is religion wrong

I reck`n God can take a bit of Flak.


He`s been getting it for years.

A bit easier to blame him than ourselves methinks.

 

I am basically an atheist, with a strong sense of the supernatural. Doesn't make sense, I know, but that is how I deeply and definitely feel... Claire, I like very very much your first entry in this thread (also the others, but the first entry especially).

May be I can identify myself in some of the most smudgy pantheistic philosophies. That God is immanent in this very world,and its magnificience and glory manifests and resides (in the deepest sense) in the complexity of the life that surrounds us, and even in the beauty of human abstractions... that is enough marvel for me to call God, if I think of it.

I am not a starkly materialistic person, I have very clearly seen and felt things eerie and painful,and beautiful... that no science can explain.

I can respect, deeply respect ANY religion (what name you call God is your own business... after all) as long as it remains a personal fact... a way, a code, to relate to those supernatural (?) forces that tug at our conscience and defy science and make as feel... like we do have a soul. That respect ceases when religion becomes an excuse to impose (or try to...) your own wishes/rules/point of view on someone else. Then, it is no better than politics (which do have a place in human life, but it should not be the place of God).

 

I prefer to call myself a secular humanist rather than a atheist. I actually think quite a LOT about religion, though!! And a very good place to do this is here:

http://www.richarddawkins.net/forum

Because this is more or less a UK forum, most of the contributors to the discussion are ex-Christians...we discuss our objections to religion, covering dogma, oppression, indoctrination...religious wars....

 

Leonora-I am intrigued, what is a secular humanist?


I will most assuredly check out the link.


Ivory, I find iit quite difficult to express succinctly my views-they often change, but at the core it`s the same thing. God is there when the world "speaks" to me.


One of my favourite poems-


[align=center]High waving heather, 'neath stormy blasts bending (December 13, 1836)[/align]
High waving heather, 'neath stormy blasts bending,
Midnight and moonlight and bright shining stars;
Darkness and glory rejoicingly blending,
Earth rising to heaven and heaven descending,
Man's spirit away from its drear dongeon sending,
Bursting the fetters and breaking the bars. All down the mountain sides, wild forest lending
One mighty voice to the life-giving wind;
Rivers their banks in the jubilee rending,
Fast through the valleys a reckless course wending,
Wider and deeper their waters extending,
Leaving a desolate desert behind.
Shining and lowering and swelling and dying,
Changing for ever from midnight to noon;
Roaring like thunder, like soft music sighing,
Shadows on shadows advancing and flying,
Lightning-bright flashes the deep gloom defying,
Coming as swiftly and fading as soon.



He`s there.

 

That is surely Emily Brontè?????

 

Ah! It is indeed Emily Bronte. Another favourite being No coward soul is mine.


A beautiful woman, with a most exquisite and powerful mind.

 

"And if I pray - the only prayer
That moves my lips for me
Is - 'Leave the heart that now I bear
And give me liberty.'

 

Do you think she knew what she was writing?


How intrinsic to the soul every word she put to paper would become?


The greatest English writer of all time, in my opinion. A genuine genius.

 

Is Religion Wrong... Wrong about what ? not all religion is about the greater good or peace and love or even about god. Religion is such an enormous subject its almost impossible to compare as its application is so varied, be it culture, politics, oppression, freedom etc etc..

Suffice to say we can all agree that religious books say lots of stuff.

Some people will agree with it and some people won't.

Some people will rewrite it to suit their opinion.

And some people will completely misinterpret all of it and call themselves Jehovah's Witnesses.

Either way good and bad comes out of all things man made, but believing that someone loves them unconditionally from beyond this world is comfort to many, including me

Does make for quality giggles though :lollol:

 

BM, oh you naughty boy:D The sad thing (or funny depending on which way you look at it) is that is can be so true.

Each to their own I think. Just don't make anyone else suffer because of your own beliefs.

cheers

 

And some people will completely misinterpret all of it and call themselves Jehovah's Witnesses.


Funny guy

 

Lolli - just googled that poem. Very deep. I don't know much about our writers etc but thank you for guiding me to something I may enjoy.

cheers

 

BM

 

You are more than welcome.

The writings of Emily Bronte are staggeringly beautiful.

 

They are.

The brief fragment I posted above is also from one of her poems, Borrowers.

Of all her poems the piece that always touched and surprised me most deeply was this:

"I asked myself, O why has Heaven
Denied the precious gift to me,
The glorious gift to many given,
To speak their thoughts in poetry?"

Touched, because I often wonder the same for myself... and surprised, because beyond doubt she did have "the glorious gift".