Bye Bye Organized Religion
 

I wonder what the world would be like if the entire planet did away with organized religion. People would only be allowed to pray and worship at home, no religious based organizations were allowed. No churches, no synagogues, no mosques, no public religious halls, monuments anywhere. We all just worshiped in our homes, when we wanted and how we wanted. Oh and preaching in public banned as well.

I wonder what our world would be like then?.... :)

Not sure what would happen.But my home is my temple and there's where i do my worshiping.Some may disagree, but who are we to be judged.

I think it would be better. If you saw Bill Maher's documentary, you would agree. The percentage of people following the religion has gone down by double in the past 10 years. Personally, I am not a fan of all the stories and such, call me agnostic. If you can prove it, I will follow.

Fattony.. although I'm not a huge fan of Bill Majher, I just watched that doc about an our ago and is what prompted this thread. It would be great if we could be nice to one another without religion being such an obstacle. Sheeps!

To stop Christians spreading the gospel you're quite frankly have to kill all Christians with any sort of integrity and loyalty to Christs teachings. our Last command was to spread the gospel and that is what we do.

Reedeemed, interesting... How do you know what you believe to be the truth? This arrogance(no offense) is and has been the root of some pretty serious evil in all religions. Please answer this thread not by your account/feeling but in the way I asked. What proof do you or any have for that matter? What would happen if you could only worship in your home? For me, I'm sick of the judgemental "almighty" ones in every religion, causing so much harm in the world since man starting walking up right. If what I see and have experienced coming from the religious ones is goodness, they certainly will never inherit this earth or virgins.

So again, how do you know what you've be taught and have read to be the truth? Where you there?

I do believe in GOD BUT I don't believe in people. There in lies the problem. PEOPLE have ruined religion. Used their GOD for money, sex, land and power, then and now.

Wasn't Hitler a Protestant? Can't remember. Have you every died? I have, twice in one year. There is something after, not sure what it is though.

my only worshiping is my navel... and it always grab all the dust in my t-shirts, so it is never clean...

... what have to do with religions ?!... a navel is naturally clean, the center of all beings... it become dirty when all the dust turns around it...

Oh I remember that song... :D

p.s. the guy was killed :rolleyes:

Religion is a dying game.
How many people have died in the name of religion - millions.

Was it worth it ?

Religion - Held mankind back for centuries. Ridiculed the greatest discoverers long past. It's certainly dieing, a dieing business. I can't say I believe in a god, I believe in mankind whether in a bad way or a positive way. I see religion as a way of people turning to something for comfort rather than a benefiting way to their situation.

Like I stated in the last religion orientated thread there's not a lot I hate in life though religion is one mainly for it's false claims, lack of facts.

If people feel that religion improves the quality of their lives fair play but most religions force their scriptures/beliefs down your throat which I haven't got time for anymore.

Like I said, people will turn to religion in times where maybe something terrible has happened, maybe to their families, themselves etc and to me turning to something so meaningless on the turn of a whim is somewhat silly. I'm sure many people will have comfort in that and if that's what they like then fairplay to them.

It sounds pretty good to me.

Nobody standing over you telling you what and how to believe. nobody telling you that this or that is a sin.

To be honest, I lost respect for organized religion a long time ago.

well... I think is 'build-in' inside us, we need to make to sense of this world... :rolleyes:

p.s. and of course, wait for a horrid punishment for those who harm us through our lives :D

LOL. This made me laugh because most of these so-called Christians don't understand the message that Christ was. TalkJesus.com is a prime example of this and we have a discussion about this on our forums.

So to have to:

That is not characteristic of Jesus Christ at all and furthermore Jesus didn't order the killing of Muslims, radical Christian leaders did. Jesus didn't kill but many Christians do. How naive can we possibly be to think that Christianity has anything to do with the message given by Jesus Christ.... Not to mention, there is no real evidence or proof that Jesus Christ was ever even here. My oh my how the blind lead the blind. Not to mention, Paul created Christianity not Jesus and Paul never met Jesus. Geesh, I think in order to call oneself a Christian one should understand their history and the Crusades along with all the other havoc that radical religions reaped and the state of our world today is living proof of it.

I have to agree with the original poster. Get rid of these silly religions. They've divided and conquered man for long enough. The problem is mankind seeks his answers in other men so we have the blind leading the blind. I was talking to someone last night who said, "I'm not in control of anything"... Until we realize the exact opposite, we'll keep spiraling downward and keep fighting and keep creating more religions that take the burden of responsibility of the Genius humankind and place it on the shoulders of mythology.

