Religious Theories
Introduction
I understand that this is a delicate topic for most and that is exactly why the title is as is, “Religious THEORIES.” These are just personal opinions of mine, not actual facts, and excuse me if I offend anyone in any way. I would love comments trying to flaw my theories, as this is a blog of course, so let’s blog!
First and foremost, I do respect all religious beliefs, and I have nothing against any religion in any way as long as people don’t try to convert me. If we are all mature enough we might just make it through this!
Why is religion good?
Christianity
Starting with the biggest one, Christianity. Well here is a standstill between good and evil; simple rules to follow really. If you are good you go to heaven, but if you are a greedy little conniving devil you will most likely be going to hell. I like Christianity’s beliefs because they are definitely simple (no offense).
Hinduism
Second, Hinduism. I look up to this religion for a good reason. Meditation is a key part, along with concentration. I would live to just sit and ponder all day, for it would give me time to truly appreciate what is important.
Muslim
The only reason I favor Muslim is because I’m a man. If it were for any different entities, I would not swing in this direction at all. I might have confused some of you, let me clarify. In this religion, men reap all of the rewards. I’m sure we would all love to be sitting in heaven with 72 virgins and a river of mine!
Buddhism
Well, Buddhism is one of my favorite religions because it doesn’t have something every other religion has. It has no god! And for all of you who think that Buddha is their god, he is not! He was the first person to reach enlightenment. Much like Hinduism, it also involves meditation.
Paganism
I favor Paganism because it is original. It was one of the very first religions to involve magic, fortune-telling, and spirits. It has many minor branches, one being Wiccan. They are also responsible for the origins of many Christian holidays, especially Easter.
Judaism
A very well-thought out religion. This one is special because they were the first to have just one god (Don’t be jealous Christians). It is also less bullied and targeted because the Holocaust, which gives room for growth.
Satanism
Obviously, Satanism gets criticized a lot more, simply for the fact that they took something evil and turned it good, in most eyes at least. I like it because, like me, they are the outcasts.
Atheism
I have saved the best for last, Atheism. This is of course because I am an Atheist. My favorite thing about this religion is that the followers have accepted the fact that there is no afterlife; once you’re dead you’re dead!
I am going to whip up some Christian-Atheist debating, and this is because most of you reading this are probably either Christian or Atheist. Majority rules, but if anyone has any special requests feel free to ask.
Is the Bible flawed?
Well, being an Atheist I would believe so, but unlike most religious believers, I back up my theories/opinions with facts. One of the main parts of Christianity says, “…thou shall not kill.” Simple to understand really, just don’t kill anyone. Another part though, says something along the lines of, “…burn down any neighboring villages that believe in any god besides the one and true god and kill the non-believers…” What ever happened to not killing anyone?
What about other religions?
Well, obviously only one religion is right, and what if it were Christianity? Well, then everyone else would be going to hell, right? But I thought Jesus was forgiving? Oh well! Now people might say something like, “he is, but you have to ask for forgiveness.” I can most certainly tell you that a Muslim believer, for example, will NEVER ask for forgiveness. The thing is, everyone who is not a Christian thinks they are right, so no point bothering to get them to ask for forgiveness.
If Jesus died for our sins, wouldn’t we all go to Heaven?
This is also a flaw that I see with Christianity. That is, why bother being good if Christians have Jesus that died for their sins? I other words, a Christian can cause all the mischief he/she wants if he/she just asks for Jesus’ forgiveness. Murder is a deadly sin, but since the son of God has died for us, all believers go to heaven!
If god has a plan for all of us then what’s the point of anything?
See, now this is where it gets really tricky. Most Christians, even Versatile the main blog operator, agreed that God has a plan for all of us. Well if god has a plan what is the point of doing anything, because we’ll end up in the same place, according to the plan in store. You can’t change the future, because the future is the future, and it WILL happen, no matter what. Keeping this in mind, what’s the point of doing anything? We all follow the path that God has in store for us, so we will end up in the same place no matter what, so why bother?
To wrap this up I will say that obviously we do not live in a time of sacrificing goats and crucifying people and slavery, so the thing to be learned from all of this is that life changes, so we have to change religion with it. We have created better ways of living our lifestyles, and different ways of interpreting religion. Religion is good because it keeps people in place, prevents them from doing bad, and makes them stay good. Without religion we would all just commit suicide, because there would be no motive to drive us through life. Religion is great, because it gives us something to look forward to in the afterlife.
