i believe religion exists as a cure for our insecurity. when we first began to develop out own civilization; there must have been one point at which some cave man asked why does the sun set and rise and why are we here? so as a result of this they created sum kinda desperate attempt to keep ther curiosty at bay by answerin the questions with the word god. also this would heal their insecurity. religion also acts as a system of control, giving people some were to turn to and something they can use to explain the unexplainable in exchange for their individuality. ne way why do u think that religion exists

Religion, in my opinion, was created because people feared death. They also wanted thier lives to have a greater purpose.

I agree with icantthinkofaname. I believe religion was all thought up by insecure people who feared what they couldnt explain.

I disagree with all of you. I think that 'god' was originally a term that just referred to the creator - like the way we use the term 'mother nature' today. Like if there's an earthquake that kills thousands, people will say 'that's gods will', it doesn't mean that there's some old man sitting in heaven planning terrible disasters to kill us all, it means that that's how nature works.

However i think christians and jews in particular have constantly attempted to personify god, and if you read the bible you will notice this too. The notion of god being a human-like figure is what has made so many people atheist because of its complete improbability and ridiculousness.

The earliest of religions made much more sense in that they did not fear god, but merely used the term 'god' as a way to describe how nature works and why things like death happen.

i think i messed up that decription but i think you'll understand anyway.

[This message has been edited by Jihad Joe (edited 07-14-2003).]

Personifying a god would be arrogant.

Yes, man concocted the idea of religion, to explain things that couldn't be explained at a time, but who knows some of it might be true. It is also a tool. A tool of War.

I'm inclined to agree with Jihad Joe. The gross personificationand anthropomorphization of unknown phenomena (at the time) into what is commonly referred to now as "God" is fundamentally flawed on every level.

There may or may not be some form of God (for the lack of a better term, using one a 3 letter word to describe "it" is flawed, but human language is limited that way), but even if there is, it has no mind, will, thought, anything human, animal, or vegetable about it.

When people suggest that religion is nothing more than a defense mechanism or a hypnosis technique, they use less logic than one would use to suggest Biblical events are to be interpreted verbatim. News flash to all the pseudo-Communists here: RELIGION IS NOT A CONSCIOUS INVENTION. That's like saying heritage was created for the same reason. Religion, like culture, was not invented at one time, simultaneously, with a birth date. It was developed throughout time, extending backwards to infinity, having no origin and no conclusion (because Nature's funny that way).

THE JUDEO-CHRISTIAN AXIS IS ALSO NOT THE ONLY RELIGION IN EXISTENCE. Ancient ethnic and tribal religions existed long before Judaism and the Golgotha cult infected Europe. Separate Christianity and religion. Christianity is a religion. All religions are not Christianity.

I agree more with Jihad Joe, except the name "Jihad Joe" makes me wonder what concept he does worship...

There are 10 main religions, and 10,000 sects. Of these, some 6,000 exist in Africa, 1,200 in the U.s, and hundreds in other lands. Many factors have contributed to the development of new religious groups. Some have said that the various religions all represent different ways of presenting the religious truths. But a comparison of teachings and practices with the Bible indicates, that the diversity of religions is because people have become followers of men instead of listening to God! The instigator of such religious confusion....?? Satan!! He is the god of "this system of things". "The things which nations sacrafice...they sacrafice to demons, and not to God." 1st Corinthians 10:20

Religion is also flawed in that the same thing is interpreted in 1000 different ways. Why else is the 33,000+ religions on this Earth..

After being ona christian camp the questions that haze over mankind some get answered. But i think the phrase that shuts up christains that go on about an after life is ask them this question... "Do you remember anything before birth?" they say no... "Then what about after you die?" this shit one up and he said that he would get back to me on that and he hasn't yet.. to sum it up religion can mess with your head but if you think the phrase "keep it simple stupid" it's just all nonsense to me.

the creation of a god was due to the fact that all humans thrive for absolute power and control. but everyone knows that some things are simply impossible for us to have power over. religion was created because mankind needed to think that somebody had control over things like weather, death, and fate. so man would pray to these all powerful beings that had control over what they could not, and doing so passified their feeling of helplessness

it should be obvious that the purpose of religion was the first form of government in forming social values and the rules of society.

we'd spent hundreds of thousands of years as man doing what we wanted, killing what we wanted, killing who we wanted, fucking who we wanted.

