Nobody that matters wrote: I think people make too big a deal of religion. Don't get me wrong, in my opinion a belief in a higher power is essential to living a good life. I'm saying that they make too big a deal of the flavor of religion. Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu, Mormon, Pastafarian, Pagan, Druid, whatever...
Just make it simple. I've seen pages and pages and pages of posts debating the intricacies of translations and ancient word usage in order to glean some insight into the original intentions of Jesus. I've seen huge raging debates about the meaning of cherry picked passages from other holy texts.
I've tried to follow them, I thought that knowing more would help me to make my faith a more powerful influence in my life.
Now I think I'm trying a new tack. KISS. Keep It Simple, Stupid. There's commonalities between all the major religions. That's where I figure I'll focus. I could learn not to eat fish n Friday, or to stay away from anything with a cloven hoof, or to dress a cetain way, or speak a certain way... but all that is fluff. It's just like wearing a broncos jersey .vs. a Raiders jersey. Different variants on a theme.
Be Good. Do good things. Help others. Don't hurt others.
That's about it. Stick with the idea of "Be good" and you really can't go wrong.
Oh, the other thing to remember is that this world we live in right now is not heaven. It's dirty, bloody, gross and nasty. Sure there's beauty and light, but there's equal doses of ugly darkness. Bad stuff happens to good people. I came to this realization when the disabilities showed up in my infant son. I thought "How could God do that to a baby?" It took me a long time to realize that God didn't do it, nor did any other entity. It wasn't good or evil, it just was. That's life, because this ain't heaven.
Be good. In spite of everything else, be good. Help others. It won't change the world, but it'll make it easier to handle the world.
If more folks approached religion like this it would be a much better world.
I agree with all of that except, " Don't get me wrong, in my opinion a belief in a higher power is essential to living a good life."
To live that way just seems like common sense to me. It does not require a belief in a higher power. That requires faith. Faith in an omniscient omnipotent being is a bridge to far for me. Sometimes I am jealous of people who have it. It makes things so simple but I get by with the "golden rule", just because.
Here are a couple of examples, in my opinion, of how religion can be used and abused.
In this first example, passages from the Bible are used, albeit by city mandate in this case, to help send a positive message. The onus, it would appear, is on those who apply for, and receive, a license to operate a "taxi" service in one city in the Philippines:
I can certainly understand how the city trying to send a positive message can, in and of itself, have a positive effect on those who choose to read them whenever taking advantage of the taxi service being offered.
And then I see a story like this in which Pat Robertson allegedly saw this story and ran with it (video embedded) to spout about his own personal perception of how Biblical law needs to be implemented in the U.S. while apparently trashing the U.S. Constitution in the process.
To me, THIS, THIS right here, is how all nations should be trying to achieve PEACE on Earth! Sharing schools. Sharing cultures. Sharing languages. And, yes, even sharing religions. Education has been proven time and time again to ultimately be the pathway to peace because it also includes a pathway to understanding and acceptance:
To me religion is way different than spirituality or having faith. I've known a lot of "religious" people in my lifetime...and some of them have been the most selfish, bigoted, pre-judging people I've ever heard about.
On the contrary, I've met several agnostics and/or athesists that are some of the most giving, nicest people I've ever known.
My background:
I grew up Catholic...we went to church every Sunday and on holidays in between those Sundays from the time I can remember. My paternal grandmother (we called her Grammie) was born-again Catholic...she spent some of her youth in an orphanage/convent in Wichita Kansas as a pre-teen and teen-ager and was very impressed and so she converted. She was the most wonderful, giving, thoughtful, nice, person I ever met...and she had nothing "bad" to say about anyone, ever. No one else I've ever known in my life has been that way.
My parents were a huge part of the Catholic church we went to in Castle Rock...they volunteered a lot...and we spent a lot of time at the church. I was more comfortable at the church than I was going to our school in Kiowa. We prayed before every meal and we had sit-down conversations with the whole family about God and Jesus and what it meant to be Catholic.
So when my first little sister was murdered, the church stepped up big-time and helped. They paid for the funeral & all the associated costs...they had several offertories for us...they had a pot luck for us after the funeral...many, many, many of the church members came to Kiowa the day my mom found my sister and stayed, then they cleaned up the house once the CBI left. A lot of them brought us food, both store-bought and home-made. They were there for us. I never questioned why...it just was.
Less than two years after Shelley's murder, our family went public with our forgiveness of her murderer...there were several news stories written about it. I followed my mom & dad's lead...but I felt absolutely no hate or ill will towards the perpetrator and I have never in over 30 years felt any hatred or like I'm carrying a weight. That was the faith that was instilled in me from a young age...largely by my mom & dad and those others I was around.
Since then, while I've not been a church-going person for a number of years, I still have faith. I know that God not only can, but He will. Numerous times I've said prayers for help in finding something or in giving me an answer to a question I have and each and every time, He has answered.
Maybe it wasn't what I wanted, but it was what I needed. And my faith is strong and never leads me astray. And I don't question it. Again, it just is.
So, the times in my life that someone of the clergy has questioned me about my religion, or my faith...they think I need to go to their church...I've gotten a little disgruntled and sometimes angry. I had an individual in my chain of command, after he heard that my sister had been murdered, tell me that Jesus was murdered and that he gave his life willingly in that way to save me from my sins...I was insulted and not impressed that he decided to do that.
I also had an individual that was not in my chain of command, but he was the ranking member in my career field in the unit I belonged to and he told me that I needed to get right with God, and he was the way to do that... Again, I was insulted. My best friend, who I call "my Faith" 'cuz her faith never wavers or fades, told me that my relationship was between me and God, and no man had the right to get in between us.
Anyways, the thread was the Uses & Abuses of Religion: Does the Inquisition count as an abuse? Killing people because they do not belong to your religion. What about when the Pope & French King (not doing any research, just trying to pull from my memory--I could be wrong) excommunicated the Templars and had them rounded up and killed them because they had more money than they did?
There are multiple stories about abuses of religion--all of them, not just Christian or Muslim--throughout the ages.
Faith in God or whatever Higher Power you believe in, is so much different than religion.
One thing that resonated with me this year, was when I was watching Oprah's Master Class on OWN this summer. Robin Roberts was telling her story and she said: When you pray to God, there are three answers: Yes. Not Yet. or I have something else planned for you...never no.
I guess in my life, my faith carries me through a whole lot and while I may not get everything I want, I have what I need. And I'm able to accept that that is enough.
In my opinion this is one of the better treatises I've read on the Bible and how Christianity has "evolved" over time. The author(s) analyze the Bible, not to discredit it, but, rather to try and show how a better understanding of it, the New Testament in particular, will also help us discern for ourselves the message this document has for each of us in our own way(s).
With the tragedy unfolding in Paris, I thought it might also be time to share some thoughts from others on what may have caused this. There are two OpEds I've read so far that say it very well, IMO. Links to both are provided below:
Once again we must offer thoughts and prayers to all those affected by this senseless tragedy.
I believe we must also have a measure of self-introspection regarding what we see in our own country by some who, although they've not "acted" on their extremist ideologies in the fashion of the terrorists in Paris and elsewhere, especially in the Middle East, arguably would if they could judging by some of their rhetoric. And I'm not talking solely of Muslim extremists. There are plenty of so-called "Christian" extremists right here in the USA who spew hatred, bigotry, and intolerant ideals that pretty much mirror anything along these lines that the Muslim faith "espouses". So introspection might just be something we could ALL do a little more of on a daily basis in that regard.
Is there a difference between an "idea" and an "ideology"? Just something to ponder as we struggle individually and as a society on how to address extremism in any form
