Thoughts and prayers for the innocent in Paris

[shreddermon]

You guys really believe that ending religion will have any impact? Sorry but religion is just one of MANY tools that evil, murderous psychos will use to justify their actions. Religion, race, nationality, economics, politics - the list goes on and on. They're all just different belief systems used to convert sheep into followers, lies and deception to get fools to believe "the cause", and then follow orders to carry out the psychos' real agendas. But ultimately it's all about power, control, greed. And the evil psychos will use whatever belief system they can to gain that power and control.

Sure, religion has been abused to justify these evils throughput history. But religion itself is not inherently evil. The people who misuse it are.

[atomic charvel guy]

look, im not naive enough to realize that if that part of the worlds main export was bananas and not oil, that we wouldnt even be over there fucking around. i get it.
my contempt for religion runs so deep that it turns me into more of a douchebag than i already am though, and it is my dream that humans evolve and start thinking in a new way. i dont need my morality spoon fed to me from a book written by barbarians who lived in caves thousands of years ago. its the year 2015 for fucksakes, it just doesnt bode well for our evolution.

[atomic charvel guy]

You guys really believe that ending religion will have any impact? Sorry but religion is just one of MANY tools that evil, murderous psychos will use to justify their actions. Religion, race, nationality, economics, politics - the list goes on and on. They're all just different belief systems used to convert sheep into followers, lies and deception to get fools to believe "the cause", and then follow orders to carry out the psychos' real agendas. But ultimately it's all about power, control, greed. And the evil psychos will use whatever belief system they can to gain that power and control.

Sure, religion has been abused to justify these evils throughput history. But religion itself is not inherently evil. The people who misuse it are.

im sorry i gotta disagree, it is inherently evil, ever read the old testament? that god is a fuckin gangster. nothing more.
try out Leviticus or deuteronomy, hell all of it. not exactly spiritual stuff in there, unless you think murder, slavery, child sacrifice, treating women like cattle,
how to beat your slaves in order that they dont die but can still work the next day etc.etc. etc is not evil, then i guess we can call what is evil subjective right? haa haa
How are shreddermon, it's nice to see you again!!

[shreddermon]

You're right, Tommy. It was a book written hundreds or thousands of years ago. (Depending on who you believe.) A book written by mankind, and revised by who knows what individuals and their motivations throughout history. And reflecting the laws, morals and/or the lack thereof from the people of the time those many years ago. It was a fucked-up world then, and remains so today. Everything written back then, and being written today, reflects that fucked-up-idness of parts of humanity in some small or great part. So that book needs to be taken with a healthy dose of salt, not completely literally.

Heck, a thousand years from now, people will read from our news accounts today, and think to themselves "what fuckin savages". And they'll be (partially) right. LOL

When true AI comes into existence, the human race and it's various belief systems may be in for a real hard time.

[shreddermon]

And good to see you too, bro!

[shreddermon]

Actually, as I re-read that post, not sure I got my point across well. LOL. What I meant is the bible was written by mankind, not God. So it includes reflections of mankind's worst and best, moral and immoral. Religion, as interpreted and written down by man. But the overriding theme - treat your fellow man well - does comes through, IMHO. So let's please do that.

Thoughts and prayers for the victims in Paris.

[Tetsuo]

You guys really believe that ending religion will have any impact? Sorry but religion is just one of MANY tools that evil, murderous psychos will use to justify their actions. Religion, race, nationality, economics, politics - the list goes on and on. They're all just different belief systems used to convert sheep into followers, lies and deception to get fools to believe "the cause", and then follow orders to carry out the psychos' real agendas. But ultimately it's all about power, control, greed. And the evil psychos will use whatever belief system they can to gain that power and control.

Sure, religion has been abused to justify these evils throughput history. But religion itself is not inherently evil. The people who misuse it are.

