Do you follow your religion out of fear of punishment, or truly because you believe?

See second point in my previous post.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_religion#Criticism_of_the_concept

Some fun quotes

That means if God says 1 + 1 = 3, they will accept it

 

I'm glad you linked back to that post. I hadn't realized how little sense it made first time round.

this is circular logic. it's a bit like saying "the bible is the word of god because it says it is, And that must be true because the bible is, After-all, The word of god". I suspect even a child would laugh at a statement so obviously illogical.

You do know most of the commandments were written in law long before moses supposedly brought them down, Right? In fact, most of the commandments were lifted wholesale directly from the Egyptian book of the dead which was written around 3600 years ago.

But that is besides the point. Only a sociopath would think it's ok to steal and murder. We don't need a region (which claims to have invented morality) to tell us right from wrong. Ironically religious people make up the vast majority of the prison population. 99% in fact, Even though only 73% of the general population are religious. It seems the religious are more inclined to commit crime than atheists.

What about the ones you don't follow? Wont you be punished for doing things like making images of anything? Or working on sunday? Surely if these are included in the top ten rules from god they must be important. Why do you see fit to ignore these and not fear punishment for committing such horrendous acts? I suspect it's because you, Like most people who claim to be religious, Like to pick and chose which parts they are going to follow. If something fits nicely in to what you are already doing, Like not killing people, You decide to follow it and then claim you do so because of your religion. But if you think it would be hard to live your life without making any images or working on sunday you simply ignore it. It's called being a hypocrite.

 

Look at the title of thread, it asks:

Its a kind of poll, and i agreed to second part of question that I believe truly because I believe.

What I believe is true or false, thats another topic. I have no idea how your post is related to my answer.

How is this related to my answer?

Whats point in this again, when I am already saying that I follow most commandments because they are natural and required for healthy society, like atheists do.
Religion is not my reason to not do rape and murder, so why you are telling me religious people are more inclined to commit crimes.

Whats up mate? Why you are trying to prove what I am doing is wrong or hypocrite?
But this part of your post at least can be answered and related.

Ya, I will be punished for what I am not following.

Let me give you an example to tell you what I do not follow some of them. Normally, I respect road signals, for an instance lets assume just because of fear of fine, If one day my gf is going to, say, airport and I have to catch her in time .. when I reach at some signal which is red I might ignore it and try to reach airport as fast as possible, thinking that it might save me 2 minutes. Where's the damn hypocrisy in it?

So, sometime and in some certain situations we ignore small things like taking images, working on sundays even after we know we are doing wrong.

I am not sure if I have successfully told you why I do not follow certain commandments, but I tried

 

because you were talking about the ten commandments. if you really thought god would punish you for breaking those commandments then you probably should believe an ancient Egyptian religion, Since that is where the rules come from.

because it is wrong and you are a hypocrite. You can't say in one breath that you follow the commandments and in the next breath admit to doing the opposite.

You are only following the commandments that you like, And ignoring the rest. if you really believed the commandments were the word of god and if not following the commandments was punishable by eternal damnation i'm pretty sure you would follow all of them, Not just the ones that you like.

Your example is flawed for a number of reasons.
firstly, By not obeying road signs you aren't guaranteed to get a fine and secondly if you do get a fine that fine isn't going to be eternal damnation.

A better example would be if you were the person who introduced the signs, Told everybody how good they were, Guaranteed that eternal damnation would be the punishment for not obeying the signs, And then didn't obey the signs yourself. this would prove that you don't believe what you are saying and you are a hypocrite.

Then surely you can't believe they are the word of god.
This is the thing you don't seem to be able to understand. if you believed commandments are really the word of god and are really punishable by eternal damnation there is no way you would break them, No matter how convenient it might be.

 

no offense but i didn't really read whole of your post. I guess you missed my point.

but, its ok .. leave it.

 

i dont give a damn on religions. who organised our solar system ? lol

 

yeah that must be it, it must be because i missed your point. heaven forbid it might be because you are talking complete and utter nonsense that contradicts it's self with practically every word.

it's ok though, Leave it.

 

If someone follows religion out of fear of punishment, they must also truly believe in the punishment, thus the religion.

 

Organized Religion is a turn off for many because personalities and interpretation come into play. I believe in what I read for myself and in the personal experiences and evidence in my own life. As far as the guilt and fear and the manipulation it inspires, I leave that with those who would be sheep and the priests and ministers the shepherds of that game. I am a Christian and I don't apologize for that, I choose to exercise my faith based on my own heart and belief system... period. I don't care to critisize what other people do in that regard, because they are just that... people. It is kind of a personal thing, and if you keep it that way, it helps one get through the swill that is organized religion. I don't live my life in mortal fear of horrible punishment from God, I choose to live according to common sense (which is what Bible teaches anyway) and doing good and in the end when I will leave the ole green golf ball, it is with some sembalence of peace and having lived a good life.

 

Organized Religion is a turn off for many because personalities and interpretation come into play. I believe in what I read for myself and in the personal experiences and evidence in my own life. As far as the guilt and fear and the manipulation it inspires, I leave that with those who would be sheep and the priests and ministers the shepherds of that game. I am a Christian and I don't apologize for that, I choose to exercise my faith based on my own heart and belief system... period. I don't care to critisize what other people do in that regard, because they are just that... people. It is kind of a personal thing, and if you keep it that way, it helps one get through the swill that is organized religion. I don't live my life in mortal fear of horrible punishment from God, I choose to live according to common sense (which is what Bible teaches anyway) and doing good and in the end when I will leave the ole green golf ball, it is with some sembalence of peace and having lived a good life.

 

Because I truly believe.

 

I am an agnostic and believe that there is some kind of existence after we die. I don't follow any one religion though.