I dont believe in God, should i continue this work?

Question

I am making a film about a preist and Catholiscism. I dont believe in God and i really dont believe in organized religion. But i have met so many good people trying to help others within religious circles i feel compeled to write about it. Im interested in the imagery of religion and how people use it in the context of the modern world.
Im scared to write it incase i slate religion by accident. can people give me some thoughts on these questions:
(please dont preach to me - you wont change my personal beleifs)

1. if you believe in God (christian)
what good is it to modern society? Do you genuinly think praying is as powerful as physically helping someone?

2. if you dont believe_
is there anything wrong with beleiving in God? Do you think there is anyway religion could help modern society?

Answer 1

Most people are disappointed with organized religion.
HOw can the church protect pedofiles? Moving them to another perish? The bible told that in the last days most religion would be false. He said narrow is the gate and cramped is the road and few are the ones finding it.
So the majority of mankind is on the wrong road?
they are on the broad and spacious one. So you are not alone in wanting something spiritual in your life but doubting the churches today are the answer.
Jesus comdemed the religious leaders of his day.
Saying they were rich money lovers. Seeped in politics and more worried about the governments than the people.
Sound familiar? Who did Jesus go to when he started his ministry? The rich? NO he went to shepards, fishermen and even a lowly looked down on tax collector. Prostitutes and beggers in the street. He cured the sick and the poor.
They were so poor he had to provide food for them to eat.
If you want to write about something, write about the poor who are still christians. Not the rich religious leaders.

Answer 2

Well, first I must point out that by asking that question you are asking people to preach but- I will try to answer without doing so.

1. I am a Christian, but I do not just believe in God. You can believe in God all you want and not be a Christian. (The devils believe and tremble) Modern Society- has purposefully excluded God from its structure. Rampant immorality, disease, murder, thefts, are all at an all time high in this "modern society" that doesn't seem beneficial to the society and the Society has yet to find a way to remedy these problems.
God is no good to Modern Society because it will not allow Him to be of any help. But look how His exclusion has helped Society.


I do believe prayer is as powerful as physically helping someone. My personal power and presence can only go so far. His power is endless, there is nothing He can not do. I am mortal, I am finite- I mess things up, but He never will. I can help and will help but- more than that, I will pray and He will go far beyond my physical ability to help.

Hope I answered you sufficiently without preaching.

Answer 3

I am sort of in the middle of the road right now but even when I was in the church BIG time I never prayed for a person if I could help them myself. This was a personal thing for me. But scripture tells us if we can help them then we should do so instead of praying. If I could not help some one in need then I pray for God to intervene or to send some one that could help. I am not sure if praying did any good or not but at least I thought I was doing something useful.

I don't think there is anything wrong in believing God as long as you do not use it to con other people. That is just wrong but I see it alot. I have approach a few preachers on this. However; I have seen people when they first believe in God; their whole lives change. They stop doing things that hurt others and themselves. They are more attentive to other people needs. And just seem better citizens in general. [ But they shut out all information and focus on what the preacher is saying,]

Answer 4

Think of it this way. We live in a three dimensional world. Time, or space-time, to us appears in a linear fashion. But to God, time is something that already happened. He does not view time linearly. So, to an eternal reality, "modern society" is really an irrelevant term. What matters is eternal and infinite.
The value of God to our society is ethics. If you believe in absolutes, or etic ethical constructs, you will believe that right and wrong come from outside of ourselves, from something higher, with a perfect understanding of our nature.
If you do not believe in God, your ethics will be relativistic. In other words, your higher power is your own self. When man does what is right in his own eyes on a grand scale, we have some serious shiit on our hands.
Yes, I believe praying is as powerful as physically helping. However, Christ tells us that if we pray "be warmed and well fed" and yet we do nothing, then we are not really His followers.
I don't see why you can't make a film about a priest. Just be respectful in your work. So many ppl today, especially film makers, tend to make Christians look like idiots or evil people.

Answer 5

2. if you dont believe_
is there anything wrong with beleiving in God? Do you think there is anyway religion could help modern society?

There is nothing *wrong* with believing in God, except it wastes a lot of energy. Theists have done a lot of good by acting on the positive aspects of their theism. Theists have done even greater harm by their insistence that the whole world subscribe to their theology, or by claiming to *know what God wants* and imposing that *want* on others - witness our current president and the Iraq war.
***

Answer 6

Everything is somewhat slanted. If it interests you do it. Go in with your eyes open and report what you see as objectively as you can.

Religion give people boundries to live in. People who have religion have something to focus their minds and a framework to build their lives on.
When religion is gone, you are on the road to anarchy. No atheistic state has survived. Because people are not wired to live only for themselves. America is technically agnostic, but the people are more Christianized than any other industrialized nation. France has been technically atheistic since the revolution, but the people are all Catholic. Russia maintained for only a generation and a half. They asked for missionaries in the late '90s. China has lasted for 50 years, but the people are still largely Buddhist.

I think that praying is more powerful than physically helping someone, but I also think that God expects you to physically help if possible. For example, James says that if your brother is hungry you shouldn't pray he be fed and send him on his way. You should give him food.
If your brother has cancer and the doctors say there is no hope, then you should pray, support the family with time and if they need it money, and sit with the sick person.

Answer 7

1) Prayer doesn't have to be a substitute for physically helping someone. Prayer is an excellent way for a believer to experience God's peace and wisdom and forgiveness. But definitely - check out the story of the Good Samaritan - we are called to a faith of action, to express our love for God in service and compassion to others. Eventually a spiritual life that involves only prayer will wither under its own selfish atrophy.

Answer 8

I believe in God
I think that you should continue. If anything, you will learn something, and that's always a good thing. I hope that you do well. Your reaction shows that you feel the responsibility in the weight of your audience, and to me, that is a good thing. You may want to hire a consultant though, just in case.

edit: right! the thing about prayer: well, I think it is a cohesive force in the world. Like Love. Lighting candles, opening your heart to the ethers, oranta, the flow of chi, the importance of keeping your thoughts, words and actions pure. Yeah. It's a domino thing. An orderly world begins with orderly thought.

Answer 9

I think religion is wrong for using fear to make people follow a set of rules and moralities. I know religion helps out in charities and all those things but i know that modern society could do that without a god.

Answer 10

1. Praying works pretty good if you pray for an amputee, and ask Jesus to give him a new leg.

2. There is nothing wrong with believing a god, but why do it if you know better?
As for religion helping modern society, I don't know how.