Religion is just more abused as a catalyst for violence above every other avenue. The problem with religion, it allows an avenue for power hungry people to speak to the masses of the uneducated. It is a tool that evil men and women use and to the believers they fall for these sick tactics. The spirituality behind the concepts of religion are generally awesome, but as humans we wage war in the name of God. It is how these tyrants get people to sacrifice their lives. It is fucking disgusting. That is why Islam in a general is so scary. It is like the scary southern evangelists who are backwater, undereducated and over armed, but a much larger population. If religion didn't exist these maniacal leaders wouldn't be able to get the masses behind them. It too often is used for evil. With Islam it is no worse than any other religion in my opinion just that their target audience are way poorer, way under educated and near death and are far too willing to die for an ideal. The real fucking rub is that these religious leaders of any branch, they are not even believers. They are power hungry. L Ron Hubbards real time joke should prove all we need to know about religion. Do we have the Kamakazie pilots without religion? It is a sick tool. It preys upon mans fear of mortality by creating more death.

Not saying religion is all bad but it is generally the axe that has the most blood dripping off of it because men corrupt it absolutely.

[Tetsuo]

Oh yeah I really don't mean to be a dick by any means and I am not saying my views are right either they are simply my observations. I was a theology student so I have plenty of bias.

[atomic charvel guy]

look guys, religion is a license to be irrational. how come in every other facet of life you're branded a lunatic but not when it comes to religion?

example A- If i go on a job interview, or on a date, (with a respecatable girl, not a coke stripper) and I say " you know I firmly believe Elvis Presley
is alive and well. You know what's gonna happen as well as I do, I'm not getting the job, and i'm certainly not getting laid either, but if I say a few latin words
over a horrible glue tasting wafer and say its the body of christ im simply a catholic. or if i say someone rose from the dead, raised people from the dead, walked on water,
turned 2 loves of bread and 2 fish into food for 5,000 people, talk of 72 virgins, or riding fiery chariots across the sky, etc. etc. et-fuckin' cetera! you're just religious.
a full on license to be irrational, it poisons everything

[atomic charvel guy]

shreddermon- that is indeed a bingo! it is the word of man, not God. many people cannot, or actually do not want to believe it isnt man made.
i dont see how you possibly could believe anything but it being man made.

[Razor]

look guys, religion is a license to be irrational. how come in every other facet of life you're branded a lunatic but not when it comes to religion?

example A- If i go on a job interview, or on a date, (with a respecatable girl, not a coke stripper) and I say " you know I firmly believe Elvis Presley
is alive and well. You know what's gonna happen as well as I do, I'm not getting the job, and i'm certainly not getting laid either, but if I say a few latin words
over a horrible glue tasting wafer and say its the body of christ im simply a catholic. or if i say someone rose from the dead, raised people from the dead, walked on water,
turned 2 loves of bread and 2 fish into food for 5,000 people, talk of 72 virgins, or riding fiery chariots across the sky, etc. etc. et-fuckin' cetera! you're just religious.
a full on license to be irrational, it poisons everything

Atomic Tommy, Elvis is not dead, he's a deacon in the Church of Scientology!

Glad to see you're back!

[DRM]

Religion and faith are two completely different things.

One is a set of practices, the other is a system of beliefs. More of a guideline for morals than anything else.

Some of the most morally bankrupt people I have ever met in my life claim to follow some denomination, and two of the seven that I blindly trust with my life are atheists. Making a blanket statement about religion and those who follow them is just as foolish as me trying to prove to you that there is a Creator.

Being a Christian is more than reading the Bible. It's about following the teachings of Jesus Christ and using his lessons to help guide you in how you live your life. Many of the core values of Christianity are absent in today's society, and unfortunately, the majority of our youth today are too focused on their hedonistic needs to take a second to do anything of value for their community. We've slowly broken away from being a country that focused on hard work and a sense of community and have instead become a bunch of narcissistic crybabies who scream for equality but look down on anyone who doesn't share THEIR idea of equality.

I am FAR from what you might picture being a model Christian. I volunteer my spare time at an animal rescue, donate food and old clothes to one of our local homeless shelters, and within the same week, I sometimes have to go somewhere and do bad things to bad people. I don't ask for justification for any of this, but I try to help out those who need it and bring justice to those who deserve it the most. And I know that when the time comes, I'll answer for everything that I've done in my life.

