Uh, I have some questions about religion, can you answer them for me?

Without being intentionally disrespectful to theists, I read once – and it resonates with me – that religion is mostly hereditary. We tend to inherit the religion of our parents.

I did, anyway, and apparently most of the world does. It wasn’t so hard to kick, though. The one I picked up on my own was tougher, but I didn’t infect my kids with it.

@Blackberry, religions are just that: religions. What they amount to is some form of control of human beings over human beings. Some kind of moral code is of course involved and generally a lot of do’s and don’ts Most people when they hear the word “religion” or “religious” automatically get that barf feeling – and well they should! Who needs religion? To worship created things – animals for example – to put one’s self in a form of bondage – why? Life gives us enough trouble without adding to its bondage. Christianity is not a world religion. It is VERY different, and much to validate that can be easily researched or discussed. Very regrettably much damage has been done by poor, very poor, turn-off representation of Christianity by those who are intended to hold out a candle in front of them. In a short form, one could say that world religions are about worshipping gods that we humans create. Christianity is about relationship with God who created you. And that means individuals, not just en masse. I don’t like preach-ie ways either – they are a turn off. But learning is way different and really I think this topic comes up on fluther so very much because it is the supreme thing we all need to know where we “are” with not just for after life but because it does affect how we live and think about things. Have you ever noticed that the Name Jesus Christ is the only name that easily flips off people’s lips as a curse word? We never hear the name of any leader of a world “religion” being blasphemed. There’s reasons why that is so but it takes some exploration.

@smilingheart1 Do you think some people know it is either a form of control, or man-made, but still follow it? Why would they do that? Is it really only about fitting in?

I find it unfortunate how many confuse religion with spirituality.

It is quite possible to have very strong spiritual beliefs and yet not subscribe to religion. It is equally possible to be totally devoted to a particular religion and totally miss the spiritual ball.

On the one side you have radical fundamentalists who are so attached to their religious dogma that they are willing to strap bombs to children in the name of their faith, and on the other side you’ve got atheists who will go into spasmodic convulsions at the mere mention of the word “god”.

IMHO, those that “get it” seem to fall into two categories as well. On the one hand, there are those who find affiliating themselves with a particular religion to act as a guide post to be helpful to their spiritual well being but at the same time realize that religion is an imperfect construct of man. On the other hand you have those who claim to be atheists, but although they often have aversion to the term “god” are quite willing to entertain the concept of a component of existence beyond the known physical world.

I generally don’t give a hoot…I mean, they have their beliefs, and I mine, and I respect that. I enjoy learning about other faiths, or seeing someones own perspective on it. In one of those extremely rare cases, size generally doesn’t matter to me about religion. Oh, and the only religions I don’t take seriously are Scientology and the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

@Joker94 But why take one religion seriously, and not another one?

@Blackberry In the case of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, it’s because it was intended as a joke. It’s the ironic t-shirt of religions. As for Scientology, it’s because I don’t know of anyone who privately practices it, and the whole thing seems like a scam for money. A religion would have to be obviously a fake, or a joke, or highly likely to be fake for me to not take it seriously.

Some people change religions when they get the impression fellow believers are not being true to that religion. For example, a Catholic who changed religions due to the pedophile cases of Catholic priests.

Some people change religions simply because they are enlightened anew and choose to believe in the teachings of another group.

This does not answer your question directly but I think it’s related.

I was raised in one religion (a fundamentalist Christian sect) and now practice a very different religion (Buddhism). I didn’t swap one for the other. I left my birth religion because it stopped ringing true for me. Or maybe it never really did, and I just finally mustered the courage to acknowledge that. But several years followed before I started practicing Buddhism.

Most folks I know who leave the religion of their upbringing are so soured on religion in general that they never want any part of it, in any form, again. That could easily have been my case. But I’m an extremely introspective guy, and I felt an overwhelming urge to run with that. Having jettisoned massive amounts of belief, I was of a mind now to reexamine everything, even my assumptions about myself and the nature of all my experience.

The very last thing I wanted was to be given a set of answers, which is what most religions purport to do. I had just sloughed off a package of answers that somebody else had saddled me with, and I knew that answers weren’t what I needed. It was the exploration itself that I needed, and I wanted to set off on that exploration with no idea what I would find.

Buddhism appealed to me because, after several years of aimless poking around, I realized that my explorations could use some discipline and method. And Buddhism is really just exactly that: a method for developing the mental discipline for introspection. No answers, just tools for the journey.