when we left our nomadic phase and started dwelling in central locations it was inevitable that certain rules must take effect to keep those who couldn't build a house from killing those who could after they had done it.

vague representation, but you must admit it makes sense.

and when you tell someone what's to stop me from doing it, a god of course, though he won't stop you, but you will suffer throughout eternity.

religion was a good thing when first introduced, it ended the only the strong survive and allowed intelligence to develop at an unheard of pace.

is it coincidence that with the civilization of man through religion that we accomplished what we have in the last 5,000 years?

shit, we accomplished more in the first 1,000 years of civilization than in all the 500,000 years previous.

but let me also point out, that i think religion's time has passed, and should have been done with 2,000 years ago.

i think the very first idea of seperation of church and state was jesus said "that which is caesar's give unto caesar, that which is god's give unto god."

Sigh....For Tyrant. Man Concocted the IDEA of religion, not invented it so to speak. Without man, there is no religion, therefore man must have created it.

Dinosaurs probably thought the same thing.

The separation of church and state was necessary for true faith to become significant.

A contract signed under duress is null and void. Similarly, worship based solely on dominant social phenomena is meaningless.

Religion, while it may deal with matters of faith, is a social phenomenon.

Maybe religions are no more conscious inventions than are tribal social structures.

Faith, on the other hand, is a completely different kettle of fish.

See mine has justification, you attempt to insult because you know I am right. I should slap the bitch of a mother who bore you.

Pseudo communist? Too bad I am not, you assume to much Tyrant I suggest that you rethink and reread what people right considering that man concocted it, if there was no man no religion...correct? That is my point, not that man said "lets make religion!" yes it is reformed and is never ending, but man made it period. Any argument against that is pure ignorance, you have proven that already.

religion is the way of controlling the uneducated masses

why do you think fuckin sand niggers are so willing to die for their religion? most of them can't read and the ones that can are in control because they can tell everybody a bunch of shit about what the religious books say thats not really true and nobody can read so everybody believes it

Well, here we are again: gossip.

"gross personification of God"... etc...

The point is, by hypothesis some higher being created Man. It is logical to conclude that this particular creation, called a human, and being distinct from all others by its abilities to think, change its environment and theorize its destiny, has got to be the crown of creation.

Therefore it has to be built according to some divine blueprint. Thus we deduct that God emanated humans according to special godly manifestations.

This is the opposite of personification, anthropomorphism, or "human shape design" of god, it is the logical conclusion (or traditions) that humans were emanated through particular, meaningful creative emanations.

Of course, coming from a moslem whose "jihad" is not a personal war for self-purity, but a quest for some 70 virgins in a consumerist, materialistic heaven, that is not so much of a relevant insult, but yet, I felt it useful to mention: there is not such a thing as personification of God, even less any concept of a materialistic, consumerist heaven in Judaism, nor in christianity. So everyone, look for ridicule and blasphemy where it can be found...

It depends which religion your talking about, Christanity, is obious for mass control, but is slowly dieng, other religions are created for soldiers, so they wont be afraid to die, and do whatever there commander tells them.

Religion is also a guess, we all know there is something bigger out there, something our mind is not evolved enough to understand, there is a bigger picture, we all have the feeling inside of us, when we mediated, there is something in all of us, that gives us conciouness, is not just random chemicals mixing with eachother....

our body is our vessel for our conicouness, our conciouness is energy, and energy cannot be destroyed....

We are soon, going to evolve through, we are soon going to step one level higher, where we all will realize, that we are all one and thogheter, we can do anything our mind can imagen... but thats still a few years to go, (2012 maybe)

We can keep on studing our space we live in, but we will never come to any true conclusions, as we are only thinking in our matrial mind, using our 5 LIMITED senses,

Once we realize that everything around us is acctualy god, and when we finally have a true conciouness, which has no garabe desires, we will feel, what is true. and what is false.

but thats still a few years to go, (2012 maybe)

Once we realize that everything around us is acctualy god, and when we finally have a true conciouness, which has no garabe desires, we will feel, what is true. and what is false.

so then lets just have a look at what you just said "realize that everything around us is acctualy god", but what if when this sudden mass enlightenment happens that everything is not god and that everything is nothing and that nothing is everything, if you promote enlihtenment you cant go round shouting god is everything: this is brainwashing!! the only absolute truth is that there is no absoulute truth

and coinsidently the date u said 2012 is allegadly Judgement day (12/12/12)!

quote:Originally posted by Lewneedsrs:

I agree with icantthinkofaname. I believe religion was all thought up by insecure people who feared what they couldnt explain.

