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Religion

no but what I mean is why bother having the religion in the first place if you don't need to belong to it to get to its paradise

seems pointless really
 
...Okay I seriously shouldn't have brought up the whole rape thing. Whoops. ^^;

In my own little world, you can go to heaven if you're a good person in general, regardless of what you believe. My theology teacher also said something to the effect of "You can go to heaven no matter what religion unless you used to be a Christian and now you're not"

Honestly though I don't think most Christians are the "you must be OUR religion to get to heaven!" or anything like that.
 
^ all of the christians i know are like that

I'm going to have to agree with this.

Of course, living in the Bible Belt doesn't really help much where they stone all gay people. :(

edit: and really, there were these group of three people who were playing around. Two of them were dating. This one girl came up and started speaking about how polyamory is wrong, etc., etc.
 
ick, I live in the Bible Belt too :[ (actually one state above you I think)

My place isn't actually bad compared to most others in the Bible Belt. If I were in Texas, Alabama, or Mississippi, that would be another story.
(and if you are in NC, one state above me, then I'm sure it's not that bad. I think that one is the least religious of the whole area.)
 
no but what I mean is why bother having the religion in the first place if you don't need to belong to it to get to its paradise

seems pointless really

MD's right. All the people I know who are religious are because they believe in God/some of the teaching in the Bible, not out of some fear that they'll be punished if they don't believe.
 
/some/ of the people i know are religious because they don't want to go to hell, most of them are because they were taught that way and can't think for themselves. i've asked countless people /why/ are you a christian and they all answer "because i was raised this way". sorry, that's really not a valid reason though, people should think for themselves. :(
 
MD's right. All the people I know who are religious are because they believe in God/some of the teaching in the Bible, not out of some fear that they'll be punished if they don't believe.

but that's what I mean. If you don't think you need to follow the rules then why do you belong to the Church?
 
Because going to church isn't a necessity for being a Christian. Being a Christian means you believe in God and accept Jesus Christ as your saviour. You can pray to him any time you like, you don't have to go to church to do it. Those churches, in ideal situations, just exist as congregation places for like-minded people to profess their religion together. It's a social gathering focused on belief in God. Some people socially gather at parties and get fucking wasted. Some congregate at metal concerts. Christians congregate in churches.

But prayers and things, they can always be done. You don't need to be in a church. Some people say it's just reinforcement of the idea, helps you to keep into it and not drift away from God, so to speak.

I don't have a necessary urge to do this, hence I don't go to church (not that it would be a place for me to go as an atheist) but having been to church in the past (I come from a family with Catholic heritage) I can see why they do it. I find attending mass a pretty dreary affair and just did it to understand more Latin (and because we had to go because my grandmother died and they held services in her honour). But for those people, it's a weekly congregation thing to see your friends. And if that works for them, that works for them. My issue is only when you have churches that teach blatant untruths and use their pastors to commit these fallacies and transmit them as the truth. That's not the truth, that's corruption and bad science.

So I've had a period as a young guy, where I went to church every two weeks or every month. It has never done anything for me. I do not think it ever will. But I never got to participate in anything because I have not been baptised and have never done first communion and things. It is good to have those moments of peace, not to pray in God, but just to reflect on what the hell you're actually doing and why you're doing it and where you want to go. I'm slowly starting to realise that what people call God, or Yahweh, or Allah, isn't about a mythical deity existing who created the world in 7 days. It's about believing in yourself. It's about that inner strength within you. That's spirituality and religion for me, as I am growing older I am starting to realise that whatever you call that, that inner will and motivation and drive to be the best person you can morally and things, that that simply derives from somewhere within us. Whether we determine this by science, by rationale, by what we do, or by emotions, by what we feel, and whatever we choose to call it, it's just all a euphemism for the same thing: finding a way to lay the guilt to rest and to become at peace with ourselves.
 
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I think you're right, Watershed, about churches being primarily places for social congregation. I know several people who attend church who don't seem to be overtly religious otherwise (my grandma, for example), and I think that these people go there more so for the social aspect. On the other hand, I know people who are batshit insane religious (my other set of grandparents, for example) who never go to church.
 
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