More to the point of this question—how I view other religions relative to my own—well, I cut them a whole lot of slack. There are even many Buddhists who practice Buddhism in ways that I barely recognize, and I’m sometimes tempted to take a condescending view of that, shake my head at how they’re missing the point. But that’s really just arrogance. Everybody’s got to walk the path for themselves and not measure against others. So, in my better moments, I gingerly step around that trap of comparison, wish everyone a tailwind on their own journey, and carry on with mine.

I take all religions seriously (but try to discern the charlatan’s from the ‘enlightened’). I think of their literature as various ‘rough drafts’ that represent different understandings of the same thing. As an idea is cultivated and defined; human error inevitably perverts the original message..

~ Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind. ~ Einstein

I don’t know how others see the other people see the religions but I don’t compare them. I know particularities and with some I don’t agree but everything in this world has flaws.
Size matters for some, especially for those who want to get lost in the crowd or those who don’t want to do anything or participate in some sort. This is why I chose a small church to attend so we can get to know each other much better and help each other here and there with everything we need. [I do want not to be noticed when I go to other churches but my way of being doesn’t allow me not to get noticed .. and it’s rather awkward to tell them I don’t have the time to talk with them after the service is finished].
About monotheism or polytheism… some will vote for the first while other for the later. I don’t think one is wrong while another is more suitable for them but it’s all about how you manage. I prefer monotheism but I won’t cast bad judgement over those who have a few wives.
People change a denomination if that one they attended doesn’t suit them anymore. One can move to another district/state/city/country .. and after he moves he doesn’t find a congregation for that particular denomination. Others change churches the same way .. they expect another church to be perfect and when they move they see it’s not then they regret it [people have to make them be perfect not the other way around].
I don’t think those who “try out” new religions do it because they got bored of the ones they had it’s mainly because their principles weren’t that good.

And to sum it all. People go to church and expect the church to make them perfect for God. They do not want to participate too much and when things go bad they blame it on the religion/denomination/other brothers and sisters. People don’t really want to improve themselves too much and that’s why they leave or just let some doors half opened [or half closed] so they can “Escape” when it suits them better.

@Blackberry, and anyone else who has questions, I am an agnostic with a college degree in the development of religions over time. Please feel free to PM me with specific questions.

Religion is merely an outward manifestation of basic human nature, and its concomitant machinations. In that sense there is no difference between attending a church and throwing up your hands, and attending a ball game and throwing up your hands.

To be an adherent of a particular philosophy or faith is another matter. To seek out what is good, to make your home there, to disseminate and teach those things which are uplifting—these are altogether desirable.

It is no wonder so many are against religion—but it is a worldly variant they rail against. Why not turn to the Bible for a definition of what real religion should be:

We find this in the book of James:

If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is vain. 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.

I think a diferentiation needs to be made here between “religion” and “spirituality.”

@Blackberry, have you ever heard, for example, the phrase “Cradle Catholic” – this means that you were born into that particular way of believing just as in the case of politics one could say they voted a certain way because they are a third generation of one of the two major political parties in the U.S. So there is on the one hand a tendency to have inherited beliefs, however, as teen years approach there should be some free thought where there is a free society. You may have seen docs or read stories about what happens to some women who abandon the belief culture and lifestyle of their inherited country and community. Some pay very severely. There is also outright cultism. Enough said of that one.

A lot of it is about fitting in and having community. When we get right down to it, all humanity have a “worship chip” in us. It is part of our spiritual DNA. So either it gets embedded in a place that is good soil and we can awaken spiritually or we just seek down the back alleys of life for whatever brings us a level of what we need to get by.

Humans are triparte – we are spirit, have souls and live in bodies. Most neglect spirit and feed body and soul. But to be really unified we need all three up and at it. I whole heartedly agree about how things look to make no sense and I can see how many people would tend toward non belief based on what they see around them. The Christians with all their factions and serious foibles make the whole thing look quite like that I am sure. The last decades it seems we “threw the baby out with the bathwater”.....not a good way to put it but because mankind has failed to be good role models of belief that makes sense and has purpose, then it is easy to conclude God is fast asleep or was just a cousin of Santa Claus.

@smilingheart1

You are correct. Many of those ( dare I say “most” ) claiming christianity as their religion not only are “cradle christians,” but have only vague ideas about what their religion is really all about. I take issue, however, about the “worship chip.” Yes, there is within most of us a built in tendency toward spirituality, but I prefer to think of it as a connection with the infinite, rather than something genetic which impells us toward belief.

