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Is there a religion you dislike?

Baydwin

Well-Known Member
I have to be careful with my wording here as I don't want this to descend into flaming, trolling and general anarchy.

I've seen the threads asking people that, if they didn't believe as they did, which religion would they be/find the most interesting.

I'd like to ask the opposite. Is there a religion or faith-based system of belief that you, as an individual, have a dislike for, find disturbing or worrying or simply feel is no good for it's followers or even humanity as a whole?

I realise this needs to be handled very delicately, so if you chose to reply I'd like you to as civil as possible and give good reasons for your dislike.
Also, if someone says they don't like your religion, please either let it go, or if you must respond then reply to their criticisms only and don't get angry.

Lets see how this goes.
 

Storm

ThrUU the Looking Glass
Carefully.....

Well, I'm not even convinced it's a religion, but Scientology raises a lot of red flags for me. The biggest being the fact that they charge money.
 

Riverwolf

Amateur Rambler / Proud Ergi
Premium Member
I have to be careful with my wording here as I don't want this to descend into flaming, trolling and general anarchy.

I've seen the threads asking people that, if they didn't believe as they did, which religion would they be/find the most interesting.

I'd like to ask the opposite. Is there a religion or faith-based system of belief that you, as an individual, have a dislike for, find disturbing or worrying or simply feel is no good for it's followers or even humanity as a whole?

I realise this needs to be handled very delicately, so if you chose to reply I'd like you to as civil as possible and give good reasons for your dislike.
Also, if someone says they don't like your religion, please either let it go, or if you must respond then reply to their criticisms only and don't get angry.

Lets see how this goes.

You're handling fire, believe me. But handling with fire is not the same thing as playing with fire, so let's see how this goes.

I, personally, don't really care for... well, in my opinion, all religions are paths to God, so my problem is when people try to hold on to old ways that they don't need anymore. Any religion could, therefore, become a problem, even if now it isn't one.

So, any religion that hasn't evolved much from its roots can really be a problem. But then it's really on the people, not the religion itself.
 

Troublemane

Well-Known Member
I personally don't see the point of a religion which is so obsessively strict, that there are rules of cleanliness and ritual purity requiring their members to clean themselves every time they pray, and they are compelled to pray many times a day. I dont wanna call out all of em by name, but there are quite a few (surprisingly)....I dont have a real gripe about em, and I dont dislike them, per se. I just think its rather extreme to demand of the general people such strictness in their observances. It seems such strictness should be reserved for monks, they like that sort of thing. They're monks, after all. :angel2:
 

Draka

Wonder Woman
Scientology is the first to pop to mind. Screams "dangerous cult" to me from all I've read and seen about how the treat their own family members who leave and whatnot. Not even taking into account the money thing storm brought up.

Another one is Jehovah Witnesses. Even if you take away the narcissistic elitist religious beliefs and the obsessive need to proselytize, there is the big factor of them not believing in blood or tissue transplants and so on. Now, it is one thing if you want to be so stubborn as to not use a simple safe and proven method to save your life, but to deny your children the ability to live by denying them proper medical treatment...that's beyond evil to me...and I don't often ever use that word either. In fact, any religion that would rather their children die then get proper medical treatment...are worthless evil religions that should be wiped from the earth. but that's JMO. ;)
 

YmirGF

Bodhisattva in Recovery
I have issues with any group that assumes their ideas are worthy of respect and yet cannot explain those ideas without appealing to faith and circular reasoning. As said elsewhere, though Islam and Scientology are currently at the top of my list, I can't say I am greatly impressed with any current religions. They all have their crumbs but their loaves turned to dust long ago.

More to the point, I strongly disapprove of any religion that bases itself on the so-called "revelations" of its founders. I do not accept the concept of revelation, and prefer instead, realization. At least realization, in theory, can be passed on and duplicated. Revelation is unique and usually given from the standpoint of being unerring. That just doesn't cut it, in my opinion.

Lastly, I strongly dislike any religion that includes worship. It is a very primitive ideal that for some reason has held over the centuries. I cannot imagine why a god, worthy of being called a god, would tolerate being worshiped. The way I am looking at it, it is like my pinky finger deciding to worship the rest of my body. The construct simply makes no actual sense other than perhaps flattering the worshiper that they have had the wisdom to find their object of adoration.
 

Sunstone

De Diablo Del Fora
Premium Member
Fundamentalisms of all stripes. They remind me of why humans will drive themselves extinct.
 

dogsgod

Well-Known Member
Religion/superstition. What I get a kick out of is people of one religion pointing fingers at another.
 

