by googleTTATT 13 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
I am compiling my list. You can add yours if you like to.
1. The hypocrisy in religion.
2. Religion make good people bad and bad people worse and worse people worst.
3. The false dates given in religion.
4. Religions use their fundamental books to suit their beliefs.
5. Wrong and distorted views about sexual life. The list goes on.
A lot of depression in religion is another reason.
Not all religion is bad. We have friends of many faiths and there are some genuinely great people who are religious.
My reason is that i see no need for it in my life.
Not all religion is bad.
I wish I could completely agree with that. When I look at the entire big picture, religion has cause more harm than good to people. Not everything is bad, but in its entirety, nope, religion is guilty of a whole lot of bad things.
Religion can oppress critical thought and openly acquired knowledge.
Religion can empower and corrupt self serving men, putting woman and children beneath them.
Religion can provoke delusional thought of assumed power which can be dangerous in the wrong hands
Sure many bad things have been done in the name of religion AND it can impede free thought but some religion and religious people do good for our communities. Many volunteer their time and energy to help the poor and needy, put on drives to help sick kids, and get people together to discuss common problems such as chronic illness and loss.
Personally I've met both good people who were religious and non religious. It's all the same but clumping all religion into the same mold just isn't true.
Darknight757 - I agree.
Of course we can do good things that don't involve lying to ourselves, but some religious groups still lead the way in good deeds and community activity.
Religion does a lousy job at what it is supposed to do. It does nothing to teach about metaphysics, which is what religion is supposed to teach. And any religion that does not teach the truth about metaphysics (including magic) is no good. Worse, most of today's religions either teach lies about metaphysics (assuring a bad outcome) or teach people to not touch it with a 10 meter pole (as in the jokehovians' dread of spiritism).
Instead, religion as is practiced today just donates spiritual energy to the damnation of the whole human race. This is blatant when you sit at a service and feel drained, worse than had you worked that amount of time. I have noticed the headache I got after a big or grand boasting session. You are being programmed to accept poverty and misery in your life, as virtue. Their policies generate stupid and pointless hardships for the members. This goes across all Christi-SCAM-ity, Judaism, and Islam. This is the opposite of what religion is supposed to do.
WTWizard,
One of the things I despised about Jehovah's Witnesses was their constant imposing of a definition or standard upon something (a standard or definition they often invented) and then using this to prove their claims on how something has failed because it does not live up to that same made-up standard of definition.
It is not an axiom that religion is "supposed...to teach about metaphysics." In fact there is no such universally-accepted statement from academics, scientists, anthropologists, etc. that impose such a requisite adding that if a religion does not meet this standard then it fails for not 'teaching what it is supposed to teach.'
This doesn't mean that religion is therefore harmless and should be immediately taken up by all. But such a requirement is something you are clearly imposing upon religion, something you are inventing.
Religion may be as horrible as you claim, but your failure to reject the Jehovah's Witness practice of forcing a requisite upon religion and saying that it fails when it doesn't meet that standard demonstrates that you are only willing to part with those JW mindsets that no longer fit your current stand against all religion. Such a method of judging something is as dishonest and illogical outside the Watchtower as it is when practiced by those who still worship it.
Where for instance does Judaism program its members "to accept poverty and misery in your life, as a virtue"? Except for where Torah teaches Jews to accept and treat the poor no differently from an other, the objective is always to work to remove the burden of poverty and suffering from oneself and others. There is no virtue in accepting a state of suffering or being poor in Judaism. The main teaching of Tikkun Olam across Judaism is about eradicating poverty and suffering from ourselves and others. The common stereotype that "the Jews have all the money" comes from the fact that unlike Christianity and your uneducated claim, we teach no virtue in being poor and suffering. We are noted for often being quite productive and even more financially stable by comparison with others due to this tenet of Judaism.
Claiming that we generate that which encourages accepting an impoverished and suffering state is itself "stupid." You are posting unfounded claims which cannot be supported, and is this not often considered the very definition of what it means to be and act "stupid"?
I don't condemn your general stand on religion, but I do condemn the ignorant statements you are propagating to support your stand. Such a stand can be made on logic and facts without having to impose made-up and impossible-to-support standards for religions.
Religion can be used for evil.
Science can be used for evil.
Politics can be used for evil.
All these things are neutral human activities that can be used for good and evil.
Religion is the pursuit of greater things and the greatest thing is God.
If someone is searching for perfection so this one are practicing religion. That's why cathedrals are so beautiful.
Maybe some religions are bad in its nature. I have my reservations about Islam and JW's because they can and really change their rules at whim.
"So that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ. "
"Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things."
- Phillipians 1:10 and 4:8
