"If nobody can agree on it it's not much of anything"

Thanks

Ok, not EVERYONE has to agree on EVERYTHING

Just like 40% or something in the double digits at least

why?

Because if less people agree the religion should be split up until more people agree in various divisions

there are levels of understanding though

Then those are better religions for those people

Ok, not "better"

I don't think religion is about agreeing with people though

More representative of how they feel

And who they are and all that

I think religion is a personal thing

sure there is a community aspect to it

But if it's not a relatively cohesive thing then there's no point defining it as a religion, because it's so loose

it's about how an individual should get along in the world

For me it's "religion" representing the community aspect and "belief" or whatever else representing individual opinions and thoughts

i see

So having some sort of cohesiveness is important for the community aspect

Basically if there were one Christian left in the world, it would be pointless to call him a Christian

For me the more a person strays from the orthodox of whatever subgroup they're in the less they are representative of that group

you can call yourself whatever you want, but if you stray that far from the teachings then why call yourself that at all? lol

Exactly

also I think there are levels of religiousness

that is important to note i think

it makes it harder to define unfortunately

For me it's how strongly you believe in whatever is being discussed

If you're willing to debate reasonably but are defensive that's about average, if you border on burning heretics that's a pretty strong belief, if you bend over backwards to help others violate your beliefs you don't really believe those things

you can have strong beliefs and not want to hurt anyone too

So I don't consider churches that have a gay pride flag to have strong christian beliefs (as laid out in the bible)

Yeah, it's just an example

right

gotcha

@M4Gunner I never hear that said though

That's totally glossed over

It's like American Protestants have no concept of what sin even is

It's all morality with them; "It's immoral to be cruel to others, the moral thing to do... morality is a cornerstone of our society"

@M4Gunner I view it as a political statement, but I'd be willing to no immediately mock a church if I had an inkling it was purely religious

Absolutely

It's like relying on a calculator

Great crutch, totally functional, but when you leave it at home you're fucked

I think that certain religious ideas are based on real observations

Those are the best ones

and this stuff was written a long time ago, and they used the symbolism and old style language, so i think it's really important to study it hard if you are serious about it. people who saw a cartoon vhs of noahs ark, and nothing else, isnt a good representation of the essence of the teaching

The thing with religions. The only ones that survibe take from their prior types. So the *morality would die when you lose your religion* is a falsity

And since the western world laws are written based off this. Even the athiestic are forced to observe said morality

@Deleted User I'm totally fine with symbolism and shit, working the brain is good

Religion has always been about explaining the unexplained

also if they are based in true observations, those teachings would reemerge @Goblin_Slayer_Floki

I have no respect for generic american Protestantism, though. More of a lack of belief than actual belief

It gives humans a teather to keep from fearing everything

"We should all be nice to each other" is not an impressive or insightful revelation

it was at one point

we take it for granted now

true ^

@banestrum but before it the world was far more chaotic

It was annoying even back in the 1800s, but at least it seemed to be legitimate belief

eye for an eye used to be great too

@Goblin_Slayer_Floki And now we drown in our own human excess, what an improvement

Because most of the moralities have been abandoned

no

before it was eye for **YOUR ENTIRE FAMILY**

avoiding excess was one of those

The adherence to them is more slavish than ever but the understanding is minimal

@M4Gunner easy to be a glutton, to easy

It's like giving an autist a gun and a badge and telling him to enforce curfew

You KNOW he's going to shoot someone

I want the hard route

ain't that the truth

Give me the suffering

I guess it's hard to go through life believing nothing

I'm not religious or anything, but it seems like lying to yourself to just hope for the best and smile all the time

Also stupid

Thats why even those who abandon faith replace it with faith in something else

Yeah, but faith in nothing is fucking dumb

Or something so ephemeral that it might as well be swamp gas

Yes but blind faith in humans is also dumb

Being nice to people is not a religion, no matter how much we dress it up

oh dear God, please purge the cancer

Humans are fallable. Such is the world.

Then get the bible belt off their asses and burn these heretics

@M4Gunner Yes but you can have faith in concepts or things or people

Instead of the most minimalistic idea possible

Faith in people is stupid.

Faith in people creates idiology of people like hitler or stalin

And those work themselves out

People are inherently greedy and always want more for themselves

*Work themselves out*

Oh, I'm talking about grown ass adults

yes i also agree

Lots of people sleepwalking through life thinking that everything is fine and dandy

Tell that to the millions killed by communism and nazism due to faith in people

Not saying you need to be #WOKE to be worthy to me, just have some activity going on in the head

@Goblin_Slayer_Floki Like I said, worked itself out

Lmao

why did you specify Nazism? could have just said socialism smh

Let's not get into that

I think religious faith is about choosing to believe that things will ultimately turn out alright and that there is a meaning and purpose behind existence, as opposed to nothing mattering at all. the details don't matter that much, and people killing over religion i think goes against the whole point

I specified nazism because you can identify the person directly

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpwEQHx07mg
FUCKING KILL ME