(July 7, 2015 at 8:23 am)popsthebuilder Wrote: It's regard is for all life, not just human or animal.

If we had everything we wanted we would be useless and lazy and even more fucked than we are now.

Praying for things to get better in your personal situation is selfish and wrong. By asking for only direction in life and guidance, or for things like patience, and understanding should be about as selfish as it should get.
Modern conveniences-
If everyone was United under God there would be faster advancement in technology due to the lack of a worldwide religious barrier.

Stable societal constructs.- are you serious? Society is completely fragmented, and different through the world and way fucked up. The opposite of stable.

Modern day society- again completely off beat from nature and teaching our young how to live without meaning, and in blatent indifference to natural wrongs.

No, please keep going.

Spiritual development is the supposed to be the REAL basis for religion in that we are taught to be less selfish and more giving for a better world for everyone in theory. In practice it is too often used as a means of control over others and advancment of the individual instead of what was originaly intended. Christian, Islam, Hindu, even Budhism can be abused and has been.
For this reason having just one faith uniting us wont stop the ambitious from doing what they have always done. They would just disguise it as God's will.
Science has certainly been advanced by the religiuos but remember most people were religious because they have little choice. They were raised that way and in many cases to not be Christian in 16th century Europe or not muslem in the ottoman empire ment certain death and monks of said faiths often had more time than the farmers to study and experiment. However it has been made clear by the pope that science is great as long as it doesn't delve into the realm of God. No genetic testing, no exploring the origin of the universe, nothing that might otherwise cast doubt on God can be studied. Steven Hawkings would have a hard time with this.
While it is true that a community that has one faith tends to stick together well, due to the ease at which religion can manipulated by a clever person great acts of evil can be justified. I dont want that and will fight it to the end.
I agree that modern society should also teach philosophy as a way of helping the student understand themselves so as to enrich life. However, it is clear that the Bible teaches us that we are horrible poeple at birth and are totaly unworthy of the creators love unless we obey the right conditions. As is said by the Dali Lama "the diference is that the Christian focus is pointed away to some where else the budhist focus points within."

Within is right.

(July 7, 2015 at 8:23 am)popsthebuilder Wrote: If everyone was United under God there would be faster advancement in technology due to the lack of a worldwide religious barrier.

The interpretation of your God by almost half of the U.S. IS the religious barrier. Much better results would be obtained if God was eliminated.

Diresand,

By religion I don't I don't mean the bible to the letter. The chosen you speak of are few. There are to attempt to guide the rest. Not everyone will go to a possitive existence at the time of death. No matter how united and good we are as a whole there will still be bad individuals. Yes, extremists are counterproductive in that there actions do not gennerally cause others to think,except of there murderous actions. It is not right. Thing in the Bible are lessons. Much of the murder you mention isn't directed towards modern religion at all. We aren't supposed to kill in the name of God. That was not meant for us. A harmony and understanding with good is all that is asked. It has to be acted out though, not just thought about. The bible doesn't really talk about that everything is energy to much. Other books do though that were originally meant to be encorperated. All is energy. Someone pointed out that energy isn't possitive or negative. But it is. All things not associated with humanity are good. Humans are the only negative or bad. Balance and potential energy can be seen in all creation. What's to say we are not capable of using that potential for good or making it positive energy. Surely all life is energy as is the earth. We are the only things capable of making that energy bad.

(July 7, 2015 at 10:49 am)popsthebuilder Wrote: Diresand,

By religion I don't I don't mean the bible to the letter. The chosen you speak of are few. There are to attempt to guide the rest. Not everyone will go to a possitive existence at the time of death. No matter how united and good we are as a whole there will still be bad individuals. Yes, extremists are counterproductive in that there actions do not gennerally cause others to think,except of there murderous actions. It is not right. Thing in the Bible are lessons. Much of the murder you mention isn't directed towards modern religion at all. We aren't supposed to kill in the name of God. That was not meant for us. A harmony and understanding with good is all that is asked. It has to be acted out though, not just thought about. The bible doesn't really talk about that everything is energy to much. Other books do though that were originally meant to be encorperated. All is energy. Someone pointed out that energy isn't possitive or negative. But it is. All things not associated with humanity are good. Humans are the only negative or bad. Balance and potential energy can be seen in all creation. What's to say we are not capable of using that potential for good or making it positive energy. Surely all life is energy as is the earth. We are the only things capable of making that energy bad.

