When will religion die out or become irrelevant?

This is a very open discussion and I think it is appropriate for my doubts.

How do you know if any part of the Bible is true? I guess it is definitely impossible to have any accuracy regarding the facts that appear as history in the Old Testament, and the New Testament has some archeological evidence to prove that it was written.

But, still, how can we know that the New Testament (or any part of the Bible) represents God's desires? Technically, it could all be wriitten and distributed by Satan, couldn't it?

Don't get me wrong. I do believe in a God, but until now, I find no reason to believe in the Bible, or in the teachings of most religions.

Until now, my only belief is "doing good" and I would like to have a clearer path than that.



Another thing about the Bible. I read it, but I am just a layman. The impression I get from several passages in the New Testament is that Jesus came and said "forget everything my father told you, I tell you told o the opposite"or something along those lines.
What made him now believed? How people stopped believing in the Old Testament and startd believing in the New one?



I am not asking about any specific religious beliefs. Please feel free to asnwer me according to your beliefs and church.

I will really appreciate any help or discussions regarding those matters, and I apoogize in advance if this is offensive in any way.

 

I hope it dies out soon, but I know it won't. However, the trend as been to go from polytheist religions such as the greek gods to monotheist religions like Christianity and Islam.

Religion has been the cause of almost all wars, all torture and the majority of suffering throughout time. It can't go into extinction soon enough.

Sorry, didn't mean to sound to harsh. I honestly don't have a problem with religeous people in general, it is just the nuts that are the problem. By religeous nuts I mean most southern babtists, kkk members, extremist groups, or any religion that oppresses people.

 

Marxism was eminently Jewish.

Judaism says that the world began with a perfect paradise in the Garden of Eden. Then Adam and Eve messed things up by eating the fruit of the tree in the center of the garden against God's instructions and got themselves thrown out of the garden. And one day the Messiah will come.

Marxism says that mankind originally had some form of primitive communalism, then things degenerated into notions of private property and the state (hallmarks of - gasp! - capitalism), and one day the state will wither way and communism will prevail.

In other words, both Judaism and Marxism are characterized by philosophies of history in which their devotees believe in a state of initial perfection, a disastrous loss of that initial paradise, and an eventual return thereto.

 

Who knows? Maybe the Moslems who bombed the train in Spain were trying to reclaim territory imperialized by a bunch of mean nasty white European Christians in 1492. - Theo.

 

As the famous shyte-house philosopher once wrote:

God id dead. - Nietzsche.
Nietzsche is dead. - God.

 

When every last one of us is in our choice of Heaven, Hell, the Happy Hunting Grounds, Nirvana, Vallhalla, or maybe just all dressed up with no place to go, then religion will be irrelevant.

 

Corruption of the factions within Christianity notwithstanding, anyone who has even a good introductory level of knowledge of church history knows that YHWH will see to it that his Church will be kept alive and well even if, at times, there is only a small underground stream keeping alive the true religion even while, from time to time at least, the official institutional churches are fairly well corrupted.

 

Jimmy,

Where does the Good Book speak about being in mutual subjection to one another? - Theo.

 

Hmm. He does have a point. If we as a species are nothing but the end product of a long series of mutations and if we as individuals are nothing but the end product of a long series of accidents, then what's the point? If, on the other hand, we were divinely created (or even if we just think we were), then our lives have some meaning beyond ourselves.

Where our fellow human beings are regarded as God's fellow creatures, a certain ideology of respect for human life can take hold. Where there is no God, or where the gods are badly misbehaved individuals who are no better than a bunch of oversized and deathless humanoids (as on Olympus), life is cheap or, shall we say, short, nasty, and brutish.

 

Jimmy,

All religions are not created equal. What if some authority figure were to create a religion requiring you to throw your children (or grandchildren?) into the fires at Gehenna, as the Canaanites. It is well that some religions have been thrown upon the ash heap of history.

 

Fundamentalism gains it's greatest strength when traditional religious forms are threatened, i.e., in ages of great change.

 

That is very clear in the US. War allows brings out the worst in religous people. For instance in the 1950's during post WWII is when God was added to the our money and pledge. This totally alienating a rather large chunk of around 10 million Americans who do not believe in god.

Now with us killing innocent people in Iraq for oil we see a big push toward fanatical fundamentalism and the stripping of our basic civil liberties. The reason for the dark ages was due to a theocracy. I think America needs to push for better history education.

Jesus never even existed, Christianity is just another jewish retelling of the god man myth. In fact 4500 years before Christianity there were gods such as mithras in Persia and Dianysus in Greek that were both born of a virgin, both turned water into wine at a wedding, both had 3 kings come give them gives at their birth, and many other things. With evidence that heavy against it I don't think Christians have a right to tell anyone that they should do anything.

 

Re: Re: Mr. Carl Rugenstein speaks!

(1) Whenever some person or organization has too much power for too long, whether that be J. Edgar Hoover or the Christian Church, it is dangerous because power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely; in other words, sometimes men who claim to speak for God forget that they are not God.

(2) Do we even know whether there was ever any evidence to substantiate these accusations? Or was this just an excuse on the part of a certain AG to allow certain ATF agents to blow the place up in a firestorm?

(3) Perhaps because the Catholic Church needs to do away with clerical celibacy.

(4) Like Flip Wilson said, "The Devil made me do it!"

 

Re: re:

Just out of curiosity, are you related to the Daniel Payne who had something to do with the founding of Payne Theological Seminary in Ohio?

 

Re: religion and academic fraud

My dear political economist:

Are you so unaware of your history that you do not know that in both European history and American history churches were busy establishing colleges and universities long before the secular governments were? Or do you not believe that religious organizations possess the same property rights as secular organizations? - Theo

 

There are ways of knowing whether Old Testament History is true. One can look at the historical records of the various surrounding countries that thumped all over the Jews (Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Greeks, Romans, et alia). Or one could review the archaeological record. As a start, one might get a few books on Biblical history, Biblical archaeology, and manners and customs of the Bible. One might, if interested, undertake a very elongated course of studies leading to the PhD in Biblical Archaeology (or the PhD in Syro-Palestinian Archaeology, as some schools, including a certain little 400-year-old Puritan Bible college in Massachusetts, call it), and you might even some day lead an archaeological dig in the Holy Land.

 

Imperialized territory? You gotta be kidding.......

 

Have you read McWorld vs. Jihad? A classic, I highly (and humbly) recommend it.

 

Find a good textbook on Mediaeval History. Might I suggest Brian Tierney & Sidney Painter, _Western Europe in the Middle Ages, 285-1375_? I think you will find that Spain was a possession of the Islamic empire from 711 to 1492. Also, learn how to discern when I speak tongue in cheek.

 

4,500 years before Christianity was, of course, 4,500 B.C. The Persians and Greeks weren't even twinkles in World History's eye back then. What on earth are you talking about? The Explosion of Civilization which got underway with the the first great civilization in history--the ancient Sumerians--wasn't even yet upon us! The first Egyptian dynasty wasn't even established yet. And you're placing the Persians before them? Hello!

So, in light of the above, I guess we're to take this great ancient historian's word for it (I'm talking about you, Murdok) that the fact that there are a handful of superficial differences (virgin birth, three kings, and one miracle) between ancient Greek and Persian pantheons and Christianity, that the latter is ipso facto a myth.

Oh, and by the way, the only evidence of the Dionysian legend re: water to wine POSTDATES Christianity. So your cart is firmly placed before your horse here. I haven't had time to look into your other claims. I presume most would go the way of that one upon closer inspection.

You know, Jesus had arms and legs as well. So did Zeus. Ah Ha!