Posted on 04/19/2007 9:47:44 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
"I would ban religion completely," British pop-music star Elton John said in a much-noted interview last November. "It turns people into hateful lemmings, and it's not really compassionate." It isn't exactly news that many people find religion odious, but what is being called the New Atheism has lately become a booming industry. Books, articles, and lectures in profusion extol secularism and deride faith in G-d as pernicious and absurd. Such antipathy to religion was once relegated to the edges of polite society. Today it shows up front and center: A California congressman is cheered for announcing that he is an atheist. A New York Times Magazine cover story — "Why Do We Believe?" — considers "evolutionary adaptation" and "neurological accident" as explanations for religious belief, but not the possibility that G-d may actually exist. The European Union issues a 50th anniversary declaration of its fundamental values, but excludes any mention of Christianity. A forthcoming book by Christopher Hitchens, the noted journalist, is titled G-d Is Not Great: Why Religion Poisons Everything. Yet you rarely have to look far to be reminded of the indispensability of G-d and religion to civilized life.
(Excerpt) Read more at jewishworldreview.com ...
And unlike Elton John and Mr. Hitchens, I love the ladies.
If it were not for Yahweh of the Jews and Christians what would the lives of Elton John and Christopher Hitchens be like? Would the pagan religions with their human sacrifice have recognized such a foreign concept then of human rights? Without the notion of human rights these two may have had very short lives indeed.
Considering the secular religions, shunning any notion of divinity other than man, don’t seem to have had much historical use for homosexuals either. Hitler used them until they were no longer expedient. Communist regimes have used them, and then discarded of them.
These two should be careful for what they wish. The world is a far crueler place for all of us without Judaism and Christianity.
While I am personally an atheist, I have to say that I would rather live in a pious Christian or Jewish community than in an atheist community. The neat thing about our American Judeo-Christian roots is that they bring with them a decent code of conduct. Morality. Atheism doesn’t. One can argue that all human societies have their bad cookies, but I find that the more decent people I know are Christians not only in their religion but in their spirit. And the better societies I’ve seen are those based solidly in Christianity. Yeah, I know...blue laws, pervert priests, etc. I hate em, too....but....
I wish I could believe in God, or Christ. But I can’t. I do like the Judeo-Christian morality, though. It makes sense. And i've found that the further one gets from a decent religion, the more decadent and miserable is the society around him. Personally, I would like to see more, not less, real Christianity and Judaism.
Atheism doesn't have a mandated list of social mores, if that's what you mean But by accepting that there is no God, you are acknowledging that you are the ultimate moral authority in your life. As such you have the responsibility to act in a moral fashion.
Gotta love leftists. They think because they have an ‘ideology’ that they are exempt from the judgement they make on the ‘religious’.
Yet, in thought, action, and perspective their ‘ideology’ mimics religion, right down to the extreme dogmatic hatred and fanaticism that they criticize religion as having.
Pot, kettle, black.
Too bad Sir Reginald(aka Elton John)doesn’t believe in GOD.But then again,he might be afraid of a rightous GOD,because of what he has done in his life.
Just a thought, but the number one predictor of a person’s religious beliefs is the religious beliefs of their parents, whereas people tend to end up believing that fire burns flesh no matter what their parents might have told them.
Thus the fact fire does burn flesh looks like it’s a pretty good explanation for why people believe it does. I leave further applications of the same principle as an exercise for the reader.
“deride faith in G-d as pernicious and absurd”
One could think it’s absurd and not think it’s pernicious.
I would ban religion completely says; British pop-music star Elton John
That doesn’t surprise me one bit, look at how he looks and lives, I rest my case.
I wish I could believe in God, or Christ.
Sounds to me like you are on your way to seeing the Light. I’ll pray for you.
Japan also has no presumption of innocence when someone is accused of a crime, and very few rights (compared to the U.S.) for persons questioned or arrested by the police.
Among other things, when the police arrest you they can pull you along the street in handcuffs at the end of a white rope to make a spectacle of you to the neighbors.
Elton John would love no religion. They he could fully live his life as he pleases and feel no twinges of guilt for living so immorally.
“Not exactly. Japan has a violent crime rate that makes us look like barbarians. Shinto and Buddhist 84%, other 16% (including Christian 0.7%). There is no God in Buddhism, so either God is not indispensable or those .7% Christians are being amazingly effective.”
