What is Religion to you?

[:.:kaytay:.:]

Do you believe in god?
Do you not?
What is religion to you?
Is it hope?
Is it something to believe in?

My Answer:

Religion is not a what if, Religion is something you talk to, and hope upon, put your heart and soul into. It is not an excuse. Religion is something that keeps you going, something you will NEVER give up.


&& now what's your opinion?

[Rozi]

No me religion is something frivolous and unessential in my lifestyle. I can understand the lure of it as a safety blanket and "something that keeps you going", but personally I don't believe, and will never be able to believe, in something as abstract as religion.

[:.:kaytay:.:]

No me religion is something frivolous and unessential in my lifestyle. I can understand the lure of it as a safety blanket and "something that keeps you going", but personally I don't believe, and will never be able to believe, in something as abstract as religion.

Religion could also be a way to make money, if you really look at it. Economy wise.

[chantellehugs]

Religion to me is simply following a set of rules throughout your life.
I have faith. And I think this is completely different to religion because anyone can go to Church and pretend that they believe, but having faith is just knowing in your heart and feeling Jesus whenever you pray or read the bible. Jesus to me is the most important person in Christianity, without him there wouldn’t be Christianity; it would just be a set of rules.
Religion is almost like a restriction, faith is having a relationship with Jesus.
:)

[Neversoft]

A hindrance.

[Shoe]

I dont believe in any religion or faith as nothing has ever been proved... hence i believe that it is all just made up.

Nothing has ever proven jesus was even a real person...

[chantellehugs]

No-one's proved he wasn't a real person, it's just a personal decision people come to. :)


I dont believe in any religion or faith as nothing has ever been proved... hence i believe that it is all just made up.

Nothing has ever proven jesus was even a real person...

[ben]

a **** stain

Edited by Infectious (Forum Super Moderator): Please do not make pointless posts, thanks!

[FlyingJesus]

I'm not religious although I do have certain spiritual beliefs but I don't get why some people get so worked up about it. By that I mean non-religious people, as I tend to find that religious people just live their lives as they want to and only really talk religion to each other (and that's not just one or two people, I work for a vicar so obv I have quite a lot of exposure to religious people) but so many people seem to think that the mere mention of divine beings is a cue to start getting angry and self-righteous. Yeah you get the odd nut who uses religion to justify ridiculous actions or ideas, but for the mega majority they are just normal people who do not harm to anyone

[Accipiter]

Religion is out dated. We no longer need to rely upon these lies that kept peoples spirits up.

[@K]

Don't believe in God, believe in Jesus Christ, but he could have been a crazy man, I don't know. Religion = brainwashing.

[FlyingJesus]

The "Christ" bit means "the anointed one", as in the Messiah, as in sent by God :P the existence of Jesus as a person in those times who garnerned a big following is pretty much acknowledged as fact nowadays, so that's a safe bet to take if you don't have faith in a deific creator-god

[Inseriousity.]

I'm not religious although I do have certain spiritual beliefs but I don't get why some people get so worked up about it. By that I mean non-religious people, as I tend to find that religious people just live their lives as they want to and only really talk religion to each other (and that's not just one or two people, I work for a vicar so obv I have quite a lot of exposure to religious people) but so many people seem to think that the mere mention of divine beings is a cue to start getting angry and self-righteous. Yeah you get the odd nut who uses religion to justify ridiculous actions or ideas, but for the mega majority they are just normal people who do not harm to anyone

I agree with everything there. I think the Pope said something about "atheist extremism", which to me, is as bad as religious extremism. Both of them seem to think the 'other' side's opinions don't matter and ridicule them for having beliefs. You can be an atheist and respect people's choice of religion, there's nothing wrong with that but the atheists who say "God isn't real, stop believing in fairytales" etc get on my nerves! At least with the religious extremists, you know they're nutters ("THE WORLD IS GONNA END SOON!") :P

Religion, spiritually, has no interest to me. I don't need that guidance from above. I am much more interested in the sociological impact of religion. I'm fascinated to know what makes people tick and religion is a huge part of that. Plus it has such a rich history with lots of dark sides, which is interesting imo.

[Deak]

I dont really believe in God, but a part of me says he is real.
I will stick with that until proof has been given that he is or is not real.

Regarding other people & religions - if people believe in God or whoever & if they follow any rules or anything like that then they should be allowed to do so freely.

