That was well expressed. We do indeed rub shoulders with people of all faiths in our day to day life...at work, at school, at the mall and there is no conflict because our religion does not matter in these places. We are just people interacting in fairly neutral territory. What matters is that a person's religion is their business, and we can speak of religious matters with religiously minded ones if they wish, and even debate the differences among us.....and we can express disappointment towards those who are not living up to the label they wear because it gives our faith a bad name.
That's a better spin on it than I would have stated. As from my experience it's more that most people just
avoid talking about their own religion in public. Well, except for some of the Christians and the JWs who don't abide by any public place "truce".
Nothing pulls a religion down more than hypocrites who wear their religion as a banner and use it as an excuse to create ill-will with others. Most especially is this so when some have fled their country because of persecution and then used their religion to create division in the country that adopted them. It chafes a lot of people.
I think this division is inherent in all religions that I know of. Most of the religious doctrines are all about division and exclusiveness, an us "right", them "wrong".
If many believe that there is "ONE GOD" who is the Creator of all, then why are there so many religions in the first place? Does anyone ever ask that question?
I've pondered that most of my life. People would be much better off if ALL the man made religions were wiped off the face of the earth so that ALL people could be free to define their own spiritual paths as they were destined to have before religions came along. Because ALL people have a direct connection to God thru their souls. But evil self serving MAN was invented religions to insert themselves in between God and man, so that they all look to them for "spiritual answers" instead of getting them from God. Always having doctrine designed to cut off everyone's own connection to God thru their own souls. (That's why all religions never go beyond just using the word "soul" and NEVER give anyone even an inkling of what it really even is.)
To my understanding as a Bible believer, we humans are divided over religion because we stepped away from the true religion and the true God right at the very beginning....humans wanted to make up their own religion, in line with their own wants and needs....they created their gods 'in their image' to validate their own chosen course....and humans being humans, many just followed along because they didn't want to go to the bother of reasoning anything out for themselves....they just wanted to be part of the group...to fit in.
"Religion in name only" seems to be the most common form for the majority of people in western society...their parents practiced a religion and they were indoctrinated from infancy to 'perform'...so they were never taught to think for themselves or to question any of it. The thinkers among us couldn't wear that, so we did question, and many were convinced that what they were taught was rubbish, and either ditched their former god(s) altogether, or found it easier to transition into a more comfortable form of worship. One that suited them better. I actually see Baha'i as a religion that just wants everyone to get along and worship whoever they wish because its all the same God at the end of the day. All those "messengers"from different faiths with conflicting messages are all supposedly sent by God......why? Just to confuse us? It presents as a "have your cake and eat it too" faith. Nothing adds up.
We all have choices and we are all free to make them. But religion is divisive, there is no doubt about that.....these sites wouldn't exist if that were not so. But informed choice is the only one that matters.....so how informed are we? These sites help us to form our opinions by being exposed to many points of view.
I wrote some thoughts on this not too long ago. That it always concerned me how easily most everyone just caves in to the brainwashing by whichever religion gets to them first. And how they remain both spiritually and mentally broken ever after. Like in bible study. All the kids saw all kinds of conflicts, errors, falsehoods, etc and pestered the teacher with them. But she kept on hammering in the Christian FEAR mongering of their wrathful "god", how he doesn't like people who think, what will happen to them if they don't comply to his demands, and within about 3 days they were all turned into mindless zombies who meekly submitted to the brainwashing and took it all in, conflicts, errors, and falsehoods, all without question. Most were left spiritually and mentally broken for the rest of their lives. Cut off from the one God, and completely unable to see all the conflicts, errors, and falsehoods of their beliefs. And while ALL religions have different brainwashing methods, the results are pretty much the same.
All those "messengers"from different faiths with conflicting messages are all supposedly sent by God......why? Just to confuse us? It presents as a "have your cake and eat it too" faith. Nothing adds up.
It's nice to see that others get this.
That's another point I keep bring up. How God always gives me answers to me spiritual questions in a clear, concise, and all encompassing manner. So nobody will ever convince me that any of these gobbledygook religious dogmas came from any "god", but could have only come from the mind of man. As these so called "messengers" would also be giving people clear, concise, and all encompassing spiritual answers, and they would ALL be
consistent it what they were saying. And another thing the religious zombies never even see, is that none of the religions ever even give anyone any answers on any of the true spiritual matters. Take the Christian religion. There are some 774,746 words in the bible, and their entire religion is based upon "saving" everyone's soul. And the world has suffered some 2,000 years of beatings, torture, destruction of property, slavery, destruction of other religions, killings, etc, etc, etc... all to "save" everyone's soul, and there is not even ONE clear description of what one is! Now you would think that with something so damn important to their "god", there would be PAGES of a detailed description of what a soul is. But instead, there's NOTHING. Because man wrote is all on his own.
IMO, God does not hide from those who genuinely seek him. But many want to squeeze him into the box that they have created for him, rather than squeezing themselves into the box that he created for them.
Understatement there!