I'm sorry Redeemed Warrior but Jesus was a way shower not a warrior. Jesus also did not require or request his followers to be warriors. Isn't it funny that the word Christianity and War are so often found mingling with each other.

Peace not war. Peace!

ADDED: I do not want to make broad, sweeping generalizations about ANY religion and I also realize there are good folks in all religions including Christianity. It's just too bad humanity roams the earth with a blindfold with their arms outstretched to the shoulder of the person they are following.

Oh no :( religious debate and the old game: 'I'm right you're wrong'

p.s. I hear the swooosh of closing coming

ok, Josh, you are right, i admit it...

can we start a war now?... it's boring today...

It'd be a lot better than it is now. Religion is nothing more than a means of massive social control. A separate set of laws so to say that help weak minded people try to explain things, and coup with loses or whatever. Religion stops people from thinking, and breeds nothing but a crazy culture.

Lets take Christianity for example. These people are complete and utter nut jobs, they beleive that a 'virgin' gave birth to a child. Happens all the time right. These peoples world would fall apart if you tried to convince them that Jesus probably wasn't white considering the geography of where he was born. Or that their story matches the same story religions before them used hundreds of years before. To me the bible looks like it started out as a game of mad libs :up:

Lets take extremist Islamics/Muslims for another example. Flying planes into buildings was partly religiously motivated. There is some solid thinking... :erm:

Just think of all the nut jobs who make decisions based on the "lords word", 'I'm willing Lord, I'll do whatever you want me to do.' Except that since there are no gods actually talking to us, that void is filled in by people with their own corruptions and limitations and agendas.

As Bill Maher once said “Religion to me is a bureaucracy between man and God that I don't need.”

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/

Yeah well we wouldn't have extremist Muslims flying into our building if it wasn't for the extremist Christians who slaughtered them and continue to slaughter them. It's a snowball that gains in size and destructibility. One feeds off the other until we're all destroyed. It wouldn't surprise me at all if it wasn't a Christian who orchestrated the 911 attacks and muslims were just blamed and set up. This sort of fits right in with the Christian warrior thing and the political agendas behind it.

Now I'm rambling... Anyway, peace to all. Hopefully we can come to know world peace someday and set our swords and shields down.

No, no, no... 'adoctrination' happens even here at vB.org!

Don't you feel sometimes that ppl take decisions without base?

without base is not better than wrong or false bases...

So what you call 'religion' outside is the indoctrination of the masses, call it Christian, Muslim, Buddhist...
even a healthy, young, smart man and no problems, can feel the urge to make think everybody around him like him... he needs synchronization from his inside to the outside...

p.s. where is Wayne Luke?

Manmade religion is just that... man-made. I used to go to church without fail.
I rarely attend now because of my job. Yet my relationship with God has not suffered. I still love Him, still worship Him, still claim Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior, still pray, and still read the Bible. I don't teach my son about religion. I teach him about having a relationship with God.

When asked if I'm religious, I answer, "Nope. I'm a Christian". The comeback is usually "isn't that the same thing"? No it isn't. Two very different things, entirely.

what would be a non-manmade religion, Peggy??? Aliens religions ?! like the Raelism? ;)

IMHO i think the world would be 1000X better

Ah dreamers... :D

All religions are man-made. All denominations in the Christian sector are man-made. A bunch of man-made rules. Jesus told us to live according to the Bible, love each other, treat each other good, and help those who need help. He didn't tell us that wearing make-up, cutting our hair short and having pierced ears would send us to hell. I don't believe in any religion or denomination. I believe in relationship with God.

I disagree. Jesus did not tell us to live according to the Bible. He was a way shower in which there is and never has been any real proof of his existence to begin with. The bible, (The new testament) was written after the supposed Christ. Christianity is not the way of Jesus it's the way of Paul, who was a self proclaimed prophet of Jesus Christ. Paul never actually met Christ.

I totally agree with what you've said there otherwise Ohiosweetheart. It's funny how twisted our society has become and how unlike Jesus many Christians have become.

The fact of the matter is that if todays Christians had Jesus in their midst, (providing there is such a thing) they would stone him, hang him on a cross and call him blasphemous. They do it to each other everyday and it was Christ that showed us that what we do to our fellow man we do unto ourselves. If you want to hurt yourself, hurt your neighbor.