Shadow Wolf

Certified People sTabber
I don't like extremist of any religion. But as for specifics, Scientology is one of them. The money they charge, the science fiction plot to it, and the fact that Hubbard has been quoted saying "Religion is where the money is at" is a major reason on why I even refuse to acknowledge it as anything more than a very dangerous cult. Not suicidal dangerous, as they would loose money and go out of business, but dangerous non-the-less.
The other religion I don't like I don't mention.
 

Humanistheart

Well-Known Member
I have to be careful with my wording here as I don't want this to descend into flaming, trolling and general anarchy.

I've seen the threads asking people that, if they didn't believe as they did, which religion would they be/find the most interesting.

I'd like to ask the opposite. Is there a religion or faith-based system of belief that you, as an individual, have a dislike for, find disturbing or worrying or simply feel is no good for it's followers or even humanity as a whole?

I realise this needs to be handled very delicately, so if you chose to reply I'd like you to as civil as possible and give good reasons for your dislike.
Also, if someone says they don't like your religion, please either let it go, or if you must respond then reply to their criticisms only and don't get angry.

Lets see how this goes.

The abrahamic religions. I feel world peace is not possible untill those religions are no longer practiced. Also, typically any fundamentalist groups from any religion present a problem.
 

Baydwin

Well-Known Member
This is going better than I expected, and I'd like to thank everyone so far for showing such restraint and civility with their posts. I honestly expected to come back to find the thread closed.

Christianity - the shadow.:eek:
I'm sorry, I don't grasp what you mean here, would you mind explaining a little more for me?

For me, there is one religion that I have an innate dislike for, however since I can't class that as a good reason it would be breaking my own rules to say which one.

However, there are facets of religions that I don't like. One that has already been mentioned is the charging of money, and I'd actually include tithing in that.
Another is the way some religions claim supersession over others, which implies redundancy in the religion(s) they claim to have superseded.
 

Charity

Let's go racing boys !
Scientology is the first to pop to mind. Screams "dangerous cult" to me from all I've read and seen about how the treat their own family members who leave and whatnot. Not even taking into account the money thing storm brought up.

Another one is Jehovah Witnesses. Even if you take away the narcissistic elitist religious beliefs and the obsessive need to proselytize, there is the big factor of them not believing in blood or tissue transplants and so on. Now, it is one thing if you want to be so stubborn as to not use a simple safe and proven method to save your life, but to deny your children the ability to live by denying them proper medical treatment...that's beyond evil to me...and I don't often ever use that word either. In fact, any religion that would rather their children die then get proper medical treatment...are worthless evil religions that should be wiped from the earth. but that's JMO. ;)

I agree with you Draka, Same things came to my mind...;)
 

EverChanging

Well-Known Member
Fundamentalism of any stripe is a big problem for me. HumanistHeart mentioned the Abrahamic religions, Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. I don't think these religions should be abolished completely -- there is much in value of them, especially when looking at how they evolved through time, and how they have at different times been progressive, or regressed to a more primitive or immoral form, and so forth. However, I do think that as a whole, they must be reformed -- too often are they behind the times rather than ahead of the times. However, I don't particularly dislike them.

There are certain groups I dislike: Scientology (I just watched a video on that last night -- I will be studying it in my Sociology of Religion Course), Jehovah's Witnesses because the beliefs of parents regarding blood transfusions can be harmful, Christian Scientists (in which practitioners have sometimes let their children die or otherwise suffer neglect), and Pentecostalism.

I was exposed to Pentecostalism at a young age, and it is still traumatic for me to this day. Sometimes memories intrude upon my consciousness unexpectedly and I find myself wincing, sometimes gasping in pain or experience a very deep grief and shame. Thought-stopping techniques were used on us, fear of God, fear of hell, fear of the devil. We were manipulated emotionally by music, encouraged to lose control, convulse, speak in "tongues," exorcisms were practiced, and the people in general were very condemning and spread lots of lies about innocent people. When a younger pastor took over, it seemed that things would be more progressive, but the current minister's wife claims to have prayed a friend of mine out of the town. This friend no longer believes, but is still compelled by her husband to attend a Pente church even though he doesn't attend himself, even though she no longer believes. This person also claimed that her prayers caused a family member of mine to develop cancer. For anyone who believes this woman, they put the control of their lives into her hands because of fear.

