Do Concepts of Religion bother you?

Post Reply New Topic

Because of their irrational and not logical nature, are you bothered by the concepts of the major religions and the agendas (no matter how good or bad they may be ) that they push?

Growing up as a child, through some very negative experiences that I had growing up, I developed a very deep seated and very rooted hatred for the Church (yes, Christian in nature). The only way to resolve and reconcile this hatred in my eyes was to understand that for which I had so much negative thought.

I ingested nearly every text I could get my hands on. The KJV, The New International, Tanakh's translation of the Torah, The Apocrypha, The books of Enoch et al.

The issue that I ran into, is that mainstream Christian beliefs are so inconsistent with the texts that back them up (even the ones that most common denoms steer their congregations away from reading reading -- this includes most of the Apocryphal works, The Gospel of Thomas, Bel and the Dragon, and a number of others), and the logical inconsistencies nearly made my head explode.

Has anyone been affected by this, or had a similar experience? Do you have relationships that are affected by it as well? In my family it tends to draw a certain amount of friction and cause problems, but Im not sure if there is any real way to resolve it, no matter how much I try to get my family to budge on it.

A good many people have indicated to me that Faith in something requires an emotional component. I suppose I dont understand what that component is or why, and the facts behind it all dont support anything emotional that I can resolve.

(Thread moved from Autism discussion to PPR)

I have a problem with the whole idea of belief. Either something exists or doesn't? Either something is truth or isn't? Maybe I'm a very black and white person? Maybe I just look at these things in a simple and logical way?

I would love to be able to believe in a God, or follow a religion, the relief and comfort that putting all your confidence, hope and trust in a higher power that simply cannot let you down no matter the outcome must be enormous. But it takes something I just do not have: faith.

I've read the stories like you, there are so many inconsistencies I find it not just impossible to believe, but ridiculous that anyone could. (no offence meant to anyone religious, I very much respect and envy anyone who has faith as above^) How can you believe something that is so completely illogical?

To me, the bible for example is simply a book with a load of stories in it, written a long time after the characters were very much dead, and has absolutely no foundation for belief at all.

(Apologies again to anyone religious, this is not an attack on religion, just my view)

Yes, I find truths in religion: namely, that people are sheep and easily steered. I finally read the bible through and through, as I could not accept the leadership of the "church". I have come to the conclusion that "religion" is a tool for social control and the people following almost never take the time to reflect on true kindness.

Systems of Control and manipuilation are a bit of a tense thing for me.


I tend to bristle at the suggestion they happen, and more over the fact that there is someone else in control of things other than myself.

I'd think it would be interesting if the posters here included what religion they grew up with. And more specifically, what denomination.

As a child in school, constantly being told about Jesus & God, in morning assembly, & listening to the headmaster reading stories from the bible, I used to think; this doesn't seem very likely.

I simply couldn't believe it. I didn't believe it.

Grown-ups would say that fairytales & magic weren't true & don't exist, and in the next breath they would tell you about all this religious stuff. Hmm.

So, after thinking about it for a while I came to the conclusion that it was rubbish.

So what's more likely to have happened, some people thousands of years ago made this stuff up to benefit themselves, and it became embelished over time as it spread far & wide. Or that God actually does exist and the bible is true?

That's how I look at it.

I'm an ardent Humanist and Atheist, and have sometimes wondered if Aspies are more likely to gravitate toward similar mindsets than NT folks. I was lucky enough to be reared without religion (sometimes there are positive aspects to having parents who are usually drunk and completely checked-out.) Because I was never indoctrinated into a religious belief system, it is baffling to me how a grown adult can continue to believe there is a magic man in the sky (or something similarly fantastical) who is fascinated by his little creations' every move, who capriciously toys with them, sometimes cruel and sometimes beneficent. What kind of mental gymnastics does it require for a logical person to believe that THEIR religion, THEIR magical deity, is the right one, with all the competing belief systems out there?

I think this would be a good poll.

~J