new testament it explains eveything, if religion is bring downfall why am i strong and happy? you people are just afraid of faith your afraid becuase you want to sin and not feel bad about it.....good luck in life! yeah ohhh christianity is sooo bad, THATS WHY THOUSAND AND THOUSAND ARE CONVERTING EACH YEAR AND THATS WHY THOUSANDS AND THOUSANDS STILL STAND STRONG IN THIS WORLD PRAISING OUR LORD........you will realise one day! until then will pray jesus loves u its not that hard
2007-06-12 22:16:11 · answer #10 · answered by SHalom! 2 · 1⤊ 3⤋