im glad u started this thread, thought id get in trouble if i posted owt about religeon in other one
disclaimer :- all this is my own opinion
I have the standared experiance of being preeched to etc by various christians, and have, a long time ago, read parts of the bible, altho it didnt make any sense to me at that age.
As I see it quite a lot of the religeons started in places like palastein etc, regeions of turmoil at the time. Now if you want control over a lot of people, without having to use militry force, or assasination you need to come up with a threat. Most theats would be easily seen as bluffs, eg. single bloke to king - "give me your land or i will kill you", king "army, execute him now". Now if you could produce a threat that you couldnt call the bluff, ie only way of calling the bluff is by dieing, then youve got a pretty good threat. Now this threat could be used for all sorts of purposes, eg attacking goverments, getting money and power etc. In the case of religeon it seems like money and power.
Obviously if anyone opposed your new religeon you would have to get rid of them, as they would be direct competition for members. I say members because when religeons first start, id imagine them more like a club as there would be no churchs or mosques etc. As numbers grow, and therefore money and power of the religeon, then they can build impressive buildings, stand back and say, look at the power of our <insert name here> he has given us this place. Which further increases membership.
The central books that support reliegeon, eg bible etc, are probably written by the people, or their followers who started the religeon. As my understanding goes, most of these on the surface promote things like love your neighbour... until you get into them more deeply. At the time it was probably a conforting idea compared to the goverments, give us all your money or we will kill you methods.
From the gay marrage thread, a few points were made, but no-one seemed to take notice. First the statement that if you dont rely on the teachings of your holy book when making rules, then you are now no longer a religeon, your a society. In the past gay marriages inside CoE were fine (going by winters reference to the king), however nowerdays it isnt. This suggests to me that current CoE teachings dont follow their heratage, therefore it is nolonger a religion, it is a society. This society is dictated to by the pope, now not under standing how people become bishops etc, I assume their apointed by the pope, then this means that the pope has full control over the teachings given out by the church. This seems like a corruption of what most people think the believe when talking about CoE.
Now we have a 3rd part society demanding rules passed in a lot of other societys, then saying that if some1 complains then they are trying to influence theirs. Eg. peoples objection to using the word marriage in relation to civil relationships. Why shouldnt people use the word marriage, from winters post, there is no reference to the word marrage in the bible, therefore the use of the word has been chosen either by common use to refer to a partnership, or by the pope. They dont own the copywright on the word, and seem to think if other people use it then it demotes the meaning of their useage of the word. This to me feels like another way of controlling people, and elevating people in their religeon to being above ordinary citezins. Which in christianity is wrong (i assume?, eg "all men are created equel").
If you strip out all the corruption etc, then your left with the equivelent of the code of conduct (sixth started that?) in the uta. People sign up to it and mainly stick to it, however there are a few, who have signed up, that dont. Its the other people that dont that get noticed and because they are being noticed, and seen as "winners", by some, there the ones that get copied.
I cant think of a mainstream religeon that got to where it is without forcing its belief on others, through holy wars, crusades etc. So quite a lot cant say that their religeon is pure, as the highest priests etc would have had a hand in starting these crusades.
Not sure if all that made sense, typing this between serving customers
I think religeon is ok if you really need to believe in something, as long as it is kept ot itself, doesnt try to convert people, and doesnt start wars or try to influence others. However i think think there are better things to believe in.
ps. sos for spellings
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...science is my religion!
