Everybody follows some kind of religion in their life.

Unless they believe absolutely nothing and simply live in the here and now.

A religion as it's called is a system of beliefs. So even atheism counts as a religion.

Witchcraft,tero cards, Christianity, if it's believed it's a religion.

Now do I think this is just another form of government? No unless you count evolution.

That's taught in school as truth not theory. They teach it in every classroom. So yes, I think this one is government sanctioned.
I think if they want to preach evolution they should preach the whole thing! I went to public school and never heard of the chart where it shows which races are more evolved than the others!

Jews are at the bottom, Hispanics and people with that color skin are next up followed by white's and finally albinos. If you ask me this does make a bit of sense. But it's racist.

They also never explain circular reasoning! How to do you learn the age of I think the soil? You look at the sea shells! How do you learn the the age of the shells? You look at the soil! I want to understand this one.

I support the origin of everything as a much more plausible form of this religion.

That's because scientifically there is no biological reason to create an artificial category such as "race". All humans are one species. What you believe to have learned about "race" is truly artificial. All modern humans can breed successfully with any other human being on Earth, assuming they are in good health of course. So the concept of race is an artificial concept that has no basis in science or biology.

The characteristic of "race" are just very minor variations in genetic evolution that occur locally in populations, but have not gone to the extreme of creating a new species. In fact, the existence of these minor genetic differences that do not interfere with the breeding of a species is further proof that evolution is a continuous process.

However, it wasn't always the case that humans were a single species. There were other hominids that had all of the characteristics that we consider to be "human" qualities. In other words, they had language, and could make and use tools, and thus think abstractly unlike other animals. So they clearly had brains that we consider to have human qualities.

Those humans were indeed a different species, or at least there has never been any evidence found of interbreeding with those species. The Neanderthal was one such species. It is believed that they were killed off. Of course we were the species that killed them. We killed all other other hominid species until we were the only single species of humans on the planet.

In fact, the Human Genome Project has pretty much mapped the history (or I should say the prehistoric) unfolding of these events. If you're interested in learning about that I would suggest a video course on genetics called "The Science of Self", it's put out by the teaching company.

You can read about it the course here:

http://www.teach12.com/tgc/courses/course_detail.aspx?cid=1592

You can learn a lot about the evolution of the human species by watching this course.

By the way, you could potentially borrow this course from your local library, or through inter-library loan. No need to buy it. I think Netflix also carries some of the teaching company courses, but I'm not sure if they have this one.

It's a really interesting course. The amount of knowledge that we actually have concerning the evolution of the human species will boggle your mind.

They teach it as fact, because in truth, there is no doubt that this is how we came to be. The evidence is overwhelming. If some god created us, he/she/it/them definitely used the process of evolution as their creation method. There can be no doubt about it.

I'm definitely outa here!

I don't blame you.

But see, this is often the kinds of things the people attempt to use their religions to support, unfortunately.

It's truly strange too that a believer of an Abrahamic religion would place the Jews at the bottom of the pile. I mean, considering that the Jews were God's "Chosen" people. Why would God have chosen a race that supposedly at the "bottom" of his creation?

If a person is going to believe in the Bible and also be a racist you'd think they'd clearly have the Jews at the very TOP of the heap and everyone else would have been degenerate to the Jews.

Trying to support the Bible as the word of God, and simultaneously having the Jews be the race that's at the "bottom" of the pile makes absolutely no sense at all.

Here they are worshiping the doctrines of the Jews as the "Word of God" and simultaneously putting them down as the leased evolved people.

It's no wonder that more and more people are waking up to the shallow petty hypocrisy of these religions.

I think they certainly can coexist with personal religious beliefs.

I don't think anyone is suggesting that they can't. If a person is comfortable with Christianity as they view it, and it calls to them, then it can be in perfect harmony with their true self.