@CaptainHarley, the way I have always understood it is that this triparteness is the US in total package that is born into this world as babies. No question our bodies and souls (brain life and emotions and will) are wide awake. We hear that plainly as babies wail their demands. Though I may have said it ambiguously, I believe i am agreeing with you. Nothing genetic about the human spirit. It is God implanted and God is the only one who can awaken our spirits. I believe as you so beautifully put it, this “connection with the infinite” is always in us and can be made alive to us at any point in our lives that God is able to get our attention. Generally we need some kind of quiet time to hear the infinite communicating to us.

@Imadethisupwithnoforethought @Blackberry – True faith in the God who made you requires no college degree. It is for all people everywhere regardless of their intellect or any other advantage they may have. As @CaptainHarley and others have stated in their clear sentences, there is a huge difference between religion and spirituality. The human heart insists on good nourishment whereas the head will fill up with anything we feed it.

@smilingheart1 I believe true faith in God does not require a degree.

I believe, @Blackberry may have some questions he may be more comfortable asking privately.

How do religious people feel about their particular religion when compared to the other religions and denominations? Does the size matter?

I try my best not to compare my faith with others. I did a lot of searching before I found a faith that really made sense to me. I respect other religions, atheists, and agnostics. Size does not matter. At least when it comes to my faith. ;o) I do tend to judge cult-type religions with leaders asking followers to give them everything and give up their families and all they know for the good of the cult.

For example, do some religious people think the monotheistic religions are more valid? What makes one religion seem in high regard, and another not taken as seriously?

I think this depends on the person making the judgement. Some people might thing an older religion is more valid than a newer one because it has been around longer and has withstood the test of time. I personally think that Christianity and Jesus Christ have the best PR people and that is why they are considered by some to be more valid than the others.

When a new branch of religion is created, do people check it out and see if they want to join it or something?

Taking a WAG here I would say that is probably exactly what happens.

I think @Blackberry is rhetorically trying to figure out – as I often do – “How can otherwise intelligent-appearing people believe in magic?”

@CWOTUS what is magic to you is spirituality to me. I have spent time trying to figure out how anyone can honestly believe that nothing plus nothing can equal something. Personally I believe that 0+0=0. The big bang, primordial soup, the science of evolution, all make perfect sense to me and I believe every bit of it. I also believe that something had to set all of that stuff in motion and for me that something is God.

Dang, how did this turn into yet another thread calling theists out? Or maybe that was the purpose to begin with. Sigh.

Ha ha ha…magic, crazy, God…quite incendiary words! : )

@SuperMouse That wasn’t the purpose. I get religious people understand that stuff, but where does religion fit in all that? Like why do some people think some “old humans from a desert” have the answer (ok I’m sorry, but that was funny, I heard it from a friend and it’s been making me laugh ever since)?

Sorry, @Blackberry, I didn’t really intend to hijack your apparently honest thread with another slam at religionists, but I get tired of those who apparently do believe in magic thinking that their “spirituality” trumps my belief in what can be observed and proven. I, too, wonder about “first causes”. I wonder all the time “where did all of the ‘stuff’ of the universe come from?” and “is this all of it?” But I don’t consider myself spiritual because I believe in some mystical and unverifiable higher power.

If people want to believe in the magic, I have no problem with it. None at all, and I bend over backwards most of the time to avoid the caustic comments and snarky attitude. But when the condescending attitude reeks too strongly, then I break my silence.

And @Joker94, just because you don’t know anyone practicing an ‘alternative religion’ is no reason to single it out for derision. I agree that The Flying Spaghetti Monster is a parody, okay, got that. But before you’re going to mock Scientology you should really speak to some Scientologists – respectfully. I have a lot more respect for true believers in Scientology than I do for most anyone who was “born into” a faith and simply grew up in it without an overt commitment. I’ve talked to them. It’s easy to go along with a crowd and to mock Tom Cruise for acting a fool on a television set; you should probe more. Or just be one of the mocking crowd; and admit that you are.

@CWOTUS I’ve done only a little bit of research into Scientology, and I stress that it was only a little. What I found didn’t seem very..honest, but hey, the same could be said of a lot of religions. If I personally knew any Scientologists, I’d be more than willing to discuss faiths with them.

Some people instinctively believe that the age of a religion, such as how long it’s been around, holds merit to what that religion believes. Kind of like the belief that just because someone is an elder they are automatically wiser than a youth. People who hold to this belief, especially in religions such as Christianity, are contradicting themselves because Christianity is very young compared to other world religions.