Religion backed by fear?

I have always thought that in the back of my mind that if i were to believe in any religion it would be hard to choose the right one. I know that most people just believed whatever theyre parents believed in but I never reall believed in it from my childhood. So as i became older and a little more interested in religion I looked into them all and I soon relized one thing, they all seemed to have the message that if you dont believe in them something bad will happen. So i geuss the questions that i am trying to ask are

Is there evidence for me to be assured there is a god after being brough up with no belief whatsoever?

Is there any other reason for me to believe in a religion other than something that ultimately comes down to fear?

 

Quick answer to both of your questions: No.

I strongly believe that religion is a result of fear. It's natural to fear things you don't understand, and religion can help you think that you do understand these things. And above all of course, is the fear of death, about every single religion promises to make it better after death if you believe in said religion.

 

There is no logical reason to believe in any religion.

All religions will use fear to lure people into following. fear of an eternal agony for not believing. Which is completely ridiculous. Why would a god need people to believe in him anyway? Why punish those who dont if you havnt given us any reason to? For all we know the flying spaghetti monster is the creator.

 

Completely true.

Fear, mind, is only an instinct - one may learn to ignore it, learn that it is irrational (not always, though) or learn to harden the senses against it. Fear of something irrational, such as the everlasting flame of hell, once realised is quite embarassing, and for this I speak from experience; I realised how irrational it was years ago.

Most children though, are brought in to religion being told only the good things, as a toddler is attracted to candy. That being said, most people who come in to a religion nowadays go in to it at early childhood, when they know no better. Therefore, most believe in it without fear, however if one was to go back years ago, such may have been.

It is a mixed argument.

 

Wow, thank you guys for keeping my thread flame free and on topic keep it up guys, oh and do you guys believe in a religion if not then I would like to here from someone that does, then the real arguments will come into play =)

 

Lawl, as a kiddo my grandma always told me to stay a good Christian or I would burn in the fiery pits of Hell for all eternity. I remember spending sleepless nights, fearing ever slipping up and going down under.

It's stupid, when I turned 11 I started noticing all the illogical dogma in the Bible, then read Charles Darwin's book 'The Origin of Species', gave it a lot of mature consideration, then became an Atheist and have been for a good 7 years now.

Not all religions threaten with Hell though, Buddhists and Jews doesn't believe in it. And if I remember correctly, Muslims believes Hell is only a temporary place to pay for your sins.

 

Well people...You cannot just feel the power of religeon just by converting to that religeon...YOU HAVE TO MAKE A LINK WITH GOD...by prayer constanntly...and doing the right things and not the sins...then u will sense the spirit of god and jesus...and theonly reason why i stick to christianity...is the MIRACLES...

 

What evidence do you have to suggest that your "miracles" were not of scientific cause? Did you just look at them and think: "Oh, God must have made it happen!"? Second, provide an answer to the question on the post, rather than passing this as another "Why do you believe in God?" Thread.


Personal Jesus, Buddhism isn't as such a religion, it is a way of life - a philosophy.

 

It's true that Buddhism doesn't threaten with hell, but if you don't live according to the Buddhist ways you will be trapped in the circle of reincarnation, which to Buddhists is considered an eternal suffering that you have to break free from.

So in a way it's the same as other religions.

 

Alright, I haven't posted here in awhile... good vibes everyone, good vibes, gotta stay with the flow... here we go. Don't let me talk to a brick wall, keep up, don't fall...


Schnell, there are many branches of Buddhism just like most other mainstream religions, and I'm a big fan of one of the concepts of Tibetan Buddhism, which is that if one succeeds in breaking the cycle of reincarnation, they can earn their place among the gods, however a true enlightened one will choose to ascend back down to the circle of reincarnation in order to help others break free, voluntarily descending into hell for the benefit of mankind so to speak.

It's true that many religions can be driven by fear, and this is unfortunate but it is simply due to the corruption man has bestowed upon the essence of our souls.... That's all mumbo jumbo to you atheists of course, so perhaps I need to explain a little better, make it a little more complicated to tickle your rationalism, hehe.... <3


When you attain a true spiritual connection, regardless of whatever faith you uphold, if any, you will often be placed in situations where you need to confront your fears... it turns into something you can use to overcome all your fears rather than something that encourages fear... fear is negativity... you learn to ascend above that into a love which is void of such pointless negative emotions.

Love.

Love.

Love.

When I die, I will burn to a crisp, I will cease to exist, I will not be here or near.... but that's ok, it's all about the journey, that's all life is, the journey, and you gotttaaaa loveeeee if we wanna make this work for all our fellow sentient beings....

