The whole Christian rock, and televangelist that's out there is what really grinds my teeth about how people tend to screw religion. I see these dumb things on television, and ads for Christian rock, the gospel, with crowds of people holding their hands out in the air, whilst sweating, with robotic smiles. It's as if they use money to attain power for the "better of their religion." It's for charities and helping our fellow Christians in need. But then you hear in the end, that the people running these things end up in some illegal activity and going to jail. It's nerve wrecking for me when I see this, and feel like a jerk when I say it but, to me, they look weak.
Maybe this is from a hermit's point of view, as I'm not much the socialite anymore, but I feel people who "pray to God for help" make themselves weaker by believing a force they'll probably never understand and NEVER meet. Honestly, if I were God and I were seeing how many people and creatures were purposely making others suffer, I too wouldn't give a rat's ass about who dies, who lives, and who is rich or poor. I just winded you up. It was your choices that decided where your little feet would take you the day you died, not mine. You screwed yourselves over, stop looking to me to fix it. FIX IT YOUR DAMN SELVES.
The description of God is a funny one as well, as many cultures "know" how he/she/it looks like: come the f*** on, now. We've seen the master of life, and omg, he resembles us! Or, he or she looks like a creature we've seen in the wild! Or it kinda' looks human, but with animal heads, with human emotions! Or alien's named Xenu(lol). For all we know, God is a giant molecular cloud that moves around outer space, universes and dimensions, passing other gases causing explosions and elements to fuse into one giant core, creating planets and whatnot. Maybe this "God" cloud just came to be after years of black empty space, rocks and gases finally mixed, and over the billions of years it began slowly to form some strange, albeit simple, thought patterns of structure, and began building planets, with orbit, and germs that evolved into species and animals who THINK they understand what created them and know how they got here: But we don't, and never will. This knowledge isn't attainable, as cynical as it may sound, and our willingness to keep striving for more answers only leads to more questions. Obviously the previous description is silly thinking, as God may not exist, or may be some pig-snake creature somewhere. Point is, I don't know. No body knows. So it'd be nice if we stopped acting like we knew and just lived our lives with one another.
Not to mention the story of Jesus and having it retold over and over, and making us ashamed of what happened to him. And we're supposedly supposed to be a different and more elegant people now after he died for our sins. "He died for our sins!" Seriously, if you think about it, would your thought patterns really differ from the Romans and Jewish in the era of Jesus? Long haired bearded guy, with followers claims he is the son of God. And his word is right. Overhearing a response to these teachings in the background " I would've believed Jesus in his day, and followed him." Come on now. Centuries have passed, and we STILL don't know how to take these accusations. For example, we see cults where bearded men walk around with followers saying they are the messiah embodied, and their word is right: general public hears it, and cries "What a f***ing idiot." Guy supposedly performs miracles, but public calls him a magician at best. What if Jesus really did have divine powers and he walked the streets of New York, trying to preach the truth to the lucky citizens in attendance. Nothing would change, we would still call him a crazy hippie, abomination against God, and other unique names. Though we probably won't go so far as to kill him, there wouldn't be much difference from then on till today. So ask yourselves, " Have we ever spiritually evolved? " Just find it sad that we have evolved on so many aspects, EXCEPT spirituality and religion: we've been stuck at the same spot we've started out since it began. This has got to tell you something about religion and it's aspects.
Thing about religion is, it's a good way for one to live in social, civilized life with others. Taking it literally word for word is non-sense in my opinion; but I'm ok with people living their lives this way, as long as it doesn't involve "recruiting" others to join them. THAT is effin' annoying.
...man, I sound evil when reading these paragraphs. I think Pawige was on a religious trek when he left. I'd really be interested on hearing his beliefs, as most the posts here, seem to be on the other side of the fence.