I'm wondering if I can get some more feedback on this question?

Question

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AmMjJZuo5Td1tLb9.CH.20Hsy6IX;_ylv=3?qid=20070924023028AANh3lq

Answer 1

Great assertion and I agree. It takes faith that people are telling you the truth, that they weren't actually pushing their own agenda, and that they were capable of preserving the correct ideas/words for thousands of years.

Considering how self-serving people are, I just can't muster that kind of faith.

Answer 2

Religious texts that have been passed down for a mellenia or more is sort of like playing telephone when we were kids.
I/E - if 25 kids were standing in a row and you told the first kid that the last kid is wearing blue pants and it was passed on down the line and the last kid said the middle kid has purple balloons, then what happened? That is right, someone down the middle didn't hear it right or someone decided to change the subject. The religious texts are not the original texts no matter how many say they are. And very little "divine" intervention was given when the original texts were "updated". The texts were re-worded and things added by monarchs and scholars over the centuries to reflect the times they lived.
Also, the coinsidence of most multi deity religions all had some sort of prophet - Jesus, Muhhamad, Buhda (Sidhartha), Chakal ( Mayan), ect - about or near the same time (give or take a hundred yrs), as well as the Christian, Muslim, and Judaism religions all have an "Abraham" that started out as their "father" of their groups. My theory is that Abraham had many sons (multiple wives) and each took something from their fathers beliefs and went their seperate ways and started their own "belief system" hence the 3 primary religions.
Things that make go -hhhhhuuuuuummmmmm.........?

Answer 3

My Faith is not based on any Human. My Faith in Jesus is based on the Fact of what I have seen and felt in my own life. Regardless of who wrote the Bible, I believe it was inspired by God, and the reason I do, is because you guys have proven it too me.I had always been told that the Bible was written for believers only and you guys have proven that fact. We can both read the Bible and in no way get the same meaning. And unless you are a believer you will never understand the Bible the way I do because not only was it inspired by God, But it takes the Help of the Holy Spirit to understand it. We can read the same science book and get the same meaning, but that will never happen when it comes to the Holy Word of God. You guys can argue the facts all you want, but you will never know the truth because you chose not to accept it.

Answer 4

Yep.

Every person who has ever been "saved" by any religion is only "saved" because OTHER PEOPLE have taught the religion.

Religions are invented to:

1. attempt to explain what is not known, and
2. attempt to control people for the sake of power.

I'll use Christianity in my example:

If you were somehow the only person on Earth, and had always been the only person on Earth, would you be a Christian? Remember, there would be no churches, no Bibles, no people to tell you anything. If you think "God" would TELL you to become a Christian, why isn't "God" TELLING everybody on Earth right now to become Christian, especially when there are so many supposedly false paths to follow?? Why isn't "God" telling all the Muslims (for example) who were BORN INTO Islam, and who were TAUGHT that all other religions are evil, to become Christian? Why would "God" allow people to go through life promoting "false" religions? Why doesn't "God" enlighten these people who REALLY HONESTLY THINK they are doing "God's" work and following "God's" plan?

Now simply substitute Christianity and Islam with any other religion that condemns people to Hell if they aren't "saved."

Answer 5

If a couple of people told you that the car that drove by was blue, are you listening to people? Yes.

Now if hundreds of people over thousands of years all consistently tell you about this one big creater and how he made the world, are you still listening to people ye.....wait a second.

You try to get ten people in a room right now to agree on the best flavor of ice cream.

So how can you expect it to be simply people when a Bible of 66 books with a large number of authors (many of whom never took credit), over thousands of years could all have the same set of messages.

So am I listening to people, or have I studied the word out to realize that it isn't "Because" of people that I became a Christian, rather, it's "In Spite" of people that I became a Christian.

Answer 6

To go even deeper, just because someone tells you something that they believe doesn't mean you have to believe it yourself. You have to look inside yourself and ask your soul what it believes.

So then isn't religion having faith in yourself?

And when you go that deep it just starts getting rediculous. Saying that all religion is based on faith in others or oneself is missing the point; that religion is based on faith. Faith cannot be proven, so what does it matter how that faith was passed down anyway?
If we had gotten the idea of God from God himself, coming down to earth and letting us know right now, it wouldn't even count as "faith".

Answer 7

Marooned: I think Christianity does account for human error. It's is only fundamentalism that tries to say that when the bible was being written, God somehow usurped the will of the writers and compilers of the Bible and forced them to write inerrant and non-contradictory things. Baloney.

Faith in God is kin to faith in people. Christians believe that we -- all of humanity -- are now the body of Jesus here on Earth in the form of His Church.

So you are right. When we address each other in love, we are literally passing God on to each other. Faith in God and faith in people go hand in hand.

Answer 8

You can stretch the definition of "faith" and take it to whatever level you want. You could argue that it comes down to believing that we can trust our 5 senses, or whatever your imagination allows. I don't see where these philosophical reasonings get us though.

Answer 9

That's what religion has relied on for thousands and thousands of years.

People having blind faith in the good intentions of other people.

It's not a coincidence that the majority of the people who get sucked into pyramid schemes are religious (mainly christian).

Answer 10

The first answer, on the link you added pretty much says it.