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THEWAULRUS · 09-22-2006, 09:19 PM

Religion

Everyone has heard that word a thousand times in their life. It starts wars and brings people together for greater good. There is no generic definition for it, nor there ever will be one. I will try to formulate a good definition and explain my opinions towards religions. I will try to cover to my full potential the Christian Faith, Judaism, Sikhism, Islam, Hinduism, Scientology and Polytheism. I might be wrong when I call the following two religions, but they do have things in common with any other religions. I am, of course, talking about Atheism and Agnostic beliefs.

So what makes up a religion? A strong common spiritual belief is the first part of it. You cannot have a religion without it. Then a religion needs followers or else it becomes extinct. People create religions for two reasons. To calm themselves down by saying that they will live on, even after their body’s death because their soul is immortal. The other one is to explain the unexplainable. People try to organize their thoughts in that way. Today’s science has proved or disproved many religious beliefs. Humans know a lot more in these modern days. Because of that, some things that you could not explain before are very easy and simple. And even after everything is explained, religion will not cease to exist because of those explanations new ones will flourish.

There are few bad and good things about a religion, a faith. First of all you need to find one that fits your beliefs. If a religion does not fit your beliefs, There is no point of joining it. People often join religions they have no idea about. Second important thing is to never be a blind follower and never doubt your religion. You have to look at the facts, not some silly old myths. And third of all is that all of your holy books have been written by mortals and mortals tend to lie and exaggerate. You cannot disregard your holy writings, but read between the lines. A good thing about religion is that it brings people of different race and opinions under one common roof. It unites us all, but the price for that are wars against other religions.

I will start with probably the easiest one to explain, Atheism. Atheism is a belief of absence of any Deity/Deities. People do not believe in god, nor do they believe the Holy books or churches. It was first practiced in France during the 16th century. Even though Atheism is not an organized religion, the part that it has a strong common belief and a lot of followers make it a form of religion. Atheism was a practiced religion in the Soviet Union. People believed only in themselves and their communist leader. Many churches were robbed and destroyed during that time period. Atheism does have a point in it. The point is that humans are the ones who created the concept of God or whatever you want to call it. Another good point atheism makes is that you should believe and depend only on yourself.

Agnosticism can hardly be called a religion. It is the most open-minded of philosophies, in that an agnostic does not believe in anything; he does not even ascribe to a doctrine of unbelief, like an Atheist. A true agnostic does not assume to know the answers to the supreme questions of the universe (why are we here, how did we get here, what put us here . . . ) – he does not say that there is a god or supernatural being involved with the answers to those questions, but he also does not say there isn’t. The definition of agnosticism is very easy: Agnostics keep an open mind toward everything in the universe, and rely on solid proof or logical scientific theories to formulate their opinions.

Polytheism is probably one of the earliest and greatest religions of all time for a few reasons. It was practiced widely in the old days. Usually around Middle Eastern countries and Africa. The reason this religion was created was to explain the unexplainable. Everything magnificent in those days was given a spirit/god. Then they were named and given human characteristics. The gods in those religions made mistakes, like humans. They were worshipped by their people, but they did not like all of their gods. For example, some people favored one god and hated all of the others because the other gods weren’t good to them. In religions today gods are depicted perfect and a lot of them don’t have human characteristics. One of the other interesting about this religion is that some of the bible’s events happened in this one too and very written down as well. Polytheism is not a single religion. It is a concept of existence of many gods. There are a lot of religions that could be put under this categorization. Many myths come from Polytheism.

Scientology is a very recent religion created from Dianetics in 1952. Dianetics was basically a help-yourself system. Scientology has a few interesting beliefs. The first and most important one is that a human is an immortal spiritual being. That is a proof that religions are created to prevent the fear of death. The other major beliefs are that psychology and psychotherapy are evil and abusive. Every human is basically good but becomes tainted by pain and suffering he has to go through. Scientology stands for "the study of truth." One of the statements that scientology makes is that “true” is only what you have observed yourself. In that religion no one is forced to believe anything, because it operates on the theory “You have to see it to believe it.” Scientology does make a few good points, but some parts of it don’t make any sense. Scientologists believe in auditing which, as they have claimed improves IQ and many other spiritual things. It is a very young religion and they believe of resurrection of soul. Those beliefs are also found in some Indian Religions.

