The problems I find with religion.

[Alex Graboyes]

KEEP IN MIND: this is in no way an attack on religion and or religious people, meerly my reasons for not being a believer.

Problem number one: Why is believing in god so important to god? Regardless of a persons race, gender, and whatnot what life, in my eyes, boils down to is as follows: Are you a good person or a bad person...Whereas to the religiously faithful, it boils down to: Do you or do you not believe in god. Regardless of good or bad, believing in god and a possibly not-so-sincere apology is the ticket to heaven, regardless of how sadistic or bad someone may be. Why subjegate every single person on the planet to a test that sadistic idiots with the predisposition to faith pass with ease, and good-hearted skeptics have "failed" every single time.

Problem number deux: Manifestation...Tran/or con/ substantiation is such an issue, wether or not the wine is the blood and the bread is the body...if god wanted to quell that quarell that's divided the protestants and catholics and created so much hate...he need only manifest. Why would a god allow hatred over a very fixable issue.

Problem number three: Manifestation part two. WHY DOSN'T A GOD MANIFEST. Nothing else to say here, really. I would instantly be a believer if a god is able to manifest himself to the world. Most will say this is a test of faith, wich I cover in part four.

Problem number four: The test of faith. The religious extremests will say that all life is is a test, and as pointed out in part one, that test is one-sided to begin with. But wait, if I am subjected to the christians test, and the catholics, and the muslims, and the million other religions...why is me being an atheist so bad? A christian denies the gods of the literally THOUSANDS of other religions in the world, so me denying the existance of theirs is now heracy?

Problem numero cinco: HATE. Would a god as brilliant as to create our cosmos really allow bloodshed in his name? “Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?” - Epicurus

Problem number six: The age of the earth/evolution. I don't deny that I am a skeptic, I don't believe 100% in anything I cannot see, but what I CAN see is that the earth is a heck-of-a-lot more than 2 thousand something years old. And it sure as hell has evidence of evolution.

That's all for now...rant/hate/what have you.

Edit numero uno. Problem seven: Hell... Why does a hell exist? A god who created us in his image says it's wrong to torture our fellow man, and yet has a lake of fire and his own torture chamber to burn and kill and mame and did I mention torture the people who disagree with him. And if you want to believe mormonism, then satan himself was the son of elohene and the brother to jesus himself. Why is satan evil? And jesus good? They both had equal opportunity to get heaven, and yet due to the flip of a coin one must live in infamy while the other gets eternal praise and glory? No way, not buying it.

[Tricia Smith]

I do not believe in organized religion although I do believe in a “higher power.” What I personally believe would probably never become any form of organized religion because there would be no way for any church to make money off of it. I was raised Christian. Wait let’s back that up. I was raised in a Christian house hold. Sunday school teachers were never fond of my favorite word why. I stopped going to church and believing in the god that was depicted in the bible. The bible just never added up for me. First of all it’s been translated thousands of times to a point where it’s become a version of the childhood game telephone. Plus they say that the devil was once the angel of music/language. If the devil is actually real what better why to turn many people, countries and religions against each other than take a book with a good belief structure and mess it all up. One group of people thinks that story from the bible means one thing and this story means another or completely leaving “this” out or adding “this” in. Either way what I think it comes down to is when is comes to religion use you head people and don’t be afraid to ask why.

[E_Lewis]

#1- According to the Bible, one must be sincere about their regrets, admit they did something wrong, and not do it again, for the right resons. This means, like, if you cheated on your spouse, you'd have to admit what you did was wrong, and truly believe it was wrong, and turn away, refusing to do it again.(Or at least honestly trying to stop.) And you'd have to do this, not to get God off your back, but because you know what you did was wrong, and want to be a better person.
The bible also says that someone who has not heard the word of God can still serve God, because the law of God is, "written on our hearts"- meaning, listening to your conscience and doing what's right, even if you haven't read the Bible, will still be counted when God judges you. And I believe it has to be an honest confession, and repent, because it emphasises that God reads our hearts, so he can tell if it's just a sadistic maniac, trying to get a free pass.

#2 & #3- I'm not exactly sure what you're trying to get at in the start of it, but we can't rely on God to just come down here and fix all our problems every time we screw up, because it happens so much. People are always going to do bad things and even God coming down here won't change that. In fact, it didn't. When Jesus came, it caused more divisions. This sounds bad, but it's just a side effect. Jesus said he came here to cause a division- between the people who believed and the people who didn't believe. So, it would actually cause more anger, if God came down here. Not to say he doesn't intervene. He still influences people through his words in the Bible, and through his own being. This isn't God's fault though, it's ours. As humans, some of us will always hate those who are different, and no one will ever believe axactly the same thing. God is like a parent, and sometimes, you just gotta let your kids make their own mistakes, but when they come back asking for help, you'll help them in an instant, because they're your kid. That's kind of what it's like with God.

#4- The difference between denying this one religion is- it's the real one.(this is actually applicable to all religions, so depending on what person of what religion, you ask, they'd say something similair.) The difference, is like appreciating and thanking, your imaginary friend for giving you a home, money, food, love and care, when it's actually your parents that did that. Wouldn't you be upset, if you made, loved, took care of, and helped someone, and then they turned around and praised and devoted themselves to something that isn't even real? It's just such a kick in the face. So, the other gods aren't real, so it's not bad at all, because, well... they're just not there. They're not gonna care, and it's not bad, because they aren't there and didn't help us, or make us, or do anything, so it would be just stupid to worship them. I still wonder if it's better to be an atheist or something else, but it's not the best to be an atheist. It's different, because rejecting something that's not there, is like saying, "No, there is not a magic flying leprechaun in your bathroom", an atheist denies the truth, and ignores God- like a kid that's been taken care of, then ignores their gaurdian.(Wow, i just realized how much I use the word, "like". Sorry about that.)

