religion dallas I am a spiritual man and I am a simple man. I don't need your religion to come knocking on my door ready to save me from my own disbelief. 980930 ... emma you know what's funny? webster's has a word "religionism". go figure that one out. 981225 ... amy simplicity at its most beautiful 990214 ... daxle every religion, and every philosophy that claims not to be a religion, has a hole in it somewhere, and yet each group considers theirself superior is it so hard to admit that we don't know all the answers? 990517 ... Jeff @ Newdream Crack for the weak minded? 990528 ... jared_d Man's explanation for the inexplicable...until we figure it out by ourselves. Then it's not god's fault anymore. What of god if we finally do figure everything out? Won't that be a pisser. 990923 ... Nate Higgins After tearing apart every illusion and cutting with your rusty sabre through every piece of misinformation with the zealous glee of the self righteous in the name of truth you find yourself cold and alone in a meaningless world. This is when one finds religion whether it be Taoism, collecting stamps or sex it is the self delusion you choose to worship for lack of anything better to do. 991030 ... kimmichael That which seems so appealing, (and in nights of sad introspection that great googling word opens up its banging intangible doors for a few precious hours...)becomes easily dismissed as another dismal attempt to ease the ego of man. Shattered by those stones of doubt, of which I have an endless supply. Crish...*crash!*(for cynical admirability)--Someday people will read The Bible for entertainment, just as I read about Poseidon as a boy.-- 991115 ... sinkdaddy I am God. God is not religion. 991210 ... a a 991212 ... bob Onward Christian Soldiers, Onward Buddhist Priests. Onward, Fruits of Islam, gight till youre deceased. Fight your little battles, Join in thickest fray; For the Greater Glory, of Dis-cord-i-a Yah, yah, yah, Yah, yah, yah, yah. Blfffffffffft! 991221 ... zippy Why does everyone need something to believe in? Something to cling to? 000105 ... meli "Religion has the capability of generating unselfish love in some people, and vicious, raw hatred in others." -OCRT 000105 ... decoy "God, sometimes you just don't come through." -Tori Amos 000124 ... spamboy god may have made my body. but to the point of where i am today, i am a self made man. no one has helped me get to where i am now. i have come here on my own terms, and i have on one to blame but myself. not god. 000306 ... brett opium for the masses? 000306 ... hopper Religion soothes the fearful. 000401 ... birdmad " when will it stop unfolding? when will i ever be face to face with the devil in me? " 000401 ... smed Well hell, in this age of computers and science and rational thinking, religion sure sticks out like a sore thumb. But old habits die hard, and this one probably isn't going to die anytime soon. I say 'to each man his own' as long as that man doesn't knock on my door one sunday morning in hopes of saving me. 000426 ... silentbob i respect religions and religious people. they believe in something i dont and have something in their lives i dont. but they have to realize that there are about 2903429384293842 other religions too...so why would THEY be right above all those other people? just live your life and let other people live theirs. as long as people don't die over it, let it be. 000607 ... a plain religious man people think they don't need religion. they think religion is just a comfortable delusion, a crutch for the weak. they think they are so better, so able to withstand the world, they don't need no crutch. that's just being plain foolish. just because the world is nice today, you think its going to be nice tomorrow. but it's not. the world is an ugly place. and if you think that even in the harshest of times you still won't need any 'comfortable delusions', and you can soar above the discomforts of the world, happy in knowing the truth, then you're just a proud fool. no one is like that. when push really comes to shove, every one becomes religious -- or they go mad. people are also fools, who think that religion is the unexplained, but that soon all will be explained. religion sure is about the explained, but if we small little petty creatures, so small, so short-lived, so insignifcant, on a cosmic scale, are gonna figure it all out, we are just being proud and fooling ourselves. we are never gonna work it all out, at least not by ourselves. besides, us humans can't know ourselves. self-knowledge means we'd have to be bigger than ourselves, to fit all that knowledge in. which we no can be. there will always be mystery in the universe, always be the unexplained. the proud fools try to do the impossible and explain it. the wise realise that they cannot explain it, that what they can attain on their own efforts, while it seems to them so much, is nothing at all, on a cosmic scale. and they turns to God for their help and comfort. 000608 ... a plain religious man i didn't mean to say you were all proud fools. some of you are. others are just misguided. if they realised they were acting like proud fools do, they would stop. 000608 ... a plain religious man no, now i think, you are all misguided. talking to those who thing religion is stupid. you don't mean to be fools, you just... can't help it? 000608 ... sannyasi "Religion is for people who are afraid of going to hell, spirituality is for people who've already been there." 