[Shar]

I believe in God, religion is quite a big part of my life.

[Agnostic Bear]

Religion is a tool of oppression for stupid people.

[Zeptis]

Sadly religon means nothing to me since i do not believe in god, i am the only one in my family that is aithiest and my family has no idea, although I do not believe in a god i do not care about another person's religon and this is not a religon bashing post.

---------- Post added 25-05-2011 at 07:23 PM ----------


I dont really believe in God, but a part of me says he is real.
I will stick with that until proof has been given that he is or is not real.

Regarding other people & religions - if people believe in God or whoever & if they follow any rules or anything like that then they should be allowed to do so freely.

and pretty ,uch the same for me, I am open to proof but i highly doubt a god exist

[BlueEyedSarah]

To me relegion is a forced brainwash and an escape of the unknown.

[AgnesIO]

No-one's proved he wasn't a real person, it's just a personal decision people come to. :)

I have no doubt Jesus is based on a real person.

Waht I refuse to believe are the chinese whisper driven stories in the bible.

[GirlNextDoor15]

Three words. Religion is unnecessary. It's not needed by mankind as long as they are on the right track.

[buttons]

Religion is a tool of oppression for stupid people.
or is it that religion makes you 'stupid'? many religious people are born in to it (so i agree with whoever said brainwashing) so have no choice and it becomes the norm for them. it doesn't make them stupid and stupid people don't become religious. how often do you see the stereotypical chav with no qualifications coming out from church? i don't see where you're coming from, seems you just like to throw the word stupid around, how clever:P


i believe in a higher power but not necessarily in the form of God, i justt think it's human nature. personally for me religion is something that brings people together but also tears them apart. in my experience it was a way for our family to get together. my gran and grandad were catholics and super old fashioned. they attended mass regularly. my mum and aunts all label themselves catholics but not practising or whatever. religion was never brought upon me, my brother's or the rest of the grandchildren which i'm pretty bummed about because i think it's had a huge positive impact on my mum and auntie's lives. i used to go to mass with my gran and grandad because i was a curious child (and my gran's minime ;)) and loved the whole closeness it brought to me with them, not with God. athiests say religious people (well mostly christians w.e idk) contradict themselves which i do agree with but most them do too, what with celebrating christmas, marriages, having funerals etc and the ones who don't tend to be those really annoying people who somehow think they're more superior just because they don't believe in God. i'd rather spend an evening with the positive, friendly, full of hope, maybe delusional people from my church over a bunch of negative nancies:P.

unnecessary? maybe if you've never experienced and yes it has caused war and destruction but i think it's also been beneficial but just my opinion:D, i'm glad i've had a little experience and will probably take up religion more as i get older, if i ever have kids i wouldn't mind if they wanted to go to church neither.

[Circadia]

A bunch of made up stories which people believe if they have nothing left to live for.
I might seem totally socially backward to you but i have a valid reason to be like that, so don't murder me.

[-:Undertaker:-]

I'm not sure, I believe in God and heaven and I think the Bible has been essential to the western world for basing our morality upon, something which is being eroded and we are seeing the results. I guess you could say I lean towards the agnostic/Church of England for my religion. I can't prove God or heaven to anyone, its a faith - I believe in it and I will only find out when I die.

It does always amaze me though, that avid football/music fans who idolise people who are corrupt, teach no values and are of no use in terms of education or teaching values are usually the first to criticise religion as 'stupid' and its followers as brainwashed - this avid hatred of religion I find very strange indeed.

[Rozi]

I agree with Undertaker's point (OMG :S) that avid hatred of religion is strange. There aren't 2 polar opposite opinions of religion and, although I'm not myself religious, I see many beneficial points to religion, as Jen outlined. To brand religion "stupid" and worthless is, imo, just stupid in itself, and fairly immature.

[kasi]

what is religion to me?
religion is ******.

[Technologic]

It simply has no place in my life, I have no problem with religion itself just the select few who use it as a tool to discriminate and spread hatred.

[Wig44.]

Religion is a tool of oppression for stupid people.

My point of view exactly. I haven't checked all of this thread but I'm sure somewhere the argument that 'with no faith in society there will be anarchy and people will go around killing everyone so religion is a good thing' has come up. My response to this is that there is a growing number of athiests who have no problems abiding to laws without the fear of a vengeful deity's fist looming over them.

[Aaron]

I've no comment on religion, not into it at all.