Where the problem comes into play is when a society as a whole tries to demand that people accept the religion, otherwise they will be viewed by that society as having "rejected God", which is a horrible thing to have people accusing you of.

What if your true self is called to Wicca instead? Or to Buddhism, or even to a purely intellectual approach to life as in atheism.

Note: The reason I suggest that atheism is a purely intellectual approach to life is because clearly it is an intellectual view versus an intuitive view. Spirituality is intuitive, an atheistic view is an intellectual conclusion, right or wrong that what it is.

Same could be said of spiritual views, right or wrong, they are an intuitive feeling or desire to believe in something beyond what can be proven via intellect alone.

In any case, all of these views of life are "valid views" from the perspective of the true self. And therefore none of them should be shunned by a society as being "rejection" of God, or a refusal to embrace a particular religion as the verbatim "word of God".

So I don't think anyone is suggesting that a person can't be a Christian and simultaneously be in touch with their true self.

All they are trying to say is that when some people are in touch with their true self they aren't necessarily drawn to the religoin of the ancient Hebrews as the "verbatim word of God". And therefore all they are attempting to do is be respected and recognized for the spirituality that calls to them.

But surely you must know that this is quite difficult when the Christians are screaming, "No! You must accept Jesus Christ as your savior and worship the Bible as the verbatim word of God, for there is no other way to be forgiven of your sins!"

A lot of people just aren't interested in hearing that. They don't believe that it holds truth, and they just aren't interested in being forced to either believe it or be forever belittled by society as being a "non-believer". Because that implies that they are rebellious and refusing to believe on purpose or some such nonsense.

People get totally sick of hearing these kinds of accusations. I know I certainly do.

How I can feel that my true self is being embraced by society when all they ever do is accuse me of rejecting God? That's disgusting.

ShiningArmour

Everybody is allowed to have their faulty and twisted opinions. By the way, it is spelled "Tarot" not "tero." geeeze.

I agree, that to some people it can be a religion. But it is not a religion. The term religion and belief are not the same thing.

P.S.

I hate to break it to you but the belief in a "soul mate" is also a religion according to your definition. To add, there is no such thing.

*Shrugs* Just throwing in my two cents.

I agree with the soul mate part. I think "Love" as people as see it is an illusion but out by pheromones and replication value.

The pheromones generate the attraction and the looks decide if he or she is good for reproduction.

There is no "Love" It's in your head.

I actually think it is rightfully taught as 'Darwins THEORY of evolution'


that we evolve(adapt at some level to our surroundings) is undebatable


what we have evolved from has many THEORIES,,,,

Tarot is a religion
if you worship it a smidgeon
and use it to predict the flight
of a drunken city pigeon

But race cannot be given grace
by the Abrahamic God
unless you place the Jews on top
with all the others being odd

The prejudice and hatred
and bigotry and lies
that people spread in Jesus' name
comes as no surprise

For all they do is verify
their anxiousness to judge
and use their lord and savior
to support their every grudge

Disclaimer: This is just an artistic poem expressing a spontaneous feeling. Not meant to apply to everyone who worships the Abrahamic God, or reveres Jesus as their savior. Clearly this poem is speaking solely to those who abuse the religion in a hypocritical way. So I beg of the honest decent Christians not to take offense to this. Just read the entire thread, and take it in the context that sparked its creation. Thank you.

{Someone has to stand up to the wolfs who claim to be in sheep's clothing. )

Coincidentally, I saw this on a friend's page yesterday. I thought I'd share it here.

Ive said before that I simply don't care about what happens to anyone. In this life or the next.

I only care about myself. If you or anyone want to hear what I have to say. You can ask.

Now that's not to say I don't post on a forum where discussion is promoted. That's different. That's what this forum is here for.

But if you want me to tell you outside of church or bible study what I think, you will have to ask.

So it is like a penis! So are politics. I do not talking about them because the same thing happens. People try to argue and get you to become what they are.

I could try to make a wisecrack about blow jobs and shoving it down someone's throat but I decided not to.

