Ultimately what religion is, in my opinion, is people getting together, helping each other and supporting a system of belief thru various skills and tools and relationships. Not a bad deal if you want that, but you also have to be careful which one you join. I'm not partial to fundamentalist beliefs anymore so I avoid those communities. It's too easy to become like the people you hang with because it's just the way our species behaves in communities and groups we become a part of, especially close nit ones with rigid beliefs. In retro-spect, I wish I'd joined a nice mellow accepting religion when I was a kid.
I guess you could say that I have yet to see anything else going on in church other than people communing together. No angels appearing, no walking on water, no amputee's arms re-growing via miraculous prayer, no audible, or visual for that matter, god's speaking and appearing, no demons or evil spirits appearing in fire or otherwise, etc, etc. I'm kind of surprized more people aren't Deists because they often don't believe a god intervenes in life, or that people actually performed miracles as described in the Bible. Observation of any church or religious community tends to support a Deist's point-of-view in my opinion.
Take out the foolish prejudice about gays and denial of sex between consenting adults and you'd have a pretty good system of helping and motivating people to do good works. I'd also rework the concept of sin to something a bit more realistic.
The sin idea is primitive in its attempt to explain some of our actions, no offense, but it seems pretty obvious, its how our ancestors, from that part of the world and period in time, described man's faults, why we die and other unexplainable stuff. It does seem to cause religious believers some consternation, false guilt and prod them off to confession, but other then that, it does a great job explaining our lack of perfection, death and creates a need to stay close to the belief and community. From my point of view, it's a great control mechanism.
When they find the sin gene I will repent. :)
Some churches are better than others simply because some people do it better than others, but ultimately it is just us people doing everything and making people stuff happen. Sad, I know, but it's still very powerful to belong to a community with clearly stated goals and assumed beliefs. I say assumed because people in these communities often don't have a seminary education and don't really know how their community's beliefs came about or why. Very few know the history of their Holy Book and how it came to be. Even the people who are seminary trained often have very biased views taught to them and passed down thru the denominational school they attended. A truly ecumenical seminary has a better chance at teaching people to think for them selves than one that teaches only one theology and doctrine.
I was looking at the Sexy Christians website the other day and found it amusing that the Dr. was asking for donations to go to South America. It stemmed from an email or letter from a minister down there praising this Dr.'s seminar and books and asking him to come down to South America. The Doc was asking for money to travel there because he felt god moving him to go and he also remembered a word spoken over him about going to the nations or something like that.
I chuckled because I thought of all the times that had been said to me and so many of my pastor and teacher friends. It's a very common thing to say, hear, and believe when you are in ministry. People want to feel good and telling them that god has chosen them for a great task really strokes the ego. I also had to smile when I read his request for money. It's so apparent that people help people and do everything in Christianity, but xtians don't really see it that way. They often attribute everything to god, even funny little things like getting a parking space or winning a football game.
If the bible means anything, it certainly isn't about that kind of mentality or asking for money to go on a trip to another country where it's just as easy for a god to use someone already there or beam you there for that matter. The Dr. should just pray and expect his god to answer his prayer and not beg for money if you ask me.
Isn't is true that the authors of the Bible often claim god gives good gifts, treats you as his child and all you have to do is ask and believe and you shall receive, or have faith, etc, etc? How about the concept that prayer is the work and not the preparation for work? Heck, if I ask enough people I can get money for just about anything I want to do. I even read about a gal who got her student loans paid off simply by asking on the internet.
Religion is a system loaded with good intensions and good practices such as developing a community that supports people, but it also has many irrational claims and promises which just don't happen, but people swear they do and always change their perception to support these misguided promises. I can't tell you how many times I've been told that one just has to have faith that their god exists. Well, given that kind of logic I now know why our species believes in everything from demons to alien abductions.
Yes, that's just how I look at it. LOL
Until it's something more than humans doing human things I'll just have to stick with my observations. I'm completely open to finding a god. I just hope he, she or it will turn a cup of water into coffee (I'd prefer a nice mellow roast) and sit down with me for a nice relaxing talk about god.
Your friend,
Bill
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