Please comment, share your theories and opinions with us, let’s hear what you have to say.
Posted on September 11, 2009, in Advice and tagged belief, bible, christian, christianity, flaw, jew, judaism, Life, Life Lessons, pagan, paganism, religion, religious, satanism, Story. Bookmark the permalink. 38 Comments.
Welcome to the Underground. 
“If you are good you go to heaven,”
One of the biggest differences between what Jesus Christ taught, and what other religious leaders have taught, is that Jesus made it perfectly clear that there is nothing we can DO to merit salvation. John 6:28,29 – Then they asked Him, what must we do, to do the works God requires? Jesus answered, “The work of God is this, to believe in the one He has sent.”
All other religions, and even some churches that call themselves Christian, have at least some form of “Good Works” as a base for one’s entrance into paradise. Contrast that with the following:
Mark 16:16 – Jesus said, “Those who believe and are baptized will be saved but those who refuse to believe will be condemned.”
John 1:12,13 – Jesus said, “Unless you are born again, you can never get into the kingdom of heaven.” There is no eternal doom awaiting those who trust Him save them. But those who don’t trust Him have already been tried and condemned for not believing in the only Son of God.
John 3:3 – “I tell you the truth, no one an see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.”
John 3:16-18 – “For God so loved that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe in him stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.”
John 5:24 – Jesus said, “I say emphatically that anyone who listens to My message and believes in God who sent me has eternal life and will NEVER be damned for his sins. He has crossed from death into life.”
John 6:40 – “For my Father’s will is that every one who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.”
John 8:24 – Jesus said, “For unless you believe that I am the Son of God, the Messiah, you will die in your sins.”
John 14:6 – “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
Acts 13:38,39 – In this man Jesus there is forgiveness for your sins. Everyone who trusts in Him is freed from all guilt and declared righteous.
Romans 3:27,28 – Our acquittal is not based on our good deeds, it is based on what Christ has done and our faith in Him. So it is we are saved, by faith in Christ and not by the good things we do.
Romans 9:32 – Because they were trying to be saved by keeping the law and being good instead of by depending on faith, they have stumbled over that great stumbling stone, Jesus.
Galatians 2:19 – It was through reading the Bible that I came to realize that I could never find God’s favour by trying and failing to obey the law. I came to realize that acceptance with God comes by believing in Christ.
Thank you for the bible quotes Makarios, but I already know all of this, and I was just being less specific so I can reach out to more simple-minded people who say, “I am a Christian” without any consent to the bible. Just the basic belief followers. This is a basic Christian belief, maybe not entirely true, but followed by most.
The way I was led to believe was that Christianity was defined first and foremost by the belief in Jesus Christ as “lord and savior”. So I think I can understand where makarios is coming from with his need to make the distinction between belief in Jesus vs. Good Deeds. I think I may agree with him that the distinction should be made, even in an overly-simplified summary of the religion.
The above concept was actually part of the reason I turned to atheism. I grew up Christian and was taught that a person’s behaviors in life (whether they were good or bad) meant nothing if that person hadn’t “accepted Jesus Christ in to their hearts”. The idea that good (relative term) people in the world would still be sent to hell for eternal torment simply because they didn’t believe a certain way seems ridiculous to me.
I do agree that it needs to be seperated, but I do not like to post beliefs from the bible as I have found so many flaws in it that I would not even follow it. Believing in your lord and savior Jesus Christ is indeed part of the bible, so I do not like to mention it.
Ok I’ll try and keep my response short since this subject is the most controversial of all. First off I completely agree with you that religion is good in that it gives people a set of rules to live their live by, and that it keeps society in-check. Now heres my beliefs: I have always been more of a scientific person, meaning that if it hasn’t been proven or makes no logical sense that it’s a theory. This is how I feel about religion. I went to a catholic school for 8yrs of my childhood, basically until I was allowed to have my own opinion. God is a very nice thought because it gives you something to look forward to when you die, but noone will ever prove it’s true, or for that matter which religion is the “right” religion. Personally I believe religion is good for maintaining order in our society, but then again more people have died in the name of religion than anything else throughout time, so it has it’s bad side also. I am sort of an Aethiest meaning that I don’t really believe in any god that man has written about , I believe that most “bibles” or books on religion are nothing more than books written by mankind telling what they think god is to them. I believe that a spirit lives in all of us and guides us to do good or bad things sort of like a consience. As far as an afterlife I would like to believe that it’s possible but I find it unlikely. That’s the thing about religious arguements, they can go on forever about who is right because nobody has any real proof that their religion is the right one.
