@cosmic-energy4 saidI don't know what religious friends and co-workers you are associating with, but have you considered the possibility that that might be your problem right there ?
Observing religious friends, co-workers etc. I notice they all do what they told to do,therefore I came to conclusions that believe in supernatural it's nothing more then cults controling they members, some worst then other cults.
@cosmic-energy4 saidOrganized religion, when it is doing what it ought to do, serves a very useful purpose. It regulates people who have weak self-regulation.
@moonbus ; I'm not associated with any religions or cults (I'm atheistic) but this people only do what they are told what to do and what to talk about and that goes to all religions.
Have you followed any of the threads of a frequent neo-literalist poster to this forum? He says he's as evil and broken as any thief/rapist/murderer/child-abuser/wife-beater, although he has never done these things himself. He says he is evil and broken simply because he could do such things. I am very much in favor of him, and people like him, continuing to do, think, and believe what they are told to, insofar as that is what keeps them from actually stealing, raping, murdering, abusing children, and beating their wives. I am quite happy for him, and people like him, to continue to believe in the literal existence of a Lake of Fire which will torment them forever and ever, if they should step out of line even once. There are people who cannot do right because it is right, or forebear wrong because it is wrong--they need a promise of rewards and punishments to do right and avoid wrong; organized religion is for these people. Shreveport Louisiana wouldn't be grieving right now, if some priest had gotten to that man in time, consoled him in his fear and confusion and simply listened to his troubles.
Additionally, organized religion serves the useful function of channeling otherwise disorderly instincts into socially beneficial charities (such as feeding the poor and caring for the elderly). Of course, secular institutions can do this, too. I have no objection to overlapping institutions taking on such functions, and there is no good reason to prevent religious organizations from doing so, so long as they operate in good faith and follow the law.
I wish to God that Trump would get religion, the more stringent, the better. He's a psychologist's textbook case of zero-impulse-control running amok.
i am a poor buddhist monk
i also am a poor buddhist
i am not yet a pacifist, but have nearly achieved non-violence
lol
but that path is the razor's edge, and tis easy to stumble
practice practice practice my piano teacher admonished me
i wanted to play the beatles revolution and she wanted brahm's or bach or beethoven
dammit
still the core teaching, practice practice practice, remains as is
fall seven times
rise eight
you ask of religions and cults
why? why? why?
because hunger drives a human towards sustenance
that is why
@cosmic-energy4 saidWhat is it they do that you find mind-numbing and looks like brainwashing? If they have a standard, moral codes, a moral compass, if you like, that they share, you’d think they would be doing the same thing for the same reasons, wouldn’t they? If your position is anti that, does that mean you have no standard other than what you want when you want it?
Observing religious friends, co-workers etc. I notice they all do what they told to do,therefore I came to conclusions that believe in supernatural it's nothing more then cults controling they members, some worst then other cults.
A world of people acting on shared values would be a much preferred place where respect for individuals is shared, rather than one where everyone does only what they want, when they want; that would be a lawless world indeed.
@cosmic-energy4 saidWhy do we have laws? What is the point? This comes about because we thought we needed to be controlled, that there is a should and should not, and with that, we recognize that even with agreed-upon laws, some will still not behave. The notion of right and wrong came from where our thinking, which came about by some chemical reaction, these cells put together that way, and we think.
@KellyJay ; We already have laws,no need another one to believe in supernatural fantasy without proof.
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@cosmic-energy4 saidYes, the reason for that is that there is no difference between us; at our hearts, we are all flawed and in need of a redeemer. My question to you is: is there a correct way to live our lives, and are there ways we should not live? Do we, as individuals, get to decide, or is there something compelling that forces us to treat each other one way and not another?
@KellyJay : They're people that commit or misbehave in braking the laws regardless if is human or spiritual laws and that includes the believers in god or whatever supernatural ! .
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@moonbus saidDon't think for a minute that Calvinism seen through a narcissistic lens would temper the Calvinist urges. There would be no presumed abeyance of his urge to visit God's "righteous wrath" upon us, the "sinful" in his opinion.
I wish to God that Trump would get religion, the more stringent, the better. He's a psychologist's textbook case of zero-impulse-control running amok.
Oh, no, what we'd actually see is his hatred for normal (read: weak, in his opinion) humans coming to the forefront. He'd threaten that anyone not meeting his standards (his standards for other people, i.e. fawning admiration for him) should be put to death, and he'd call this the will of God. It would become a previously unimaginable holocaust, overseeing the death of reason, of tolerance and of empathy. In its place would stand an unbelieveable tyranny of personality and self over country, over brotherhood, over humanity.
Don't wish this on us so soon after the evils of the twentieth century are now far in the past. Human nature at its worst hasn't gotten any better, and we may yet be witness to horrors we cannot imagine, but, please, for the actual love of God, don't wish this on us prematurely.
@Suzianne saidYeah, be careful what you wish for. OK, I would wish that he join the Cistercian Order.
Don't think for a minute that Calvinism seen through a narcissistic lens would temper the Calvinist urges. There would be no presumed abeyance of his urge to visit God's "righteous wrath" upon us, the "sinful" in his opinion.
Oh, no, what we'd actually see is his hatred for normal (read: weak, in his opinion) humans coming to the forefront. He'd threaten that anyone not ...[text shortened]... rrors we cannot imagine, but, please, for the actual love of God, don't wish this on us prematurely.