09-22-2006, 09:19 PM	#1 (permalink)
THEWAULRUS Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2006 Posts: 185	Religion. Religion Everyone has heard that word a thousand times in their life. It starts wars and brings people together for greater good. There is no generic definition for it, nor there ever will be one. I will try to formulate a good definition and explain my opinions towards religions. I will try to cover to my full potential the Christian Faith, Judaism, Sikhism, Islam, Hinduism, Scientology and Polytheism. I might be wrong when I call the following two religions, but they do have things in common with any other religions. I am, of course, talking about Atheism and Agnostic beliefs. So what makes up a religion? A strong common spiritual belief is the first part of it. You cannot have a religion without it. Then a religion needs followers or else it becomes extinct. People create religions for two reasons. To calm themselves down by saying that they will live on, even after their body’s death because their soul is immortal. The other one is to explain the unexplainable. People try to organize their thoughts in that way. Today’s science has proved or disproved many religious beliefs. Humans know a lot more in these modern days. Because of that, some things that you could not explain before are very easy and simple. And even after everything is explained, religion will not cease to exist because of those explanations new ones will flourish. There are few bad and good things about a religion, a faith. First of all you need to find one that fits your beliefs. If a religion does not fit your beliefs, There is no point of joining it. People often join religions they have no idea about. Second important thing is to never be a blind follower and never doubt your religion. You have to look at the facts, not some silly old myths. And third of all is that all of your holy books have been written by mortals and mortals tend to lie and exaggerate. You cannot disregard your holy writings, but read between the lines. A good thing about religion is that it brings people of different race and opinions under one common roof. It unites us all, but the price for that are wars against other religions. I will start with probably the easiest one to explain, Atheism. Atheism is a belief of absence of any Deity/Deities. People do not believe in god, nor do they believe the Holy books or churches. It was first practiced in France during the 16th century. Even though Atheism is not an organized religion, the part that it has a strong common belief and a lot of followers make it a form of religion. Atheism was a practiced religion in the Soviet Union. People believed only in themselves and their communist leader. Many churches were robbed and destroyed during that time period. Atheism does have a point in it. The point is that humans are the ones who created the concept of God or whatever you want to call it. Another good point atheism makes is that you should believe and depend only on yourself. Agnosticism can hardly be called a religion. It is the most open-minded of philosophies, in that an agnostic does not believe in anything; he does not even ascribe to a doctrine of unbelief, like an Atheist. A true agnostic does not assume to know the answers to the supreme questions of the universe (why are we here, how did we get here, what put us here . . . ) – he does not say that there is a god or supernatural being involved with the answers to those questions, but he also does not say there isn’t. The definition of agnosticism is very easy: Agnostics keep an open mind toward everything in the universe, and rely on solid proof or logical scientific theories to formulate their opinions. Polytheism is probably one of the earliest and greatest religions of all time for a few reasons. It was practiced widely in the old days. Usually around Middle Eastern countries and Africa. The reason this religion was created was to explain the unexplainable. Everything magnificent in those days was given a spirit/god. Then they were named and given human characteristics. The gods in those religions made mistakes, like humans. They were worshipped by their people, but they did not like all of their gods. For example, some people favored one god and hated all of the others because the other gods weren’t good to them. In religions today gods are depicted perfect and a lot of them don’t have human characteristics. One of the other interesting about this religion is that some of the bible’s events happened in this one too and very written down as well. Polytheism is not a single religion. It is a concept of existence of many gods. There are a lot of religions that could be put under this categorization. Many myths come from Polytheism. Scientology is a very recent religion created from Dianetics in 1952. Dianetics was basically a help-yourself system. Scientology has a few interesting beliefs. The first and most important one is that a human is an immortal spiritual being. That is a proof that religions are created to prevent the fear of death. The other major beliefs are that psychology and psychotherapy are evil and abusive. Every human is basically good but becomes tainted by pain and suffering he has to go through. Scientology stands for "the study of truth." One of the statements that scientology makes is that “true” is only what you have observed yourself. In that religion no one is forced to believe anything, because it operates on the theory “You have to see it to believe it.” Scientology does make a few good points, but some parts of it don’t make any sense. Scientologists believe in auditing which, as they have claimed improves IQ and many other spiritual things. It is a very young religion and they believe of resurrection of soul. Those beliefs are also found in some Indian Religions.