I couldn’t have said it better myself! This is exactly how I feel! There will never be an establishment of agreement because we all have our own beliefs and we all stick by them. I like your opinions and theories, and yes that is exactly why I became an atheist, because I don’t like believing in something that might not be real. I’m not saying it’s not real, but my personal belief, just like the rest of us.
” that if it hasn’t been proven or makes no logical sense that it’s a theory.”
“more people have died in the name of religion than anything else throughout time, ”
I was wondering if you could take that last comment of yours, add some confirming citations and prove to me that it’s not just a bigoted atheist theory.
No, as far as I have researched it, and that is a lot, what he is saying is true. That is a proven statistic that the most fought over thing in history was and continues to be religion. It was a special on budhism on the History Channel and they said, “religion is what caused the most wars.” Obviously not in those exact words, but something like that. They were saying how Budhism never caused any wars or violence.
You might want to google “Wars of the 20th Century” since those have been the most destructive, but whatever you choose to do to prove your point is fine with me.
Well, even World War 2 was fought because of Jews. Not entirely, but it gave some drive.
Oh, and to add, he never said the BIGGEST wars, just the most wars in general.
Besides the implied consent theory, Kansas uses two additional theories to prosecute those arrested for driving under the influence. Bibles
What has caused the most deaths in history is something I couldn’t tell you off the top of my head, but it is undeniable that religion causes a lot of conflict as well as providing a certain amount of structure to people’s lives. From the Crusades to modern-day extremism. I’m afraid I’m too lazy to provide citations, but I’m sure we can all agree that religion does have negative as well as positive effects.
Personally, I think the worst effects religion can have are that it can foster ignorance, with narrow-minded people refusing to look out beyond their religion (including one family, who I’d wager represent a sizeable portion of the world’s population, who were voting on their president based on the strength of his faith… which I find quite frankly ridiculous), but also that it can foster inaction. People can spend too much time lost in religion, in a number of ways, when their time can be much better spent doing something productive… either for themselves or for the good of others, something I understand most religions preach is a primary goal. I could spend time concentrating and trying to discover which religion is true and discover my faith… or I could take part in a sponsored walk and raise money for a given charity. Kind of a lame example, but hopefully you can see what I mean.
I feel it’s worth pointing out a few things, purely as I find them interesting and that anyone who hasn’t heard them before may find them interesting too.
First, Christians, Jews and Muslims all share the same god. Only Christians believe Christ was the Son of the God, whereas the other two tend to respect him as a prophet.
Second, some Satanists (or perhaps most), rather than glorifying evil teach that Lucifer is misunderstood and entirely benevolent, much like one would suppose God is.
Interesting stuff, huh?
I’d like to end by saying I was baptised and confirmed as a Roman Catholic… but would now consider myself an agnostic, not discounting any religion but also not fully believing in one. Actually, I’d consider myself a Soloist… but that’s a story for another day.
Yes, I agree that people are just too ignorant and blinded by their beliefs, but when someone is going to church they think that they ARE doing good, you see? I didn’t mean that Lucifer is evil, but this was written for the average Christian reader. So when I said, “they took something evil and made it good” it was directed towards the Christian audience. Yes, I do understand that Satanists or Satists, depending on where you live, are not bad people at all, just misunderstood.
“First, Christians, Jews and Muslims all share the same god. Only Christians believe Christ was the Son of the God, whereas the other two tend to respect him as a prophet.”
I’m glad you brought this up, TV Denim Chap. My boyfriend recently began talking with a Muslim about religion. He specifically mentioned that in his version of Islam, both Judaism and Christianity were true, valid sources of religion, but became corrupted over time. Then came along the Qur’an to clear things up. The Qur’an is similar to both the Torah and the Christian bible, borrowing a lot of the core stories (Moses, Mary, Noah) and just expanding/altering them.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qur%E2%80%99an#The_Torah_and_the_Bible
Just thought I’d add that to your statement. I find it extremely interesting that many Christians and Muslims fail to realize to similarities in their religious belief and instead just want to condemn each other.
Yes, I understand what you are saying, and I know that they are very similar, but I have received some terrible hate mail telling me that muslims are terrorists so I shouldn’t dare compare the two. I then came up with the conclusion that people are very ignorant, and if it offends an individual that much then I should not even talk about it, because I am not here to offend people, I am here to merely make a point or points about religion.