000609 ... Zoe religion is so confusing. first i was a strong christian, then i realized that i was just one because everyone else one. then i became buddhist, but realized that i didn't believe in it. now i'm a mix between athiest and my own religion. i think that there must be some type of power out there, i just don't call it god. 000716 ... Tank of which war is a symptom of. 000716 ... CNoll The thing that bugs me about any religion esp. Christianity is that its followers always preach one thing but then do another. Because someone takes time each week to go out of his or her way to attend church and follow the Bible and listen to a preacher, shouldn't this person act good? But many of my friends are religious and yet they are not exactly "good" people. Does attending church give them the right to do bad things because they will be forgiven later? I say all churchgoers are basically hypocrites. I seriously believe that they should not sin at all...just my two cents... 000816 ... grendel quick bit of cognitive dissonance: anyone ever notice that the word " denomination " applies to religions and units of currency what is the deal with that? 000816 ... The Schleiffen Man Maybe they're both just asymmetric parts the same system. 000816 ... d and we read from pleasent bibles that are bound in blood and skin 000817 ... Hari Nana Jesus died for his own sins, not mine. 001127 ... patti smith jesus died for somebody's sins, but not mine. thick, heart of stone. my sins my own, they belong to me 001127 ... chanaka i am my own religion and i don't need anyone else to tell me that i'm going to hell--i know it! that is something i am fine with. because i am only going to a hell of my own making, not theirs. just let me go on my atheist way and don't harass me! NO! i don't WANT to be saved! and you know why? because i have saved myself. i will always save myself. i can't say about others, only me 001127 ... silentbob something that can be quite beautiful has been marred by the people that keep pushing..and pushing..and pushing. And to that Plain Religious Man Why are we the foolish ones? For doubting what you 'know' to be true? Or just complaining about it? I know you don't claim to know everything. But i simply don't believe that you really know the truth. and if that makes me misguided, i accept responsibility for that. Did i jump on anyone for anything they didn't say, here? 001127 ... daxle no, congradulations :) 001127 ... silentbob hehe and then looking back i was thinking i kind of did a little, becuase...i dont know..he never really.... oh i dont even know. its just... We're "misguided" because we werent told the same thing as him. i dont see it that way. 001127 ... amy If something is confusing, forget about it. And, defending religion just shows insecurity, which doesn't really go along with the faith thing. It really doesn't matter what other people think, so "misguided" is a little irrelevant. I agree with Sannyasi, in some form or another. 001129 ... silentbob well done and my spirituality comes from the salvation of the hell of feeling unloved by someone i love. meaning, i feel spiritual enlightenment from having a love in my life, because she saves me from the hell of lonliness. thast what my faith and religion is. 001129 ... splinken i've considered becoming catholic. jesus doesn't have much to do with it. i like how everything is charged with meaning--physical, material, pretty things, i mean. like altars, and sacred heart of jesus candles, and all that. and i like the pictures. and i would love to believe in something. in one thing. i hate to be vague. any lack of precision makes me sick. i don't have any myths. i don't mean that tired "opiate for the masses, afraid of the sick, sad truth" kind of myth. myth is useful. it gives us stories that teach us and explain things--and you don't have to take your myths literally ( i think they serve their purpose best if you don't ). i want myth. i want ritual. i want a quiet place where i can sit with lots of other people. i want to sit with these other people and appreciate things. i don't want to go to the baptist church and sit with some youth group. i do not want to watch some cute boy with a guitar sing contemporary christian songs while we all sway and bang tambourines. i like religion because it's not contemporary. it goes beyond "talking about your feelings" and sitting in a circle with a guitar and all that vague, feel-good crap. i like judaism too. it's hard to decide, you know? 001202 ... god religion? run away as fast as you can. 99% of these people are NO FUCKING GOOD. 001202 ... . who is this wonderful girl that fills all voids in your life silent one? 001204 ... silentbob i wish i could tell you. i really do. but i have not met her yet. or maybe i have but neither of us know. and i dont think you can ONLY be born again to jesus. if i ever meet this girl and fall in love and all that jazz, i'll be born again. being born again to me is any life change after you made a very important realization and decision. "I'm a born again smoker" "Im a born again non-smoker" hope no one is offended, i hate insulting others just by breathing. 001204 ... justa guy why can't we all create one religion, that way we would have peace on Earth? 001210 ... twiggie why can't people just respect the beliefs of others and let them be? 001228 ... silentbob thats what i try to do. i just get mad at people when they tell other people they are wrong for believing the way they do and then i yell at them, and probably sound like i'm oppressing their rights to have their own beliefs, and it is not my intention. sigh. 001228 ... twiggie i just don't understand it. there are so many religions in the world, why can't people come to see