Yes, it is true.
I am a Christian, but it's more like a ... I view organized religion as something that has both positive and negative effects. Negative effects - war, racism and so forth. Positive effects, gives hope to many, spirituality, churches has other functions as well that helps people in their daily lives. PLUS, churches can hold certain positions that would help people in bad shape, say they are truly persecuted, you might find safety in a church and they might be able to help you and even save your life. I think that if I was truly persecuted, I might seek help there, because I think they might be more loyal to my need and not what currently is in power and as such would not judge me the way the current political or whatever would and as such, I think my chances with the church might be a bit higher to survive if they would hide me and provide help. In this sense, I think it contributes a lot even in ideological sense. So no. I'm not totally against organized religion, and I'm not totally for it either.
However, my view of God is not aligned with the Christian version. I just think that... OK first of all I don't deny deities, I think it's very possible there is a God. Now, when it gets to the Christian version of God, especially the Catholic version, I must say that to me it makes no sense. I don't mean in a logical way either, I mean in all levels of what constitutes me as a person.
I have grown distant to it. When I see priests and popes and all kinds of religious professionals, to me it seems kind of weird, even funny. People wearing tall hats. Talking in what to me seems poems. All the rituals, I don't get the idea of rituals. It's about bonding and strengthening the belief, I don't think I really need rituals anyway. So my perception of God still comes inherently from the Bible. It's a paradox, to form your view of God from Bible but still say it's not logical, it's weird, it doesn't make sense.
Well, the organized religion part doesn't make much sense to me personally. To others it makes, so I support their wishes and hopes, and it is the very reason I haven't gotten out of the church, I pay church tax. I figure so many people benefit from it. TO me it seems like a good idea, I wouldnt' impose that tax like it is imposed here. However, I still pay that tax and won't resign from the church in order to save few hundred euros a year, I think it helps lots of people so why not? IMO it's money well spent. Besides, I might still turn around and go to church and feel like it's the thing to do, so I'm keeping the option open as well.
However, the point is, the way God is described is contradictory all the time. So what I think is important is to prioritize the message, since it seems to be bunch of stories anyway, that really didn't happen like it is described to have happened, however, they are stories that have lessons in them. So in that sense, I would come up up with a synthesis of those stories and what the organized religion does compared to what I think is the few key points is totally contradictory. If I was to "serve God" the way I think the Bible tells me, I should resign NOW. Just beucase someone wears a funny hat doens't make them an authority in my eyes. On the contrary, it makes them a person with a funny hat. That's about it. I can read the Bible on my own anyway, I don't need some weirdo interpreting it to me, unless I ask for it of course.
So it comes to holy trinity and all these things that don't make any sense. So OK, assume I think God might exist and I would be more than 50% to think it is possible. Now, I might even think that Jesus was on earth. HOWEVER, the Jew version makes much more sense to me. Much more sense. That Jesus isn't the son of God. I would even find it more plausable, that he was a prophet. I just don't see any reason why God would take a human form and come to Earth, and even if that was true, I don't see why everything had to go the way it did, because if God is omnipotent, nothing was left to chance, he knew it before it happened.
So. Why would God take human form, adn then later on it's holy trinity. Why not just human form, because he can do it like that, without the actual existance of holy trinity, son and the holy spirit. It doesn't make ANY sense, if you believe God has powers the Bible tells he has. We don't need any of that triangle thing. So to me it makes much more sense that Jesus was a prophet, or perhaps just a loony with a following.
The POWER of Christinaty derives from this. THe only thing you can _really_ do wrong is to deny Jesus as the son of God. Why is this important? I can murder poeple, I can deny God, I can do anything, if I just accept Jesus as the son of God at the end and ask to be saved and be sincere about it. But if you say, well, I don't think Jesus is the son of God, BOOOOOM! You're ****ing dead with the most horrible afterlife you can imagine, tortured (in an industrialized Hell, interesting view since the story of that part of Hell became about the time of hard labour like that) forever!
Why would it be the key? If Jesus IS God, it's the same thing! If I ask to be saved by God, why would he mind that I go directly, cutting his alter ego? Because it would be the same freaking entity. WHy oh why would it be so important? But it makes all the sense when organized religion establishes power. Otherwise Christianity would have to accept that everyone can be saved without turning into Christianity and in fact just believing in God, even if following all the rules by the Bible, you'd be saved in every sense. But then who would be in our church? What about those pagans we want to join our group? They aren't pagans anymore then.
SO. I have to say that the Jewish version of this whole thing is _much_ more rational. People are wearing tall hats and weird robes and all kinds of bling bling that usually turns out to be the belongings of Ragnor the Village Assassin anyway when they do reasearch and not the holy John of Candlemakers. It's problematic all the time. It's good stories, good talk, but when it comes to the very essential of it, you either believe Jesus is the way, who is actually God, and there's a holy ghost as well, that are actually all God but you have to go through Jesus or you have chosen wrong and ... too bad. It just doesn't sound what an omnipotent entity would do. Sounds like a poor man's version of a God who couldn't afford establishing some messages any other way.