I wasn’t actually directing that statement specifically to you, venomouswonder. I was just stating it in conjunction with TV denim chap’s comment. It was meant for others reading the comments as additional information. I really do find the similarities between the religions interesting and thought I’d add that little bit for conversation sake.
It seems that you took my comments as being made directly to you and criticizing what you wrote (or didn’t write). That wasn’t the purpose of them at all. They were made to maybe get a few more people here thinking a little bit. Just thought I’d clarify that.
Ah well thank you, I am glad that someone understands the true puprose of comments. Most people are here to argue and tell me that I am terribly wrong, and stupid, so it’s only natural for me to get a bit defensive.
in Islam ,men have all the responsibilities not the rewards
Yeah, true that men do have a lot more responsibilities, but also a lot more rewards. They are actually treated like human beings, and I would certainly trade some hours of work to be treated fairly. Women don’t have to do much according to you, but they are also very mistreated. My point is that women aren’t treated equal to men, and that’s the way it should be.
no that’s not the way that’s it should be… God have created Adam to be responsible for Eve and made Eve take care of Adam and listen to him and that’s the way it was for 5000 years and that’s the way it should be
Ah, so you are a sexist. Welcome sir. This is arguable ’till death and beyond. But a woman would tell you otherwise.
What ? please say something that makes scence and do not dis people.. be respectful..
Yeah, Islam is meant to be an Peaceful religion, until those B****es in 9-11-2001 had to make everything bad for Muslims
Yeah, I do agree that 9-11 was bad, and from my opinion I believe that terrorists did it. But this does not mean that terrorists were responsible, it has never been proven officially, so we should not blame anyone. Innocent until proven guilty. Oh, and the muslim people are not to blame for terrorist actions caused only by the government.
Just to make things clear, I DO understand most things people are telling me, but YOU (the reader) must understand that the average religious person is extremely ignorant, and this was made so that even a child could understand. I could sit here truly expalining every religion thoroughly, but religion has endless comments and arguments, as it is a neverending battle. So I say this (AGAIN), these are my opinions! But please feel free to make me mad some more! =)
It is mentioned that religion is good because it prevents people from doing bad. Is this really the case? When people attempt to use the bible to support anti-gay and anti-abortion is this a good thing? Is it a good thing to merely follow one’s holy book, or the teachings of their religion if that suppresses their own critical thinking about the situation? Is keeping people in place not the equivalent of an authority that should not be questioned, for in principle if you do that you are not “in place”?
Some religions give you something to look forward to. The afterlife. Could this not be because humans are afraid of death and want to get rid of this fear? If there is an afterlife, why was god so cruel to force us to live this life? Is it to test us? If this life is a test, then is he not an immoral god, for wouldn’t a true forgiving god grant us this afterlife from the start, without torturing (sorry for the hyperbole) us in this live? And if god has a plan for all of us, we must notice that many people are suffering. Starvation, slavery, diseases, and so on. If this is the plan of god, can it not be again noticed that you are worshipping a cruel god? Is it then not better to have no god?
Further, even the most diehard nihilist still do not all commit suicide. So is religion really required to motive us through life? Why is the motivation to simply help other humans and animals, to do things as best as you can, to simply enjoy live, etc not enough?
Some other notes. Islam clearly favors man. Isn’t that highly offense against woman? And Buddhism may not have a god but it includes many supernatural things that, in my opinion, are equivalent to having a god. Yes, it seems to be a more peaceful religion and the teaching seems to be useful. Meditation also seems to be very practical. But nevertheless it still has many absurd practices. We simply don’t hear from them because most of the time we (Europe and America?) only are exposed to only a few sides of this religion, and not all of them. For example: What do you really know about meditation? Before I read more about Buddhism I only saw it as a method to “train to brain” and decrease stress. Whilst meditation may indeed by useful, do you really know the place it has in Buddhism (which is needed to have an unbiased opinion)?
The blog post shows a very clear bias towards religion and anyone who practices religion: We must always respect religion. This not only occurs here, but in society in general. Ha, I just noticed that this is actually mentioned at the beginning of the posts.. without questioning why this is a good or bad thing.
Another question. In the comments it has been noted by some that there has been a lot of killing the name of God. But what if we consider how many people God killed and how many people the Devil killed? Take the story of Noah’s Ark. Many people must have died. People who have studied the bible claim more people have been killed by God than by the Devil. If so, the following question is rather intriguing: “What if the Devils greatest achievement is fooling everyone into believing he is God?”.