That is the key problem with god existing. Because the bible says we are born of the devil. Here is the thing, for shits and giggles lets say
we live in a world and a universe were the bible is true. The being said god would be pissed if people cherry picked his perfect book.

I find it strange that people keep bringing up the idea of wanting to believe in a god or not wanting to believe in a god.  What you want to be the case does not make the world different from how it is.

I am reminded of a Christian I once encountered who said some things that were quite different from what one ordinarily encounters.  She said that god was evil, which is obvious from the Old Testament, but you needed to kiss his ass (not her words) in order to get into heaven and avoid hell.

It does not matter whether you want there to be a god or not.  What matters is whether there is a god or not.  If there is, you need to deal with that reality, and if there is not, you need to deal with that reality.  What you want to exist is irrelevant.


In this case, we have no reason to believe that there is a god at all (that was the mistake of the Christian woman mentioned previously, though she was obviously right that the description of the being referred to as "god" in the Old Testament is evil).  And so we should deal with that.  Whether you want there to be a god or not is irrelevant.

(July 7, 2015 at 1:01 pm)dyresand Wrote:

(July 7, 2015 at 10:49 am)popsthebuilder Wrote: Diresand,

By religion I don't I don't mean the bible to the letter. The chosen you speak of are few. There are to attempt to guide the rest. Not everyone will go to a possitive existence at the time of death. No matter how united and good we are as a whole there will still be bad individuals. Yes, extremists are counterproductive in that there actions do not gennerally cause others to think,except of there murderous actions. It is not right. Thing in the Bible are lessons. Much of the murder you mention isn't directed towards modern religion at all. We aren't supposed to kill in the name of God. That was not meant for us. A harmony and understanding with good is all that is asked. It has to be acted out though, not just thought about. The bible doesn't really talk about that everything is energy to much. Other books do though that were originally meant to be encorperated. All is energy. Someone pointed out that energy isn't possitive or negative. But it is. All things not associated with humanity are good. Humans are the only negative or bad. Balance and potential energy can be seen in all creation. What's to say we are not capable of using that potential for good or making it positive energy. Surely all life is energy as is the earth. We are the only things capable of making that energy bad.

That is the key problem with god existing. Because the bible says we are born of the devil. Here is the thing, for shits and giggles lets say
we live in a world and a universe were the bible is true. The being said god would be pissed if people cherry picked his perfect book.

First ,he inspired it. He didn't write it. Man did. I wouldn't cherry pick. But obviously some sins or wrongs are less grave than others.

(July 7, 2015 at 1:17 pm)popsthebuilder Wrote:

(July 7, 2015 at 1:01 pm)dyresand Wrote: That is the key problem with god existing. Because the bible says we are born of the devil. Here is the thing, for shits and giggles lets say
we live in a world and a universe were the bible is true. The being said god would be pissed if people cherry picked his perfect book.

First ,he inspired it. He didn't write it. Man did. I wouldn't cherry pick. But obviously some sins or wrongs are less grave than others.

Even if he did the Devil of all beings a person who is supposed to be pure evil to the core really isn't.
You can say the Devil is evil because the bible says so. I'll bring up Job of all people in the bible felt gods
wrath and he had his family wealth possessions all taken away over a petty bet. Then you have Adam and Eve
unjustly punished and lied to. I can keep going on and god in the bible has lied to people and has gotten them killed. 
When it comes down to it how would you or anyone feel to have their loved one killed by a being that simply did not like them...