Can't we agree? Atheists, and those who uphold a faith, can't we embrace one another in love instead of creating all this negativity through argument in each others desire to be on top?!

Much love

-

 

Who the FUCK let that goddamn hippie out of his cage?

 

I let myself out because I'm free to be me, it's such a shame a message of peace can be received with such negativityyyy! A matter of perception, you see....

Everyone deserves love, both you and me, but many people are not open to the idea of being so free. It is impossible for me to love you if you don't have an open avenue within your mind for it to be received, so my love bounces off your shell and back on to me, a shame because trust me i have plenty.

Love has no value, love simply is. You can try to force it into having value by denying some love while accepting other, but this is just a game of the ego which will inevitably lead to more despair and drama (though this is what some people want, so whatever floats your boat, as long as your causin' no harm it doesn't bother me)

 

Take your love elsewhere. I have no need of it.

For the sake of keeping this topic on track, how about we talk about fear of religion rather than that of which the fear states? It turned from "fear of religion" to "buddhism" right before my eyes.

 

That "goddamn hippie" speaks more sense then 90% of the posters in here, seems like it's wasted on you though.

And when did the thread to "buddhism", all I see is a little "fear in buddhism" sidetrack, which shouldn't be a problem. Let's just hope it doesn't turn into "get the hippie back in the cage"

 

I go to a christian school, and it teaches that if you do not believe in God, you will go to hell for the rest of your life after you're dead. That sounds like something that is supposed to scare you. i think most people are christians or buddhists or whatever because they are scared of something. They are probably scared of something like the afterlife or god striking you down

 

I agree with Schnell let the Buddhist speak, though please get oof the topic of "spread the love man"

 

PREACH.

This topic can be is pretty biased, because not believing in something can be be backed by fear aswell.

 

They are (for the most part) avoiding the somewhat depressing truth. They don't want to beleive when you die that is all there is. They want to feel their life on earth has some sort of greater meaning. Even the idea of hell seems better to many than "nothingness." "I'd rather feel pain than nothing at all," as the saying goes.

 

Religion was obviously created out of fear. Being scared comes from what you don't know. If you don't know what is in a cave, will you go in it? People wanted something to belive in because they didn't know what was after death. They didn't know-they were scared. The idea of a place that was peaceful and loving and a place where you could see past one's that have died was more appealing and settling. The rest is unfortunatly history...

What simple people...

~Firebird~

 

Heaven is here on earth, the Garden of eden is right before your eyes. That place of peace and loving is real, nothing but pure waves of love, compassion, peacefulness, all pure... You can go to this place, it is simple, it is there, it is amazing... You can experience this for yourself.

But... it's been forgotten. It's been forgotten by most people, societies which try to make things overly complex, the fruit of knowledge, we've forgotten our paradise.

Such complicated people...



It's all part of the experience of course, being complicated... it's just the polarity of being simple, and you know, we gotta do both if we're gonna do it all, which seems to be what we're aiming for.. but now things are getting kinda dirty, we're kinda just rotting in our complexity, it's getting a little nasty... so many people are begging to return to the garden... but we've forgotten how! what a pity, distracted ourselves too long.... These coming years will be tough, for everyone, those of faith and those of science.

What bothers me just as much as the fear used to control many mainstream religions, is the absolute absence of fear that society/complexity embraces... it's just this cold apathy, they do what they please, aware of the consequences... and they don't seem to care much, or if they do, they don't care enough.. because that's what happens when you kill god, everything just becomes cold. or maybe just a little too warm?

I mean I'm not saying all societies are unethical or anything silly like that, and of course the governments, scientists, religions, and businesses are responsible as well, we all take the blame, but that's still all part of the complexity, it's the complexity I'm attacking here... We can't comprehend the complexity of our situation enough, collectively I mean, to effectively control it. We don't have enough collective awareness, everything is too complicated... this is a problem.

So I guess it's only natural that we collectively kill god, which is what has been happening with this growing number of atheists... which may very well be a fear based choice as well, because i mean fuck, if there really is some higher force, well.... things don't look to good hahaha, it's not a good picture right now. So we're collectively killing god - and I mean that's all fine and dandy if you guys really wanna do that, no one to blame but ourselves then so we better get our priorities in order, you know?

A happy medium is needed.. not fear, fear is still negativity, but not this senseless careless bravery... awareness is what's needed, awareness of our actions and the drive to correct them, to make the best possible choices in order to leave the universe a better place than when we found it, motivation, caring is needed, we need to care, we need a reason to care. Compassion, compassion for other people and our planet, and of course, love.

Then maybe we can come to the garden again.

Peace brother.