It's really not much to debate here but it is something to ponder. There are a lot of people who use Jesus and Christianity to extract money out of naive people. What we have today is the blind leading the blind and like all religions, there is only one God and that God is MONEY! It's sad but it's the truth. As a Christian nation we are all but an example of what it means NOT to be Christian.

Onward Christian soldiers! :confused:

Interesting take you have there although historically and factually inaccurate. But hey, not uncommon throughout history and even more so today :rolleyes: The Apostles were meant to "do" and "be" exactly what they were. Witnesses to Jesus and deliverers of His messages and instructions and to establish the early Christian church. If you want to know what God expects of you and will hold you accountable to I suggest you immerse yourself in the Book of Acts. Finally, the only ones who can be called true apostles are those who were witnesses to the Resurrection of Christ of which the Apostle Paul was one. Paul was chosen by Jesus to be the Apostle to the Gentiles and that's who his writings are directed to so yes, Christianity is a religion for the gentiles (which are all peoples who are not Hebrew...although Jesus came primarily for the Jews and will return one day and restore them to their chosen place in God's kingdom).

Jesus lives.

Sorry Smacklan, Jesus has been coming since he left and the sky has also been falling as well. Not to mention the rapture which is still on it's way. The bible and all those books have been changed and altered so much and were written by men for men under political pressure.

Paul was chosen by Jesus according to Paul. Did I miss something? Let's also not forget that those words in that bible you mentioned, were written by men who thought the world was flat. LOL. Historically, that's correct. If you choose to believe otherwise then that's called faith. Faith that what another man wrote is truth. Is it? Adam and Eve, the story of, was written approximately 4000 years after it would have taken place, is this also truth?

They call all of this mythology.

Hey, you can run them over pulling out of the church parking lot, stab them in the back before church on Sunday, but no worries because we're washed in the blood of the lamb.

What's true and what's not is based on what others have told you or what you have read. It's all perception. I was raised Christian and know today that what's said on that pulpit is not for the love of christ but for the love of money.

Christianity came from Paul not from Jesus. Read Acts.

I would though, be interested in historical and factual evidence that support your claim though. Please be aware that there has never ever been any that anyone has come up with.

How will the world be like if religion is "banned"? We (maybe not in our life time) will find out. Why and How do I know (Or believe)? It's in the bible in the book of Revelation. Symbolically, of course. The government will turn on religion. In Revelation, the 7 headed beast (symbolic for The Government, and it doesn't mean the U.S. government. Every government in the world.) attacks the prostitute (symbolic for religion). But wait, I can hear you. Why is religion being symbolized as a prostitute? That's something that goes way into detail, and no where near this topic. But for you to understand, read the bible carefully. :p

What does that mean? This means that there's great persecution coming for everyone. Churches, Door to door preaching, and so on and so forth.

Can't wait for that day to come? Much worse (for the unfaithful) will happen after that. Be careful what you wish for.

As I type this, I'm thinking. Who'll really listen? (Matthew 7:24-27) Ah, how history loves to repeat itself.

Mind you, those are Jesus's words. Oh, but people don't believe what they haven't seen, right? And they want proof? Look around you! You really believe everything is done by evolution? That's like believing a painting has no artist. God is watching us, my friend. Call us nut jobs all you'd like. You're just helping in fulfilling a prophecy. ;)

Say no more. I understand.

They've been talking about that for centuries. The only persecution being done is the persecution we do to each other.

Unfaithful? In what, a doctrine written and prescribed by men?

Those are the words of Jesus interpreted by MEN. Don't you see? One man saw an angel, another a boy dressed in white and yet another saw 3 angels... it's open to interpretation.

In school, our teacher had us all sit in our chairs in a circle and then she whispered a short story into the ear of chair number one and asked that the story be whispered from one chair to the next until the entire room had heard the story. Well, by the time the story got to the last person in the circle the entire story changed... That's all in ONE Hour of ONE DAY. You're talking about thousands of years of stories coupled with politics and men.

And please, the prophecies are prophesies of humans that have always searched. It wasn't that long ago the sun was worshiped as being God.

Oh well, I'm not trying to change anyone or anyone's thought and certainly not trying to shove a magic pill of salvation down anyones throat. Religion was created by man and likewise divides man and if your religion lives for the end of times, no doubt you will eventually create them. Live for love not death and destruction!!! My God!

Peace!

