Religious Discussion from RIP Thread

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Religious Discussion from RIP Thread

Postby Aseahawkfan » Wed Mar 07, 2018 1:35 pm

Moving this from the RIP thread so as not to clutter that thread with another discussion.

RiverDog wrote:It's that period of time back in the early to mid 80's that I aquired a healthy disrespect for all religions due to televangelism and other religious enterprises taking advantage of the elderly. It's the root cause of my stance in the Tim Tebow debates from years ago.


You shouldn't judge something based on the negative folks that represent it. For every lousy guy publicized, there are a bunch of good folks helping people. Religion encourages a lot of helpful behavior. Most of the religious folk I've met are middle of the road, rote believers who are major hypocrites that have never actually read The Bible of any of the holy books. I've seen the scammers like you who are real bastards preying on those looking for hope and purpose. I've also met some very kind, community-oriented people who are highly religious driven by what they believe to be a higher purpose. Religion was built to govern and manage people, those that follow the positive elements of that management generally make good members of society.

If you don't believe because the entire mythical foundation of the belief system was written by people trying to define the world thousands of years ago and it's about as true as people of that time could manage (meaning mostly BS), then we're in the same club. No matter how kindly or dedicated the people I met were, I just can't buy into false material. I hate idol worship and worship of just about anything. Cold, calculating reason should drive the world tempered with occasional influx of emotion to soften implementation of hard, necessary components to a well-functioning, effective society focused on building strong humans with the intention of survival and advancement.
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Re: Religious Discussion from RIP Thread

Postby RiverDog » Thu Mar 08, 2018 5:18 am

Good decision to start a new thread.

I will admit that I harbor somewhat of a bias of those people that wear their religion on their sleeve and organized religions in general. In addition to the televangelism scandals I've referred to, I've had some bad experiences with people wanting to peddle their religious beliefs to me with unsolicited efforts that have included jogging next to me and trying to hand me a pamphlet while I was in the middle of a 10k run, walk into my gated yard and disturb me while I was working on an underground sprinkler, had them leave crap on my windshield, stop me while I'm trying to exit a parking lot, approach me in restaurants while I'm trying to eat. Then there are a few times that they won't take a polite no thank you for an answer and end up provoking a very sarcastic and abusive response from me. They're worse than flies.

And the worst of it is that they're really not wanting to save my soul as they don't know a damn thing about me. All they're trying to do is expand their influence and/or add to their church's coffers. They're no different than an aggressive business trying to increase their profit by adding to their customer base.

So in other words, I look at those types with steely eyes. More so than a common stranger, they have a little more to prove to me before I'll engage them in a conversation. And occasionally, that very thing happens and my bias is defeated.
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Re: Religious Discussion from RIP Thread

Postby Aseahawkfan » Fri Mar 09, 2018 5:21 pm

There are some religions more zealous about seeking converts. Sounds like you dealt with more annoying people than myself. Then again I tend to debate them when they come around. Given I was raised Catholic and went to Catholic school, I know quite a bit about The Bible. I tend to debate Biblical stories with them and the real background of those stories. Christianity whether Catholic or not was very heavily Romanized. Once you start debating the historical basis for their belief system, they lose steam and want to leave.

You should avoid religion because it isn't true. You read the various holy books and you start thinking how do so many people buy into this horsecrap. The fact that these folks like to read The Bible or Quran or the like over a science or history book is annoying. Yet they get to vote and promote their belief absent any solid proof, even when the religious mythos is rife with fallacious myths. Religion was helpful in creating unified cultural and moral beliefs, but other than for comforting the dying or providing a simple, focus belief system for troubled minds that need something to stabilize them like addicts, it's outlived its usefulness as a tool for governing and illuminating the world. I'm glad the Machiavellian model for rule is being applied worldwide with churches having lost a great deal of power and influence. Most of our leaders pay lip service to religion now without being too deeply invested in such archaic belief systems.
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