Organized Religion

[Damian]

I really don't like organized religion. (I don't like disorganized religion either.) That's how I feel about it. How do you feel about it?

[norseman]

Originally Posted by Damian

I really don't like organized religion. (I don't like disorganized religion either.) That's how I feel about it. How do you feel about it?

My views are well known, Damian. I regard organised religion as a means of controlling the ordinary folk - an un-necessary evil ! We even have a word for it - Churchianity [ very little to do with Christ ].
We all have personal belief systems - the key word there is PERSONAL

[WhiteWarrior]

Wherever there's a big organization there will be leaders with fat 'meeting reimbursements' and company cars, hired-in telemarketers from companies where the same leaders have discrete stock, unpaid volunteers on the bottom, and gullible people who get rewarded with paperstickers for contributing with the money they should have spent on food and pills and rent.

Same. Organised religion usually means organising the beliefs of the followers - not for me.

[Seawolf]

Originally Posted by Damian

I really don't like organized religion. (I don't like disorganized religion either.) That's how I feel about it. How do you feel about it?

It's popular to be against organized religion, but it's mainly about resentment of Christianity, and resentment isn't very spiritual. Buddhists have organized religion, and they aren't any less spiritual than anyone else because of it.

Pride of being better than 'them' because they have organized religion is just the same old thing people have done since the beginning of humanity, being against others we perceive to be different. But ignorance leads to prejudice, and understanding that others are not so different than we are leads to tolerance.

[Baile]

I don't like ______ fill in the blank. And all meaningless unless one provides a thoughtful explanation, otherwise it's just ranting.

[Robinski78]

In the very beginning, there was no religion... I often wonder what sort of world we would be living in now, if such concepts had never come to light and developed...

The old gang had it right... They worshiped that which appealed to them, what was evident and that which could distinguished from its counterparts... The sun, the moon even nature ~ for instance... All were and still are discernible in their own right...

We appear to have moved backwards instead of forwards...

A few thoughts to consider...

Rob....

Yes. Some people worship the demigods of the celeb culture while others put their faith in material sciences, certain that one day the boffins will determine the purpose of our individual lives among the electrical charges of their atoms. Life the universe and everything.

Most humans seem to dislike uncertainty - probably to do with the survival instinct. So they're forever searching for explanations; answers to unanswerable questions.

For me (she sighs blissfully) - what would life be without magic?

♫

[Miss Hepburn]

Any org religion creates separation and distortions, imo.
Also, whether Buddhist or Judaic or Sufi...it often stagnates God or His
possible words..."He" is ever learning and growing, too.
Rituals or ceremonies they all seem to have?
Don't get me started.

[Seawolf]

Originally Posted by Miss Hepburn

Any org religion creates separation and distortions, imo.
Also, whether Buddhist or Judaic or Sufi...it often stagnates God or His
possible words..."He" is ever learning and growing, too.
Rituals or ceremonies they all seem to have?
Don't get me started.

Many people have deep introspective spiritual experiences in religious rituals and ceremonies. To another person it may not be stagnating at all but liberating. Would God want us to be against others experiencing their spirituality different than we do and seeing them as inferior?