why religion makes no sense? please respond

[lord shorty]

Serious metaphysical/philosophical doubt on mainstream religion and Buddhism and African religions don't escape either.

Although they are interesting first of all Christianity, Islam and much of Hinduism are hurting the world more than helping it. i don't care if they give people meaning or whatever. its not a perfect solution and guns give people strength and meaning too. doesn't mean its good. I think everyone should be looking towards gnosticism or tung or doing yoga to unite with divine inner self or doing voodoo or Yoruba or Celtic based spirituality.

All religions require the individual to use his reality manipulator or decision maker in the correct way in order to be saved or sanctified or blessed or enlightened or whatever we all have an individual spark or life force a thing that sees and hears, thinks, does, makes choices, reacts and exists in reality it is the great mystery of consciousness, the "what is the I" question, where did the "I" come from and who designed it? Was there a creator? If there was did he design it?

The point of all this is that the I acts the way it acts its like the idea of fate either the universe was designed to act randomly or it was designed by a conscious force in such a way that it would know every intricate outcome of the experiment do you see the folly yet?

For the Christians and Muslims does god know every intricate detail of reality or not? If so then why create people who will use their decision makers incorrectly and go to hell if he doesn't know and has created humans to act randomly then it is conceivable that EVERYONE would go to hell still a stupid system.

Moderator Edited - for misspelling, punctuation, formating and interpretation. - Justin

Simple... if a religion depends somehow on the actions, thoughts or choices of humans then there is this bizarre "is it planned or random" idea going on and this doesn't really seem "good" either way.

[Khethil]

It sounds like for yourself, you've answered your own questions.

There's a certain element in many people's souls; a belief that can go beyond the bitter realities others see. For some, it's constituency of meaning, still others don't affix strict definitions to their beliefs. There are as many views as there are people - and a reason for the term "leap of faith".

As a devout atheist I've been there; wondering and sighing at the faithful and the best bit of advice (that may or may not be of worth to you) is this - if I may exhort -

Be patient, be understanding, be charitable. In those mindsets that seems so, so silly there is often insight and understanding to be gained. These are, after all, your fellow humans.

[ratta]

well religion was developed for the simple reason to make u feel less than u really are that there is a greater force than u, well well well. dont think so.

[jgweed]

"If oxen and horses and lions had hands and were able to draw...horses would draw the shapes of gods to look like horses, and oxen to look like oxen...and each would make the gods' bodies have the same shape as they themselves had."

Xenophanes

[Zetetic11235]

Ratta, we are all pretty insignificant when viewed from a certain perspective. It is quite likely that none of us will be remembered in the coming centuries and millenia. By cosmological standards we are specks of dust, by geological standards we are blips on a time line. Man often wishes himself to be great and tries to actualize this potential greatness and in doing so looses focus and violates all around him. The humbling of man in this sense is in my humble opinion, one of the greatest services religion might give. The idea that power is transient and given by god is a humbling one. I prefer to come to the realization of our own insignificance through an understanding of the sysiphusian fates we all share, and from this I also draw my compassion.

Remember Ozymandias:

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shatter'd visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamp'd on these lifeless things,
The hand that mock'd them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains: round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away"

[ratta]

zetetic it is good to know that u would have people suffer severe pain or maybe be born with a incurrable diseases only to find out that there was a greater force that them when really all theve been thinking about in life was having a good time and enjoying themselves . what about children who grow up with peadaphiles as parents and because they were trained to think of themselves as less than they really are. id love to sit down with them and explain just how important they really are. no less than god. for love isnt between father and child but exists between two equals that is the true sorce of love and life on this earth. did u know that if u go to court and are found guilty of murder and do time, even if that person still lives, when u get out of jail u can kill that person and never go back to jail. never think u are lower than u really are to someone very special. u are loved so graetly loved, death puts u down its just another trick of death to think that u really are that small. u think that love exists outside ure body or somewhere else no it exists in ure own mind if it cant live there it cant live anywhere so let a little love in will u please.

[Solace]

does god know every intricate detail of reality or not?
if so then why create people who will use thewir decision makers incorrectly and go to hell

To tell ya the truth, I have yet to see a reasonable, rational argument that ratifies the existence of both the divine and free will. I've seen plenty of noble attempts, but that's all it was, attempts. Either God doesn't exist and we have free will, or God does exist and free will is a lie.

[jgweed]

There is a viable third alternative; that god does exist and we have free will.

[Grimlock]

Or that god doesn't exist and we don't have free will. The "things banging together" hypothesis.

[Solace]

Like I said, I have yet to see a reasonable, rational argument that ratifies the existence of both the divine and free will. Your third alternative isn't viable, unless you say something like, God exists, but he doesn't give a crap, and we have free will. If you're able to provide a reasonable argument I'll gladly entertain it.... and just as gladly show how unreasonable it really is.

As for god doesn't exist and we don't have free will, well, that could work I suppose... but it seems rather moot.