#5- This one confuses me also. But according to the beautides, a speech given by Jesus, those in pain will be given relief in heaven when they die. This means, those who were suffering in life, will be okay, when they die. It doesn't say that they have to be good, or that they'll make it, even if they were wicked, but if they're suffering was brought on by themselves, I don't think it would count. I think God lets the wars continue, because, well - we're going to die anyway, and we're never going to like it, so we might as well see what we're really made of. In times of difficulty, our true colors shine, and we know what people are really like.

#6- I don't believe that the world is only a few thousand years old. That's just dumb. The Bible is old, and the way they recorded time when the scriptures were written, was way different from now. I also believe that God created the world through, the big bang and evolution, and if Adam and Eve were real, they were the first fully evolved homo-sapiens.

#7-Umm... okay, do you have any basic knowledge of the story of Adam and Eve, or how the devil came to be? There's actually a whole book on hell and answers all kinds of questions like this. I only read a few questions though, 'cuz it was in the store. It said something along the lines of: God cannot allow himself to be near sin, because it is impure- or something like that. Sin makes people sad, and leads to ruin. If you don't believ me, just look at all the people who have cried and died, because of hatred, anger, lies, murder, adultery, disloyalty, greed, envy- the list goes on. All these things, make people miserable, and wouldn't you wanna be away from it? God sends people who would bring these aweful things into heaven, to hell, so it can be a better place. Many people believe that hell is only temporary. That once they have had their punishment, and will no longer sin, may join God in heaven. And I'm not a mormon, so I might be missing something, but it wasn't the flip of a coin that set their fates. Satan was sent to hell, when he told God he wanted more power. He said that he was equal with God and should be treated and praised like God was. I've thought about what it would be like to have all that power and responsibility, and it really is a stupid statement, to think that you are equal with the one who created everything, and made all the rules. Thsi is his world, not anyone else's and no one would be able to handle it if they had this kind of power. Jesus on the other hand, understood God. He loved God and people, and healed and taught, and worshipped all his life. The new testament emphasises humility. Before Jesus was raised up and praised, he humbled himself. You know what it would be like to have radical religious ideas, in a corrupt, but strict land. Besides, Jesus was just some punk carpenter, from a poor family, and if anyone knew about Mary, they probably thought his mother was a slut too. A normal kid these days, would have been angry at the world, and the world would have hated him just for being different. Well, most people didn't like Jesus, or believe in him, but that didn't stop him from healing people, or teaching them how he thought they could live a better, happier life. And after all that, one of his students sold him, then he was put through the most painful and humiliating death possible. Crucifixion was a criminals death. It's like the electric chair, now. A real criminal was set free, even though no one actually had any crimes against Jesus. The only reason he was killed, was because the jews and pharisees didn't like him, or his radical teachings. They shouted at Pilot, to kill Jesus, but never really gave an answer why he should, even though he repeatedly asked for a reason. They just kept shouting that they wanted the criminal set free, and Jesus killed. This was because they didn't like what he was teaching people about God, or that he always called the pharisees hypocrites and worse. They also didn't like that he was claiming to be the son of God. they just didn't believe him and thought he was... I don't know, what you'd normally think. Arrogant, foolish- whatever, that's probably how they felt about him. Besides, he hung out with people they didn't like. He would preach to prostitutes and tax collectors, and heal them Jesus said their past didn't matter and they were forgiven, but most people saw them as filthy sluts, and traitors- evil people in their eyes, that were not as good as them. Jesus loved and forgave all people of their sins though, so he didn't care. In his eyes, at least they knew they weren't perfect. Unlike the people that looked down on them and thought themselves so much better than them. "Let he among us, without sin, be the first to condemn."- is how Jesus felt. But he knew no one was without sin. The pharisees might have known it too, but they hated Jesus comparing them to, "immoral people", or calling them sinful.
So Jesus was put to a criminals death, completely naked in front of an entire town, including his mother and his followers. When you're crucified, it's not fast. You're stuck their dying, for hours. I read (most of, still working on it) Life of Pi, and in it, the main character was a Hindu kid, hearing about Jesus for the first time. The kid said, that there were stories in their religion about the children of gods coming to earth, but they were always praised highly, and cursed if they were mistreated. He just couldn't believe this was happening to a child of God. Jesus knew this was going to happen too. He could've left. He begged God to let it not happen, but he still didn't run away. Jesus knew that through this, there would be no more sacrifices, and anyone could enter the kingdom of God- not just Israelites. He knew that this was what was neccessarry, so even though he was a child of God himself, Jesus lived poorly and humbly, never asking for more, always looking to help people and serve, then was turned over by his own people, publicly stripped, laughed at and nailed to a cross, where he hung for hours, just waiting to die. I'd say, even a normal human who did this- and still loved the people who caused all this pain- would deserve to be known as an exceptional loving, and forgiving person. That is someone worthy of praise.