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Unwashed Village / Re: Religion - Good or Bad?
« on: August 30, 2007, 02:21:38 PM »
Turj, why is it you always get in there and say stuff i want to say before i get the chance? stop reading my mind you evil genius!
and brug, i pointed out the crusades cause it was a religious war, which wasted a lot of time and caused a lot of suffering. its like the Israelites in the OT, they went and massacred all the other nations cause they didn't worship their God but a lot of people don't see it for what it is cause 'God told them to'. And the crusades also partly came about cause the knights back home got bored and didn't want to become obsolete.
I have nothing against people with faith so don't feel like i'm trying to say you shouldn't believe in God cause i was faithful before i realised what I believed in wasn't actually an Almighty being but thats a story for another day.
But when religion is the reason given for invading a country and causing havoc I know people overlook it cause we've all been taught that religion has special rules and can't be criticised.
they did an experiment with some elementary kids, I forget how old they were, old enough to be able to form an opinion anyways, where they told them the story of Joshua taking over that city they invaded.
about 60% said that Joshua did the right thing cause God had commanded it.
30% said that he should have kept some of the livestock for themselves
and only 10% said what he did was wrong.
they were then told the same story but in stead of Joshua, it was a Chinese General and some neighbouring tribe.
70% said what the Chinese general did was wrong
and i cant remember the rest of the figures.
point is, when taken out of a religious context, most people will be able to see that invading another country, killing everyone and taking all their stuff is bad and wrong. its also morally wrong for people to stand back and not interfere when religious differences are cited as the reason for starting the war in the first place. I just don't understand how the religious think its ok to force their ideas onto someone else, just cause its in the Bible doesn't make it right.
and those christians that went through apologising to everyone?! how self-centred would they have to be to think what they did made the slightest bit of difference to anyone apart from themselves?
i watched this programme about these american evangelists who went to russia to try and spread the word of god and came across these guys who were on their way to the market to sell their homemade vodka but had become trapped in the snow.
the christians REFUSED to help them get out of the snow because it was against their beliefs to drink which can lead to immoral acts. IT WAS THEIR FUCKING LIVELIHOOD!!!! yeah, keep your morals but let the guy, the guy's wife and kids die of starvation. the christians just gave them bibles and went on their merry way. i know lots of christians like that and it sickens me that they think they are morally righteous and look down on anyone who don't fit into their idea of a perfect person, based on a book that they pick and choose bits to believe in and other bits to dismiss as allergories and symbols. Abraham didn't really frighten the shit out of his kid by putting him on an alter, Job didn't really commit incest by sleeping with his daughters but jesus really was the son of god and he really did perform all those miracles!
like turj said, its all about packaging and the sooner people realise that the better and let everyone else get on with things.
i realise this has turned into a bit of rant but so long as there are people out there, either on the small or large scale, who try to force others to live by their ideals then there's still work to be done to try and show them that everyone is entitled to their own opinions and so long as those opinions are not directly harming anyone else then we should leave them well alone.
i'm not just talking about religion, i'm talking about political views and anything else out there thats up for debate.
whatever gets me through the day might not be the same as you but so long as i'm not harming anyone, that doesn't make it wrong.
and brug, i pointed out the crusades cause it was a religious war, which wasted a lot of time and caused a lot of suffering. its like the Israelites in the OT, they went and massacred all the other nations cause they didn't worship their God but a lot of people don't see it for what it is cause 'God told them to'. And the crusades also partly came about cause the knights back home got bored and didn't want to become obsolete.
I have nothing against people with faith so don't feel like i'm trying to say you shouldn't believe in God cause i was faithful before i realised what I believed in wasn't actually an Almighty being but thats a story for another day.
But when religion is the reason given for invading a country and causing havoc I know people overlook it cause we've all been taught that religion has special rules and can't be criticised.
they did an experiment with some elementary kids, I forget how old they were, old enough to be able to form an opinion anyways, where they told them the story of Joshua taking over that city they invaded.
about 60% said that Joshua did the right thing cause God had commanded it.
30% said that he should have kept some of the livestock for themselves
and only 10% said what he did was wrong.
they were then told the same story but in stead of Joshua, it was a Chinese General and some neighbouring tribe.
70% said what the Chinese general did was wrong
and i cant remember the rest of the figures.
point is, when taken out of a religious context, most people will be able to see that invading another country, killing everyone and taking all their stuff is bad and wrong. its also morally wrong for people to stand back and not interfere when religious differences are cited as the reason for starting the war in the first place. I just don't understand how the religious think its ok to force their ideas onto someone else, just cause its in the Bible doesn't make it right.
and those christians that went through apologising to everyone?! how self-centred would they have to be to think what they did made the slightest bit of difference to anyone apart from themselves?
i watched this programme about these american evangelists who went to russia to try and spread the word of god and came across these guys who were on their way to the market to sell their homemade vodka but had become trapped in the snow.
the christians REFUSED to help them get out of the snow because it was against their beliefs to drink which can lead to immoral acts. IT WAS THEIR FUCKING LIVELIHOOD!!!! yeah, keep your morals but let the guy, the guy's wife and kids die of starvation. the christians just gave them bibles and went on their merry way. i know lots of christians like that and it sickens me that they think they are morally righteous and look down on anyone who don't fit into their idea of a perfect person, based on a book that they pick and choose bits to believe in and other bits to dismiss as allergories and symbols. Abraham didn't really frighten the shit out of his kid by putting him on an alter, Job didn't really commit incest by sleeping with his daughters but jesus really was the son of god and he really did perform all those miracles!
like turj said, its all about packaging and the sooner people realise that the better and let everyone else get on with things.
i realise this has turned into a bit of rant but so long as there are people out there, either on the small or large scale, who try to force others to live by their ideals then there's still work to be done to try and show them that everyone is entitled to their own opinions and so long as those opinions are not directly harming anyone else then we should leave them well alone.
i'm not just talking about religion, i'm talking about political views and anything else out there thats up for debate.
whatever gets me through the day might not be the same as you but so long as i'm not harming anyone, that doesn't make it wrong.
