Dream Angel
Well-Known Member
I have been thinking quite a lot over the past few weeks about religion. Several things have come into my mind....
What if religion didn't exist....what would the world be like? Would it be any different to the way it is now? Would marriage still occur? or as some people think, is marriage just a religious thing?
What if Jesus had come today and not 2008 years ago (I was talking about this with Scruffitude the other day), with all the scientific knowledge we have and logic and reasoning...would the history of Jesus we know still have occurred if he had come this present day? or would he have just been locked away as a lunatic. For one thing, we dont do crucifictions anymore......
What if Jesus himself didnt exist at all.....I found this interesting article online..
Jesus did not exist
Is religion just a fear of the unknown? We have a hard time dealing with the possibility that things just happen, including claims of supernatural events. “Gods, by virtue of their strange physical properties and their mysterious superpowers, make fine candidates for causes of many of these unusual events.” Is the real reason for religion, just an attempt to suppress our fears of the unknown ie what happens after death? Religion claims to answer all the unknowable questions. This allows most people to put aside their fear of the unknown. Years and years ago, if there was a thunderstorm or any other act of nature, because we as humans didnt understand back then, it was put down to the work of God/s. Science has given us a great number of answers, but there is many that we do not yet have the knowledge to figure out.....If science is right and death is just an end to an existence then what is the point in life? Maybe we just need to accept that we cant know everything - we dont have the capacity to know everything about the universe. As mentioned in other threads we are such a small spec of dust compared to the vast majority of the universe...in short we are nothing!
Richard Dawkins, who argues that “religion is nothing more than a useless, and sometimes dangerous, evolutionary accident.” Could religion be the biggest joke ever on mankind! I found this from another site:-
The more I think about it, the more I dont think there is a thing "as God" and it is just something created by the human race in order to answer the questions of the unknown.
If you really think about it, even religion doesnt have all the answers but then it is said that this is because we are too immature to understand everything about God and in time God will reveal more to us.
Maybe it is just time we all accept that we cannot know everything there is to know and somethings just happen...there is probably a reason for it, we just do not have the ability to understand the reason yet.
This thread may not make sense to some of you...I know I am rambling...but I needed to write my thoughts down in order to make sense of them!
What if religion didn't exist....what would the world be like? Would it be any different to the way it is now? Would marriage still occur? or as some people think, is marriage just a religious thing?
What if Jesus had come today and not 2008 years ago (I was talking about this with Scruffitude the other day), with all the scientific knowledge we have and logic and reasoning...would the history of Jesus we know still have occurred if he had come this present day? or would he have just been locked away as a lunatic. For one thing, we dont do crucifictions anymore......
What if Jesus himself didnt exist at all.....I found this interesting article online..
Jesus did not exist
No historians of the time mention Jesus. Suetonius (65-135) does not. Pliny the Younger only mentions Christians (Paulists) with no comment of Jesus himself. Tacitus mentions a Jesus, but it is likely that after a century of Christian preaching Tacitus was just reacting to these rumours, or probably talking about one of the many other Messiah's of the time. Josephus, a methodical, accurate and dedicated historian of the time mentions John the Baptist, Herod, Pilate and many aspects of Jewish life but does not mention Jesus. (The Testimonium Flavianum has been shown to be a third century Christian fraud). He once mentions a Jesus, but gives no information other than that he is a brother of a James. Jesus was not an unusual name, either. Justus, another Jewish historian who lived in Tiberias (near Kapernaum, a place Jesus frequented) did not mention Jesus nor any of his miracles. It is only in the evidence of later writers, writing about earlier times, that we find a Jesus. What is more surprising (Jesus could simply have been unknown to local historians) is that academics note that the gospels themselves do not allude to first-hand historical sources, either!
Is religion just a fear of the unknown? We have a hard time dealing with the possibility that things just happen, including claims of supernatural events. “Gods, by virtue of their strange physical properties and their mysterious superpowers, make fine candidates for causes of many of these unusual events.” Is the real reason for religion, just an attempt to suppress our fears of the unknown ie what happens after death? Religion claims to answer all the unknowable questions. This allows most people to put aside their fear of the unknown. Years and years ago, if there was a thunderstorm or any other act of nature, because we as humans didnt understand back then, it was put down to the work of God/s. Science has given us a great number of answers, but there is many that we do not yet have the knowledge to figure out.....If science is right and death is just an end to an existence then what is the point in life? Maybe we just need to accept that we cant know everything - we dont have the capacity to know everything about the universe. As mentioned in other threads we are such a small spec of dust compared to the vast majority of the universe...in short we are nothing!
Richard Dawkins, who argues that “religion is nothing more than a useless, and sometimes dangerous, evolutionary accident.” Could religion be the biggest joke ever on mankind! I found this from another site:-
I think the fear of death is the main reason...it was one of mine.....if it wasnt for the unknown and fear of what happens after this life...and the fact that I struggle to comprehend how something as complex as the human mind can just cease to exist...I wouldnt keep turning to religion.Henig reviews literature showing that the fear of death is at the heart of almost every religion. Death is a grim certainty, and religion is there to offer hope and solace. We are susceptible to such beliefs, because of something Henig describes well:A large part of any relationship takes place in our minds . . . so it’s natural for it to continue much as before and after the other person’s death. It is easy to forget that your sister is dead when you reach for the phone to call her, since your relationship was based in so much on memory and imagined conversations even when she was alive.
The more I think about it, the more I dont think there is a thing "as God" and it is just something created by the human race in order to answer the questions of the unknown.
If you really think about it, even religion doesnt have all the answers but then it is said that this is because we are too immature to understand everything about God and in time God will reveal more to us.
Maybe it is just time we all accept that we cannot know everything there is to know and somethings just happen...there is probably a reason for it, we just do not have the ability to understand the reason yet.
This thread may not make sense to some of you...I know I am rambling...but I needed to write my thoughts down in order to make sense of them!
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