I guess the point I'm trying to make is: don't be so ignorant as to make blanket assumptions about people of faith like we're all mindless zealots. But I, like many of the Christians I associate with, try to make the world a better place and help others. The belief of an afterlife is comforting for many, and when you're about to make a breach with a 100% chance of someone going to die within the next 6 seconds, it's also comforting to know that there's someone looking out for you and your Team mates.

Religion can be a wonderful thing, but like anything else in this world, is often abused and the message is perverted.

[Razor]

Religion and faith are two completely different things.

One is a set of practices, the other is a system of beliefs. More of a guideline for morals than anything else.

Some of the most morally bankrupt people I have ever met in my life claim to follow some denomination, and two of the seven that I blindly trust with my life are atheists. Making a blanket statement about religion and those who follow them is just as foolish as me trying to prove to you that there is a Creator.

Being a Christian is more than reading the Bible. It's about following the teachings of Jesus Christ and using his lessons to help guide you in how you live your life. Many of the core values of Christianity are absent in today's society, and unfortunately, the majority of our youth today are too focused on their hedonistic needs to take a second to do anything of value for their community. We've slowly broken away from being a country that focused on hard work and a sense of community and have instead become a bunch of narcissistic crybabies who scream for equality but look down on anyone who doesn't share THEIR idea of equality.

I am FAR from what you might picture being a model Christian. I volunteer my spare time at an animal rescue, donate food and old clothes to one of our local homeless shelters, and within the same week, I sometimes have to go somewhere and do bad things to bad people. I don't ask for justification for any of this, but I try to help out those who need it and bring justice to those who deserve it the most. And I know that when the time comes, I'll answer for everything that I've done in my life.

I guess the point I'm trying to make is: don't be so ignorant as to make blanket assumptions about people of faith like we're all mindless zealots. But I, like many of the Christians I associate with, try to make the world a better place and help others. The belief of an afterlife is comforting for many, and when you're about to make a breach with a 100% chance of someone going to die within the next 6 seconds, it's also comforting to know that there's someone looking out for you and your Team mates.

Religion can be a wonderful thing, but like anything else in this world, is often abused and the message is perverted.

Amen brother! I wish I could have stated it as well as you have. I wanted to try to post something, but I would have just come across as an arrogant asshole. I was raised in a southern fundamental Baptist household, and it quite frankly gave religion a bad taste in my mouth the older I got. I believe in God and Jesus. I've seen a lot of pastors and deacons that were what I would consider "wolves in sheeps clothing", and for the most part if I encounter a person who tells me he's a minister I immediately become distrustful of them.

I will say that most of the people I know who profess to be Christians are good people trying to espouse the ideas that DRM noted above. Help and love your friend and neighbor, do unto others as you have them do unto you, so forth so on. I just want to live my life with the knowledge that when it's done and over with I can rest well thinking I was a good person and a good friend to people. That has nothing to do with not wanting to root out what I consider evil in this world, and in my mind ISIS is beyond evil.

DRM, best of luck and my thoughts and prayers go with you as you go out and protect and project our way of life and freedoms!

[atomic charvel guy]

faith is believeing in something for where there is no empirical evidence. im a humanist. its the year 2015, im an empirical evidence kinda guy.
there is probably no better template on how to treat others than jesus christ, i get it. but that book as a whole is a disaster. it stunts our evolution.
look, ive had 3 friends i grew up with confide in me about being sexually assaulted by priests in our town, so i dont care if its christian, catholic, mormon,
baptist, 7th day adventists, the lot of them, i fuckin' hate religion. it's territorial, it divides everyone, it prevents any chance of unity whatsoever.
DRM, im not blanketing people, im blanketing religion, it does more bad than good, it always has. just my unhumble opinion.not looking to fight with anyone here either, i just love bashing religion, i cant help myself. i really harbor that much contempt for it.

[atomic charvel guy]

i do harbor love for my JCF bretheren even though i dont hang out anymore. i dont need a bible to tell me to be good to my fellow man, which is
something ive learned how to do very well the last 3 years especially.