Why

I want to beleive but its hard. All wars have been about Relingion. I believe in God but hate all the wars.

i dont think ALL wars are about religion, mostly money, land, or in this case oil. but yeah, war isnt any way to deal with most of it.

Kizzin...remember that God is not a lot different than we are with our children. Our kids fought and argued and such stuff even though we tried to teach them better. But. still the choice is up to us whether we fight or love. Just seems like we would rather fight than love

99% of wars are about some kind of Religion

Go to God as you are, and see what happens.

that well be hard

I agree with that..sadly. No topic like religon excites the passions in oneself so radically. I think it is because our beliefs are so deeply rooted in our psyches that they can be easily manipulated for the gain of others, both with wars and with any facet of society

What's holding you back?

Man uses religion as an excuse to go to war for property, wealth or perhaps even as a part of natural selection.

What does that have to do with believing in God?

This is a reason that I don't believe in some kind of puppetmaster god who controls everything- because that kind of god would be responsible for war and sorrow- death, destruction, etc.

But a benevolent creator. What has that to do with man's wars?

Why not believe in a god that has no part in man's choice to war on his own species?

Peace to you. May you find a belief system that strengthens and comforts you.

anosasis

ty i think you got it

I'm glad if I was helpful...

BTW- beautiful waterfall- pretty nice creation.

I have heard that as religions are created they reflect the culture of the people. So when the culture is mostly about agriculture then you will worship the earth. When your culture is war like then you worship an rising after death. This is a way to make people feel comfortable throwing away their life such as in a battle, because they know they will get a better one.

I do not believe 99% of all wars is about religion.

That being said...it is man who starts wars, man who ends them.
War is usually about something man wants to change or have.

Religion is to be questioned throughout history. If one thinks about it and reads more of other religions...they really have many similarities in common.

Not saying all religion is bad...but when it is organized, it can be a bit scary to some. Like me. It scares me because it seems that too many become big headed and corrupt. It becomes about money and power to those in the business of religion.

Good luck in your search.

By the way...I DO BELIEVE IN GOD.

Kat

I agree with DD (Anoasis)

It doesn’t come down to either a belief in Christianity or be an Atheist. Far too many people have been brainwashed into think those are the only two choices.

There are other legitimate pictures of God. In fact, I personally believe some make far more sense than the biblical picture of a personified Santa Claus who keeps track of whose being naughty or nice.

I offer you the word “pantheism” to explore. It’s not a ‘religion’ (although some people may claim this label as a religion).

Abstractly the pantheistic view is the view that all that exists is God. Or that God is everything that exists.

Or that the universe is God and we are children of the universe (i.e. children of God)

Or that the universe is a spiritual entity and we are each a manifestation of this spirit.

Or that God is nature, and nature is God and everything is made of spirit.

These are not really ‘separate’ concepts, they are all the same concept just stated in different ways.

Many differnet religions have a pantheistic view of the world. Some of them are Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, and many different religion of various American Indian Tribes (try searching for Sitting Bull, for example, he and his people had pantheistic views).

Please note that the details of all of these individual ‘religions’ differ. So the pantheistic view in general is an abstract view and can be envisioned in many different ways. There is even a thing called “Scientific Pantheism” in which this view is taken, but no “god-like’ entity is assumed to exist. In Scientific pantheism the idea is that we are simply children of the universe, but the universe isn’t necessarily granted any ‘god-like’ qualities. That just says that we are part of something bigger, and that we are all connected and part of the same ‘thing’, but it falls short of a believe that the universe itself is a sentient entity.

Science is what led me to a pantheistic view, however, I’m convinced of the spiritual nature of the universe. Or to put that another way, I believe that we are manifestations of the ‘spirit’ of the universe. We take the physical form when we are born, and we return to pure spirit when we die, but are then reincarnated into physical form again. This does not mean that we come back to earth! There are many different physical forms that we can take, and may very well be differnet physical types of ‘universes’ all of which are collectively the spirit.

There is no ‘book’ that comes with this pantheistic view. However there have been many differnet religions and philosophies based on pantheism, so you can look into many various types.

I would point you to members of this forum who have pantheistic views, but it’s probably better to just let them respond on their own. Many of them may not even use the term “pantheism” but they still describe this same notion of all is one, and one is all. So don’t get too hung up on the word.

I’m not into ‘organized religion’ of any form. I don’t practice pantheism ‘religiously’, it’s simply my world view.

If you think you might be interested in learning more you might want to check out the following site, to get some ideas, and names of people and religions that share pantheistic views. I’m not endorsing this site, nor am I a member of it. I only offer it as food for thought and as a possible spring board to whatever hits home with you.

http://www.pantheism.net/

Also, I’m in no way suggesting this ‘over’ religions with a personified Godhead. Although, on that topic I would just like to point out that Islam, Judaism, and Christianity all grew from the same folklore. They are in essence all the same religion that fell into different parts. Moreover, since the Bible and the Quran both contain many of the same characters, people, and places, yet differ in the details and conclusions of their stories then the can’t both be correct. To believe that one of them is 100% correct and the other book got it all wrong is more than I can accept. But this is what believes of both of those religions would like you to believe about their differnet books.

Just food for thought.

I believe in God. Just not one that acts like a self-proclaimed jealous judgmental Santa Claus.

You can tell I’m bias.

I make no attempt to hide it. But I can say that everything I’ve told you here is true to the best of my knowledge.

I wish we could all remember this point whenever we are discussing our beliefs. They are just that, our beliefs. Not facts.

They are what is true to the best of our current knowledge.

The fact that we all have different beliefs? To me it's not a forgone conclusion that just because things contradict one another means that one must be "right" and one must be "wrong". It may be that there are many possibilities,,,,

And the limitations are the only untruths. It's a big universe. Many things could be true at the same time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historicity_(Bible_Studies)

War is hell... I have trouble with this one.

I think if you look really deep it has nothing to do with "religion" as much as believing that God created all, and Christ his only begotten son is the key to our salvation.

Not a complicated thing really.....I think people make it complicated. God doesn't like war, but as a way to the means he was not a whimp about it either. Look at King David....Look at Kings in general.

I really like this comment "not being a wimp" does that mean you have to fight back. You need to be ready to do battle?
what about Jesus? he didn't fight back. He had every weapon at his beck and call, all the armies of heaven and earth, he could have waged a great war on those Romans that were controlling his country, torturing him, insulting him, defiling his home,his name,his country, threating his mother his friends and family. He did nothing! He LITERALLY turned the other cheek. Did that make Jesus a Whimp?

Jesus Christ was not sent to fight.....He was sent to teach. Read the Bible and get your answers they are all there.