Well this got a lot longer than planned. It’s late and I’m tired. Apologies for all the gramatical and spelling errors. This post is not to attack anyone. Not the author, not those who have commented and not those who are reading this. I do feel it is very important to constantly ask questions 😉
I do agree that religion has caused problems for minorities such as gays, but without it we would all be seperated, rampaging through the streets, asking everyone what the point of living is. Religion gives people a reason to exist, and a basic code to follow. If I were religious I would say so that why we are alive now is just a test to see if we are worthy of making it to the heavens or to hell. But let me ask every reader (and you) this, if we were created in god’s image, and god is perfect, then shouldn’t we be perfect? Well everything has to have a story to it, and religion is a big big big story. And like every story, it has to have a “good guy” and a “bad guy.” Therefore, the good guy is God and the bad guy is Satan.
Giving meaning to people is not a valid excuse for all the problems religion causes.
The question implies God actually exists. This is a mere philosophical question, like wondering if we actually live in the matrix, or where the tooth fairy would store all those teeth.
The last thing about God being good and Satan being bad assumes a lot. First premise that religion is a big story. Second premise is that every story has a good and bad guy. Based on these, we can only conclude that religion has a good and a bad guy, but cannot possible tell who is who! The third assumption is that God is the good one, and Satan is the bad one.
I can understand where you’re coming from though. Keep learning, reading and most of all being critical. Critical of everything.
Once again, God being good and the Devil being bad is the basic belief of most Christians. This is supposed to apply to the average Christian, and so I have tried to say what most believe.
But thank you for understanding.
Ok, I believe that you are a christian Versatile but you deny it.
And I think you have 100% to do that because christianty makes no scence to me and the bible is re-written a thousad times…
Why do christianty make no scence for me ?
because I’m a Muslim and in Islam we say that Jesus(God Bless him) was just a man who transported the message of God and he IS NOT THE SON OF GOD, he have never been chrised and he have never died (God raised him to heaven so he will be back in the last days of our lives).
I know that makes no scence to you, but that what we are trying to tell people but you know they think we are terrorists and shit… so anyways our prophet Mohammed have came after 600 years from Jesus to tell this to the people who were trying to make stories up.
and about that thing you said that if u were a man you would be a Muslim but if u were a woman you wouldn’t ??
well, not every man Muslim is getting 72 virgins in heavin only the ones that did so much good tooo much good, but actually women Muslims can get better than this when they do much less and which is being respectful, wearing hujab and always cover their body !!
I don’t really know where did you get that info from… but I wish that I corrected you now ;). Peace
Hold up. I did not write this article. Get your facts straight.
isn’t this ur blog ? it has ur name on it !!
Please, you need to check the author of the post. I do NOT write everything here.
Actually I have been writing most things here currently! So happy about it! =)
I wrote this first of all, not Versatile. Second of all it is SUPPOSED to be a sign of respect, but I am betting that women don’t feel equal to men in Islamic countries. I think that you are a bit sexist yourself, along with many others, but it’s just an opinion. And that’s the other thing, I have clearly stated several times that THESE ARE PERSONAL OPINIONS! You are terribly misinformed. Oh, and just for the record, I got my info. from the Qur’an! So don’t tell me about not knowing!
My bad thought that versatile made this because it’s his blog and I was 100% sure that it’s him but it’s ok…
First thig is be respectful please once again.
And don’t say u got this from the hold Quran because I think u r lying.. I have studied the Quran and read it for too many years and I know that it didn’t say 72 virgins in it… and when u replay please be respectful 🙂
It’s alright, we all make mistakes. Second, can you please spell correctly instead of using “u” replacing “you.” Please and thank you. Not trying to be rude, but it just bothers me. And I have probably not studied the Qur’an as much as you for that is not my area of expertice as I have only read it thoroughly twice. But, I suppose it’s more of an inside joke, maybe only people in my area understand it. But it is true that men go to heaven with something great. My memory isn’t too clear on the subject, but it’s something along the lines of, “80,000 servants, 72 virgins, and a dome of ruby and aquamarine the length from al-Jabyyah to San’a.” This is a rough translation of the quote that can be understood by normal people. Oh, and I can’t stress enough the part that this is the MINIMUM reward for even reaching heaven. For greater deeds there can be far greater rewards. This is dictated by the prophet Muhammad himself according to the Qur’an.