I’ve practiced Buddhist meditation a bit, and, although I’m no authority on it, the Buddha wanted people to get away from arguing about things that have no answer in ordinary life (i.e., how many angels can dance on the head of a pin and even whether or not God exists). The Buddha would say that those sorts of discussions are a diversion among unenlightened people because there can never be a conclusive answer and to get on with the practice of meditation. Once you become enlightened, then you understand what the intellect cannot and you no longer need to ask these questions. My understanding is that through meditation, you get rid of the ego and sense of self and in this way become one with the universe. There are branches of Buddhism in which practitioners worship God more in the sense that Christians do, however.
Many people in far eastern countries believe in reincarnation, and your deeds in this life will affect your future lives. If you engage in violent crime, you ultimately harm yourself in either this or future lives. That’s my understanding of it, anyway.
Apart from religion, there is a saying in Japan that the nail that sticks up gets hammered down. In other words, it’s not a very individualistic society. People are expected to serve the group. This could also explain the low crime rate.
“Not exactly. Japan has a violent crime rate that makes us look like barbarians. Shinto and Buddhist 84%, other 16% (including Christian 0.7%). There is no God in Buddhism, so either God is not indispensable or those .7% Christians are being amazingly effective.”
I’ve practiced Buddhist meditation a bit, and, although I’m no authority on it, the Buddha wanted people to get away from arguing about things that have no answer in ordinary life (i.e., how many angels can dance on the head of a pin and even whether or not God exists). The Buddha would say that those sorts of discussions are a diversion among unenlightened people because there can never be a conclusive answer and to get on with the practice of meditation. Once you become enlightened, then you understand what the intellect cannot and you no longer need to ask these questions. My understanding is that through meditation, you get rid of the ego and sense of self and in this way become one with the universe. There are branches of Buddhism in which practitioners worship God more in the sense that Christians do, however.
Many people in far eastern countries believe in reincarnation, and your deeds in this life will affect your future lives. If you engage in violent crime, you ultimately harm yourself in either this or future lives. That’s my understanding of it, anyway.
Apart from religion, there is a saying in Japan that the nail that sticks up gets hammered down. In other words, it’s not a very individualistic society. People are expected to serve the group. This could also explain the low crime rate.
Sorry for the double post. :-(
Personally, I could do without religion. It’s total garbage. Nothing more than the ridicuolus apparatus of man made control structures and the means of guilt manipulation.
The Person of Jesus the Messiah, on the other hand, is the source of all life, freedom and the center of everything.
Our Judeo-Christian roots invite people to better themselves and achieve. Liberal-think invites people to do nothing, wait for an elite group to steal from people they don’t like and redistribute the booty.
In short, our religious morality is about self control. Libs merely want control...by them.
I like what Christians do. I hate what liberals do.
Exactly. And that is why atheism by itself degrades into decadence. Those vociferous atheists out there who attack Christianity are a great example of people whose lack of self respect is projected outward, in classic liberal form, rather than forcing introspection and self betterment. Rather than accept the good example set by good people, they take the easy way out and just hate them. They become libs.
Christmas is a huge holiday in Japan even though only .7% of the population is Christian.
"Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world." (James 1:27)
Is there something wrong with that?
Without God none of us would be around to discuss Him.
But hasn't God promised to reward those who love and obey him? Jesus talked openly and explicitly about the rewards:
4 That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly.. . . 6 But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.
. . . 16 ¶ Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.
. . . 18 That thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. (Matthew 6:4, 6, 16, 18)
Paul told the Hebrews that Christ is the author of salvation to the obedient:
8 Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered;9 And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him; (Heb. 5:8, 9)
Paul taught Timothy that it is through good works, not worldly riches, that we may gain eternal life:
17 Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy;18 That they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate;
19 Laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life. (1 Tim. 6:18, 19)
Am I misreading the Bible here?
Ah, now I understand. I have wondered why religion seems to have acquired a negative connotation in some circles. As you have described it, then yes it is a bad thing.
Of course, as I pointed out before, James uses religion in a positive sense. And the dictionary defines religion as "the service or worship of God." That is why I was puzzled by your statement. Thanks for the clarification.
Sometimes I think God does not answer prayer right away just to see if we will wait upon the Lord or get ants in our pants and start doing religious activity.
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