People are who they are, and they value what they value.
Perhaps someone was raised by a single father who motivated and taught them everything they are.

It would be reasonable to EXPECT them to talk about their father often, whenever given an opportunity. I think sometimes others want people to be mindreaders(to know what they want to hear or dont want to hear) when what is needed is better communication to be able to say.

'ya know what, thats nice, but I really cant relate'
something of that nature would probably end alot of those situations where people feel someone else is 'shoving' something down their throat

Well that's basically what I try to do.

First off, your original analogy isn't quite right. They aren't telling me about "Their Father", they are often demanding that they are speaking about "My Father" too!

Then when I tell them that I don't see things there way and I have a different interpretation of historical events, etc. They accuse me of "attacking" their religion.

But they are the ones who are demanding that I accept their beliefs as the "absolute truth".

There's something majorly wrong there.

The Jews do not believe the Jesus was "The Christ", the messiah, or the sacrificial lamb of God. Yet, if a Jew was to voice this view to a Christian the Christian wouldn't take that as an "attack" on their religion.

So why should they feel "attacked" if I voice a different view of who I think Jesus was?

They get all bent out of shape when I suggest that Jesus might have not been the sacrificial lamb of God.

But why?

It's just my honest sincere view.

They don't need to take this as an "attack" against their views.

All they need to do is accept that I view things different from them and that's that. And they should accept my views as mine, especially if they expect me to accept their views as theirs.

Why can't we simply respect each others views?

They believe that Jesus was the sacrificial lamb of God, and I don't.

Why force this into a Holy War?

I can still recognize Jesus as a spiritual teacher not at all unlike Buddha. And I DO!

In fact, I try to tell these Christians that I basically accept most of the moral values that have been attributed to Jesus, I just don't accept the sacrificial lamb thing, and neither do I accept the Old Testament, nor the writings of Paul and some others.

But that's not an "attack" on their beliefs. It's just what I believe. I'm not demanding that they believe like me.

But they sure do like to demand that their views are the absolute truth and my views, are,... well,... let me use the precise terms that a Christian just told me in another thread,...

"Everybody is allowed to have their faulty and twisted opinions, I think that sums up your views nicely."

Well, duh.

Perhaps I should hold that same view of their Christian views too then?

What's up with this one-way insulting in the name of Christianity?

Christians have no problem insulting the views of others, but get all bent out of shape if someone were to suggest the same thing of them.

That's not right.

My view that Jesus was a Mahayana Buddhist Bodhisattva is just as valid as anyone eles's view as far as I'm concerned.

And my refusal to accept that Jesus was the sacrificial lamb of God is no different from the views of Judaism, which isn't treated as an "attack" on Christianity either.

I should be able to have alternate view of who Jesus was and what he stood for without being insulted by the Christians.

Just because I view things different does not give them the right to "attack" my views and cast stones of insult at me.

I think we agree on this. Let people believe what they believe and if they WISH to discuss it do so with as much understanding and compassion as possible.

the english language, which I have always loved, is so incredibly complex, that things like context and tone can make a WORLD of difference in how ones delivery comes across


please try to understand as well, that what you are speaking of ('insistence' that the father is your father as well )is most often not an attempt to RAM anything down your throat

it is perhaps similar, to a biological and an adopted child raised in the same family, the adopted child not feeling the same bond the biological child has, and the biological child trying to convince the adopted child that they see themself AND their (adopted) sibling as part of the same family with the same 'father'

there will be dispute about biology, and TRUE fathers and what father means,, but in the end, I dont believe it is meant as an attack but as a way of expressing that we are in the same family



but, it feels no better for someone to have their FATHER talked about negatively than it feels for someone else to be made to feel that they cannot determine for themself who their FATHER is or if they even have one

it cuts both ways, we all have to be more mindful of our own words(on both sides) and try to discuss with logic and respect,,,