:3 I went from being very Christian to very Atheist. I want to be agnostic - who am I to say there's no god? But I just can't believe there really is one. I remember when I believed in God, I was very happy - I had my security blanket, I had nothing to fear, I was never lonely. But children who believe in Santa Clause are also very happy. And I can't help but think that God is nothing more than Santa Clause - a joyful placebo for the soul.
I stopped believing because homophobic Christians were a contradiction to what I was taught, that Christianity was about kindness. I started questioning how you could hate someone in the name of god who tells you to love everyone, and ended up going from "is being gay really wrong?" to "does god exist?" By the time I was done, I didn't believe in anything anymore.
That aside, my parents, especially my mother, are a beautiful example of the religious. My mother is truly kind to everyone, even people she's frustrated with or dislikes or who've hurt her, she always turns the other cheek because that is her belief. My parents and many other Christians are very generous when it comes to charity, not only giving money but often time - they fed the homeless for over a decade (until the program had too many problems) amongst other things.
You could say that, human beings are generally kind, but can always be exceedingly cruel. There are many atheist or non-religious groups (e.g. USSR) that discriminate in the name of atheism, and as mutive said, a lot of genocide had more to do with ethnic groups (whether skin color or cultural difference or the combination of the two). My current belief is that people need to mix - like in Los Angeles, where I live/work, I think the diversity helps people learn and grow.
Do you read One Piece? In the current arc, they talk about discrimination between humans and fishmen. And what the good characters say is, "we are afraid of them because we don't know anything about them."
But that aside, religious fanaticism - the fantastical belief in a golden heaven full of virgins or what not, IS what caused 9/11. Even if the underlining cause was jealousy or some other describable agenda, for people to commit suicide in the name of god, they have to be promised some posthumous reward.
Mmmm I guess my overall feeling is, religion can have it's good points and it's bad, but whether or not we're religious, the same things will happen unless we become less ignorant of each other.
My personal belief is that the internet will save the world.
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Date: 2011-09-12 09:38 pm (UTC)I stopped believing because homophobic Christians were a contradiction to what I was taught, that Christianity was about kindness. I started questioning how you could hate someone in the name of god who tells you to love everyone, and ended up going from "is being gay really wrong?" to "does god exist?" By the time I was done, I didn't believe in anything anymore.
That aside, my parents, especially my mother, are a beautiful example of the religious. My mother is truly kind to everyone, even people she's frustrated with or dislikes or who've hurt her, she always turns the other cheek because that is her belief. My parents and many other Christians are very generous when it comes to charity, not only giving money but often time - they fed the homeless for over a decade (until the program had too many problems) amongst other things.
You could say that, human beings are generally kind, but can always be exceedingly cruel. There are many atheist or non-religious groups (e.g. USSR) that discriminate in the name of atheism, and as mutive said, a lot of genocide had more to do with ethnic groups (whether skin color or cultural difference or the combination of the two). My current belief is that people need to mix - like in Los Angeles, where I live/work, I think the diversity helps people learn and grow.
Do you read One Piece? In the current arc, they talk about discrimination between humans and fishmen. And what the good characters say is, "we are afraid of them because we don't know anything about them."
But that aside, religious fanaticism - the fantastical belief in a golden heaven full of virgins or what not, IS what caused 9/11. Even if the underlining cause was jealousy or some other describable agenda, for people to commit suicide in the name of god, they have to be promised some posthumous reward.
Mmmm I guess my overall feeling is, religion can have it's good points and it's bad, but whether or not we're religious, the same things will happen unless we become less ignorant of each other.
My personal belief is that the internet will save the world.
/rambling ^^;