I think religion, at least, some religions, are created so people's actions are "justified". In Christianity, when you do something wrong, you can plead forgiveness and earn your way back into God's graces. If something bad happens to you, it's God's fault. If you did something wrong, God told you to. If you do anything wrong, it wasn't necessarily your fault. It was God. People who don't believe in this God? They go to hell. People who go against this God? They share that fate. And there is the fake "morality".
So in this, there is also manipulation. If you do something wrong, says the priest or parent, you will go to hell or be punished in some way by God. Don't want your kids to have sex until they are married? God. Don't want them to do drugs or masturbate? God. Don't want them to grow up to be homosexual? God.
And it is not just Christianity that follows these same, basic guidelines. Sure, the rules vary. Muslim women are not aloud to show their faces in public, as well as most of their bodies. In ancient Greece, you were not to reject any guests, even the unannounced, in case they were gods.
So what am I getting at? That many religions are nothing more than a very primitive form of government. Well, that may not be the appropriate word for it, but they were a way for a society to justify itself through beliefs, and to get subjects to obey. And they WOULD obey, with punishments like "hell" and such branded into their minds. Religious leaders like the Pope and others hold great power over many people across the world for this very reason.
It's simply a way for people to get other people to do what they want, and have it be justified. Naturally, I do not support such religions.
However, there are such religions as Buddhism that involve finding "enlightenment", and being taken from the "cloud of ignorance". Origionally, I thought these religions made much more sense, but then remembered that people across the globe all have different views of morality. So how could these people be much different? They believe only what they believe to be right, but what they think is different from what someone in England or Africa thinks.
Who is right? Who CAN be right? The purpose of religion is different from place to place, but it all adds up to being the same thing. Completely and totally uSeLeSs. Praying to God won't really help you in anything, and neither will sacrificing a goat or taking part in some sort of traditional dance. The only things that really help us are the things we work for ourselves, not something God gave us. Miracles are made from work, and just because you didn't work for something great that happened to you, doesn't mean it was the work of a deity. It means someone else worked for it, and it happened to benefit you. I'm not saying theres no magic, I'm not saying theres not some greater being that gifts people with abilities, but I am saying that we don't know what it is, nor do we know how to gain their favor.
So everyone just needs to forget about religion for at least one day, because all it has really done is mislead people to think they are justified for things they aren't. It causes more war than it prevents. It tears people apart more than they already are. And for what? A false sense of security? A place reserved in "heaven"?
To quote someone I know who is very smart in such areas, it is all just a big "waste of time". mrgreen
~Lunar Emerald~ Community Member 
|
|