Rediculous.

Religion was thought up by people who were trying to explain that which they did not know.

Do any of you even remotely grasp the concept of philosophy?

yeh. my main point in my intro was that religion was there to explain what people couldnt explain, insecrutiy was just anuva lttl fing and not the main point. how could we know why religion was created? all u can do is gess. i am only 14 btw

[This message has been edited by icantthinkofaname (edited 07-19-2003).]

quote:Originally posted by liam:

Religion, in my opinion, was created because people feared death. They also wanted thier lives to have a greater purpose.

I agree. most people would feel insecure kknowing thaat there is no one guarding them.

That would, however, be a good explanation as to why Christians have to take bullets they are in the path of just as much as any hardcore atheist:

No supernatural protection.

Oh, I get your problem: your only reference is christianity. So just because you were ill-educated by christian people who had no clue of their own religion's potential, you throw the baby away with the bath waters...

BTW the fact that some people escape bullets by chance, could be used just as stupidly to imply that some people are protected. Once you start being stupid there is no border at all.

quote:Originally posted by Hammer&Sickle:

See mine has justification, you attempt to insult because you know I am right. I should slap the bitch of a mother who bore you.

How is what I said an insult? I think it was a rather obvious point, that since we were not the first dominant species on the planet, something supreme obviously existed before we did.

quote:Pseudo communist? Too bad I am not, you assume to much Tyrant I suggest that you rethik and reread what people right considering that man concocted it, if there was no man no religion...correct? That is my point, not that man said "lets make religion!" yes it is reformed and is never ending, but man mae it period. Any argument against that is pure ignorance, you have proven that already.

A handle like Hammer&Sickle implied Communism for some reason. I can't remember why.

Man did not invent everything. Did man develop religion in the sense of TRADITION? Yes. Did man develop religion in the sense of GOD? Obviously not. This is expressed once Job is shown Behemoth and Leviathan - the exact verses elude me.

You can't prove that man made God/Nature without replacing God/Nature with some other origin of humanity. Assuming that "any argument against that is pure ignorance" provides ample evidence to say you are guilty of that very sin.

quote:Originally posted by Tyrant:

Man did not invent everything. Did man develop religion in the sense of TRADITION? Yes. Did man develop religion in the sense of GOD? Obviously not. This is expressed once Job is shown Behemoth and Leviathan - the exact verses elude me.

You can't prove that man made God/Nature without replacing God/Nature with some other origin of humanity. Assuming that "any argument against that is pure ignorance" provides ample evidence to say you are guilty of that very sin. You know the ostrich policy, right. Assuming that because you can't prove the world is wider than tiny ass rationality, means there is no such a wider reality... The head in the sand. Well, my labs, universities can't prove god, so there is no god... master logics, isn't it? http://www.totse.com/bbs/rolleyes.gif (http://www.totse.com/bbs/rolleyes.gif)

quote:Originally posted by UrbnTbone:

You know the ostrich policy, right. Assuming that because you can't prove the world is wider than tiny ass rationality, means there is no such a wider reality... The head in the sand. Well, my labs, universities can't prove god, so there is no god... master logics, isn't it?

No, I DO believe there is a wider reality than what we can initially perceive. Isn't it more naive to assume we already know everything about the world? "Your" labs and universities can't explain the transition between electric impulses and consciousness or memory. Would you then suggest neither consciousness nor memory exist?

Sorry, I can't tell if you're sarcastic or not.

[This message has been edited by Tyrant (edited 07-22-2003).]

quote:Originally posted by UrbnTbone:

Oh, I get your problem: your only reference is christianity. So just because you were ill-educated by christian people who had no clue of their own religion's potential, you throw the baby away with the bath waters...



Umm, no. I just use Christianity as a reference point usually because it is the most dominant religion in the world.

quote:

BTW the fact that some people escape bullets by chance, could be used just as stupidly to imply that some people are protected. Once you start being stupid there is no border at all.

I was merely pointing out that you will not get super powers for being a specific religion. It has no impact on reality. It's all in the mind. You still have to eat, breathe, and die like everyone else, reguardless of belief.

Now if we saw some people of a certain religion living to be hundreds of years old and having bulletproof skin, it would be a good sign that they were on to something.

Well if that's what you're looking for in religion, or in life, chances are you watch too many action movies...