I am a Christian, but it's more like a ... I view organized religion as something that has both positive and negative effects. Negative effects - war, racism and so forth. Positive effects, gives hope to many, spirituality, churches has other functions as well that helps people in their daily lives. PLUS, churches can hold certain positions that would help people in bad shape, say they are truly persecuted, you might find safety in a church and they might be able to help you and even save your life. I think that if I was truly persecuted, I might seek help there, because I think they might be more loyal to my need and not what currently is in power and as such would not judge me the way the current political or whatever would and as such, I think my chances with the church might be a bit higher to survive if they would hide me and provide help. In this sense, I think it contributes a lot even in ideological sense. So no. I'm not totally against organized religion, and I'm not totally for it either.
However, my view of God is not aligned with the Christian version. I just think that... OK first of all I don't deny deities, I think it's very possible there is a God. Now, when it gets to the Christian version of God, especially the Catholic version, I must say that to me it makes no sense. I don't mean in a logical way either, I mean in all levels of what constitutes me as a person.
I have grown distant to it. When I see priests and popes and all kinds of religious professionals, to me it seems kind of weird, even funny. People wearing tall hats. Talking in what to me seems poems. All the rituals, I don't get the idea of rituals. It's about bonding and strengthening the belief, I don't think I really need rituals anyway. So my perception of God still comes inherently from the Bible. It's a paradox, to form your view of God from Bible but still say it's not logical, it's weird, it doesn't make sense.
Well, the organized religion part doesn't make much sense to me personally. To others it makes, so I support their wishes and hopes, and it is the very reason I haven't gotten out of the church, I pay church tax. I figure so many people benefit from it. TO me it seems like a good idea, I wouldnt' impose that tax like it is imposed here. However, I still pay that tax and won't resign from the church in order to save few hundred euros a year, I think it helps lots of people so why not? IMO it's money well spent. Besides, I might still turn around and go to church and feel like it's the thing to do, so I'm keeping the option open as well.
However, the point is, the way God is described is contradictory all the time. So what I think is important is to prioritize the message, since it seems to be bunch of stories anyway, that really didn't happen like it is described to have happened, however, they are stories that have lessons in them. So in that sense, I would come up up with a synthesis of those stories and what the organized religion does compared to what I think is the few key points is totally contradictory. If I was to "serve God" the way I think the Bible tells me, I should resign NOW. Just beucase someone wears a funny hat doens't make them an authority in my eyes. On the contrary, it makes them a person with a funny hat. That's about it. I can read the Bible on my own anyway, I don't need some weirdo interpreting it to me, unless I ask for it of course.
So it comes to holy trinity and all these things that don't make any sense. So OK, assume I think God might exist and I would be more than 50% to think it is possible. Now, I might even think that Jesus was on earth. HOWEVER, the Jew version makes much more sense to me. Much more sense. That Jesus isn't the son of God. I would even find it more plausable, that he was a prophet. I just don't see any reason why God would take a human form and come to Earth, and even if that was true, I don't see why everything had to go the way it did, because if God is omnipotent, nothing was left to chance, he knew it before it happened.
So. Why would God take human form, adn then later on it's holy trinity. Why not just human form, because he can do it like that, without the actual existance of holy trinity, son and the holy spirit. It doesn't make ANY sense, if you believe God has powers the Bible tells he has. We don't need any of that triangle thing. So to me it makes much more sense that Jesus was a prophet, or perhaps just a loony with a following.
The POWER of Christinaty derives from this. THe only thing you can _really_ do wrong is to deny Jesus as the son of God. Why is this important? I can murder poeple, I can deny God, I can do anything, if I just accept Jesus as the son of God at the end and ask to be saved and be sincere about it. But if you say, well, I don't think Jesus is the son of God, BOOOOOM! You're ****ing dead with the most horrible afterlife you can imagine, tortured (in an industrialized Hell, interesting view since the story of that part of Hell became about the time of hard labour like that) forever!
Why would it be the key? If Jesus IS God, it's the same thing! If I ask to be saved by God, why would he mind that I go directly, cutting his alter ego? Because it would be the same freaking entity. WHy oh why would it be so important? But it makes all the sense when organized religion establishes power. Otherwise Christianity would have to accept that everyone can be saved without turning into Christianity and in fact just believing in God, even if following all the rules by the Bible, you'd be saved in every sense. But then who would be in our church? What about those pagans we want to join our group? They aren't pagans anymore then.
SO. I have to say that the Jewish version of this whole thing is _much_ more rational. People are wearing tall hats and weird robes and all kinds of bling bling that usually turns out to be the belongings of Ragnor the Village Assassin anyway when they do reasearch and not the holy John of Candlemakers. It's problematic all the time. It's good stories, good talk, but when it comes to the very essential of it, you either believe Jesus is the way, who is actually God, and there's a holy ghost as well, that are actually all God but you have to go through Jesus or you have chosen wrong and ... too bad. It just doesn't sound what an omnipotent entity would do. Sounds like a poor man's version of a God who couldn't afford establishing some messages any other way.
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