Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Religion Extinctions - Coming? Is there a trend where you live?

The sun shines and the rain falls on the just and the unjust.

It would take very little work on your part, Victoro, to get to the bottom of all your doubts and accusations if you really wanted to know.

Very little.

The Lord is a gentleman. He'll not force you. Everything is a matter of personal choice.

Always.

Maintain and fortify your ignorance or seek truth, either way He'll be continually trying to reach you. Right up to the time you draw your very last breath.

I just can't see there being much in the way of choice personal or otherwise when in comes to religion or god. The choice is worship me or be punished for eternity. Demanding loyalty is a human not godly trait. Religion has to demand this loyalty or the flock will flock to another religion and that is bad for business.

Really? Of all He created, humans are the only ones with self will. We have a choice.

If, due to a preconception, you look for ways to discount or discredit the existence of God, you can make it is easy to do (in your mind). In short if you look for ways to justify non-belief, it is easy to do and that is by design.
If you look for the truth and get to know Him, that is also easy to do and also by design.
There is a reason that both choices are easy. Choose wisely.

Appears not.

Exodus 20:4-6

4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:

5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;

6 And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
KJV

Afterall, we are created in His image and after His likeness. We share the same traits, it's just that ours our corrupt and His are perfect.

Jealousy is a human trait. Why is this in the bible. Because it was written by men not a god. God is a real hero hurting the children of the non-believer for four gernations. I quess all the kids that were/are molested by religious people must have had a non-believer in the family somewhere. Ask yourself would you be the instrument of god and hurt these children if he ask you to and it was you duty to god. I hope not.

Bad comes in all forms of men and priest's and preacher's clothing doesn't hide that. They, too, will get their rewards.

Many create God in their own image of Him, so you are not alone, just wrong.

Religion Extinctions - Coming? Is there a trend where you live?

I would assume, that you realize your question taken literally, could very well qualify as the dumbest question since written history arrived on this planet.

Guessing that might be why you needed umpteen words to point your finger and steer the question your way. Then again, steering questions might very well be a religion also.

I am not creating any image I saying that all of this is made up by men. If god did exist and its alright hurt the future generations of children of a nonbeliever because he is jealous, well bring on the hookers and bourban and reserve me spot in hell.

These threads get drug out to long sometimes and you lose sight of the original question. Yes, religion is and will continue to decline. With actual growth in certain areas, but overall decline. Will it become extinct I doubt it. There will always be people who close there eyes and follow the herd off the cliff.

Let's just agree to disagree with what you've said, ps1080.

Better men than you and I have examined the scientific evidence and disproved that. Just DNA alone, which requires a perfectly operating complex system for any life to exist, proves there is a Creator. A living cell is another example that a complex system makes for life and if one component is missing, life does not exist. Darwin admitted that if life could not come from a simple system, his theory was wrong.

Life could not possible evolve from an ancient exploding ball of hydrogen gas. Life only comes from life.

Sounds good to me. Glad there is something intesting to talk about every once in a while. Although guns and hunting are my prefered topic. You might say I am clinging to guns and religion because guns and hunting are my religion. LOL. Have a good day everyone.

Here's the thing I just can't get my head around.

People say that faith in a Christian God - is a gift. I guess I was missed when that particular gift was handed out. I have found my truth - but it isn't in the faith of my ancestors.

I was raised in a Christian family. My Dad was schooled to be a Lutheran Minister - although he eventually chose another career after his schooling. My Mother was Methodist. I was raised in the United Church of Canada. My parents were wonderful people and we lived rich prayer-filled lives. I even taught the teen youth group for years in church when I first moved out of my home. Familiar themes gave me a kind of security far from home.

But - I couldn't get the logical part of my brain to stop the questions. My brain needed logical answers. I always seemed to think about questions no one in church wanted to answer. I was told in times like that - to rely on my faith. In my case, after over three decades of internal struggle with the many questions I had, I found there was very little of that kind of faith left.

I teach comparative religion to Gr.8 kids as a part of the prescribed curriculum. I've done that now for 31 years. The more I learned about other faiths - the harder it became to believe my own Christian faith had all the answers - to the exclusion of all other faiths. I used to bring in guest speakers from different faiths to enlighten my students as to their own beliefs. To promote tolerance for people different than ourselves. I was struck by the certainty that every non-Christian guest knew their own faith to be the one true one.

That was the same with all of them. Except maybe one Buddhist lecturer - his branch of Buddhism was more a life philosophy than a religion - he said belief in God was optional. But other than him - every person of other faiths absolutely knew the other faiths were wrong - and that theirs was right.

