Comment on: Re: The Removal of religion?

Bigthink — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 19:55:11 +0100

I read your statements and I had to comment. Take a look at the famous philosopher Peter Singer's argument for charity.
You made some interesting points, but provided no proof. I am not religious and have never been a member of any church except the true church which the Bible describes as the body of Christ. Without getting to deep this simply means that I view Christ as a living person, who did all of the things in the Bible that it says he did AND MORE, who is my authority. I believe that God has a purpose in developing me under that authority, and along with others, we fit into that overall purpose and should work together and for each other.
Does this mean that I am less likely to study anything against my religion? Because according to your comment, it does.
I can say with supreme confidence that this is not the case. It may be with some churches and church leaders, but not with a lot of independent and non-denominational believers of the words of Christ.
That being said and coming from a philosophical standpoint, it is not a matter of good people doing good and evil people doing evil, it is about doing what comes naturally for a person to do. Is it natural for anyone (whether they love God or reject God) to commit murder, rape or bigotry? I think we would both agree that it is not inherent in human beings to do this. Some people may want to know WHY this is not inherent while others want to know WHAT is considered good/evil, but I only want to learn to do what is righteous.
From the way you expressed your ideas, I can see that there are few things that we would differ on fundamentally, however everything that you said seems to suggest that people should give up their faith in their God or gods, even though you cited the problems with a "completely atheistic society," Do you still propose this is better than believing in God?
Being that I would like to be your friend (and not in a corny hippie way) and openly share ideas with you and others (as is the intent of Big Think in the first place), I would ask you to reconsider the difference in organized religion (which is actually a business and not a place to receive teaching about faith and spiritual development) and faith in God apart from religion.
Do not reconsider for me, not that I am pretentious enough to believe that you would, but do it because you are a responsible human being who owes it to himself, and others, to fully explore any possibility that God is righteous, real and knows you personally.
I believe that by examining your position on atheism vs. organized religion you will find that the end result is the same: That neither is capable of getting a person to God and therefore a person can not discover how they should interact with others through organized religion or the denial of God.
Peace, holla back because this is not an attack but an opportunity to develop some dialogue.

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Comment on: Re: The Removal of religion?