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Originally Posted by Daseal
Most religions are founded by war, and you mighty Christians took part in a sickening holy war, remember the Crusades? Or Killing Indians that wouldn't convert? Organized Religion normally teaches good morals, but that's all it's good for. It's been the same shit since Greek mythology recycled and regurgitated in a slightly different form. (Saints = Greek Gods. They have a god for everything, Christians have a Saint. There are tons of parrallels. Read Age of Reason by Thomas Paine (the reason our country exists is because of him) he'll be happy to show you all the problems with Christianity. Hell, at least two people were dead before they supposedly wrote their books in the bible. That's always been quite a task!
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Ahh Daseal, Daseal,
Your thought process sometimes shows such a waste of almost usuable raw material. And I would suggest to you, that neither Christ nor Buddha would agree with your statement that the organized religions which grew from their inspiration were "founded by war". Rather, in most cases, once a religious movement gained momentum and temporal power through the its spiritual energy and inspiration, those seeking temporal power attempted (and often succeeded) in corrupting and assimilating the power associated with the spiritual leadership. Although the ideal of closer individual and corporate communion with the ultimate "is" of the universe through ritual worship and study has, in many cases, been corrupted, to bash either the concept, accomplishments or continued potential good of organized religion is ignorant and short sighted. It is similar to saying, because business corporations do bad things, the concept of corporations is bad and came about only through greed.
Throughout history, organized religion (not just christianity) has been a vehicle through which men and women, however flawed, have attempted to pool their knowledge and understanding of the universe's infinite essence. To do so, they have adopted rituals and symbolism to address, describe and teach about the infinite. In its purest form, organized religion preserves and adds to knowledge from generation to generation. In this way, it reminds us of the focal point and helps us to remember that which has already been learned so we don't have to keep reinventing the wheel.
Does organized religion exist in "its purest form"? Yes, at times and in places. Has it been corrupted and its spiritual power been appropriated to accomplish temporal ends at odds with the religion's underlying teachings? Duh. How can this happen? Because while God inspired, organized religion is inevitably human run. Guess what? humans screw up, have flaws, get envious, greedy, etc.
You may choose to be an agnostic. That's fine. But before blasting "organized religion", please try to understand its true purpose and benefits.
Tools are what we make of them and accomplish that which we inspire. Organized religion, for the most part, through the thousands of years of human existense, has been a tool for good by operating as vehicle through which corporate knowledge is shared, deeper insights to our purpose on this world gained and practical assistance is given to those who wish to do good.
[By the way, the books entered into the Bible were decided by committee over a hundred years after most of the original disciples had died. Most of the books and letters assembled in the current Christian Bible were traditional documents of the church and the names attached to them were often in the way of communal reputation - Bible historiography and critique is actually a fascinating subject which I would gladly discuss with you.]