I'm of the opinion that one's religious beliefs, one's interaction with life and existence, one's consideration of the spiritual ought to be something personal and private for it to be sincere.
The outward expression of proclaiming it is quite transactional if you think about it. "I'm a Christian and love Christ 'cause I want to get to heaven". Remove the whole aspect of heaven or everlasting hellfire and literal hell within most Christians breaks lose. That's not honesty. It makes your nobility of Christendom binary. Transactional.
Too many atrocities in the history of religion to think it's infallible, that's where the mountain stands. Nothing can be infallible, even Jesus was imperfect, bursts of anger and Disobedience. And where should the line be drawn in terms of following Christ's deeds or his footsteps? And taking The Almighty God as the example, why can't we be jealous, why can't we be angry and kill our enemies with weapons of mass destruction, he did that, he wiped a whole nation with floods (Gen.7) and another with fire. (Gen.19)
I ask again where is the line?
There is a revered spiritual leader chronicled in the Hadith who married a 6-year-old girl and ordered the raping and killing of women. Condoned and participated in sex slavery after war conquests. killed and Enslaved any people with a different ideology than his own. (koran 9.123)
Christopher Hitches tells a story of a suicide bomber in his book "God is not great", who's mission went haywire.
When being interviewed he was asked about the pain he would cause to his family after his death and he said in martyrdom you get to pick 72 people to join you in paradise after death. Murder and cruelty in the name if religion.
Koran 4:95-, praises those that take arms to fight the infidels, it states clearly those that kill in the name of Allah are better than those that proclaim their faith just like the Christian verse that says faith without works is dead.
That's supposedly the religion of peace as Islam apologists will have you believe and the moderate will shout anytime you relate their religion with "Bloody wars" ; koran 4:73-78.
I started this article by stating that religion or faith should be something personal and as I've shown. Some of this religions will need you to express your faith outwardly to be a good follower,
"Our common humanity is reason enough to protect our fellow human beings from harm" Sam Harris in, The End Of Faith.
We don't need religion to simply be good people, we don't need to believe in the Koran or The Bible to be benevolent. As stated, if this is your only drive to provide service to humanity it becomes transactional, selfish and dishonest.
"Auschwitz, Cathar heresy, the which hunts,Jihad- these phrases signify depth of human depravity and suffering, (Brought about by) Christianity and Islam's principality of faith and religion," writes Sam Harris; "A history of mankind's misery and ignorance rather than it's requited Love of God"
Service to humanity, goodness and love should be unconditional.
I agree,be good because you want and understand the importance of it,not because you being guided by the Bible ,or the promise of eternal life in heaven . Hypothetically what if heaven or hell ain't real and they are all like the bedtime stories we tell yo our kids to keep them in line? Where does that leave us ,who do good or act good because the Bible says so?
ReplyDeleteI agree,be good because you want and understand the importance of it,not because you being guided by the Bible ,or the promise of eternal life in heaven . Hypothetically what if heaven or hell ain't real and they are all like the bedtime stories we tell yo our kids to keep them in line? Where does that leave us ,who do good or act good because the Bible says so?
ReplyDeleteI agree,be good because you want and understand the importance of it,not because you being guided by the Bible ,or the promise of eternal life in heaven . Hypothetically what if heaven or hell ain't real and they are all like the bedtime stories we tell yo our kids to keep them in line? Where does that leave us ,who do good or act good because the Bible says so?
ReplyDelete