God and religion

[maxrider12]

OKAY, I'm going to start out by saying that I was very nervous about starting this thread, because the subject is relatively taboo. But I feel that it needed to be said, and no one else had the courage to do it until now.

I, personally, do not believe in any mainstream religion or a higher being. I want to lay that out so you all are very clear on what my viewpoint is. If you are easily offended by this statement, just stop reading now, okay?

I do believe in some sort of an afterlife, though, but no Hell. More Heaven without the Hell. Because say you're on your deathbed, then a split-second before you die, you shoot someone. Even if you've been a good person all your life, do you go to Heaven or Hell? Also, why is it that an atheist who does nothing but good to everybody and everything in their life will go to Hell but someone evil who believes in God will go to Heaven? I recently had a loved one die, and I like to think that he's up there, watching me.

Also, why is it that everybody believes that their religion is the only right one? Christians think Jewish people are wrong, and Jewish people think Christians are wrong. There's no winning for anybody; in the end, everyone is wrong.

I also find it interesting how it's not okay to ask God for a bike but it's okay to steal a bike and ask God for forgiveness.

Also, why is it that there is only one divine being? There are people who will--and have--die(d) for somebody else. They're called soldiers. And there are people who have died for their beliefs. They're called artists. But they aren't divine because they weren't born in the right time.

My final thing is that I find a distinct similarity between God and Santa Claus. Laugh all you want, but it's true. Why all the secrecy? Why all the mystery? If he really exists, why not show himself? Make everybody believe in him?

If anybody has the answers to these questions, or just another viewpoint, I'd love to hear what you have to say. This is just what my upbringing has led me to believe. I have been to church exactly twice. Once because it was the day of my grandmother's wedding and she wanted us all to attend her church's service. The other time was because my choir was singing for a service. So I'd love to hear what someone who is very religious thinks of this, or someone who shares my viewpoint, or someone in between. Thanks for reading my (abnormally long) post.

[Rowena]

My main problem with most (all?) organized religions is that they try to force their views on to everyone else. (I'm not saying all religions people are like that, but most religions are interested in converting people.) Also they view anyone who doesn't agree with them as immediately bad. Even if someone is a very good person, donates to charity, is nice to everyone, etc. but isn't religious, or is even atheist, they are going to be considered less good than someone who is religious but, say, abusive. (Also, the latter person's abuse will be looked on as less dangerous by his religious community - he can't be that bad, he attends Church every Sunday!) (Forgive my using Christianity as my example, I'm not saying that it is exclusive to Christianity, but I am more familiar with it in that sense.)

I also find it interesting how it's not okay to ask God for a bike but it's okay to steal a bike and ask God for forgivenes.

So interesting. That's a deceptively simple snapshot of religion that really shows it's contradictions quite well.

Personally, I'm technically Catholic (I was baptized and all) but I very rarely go to Church. I like the Quaker values but I identify as agnostic. I do believe in a higher power although it isn't Christianity's God. I believe in the saints but not necessarily as they were represented in the Bible. I believe in an afterlife but not the Bible's afterlife of Heaven or Hell, more of a general afterlife where you can help people who are still living but also have to work on improving and continuing your own spiritual journey. (Gods, don't I sound so New Age?)

Re: only one divine being, I won't get into my general opinion of soldiers, war, etc. for fear of really pissing someone off. Personally I love the Greek gods. Were I to believe in any divine beings beyond being identified as simply a divine being, it would be them. However as I already mentioned I also believe in saints. I don't know if you're counting them as divine beings.

Sort of lacking an opinion re: the Santa Claus thing, but the Santa I like best out of all the myths and stories is the one in the book The Legend of Holly Claus, which is an all-around awesome book even though it's best read at Christmastime (you should read it).

Going to close by apologizing for ranting so much and adding that, regardless of anything else, I really hate having to study The Bible As/In Literature in English class at my (independent Quaker) school.

[maxrider12]

That was actually a really interesting response.

I realized something, though, as I was reading: most religions portray God as a loving, caring being. But then they say that if you don't love him, he's sending you to Hell. This is something interesting I just learned. (By the way, this is based on Christianity's God)

On average, 153,781 people die worldwide every day. Of those 153,781 people, approx. 50,747 are Christians and 23,374 are atheists and non-religious. This means that every 0.03 seconds, a Christian is judged and goes to Heaven while every 0.06 seconds, an atheist or non-religious person is judged and goes to Hell. This doesn't count the other 79,660 people who are of another religion that die every day. So every 0.02 seconds, someone who is of another religion is judged and goes to Hell. Based on my knowledge, it could take hours to judge a person.

I'm not entirely sure now where I was going with those statistics. Make the conclusions in your mind.