The way I was taught as a child was that all other Christians are heretical and destined for hell. The length of our sleeves was regulated, our clothing, no TV, etc., and of course the pastors often did the very things they condemned in their members. I witnessed them pull a disabled woman from a wheelchair, hold her up, take pictures, put her back into her chair, and later used the pictures as "evience" that she was healed. This woman has some sort of mental disability and cannot understand the significance of what happened to her. If people were sick, it was often said that it was because of sin or that they didn't have enough faith to be healed.

One distinctive feature of this group is that they hardly ever talked about love and kindness toward others, but if you leave the church (as I did) or don't know anything about it, and especially if you are suffering from emotional problems (as I did at another point in time), people surround you, telling you they love you, you need to open up, tell them your problems. Of course I refused, but I was surrounded by people love bombing me, trying to manipulate me into telling them things that weren't any of their business. And at another point, I was physically trapped in the building by a bunch of screaming people who sent me into a nervous wreck.

I have visited some other Pentecostal or charismatic-leaning churches that aren't so rigid, but I recognized that they employed many of the same techniques, especially psychological manipulation. I can't see anything redeemable in this movement at all and think it would be better if it goes out of existence or evolves into something else altogether, and based on my experience, I don't think it is likely to evolve into something more positive.
 

footprints

Well-Known Member
I have to be careful with my wording here as I don't want this to descend into flaming, trolling and general anarchy.

I've seen the threads asking people that, if they didn't believe as they did, which religion would they be/find the most interesting.

I'd like to ask the opposite. Is there a religion or faith-based system of belief that you, as an individual, have a dislike for, find disturbing or worrying or simply feel is no good for it's followers or even humanity as a whole?

I realise this needs to be handled very delicately, so if you chose to reply I'd like you to as civil as possible and give good reasons for your dislike.
Also, if someone says they don't like your religion, please either let it go, or if you must respond then reply to their criticisms only and don't get angry.

Lets see how this goes.


Let me state up front, I am referring to religions here, not the people who belong to religions. A religion is an inanimate organisation, just as science is an inanimate organisation.

From a personal level, I do not like any religion. If I had my way, I would abolish all tomorrow. A religion isn't needed to have a belief or to praise a deity.

Would I abolish churches? No, not really, I would just abolish the name plate out the front of the church which says what denomination it was.

Would I have priests et al? No, not really, In their place I would have any person, who wanted to have their say and praise God.

Would I have tax exemptions for Churches? Yes, providing of course they maintain their charitable role and put back into society.
 

Buttons*

Glass half Panda'd
Any religion steeped in literalism, and subsequently, fanaticism, fall under the category of faiths I do not like. In saying that, (as others have mentioned) Scientology raises problems not due to it's literalism, though, that is a part of it, but the sheer "weirdness" of it. I know, it sounds kind of stupid coming from a Gnostic... but Scientology tends to endorse shady business.

I also dislike the FLDS faith. Not because I care about polygamy, but some of the things carried out in that faith are illegal and harmful to children.

In saying that, I have met people from all the religions I dislike, (save Scientology and the FLDS) and they are mostly lovely people just trying to get by. I imagine there are people within every faith that I could grow to like.

I really don't mean to offend anyone... but religions that take such a literal stance on things tend to be dangerous. They also tend to be ignorant of the message between the lines.... which causes (in my experience) people to take things to the extreme, and eventually cause harm. Ignorance and literalism tend to go hand in hand. For the record, I'm not saying they are stupid by ANY means, just that they are ignorant of the lessons in some cases because they are too consumed with a literal interpretation of text.
 

meogi

Well-Known Member
No actual religion. I only dislike when the religious interfere with me or others (laws, bigotry, etc). But those are individuals, not religion. Interpretation means a lot to me.

But Scientology, of course. It's a tax-free, incrementally expensive, incorporated science fiction book. Still, most religions have some pretty strange and downright absurd elements, but that doesn't stop them generally giving good outlines for life; especially to those who need or want it.
 

England my lionheart

Rockerjahili Rebel
Premium Member
I dislike any religion that forces their beliefs on others or punishes Apostates and the religions followers holier than though attitude,i dislike religious leaders who promote Childbirth even in Countries that cannot sustain their current population.
 

Ben Dhyan

Veteran Member
Hi Baydwin, asking if there is there is a religion you dislike is like asking if there is a school class you dislike?

The point is that each and every school class is designed for the appropriate incremental and progressive development of the inherent potential of unfolding the higher and deeper understanding of each student, not about the students opinion of whether they like it or not.
 
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