Funny stuff tldagent...sounds just like all the other's before you for the last 2000 years, but hey, it's not me you will ultimately answer to so good luck with your position, you're gonna need it ;)

Are you condemning me? Is this some sort of Christian bread burning? I thought Jesus taught that you don't judge another. By the sounds of it you've judged not only me but others who don't prescribe to your beliefs. This is certainly not characteristic of the Jesus in the bible, (words in red). Onward Christian soldier!

For me, I'll turn the other cheek, walk the second mile, forgive seventy times seven and hope that we don't have to endure another Crusade or another slaying of each other as dictated by a mythological god to some self proclaimed... whatever you wish to call it.

BTW, If you have any of this proof I ask that you bring it. This obviously isn't the forum to get into this but I'll believe and repent. All I seek is absolute truth and if you have it, I'm all ears. Not mythology but proof.

Love ye one another! Peace.

ADDED: I'll let this rest now. If you want to discuss it in more depth, feel free to PM me. There's really no point in discussing something like this any further on this forum and I apologize if I've offended anyone.

man if I live 2000 years I will hear/see the same chat all time... 'me good, u going to hell...'

tldagent, you're right. To a point. It is open to interpretation, but what makes most sense? Granted, the bible was written by men, however inspired by God. You know how a boss has his secretary, or someone else writing for him? Same deal. Read any book, and compare it with the bible. Just any other book has a pretty big chance to contradict itself. I have yet discovered the Bible to contradict itself.

If the Bible says "Love Thy Neighbor" and then says "Kill who doesn't believe", hey, there's something wrong there.

The Bible also stated not to worship anything, or anyone. That includes the Sun.

Now, I apologize if I made it seem like I was judging you, because it's true we're no one to judge each other. I can't tell you, "Oh you're going to hell" because I might end up sinning the next day. Not that I believe in "Hell", btw. No such thing. Same goes for Heaven. Again, something off topic. "Don't judge if you don't want to be judged."

I also agree that this should be left alone, because some people don't know how to discuss. Just argue. And Jesus didn't argue.

Note to Smacklan, if you feel like you're in your feet, careful not to fall. It's actually stated on the Bible that if you're so sure, you should help. Not just stand back and "condemn".

Good post Red Blaze! I'd be more than happy to discuss at anytime just not here. :) Thank you though for the thoughtful and considerate post.

then how you explain that I became a christian missionary without being christian :mad:

p.s. dang mosquitoes! I hasn't seen one the last 20 years

Christianity didn't "come from" anyone. The very definition of the word "Christian" means to be Christ-like. To live like Christ. To follow His example. I will say again - To be a Christian is not a religoin, nor a philosophy, nor a denomination. To be a Christian is to have a relationship with God and to attempt to live a Christ-like life. Period.

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You've not offended anyone, least of all me. But everything that you've said here all come from a man - you. The same as you say all the words of the Bible come from men. Who would I be more apt to believe? :)

I'm not "condemning" anyone...if anything they are condemning themselves with their own actions and words. They aren't my rules or yours, they are God's and He is very clear in what will condemn you in His eyes...and what will redeem you to Him as well! I always find it quite interesting, to say the least, in these type discussions that those that don't believe seem to think they have some sort of authority to try and "teach" those of us that do believe about our own faith. I personally have spent decades earnestly studying it and growing closer to God through His spirit during that time...I respect your right to your opinion but I'm really not swayed by it ;)

@Peggy - well said, I will put my trust in what I know to be the truth also :)

As an atheist, my argument is never whether or not there is a God, but instead, what would I be willing to risk in order to stand up for what it is I truly believe in? In other words, I have my own unique beliefs, and they do not include God or Jesus (picking a deity out of a hat I suppose). I am not to judge my own life. I'll let the Cosmos do that and I will live to the best and most honest of my ability. If the Cosmos are God, and God decides that my deeds do not deem me fit for a reward, then so be it. More simply put? I would rather be punished for what I believe than be rewarded for what someone else believes. That could lead to another mini-rant about accepting each other for our differences rather than this spiritual hierarchy that "non-believers" are unfairly pushed to the bottom of just because our life experiences were different than "believers".

EDIT: And I've always had a genuine curiosity of the idea that God is like our unconditionally loving father. My uconditionally loving father didn't send me to hell for fornicating before marriage and not apologizing to him... do you see where my quandry is? I just don't see why the punishment has be as swift and important as the reward? Should the reward be the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow (heaven) or the rainbow itself (life)?