Personally, I found myself doubting the idea of one faith being the only true one. I also couldn't wrap my head around the teachings of a loving God that put children in places where they could only be Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Sikhs, animists or whatever. - so he could torture them in a lake of fire - forever - after they died. It made no sense.

So, still wanting to believe (against all observations of nature) which showed me that everything alive - dies - I hoped I might be able to see the people I loved after their deaths - and that I might get to live on - forever - myself.I loved that idea - because I do love every minute of the life I live. I became generically "spiritual". A theist, or deist. I wanted to believe in a generic God that could love all children - regardless of what their parents told them to believe - and regardless of where they were born on this earth. I wanted to live forever - no matter how much the idea made no sense to me.

Then, eventually I became an agnostic. I couldn't believe - but I wasn't capable of taking the next step - total disbelief, either. So, I put the whole religious thing out of my mind - and contented myself with the thought that I'd just put all of my efforts into living the best earthly life I could live - and not worry about death - and what might happen after.

Eventually that didn't work either. I'm not one to not have a position. I eventually took the biggest step - and took a position. I became an atheist. I accepted the lack of a God or gods. I also got rid of the idea that there is a devil, demons, angels, spirits and ghosts. It was very freeing.

My world started to make sense - to me. The more atheists I met (and many aren't at ease with "coming out" at least to believers) the more I came to identify with those kinds of people. The one thing I noticed, with the ones that I met, was that, as a group, they were usually very good, moral, people who had come to their beliefs after much internal struggle, introspection, study and thought. None seemed to enter atheism lightly.

But there was a problem. Atheism only told me what what I wasn't. It defined me - by what I didn't believe in. It's been said that atheism is a religion. If that's true - then not collecting stamps - must be a hobby.

Atheism defined me - by what I didn't believe in.

But nothing truly defined what I did believe in.

That is, until my search lead me to Scientific Pantheism.

I had always believed I was part of the Universe. I have always believed that I was part of Nature. I have always been in awe of the power of both of those things. I had a love for the earth that could only be described as thinking of it as a sacred place. I believe I am made out of the same matter and energy as the earth - and of the universe. I look at the earth and the universe with humility, awe, reverence and celebration. I have have have come from it, I am part of it, I will always be a part of it - even when my present form is changed.

I revere and love nature. With the same level of commitment to it - that others find in relics, buildings, altars, prayer and sacraments. I was never fully comfortable in church. I am my most comfortable out in nature - in wild places. Close to the natural earth. It is there that I find answers to my questions and a sense of peace that can only be described as spiritual.

Life is not a path to somewhere else.

Life is the destination.

And so - I am an atheist. It does describe what I don't believe in.

But more importantly - I am a Scientific Pantheist. That philosophy fully describes - what I do believe in.

My earthy faith struggles that dogged me since childhood are over now. I have no more doubts. I have arrived at a belief system that fills me perfectly. It answers all of my questions. It defines my place in the universe. It brings me total peace. Absolute and total peace. All encompassing.

To those who find that sense of peace in their present faith - I am happy for you.

I hope that people with other beliefs can understand the total peace and contentment that I find in my own beliefs - and allow me to share it with the same certainty and contentment that their own faith might bring them. I mean no harm when I do this. Just as I accept the same when people of other faiths share their beliefs with me.

I have never been so content in my own beliefs - as I am now.

I admit that I am guilty of trying to spread my own beliefs - as most other believers do - from time to time. Just as when others try an convince me of their beliefs - I can't help but respond in kind. It is - what I am.

I accept the motives of people of faith who try and share their own beliefs with me. I hope that other people can come to believe my own motives - are the same. We are all looking for truth. I have found mine.

When one find a belief system that absolutely and totally sums up every thought and feeling within you - and answers all of your questions - you have found something incredibly precious.

I have found that.

Until you find "the next thing".

I was talking about religion and the bible being made up by men not life. The neat thing about life is that it can and did come from this exploding ball of gas. The precursers to living cells have were made out of just these components almost 40 years ago in lab experiments(amino acids) proving it was not only possible but probable. I don't have time to look up the specifics so the time frame may be a little off and I don't remember the exact specifics of the gas ect. in the experiments. BTW everyone here should be a fan of Charles Darwin. He loved hunting and catching rats with his dogs. In fact his father basically told him if the didn't take school as serious as hunting he would flunk out. He took several guns on his voyage on the HMS Beagle and used them to collect many specimens.

Well,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,if he liked guns, he needs worshipin.

What I find funny is these atheists always have to start threads against religion......

I have yet to find a religious person starting a thread about atheism...

Seems like there is an agenda....