For most of my life, I've never really been a fan of religion. And for most of my life, I only went along with it because my family said that if I don't, bad things would happen to me. They themselves went along with it for the same reason. In my teenage years, I did more exploring into what religion was about and where the whole concept behind it originated. I ended up with more questions than answers. The things I did figure out made me lean towards being an atheist. Nowadays, I wouldn't call myself an atheist. I believe in a higher power, but not in the form of a man in the sky like religion paints the picture. The point I wanted to make and get some answers on is this: Do you think that religion is just a bunch of fear mongering more than it is about enlightening people? I think this because of the things that we're told about. Religion has people scared to question what they believe in, because they fear punishment. It has people believing that the world is coming to an end in a few years. I could go on and on, but I'm not. It seems that when I dismissed religion from my life, my life revolved less around fear and more around being enlightened, which lead to me feeling a sense of freedom...if that makes any sense. It just seems to me that everything in religion, especially Christianity, is about putting fear into the believer. Which leads me to believe that religion is just a tool used to separate the people and to keep them in line. And til this very day, I still don't get along with Christian people. That's just what I think about it. Any thoughts on this?
enlightening people? .........LOL....................not. There is nothing enlightening about believing in absurd, ridiculous, unproven and unprovable stuff. My take on religion is that is it also not a fear monger. Rather, humans - probably due to evolution - have a tendency to fear their own existence and believe in crazy stuff --> and organized religion (as well as many other disciplines i.e. astrology, tarot cards...) just exploit that.
Only religion could trick people into thinking that being tortured forever for not accepting a "gift" is in any way a good thing. As barbaric as the old testement was it had no mention of hell. Disbelievers simply died. it wasn't until jesus, meek and mild, came along that the idea was introduced that should you not believe in thier particular story you would be sent to hell and tortured forever. In fact, only recently has the chuch said that unbaptised children go to heaven. it used to tell the mothers of dead children that thier kids are in limbo, and it was all thier fault. Disgusting fucking subhumans.
I think it is common to see the rules and the penalties for violating them, not only in religion, but also in politics, companies, etc. There cant be life without judgment. If a person is willing to violate the rules then read about the punishment, he will adjust his mind, but if he want to challenge the rules, then he has to blame himself for the consequences. The more serious is the issue, the more worrying is it.
Religion is just primitive philosophy. The promises and fear mongering are a great marketing technique to get followers.
I think religion is no worse than atheism. Most folks, certainly in the west, pick and choose what aspects of a religion to obey and view a lot of the preachings as parables. Atheism has it's own beliefs rather than any scientific merit behind their ideas, as much as they'd like to howl otherwise.
~ An evolving religion - one seeking answerers or a final answer would speak of itself with its final conclusion....merrily be those while seeking the answers are usually the exception and as why the answers are seldom found.
The main problem is that children's minds are abused by people who teach them their particular religion. As a child you are not in a position to think for yourself, so anything can be put in your mind at this age, especially coming from parents and other authority figures.
On top of that, what's really funny is all the people that baptize their babies. When the bible clearly states that a person must accept jesus/god blah blah blah, to be baptized. So baptizing a baby does nothing. It's hilarious actually.
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many people look at religion as fear mongoring, but it need not necessarily be so. There is one religion on this planet called "Sahaj Dharma" started by Mataji Nirmaladevi, wherein people who by birth and practice belong to any religion of the world can become member freely and get self enlightenment. In this dharma, or world religion one gets connected to Lord, or Almighty, present within ourself, and becomes one's own master. Your awakended kundalini then guides you appropriately throught the life. Give it a try- learn sahajayoga.
Well, to my mind, religion itself does not bears anything wrong, if this is the way the person wants to be closer to God, why not... Another point is that millions of times religion was used as the excellent tool to control the massess, religion has been making people kill each other, it has always been making them fear, turning people to being weak and stupid... as fear is the first factor that helps you in taking control over the others So speaking about the religion as a Fear Mongering my answer is YES