Do you believe in god, even after what religion says about us?

I was an atheist before I realized I was bisexual.

---------- Post added 2nd Sep 2013 at 04:47 PM ----------

Well, beauty is completely subjective. When I realized that God probably does not exist, I found the world more beautiful.

 

It's an interesting subject. I don't see how being gay automatically means you should not believe in God; religion and faith can be two different things.

I am now an atheist but I was a Christian for most of my life, in fact I remained one after coming out. I can't deny that homophobia made me question, and subsequently reject, religion but it never actually challenged my belief in God. My faith in him diminished purely on logic grounds. Once I actually questioned things, the whole idea of God just fell apart. Without wishing to offend anyone, I find the existence of God quite ludicrous now. I found that my belief in God was based purely on the fact that I wanted him to exist. I want a lot of things to be true, it doesn't mean that they are. I think God was always something that the human race needed to create but as we grow in knowledge we are able to discard this view; people, of course, will always resist that.

Jesus is a cool guy as well, there's no denying. Even though I don't believe in him anymore, I'm still very much influenced by a lot of the teachings; I can fully understand the attraction to Christianity in that sense.

 

Well my standpoint towards Christianity, or in fact, any religion that involves God, is similar to that of the Freemasons. I am a deist, who believes in 'God' as the architect of the universe and the creator of Nature's laws.

Now, a few years ago, during my days as an atheist, I took the liberty to study and analyse the religion I grew up with. I read parts of the New Testament and compared them to historical records, as well as having a few talks with my theology and philosophy teachers at school.

The conclusion I came to, in regards to the blatant homophobia in the Bible's paragraphs, as well as the Christian religion's hatred towards LGBTQ, was that it was written so it would fit the standards of the era and geographical birth of the religion in question.

Think about this. When the first Christians rose from their hideouts, they sought to expand their beliefs. They wanted their religion to grow, for it was the only way to make it survive. In order to make this religion appealing for the people, the close-minded, Roman-conquered middle eastern man and woman , they had no choice but to make the religion fit the standards of the era.

That was little less than 1900 years ago.

By the time, although the Romans had no problem with pansexual relationships -and orgies, for that matter-, the people in the middle east repudiated homosexuality and all it's derivatives. And Christianity had to expand, first and foremost, through the middle east.
If they openly said "it's okay to be gay", not only the Romans, but also everybody else would want them dead.

So, in order to make people accept and join in, they couldn't afford to support homosexuality. In fact, I doubt the authors of the bible themselves approved of it. Given their previous beliefs and the way they were raised, chances are they were just as homophobic as everyone else.

Now, I don't think God, Jesus or any important religious figure actually hated homosexuality. I do remember reading many times "God loves us". Ergo, he doesn't discriminate whether we're straight, gay, queer, trans, black, white, asian, handicapped, aryan or any other label we humans put on each other.


My point is, Christianity is a religion that was bent into fitting the standards of ancient middle eastern people, and people still read the bible like they did 1900 years ago.

 

Therein, however, lies the issue - everything is man-made and fits the particular agenda at that time. God's input is never to be found...

 

The Jewish religion prior to Moses was not very legalistic. And I think the entire point to Christianity, was that Jesus was sent to take the strict legalism and physical nation of Israel, and fulfilled the law completely, gave people room to make mistakes and be forgiven, and created a spiritual nation anyone in the world could become a part of.

The Bible's history also can't be overlooked. A lot of the early New Testament of the Bible was re-written by and for the Romans. And Paul's letter to the Romans was written in a way to make it resonate well with Roman politicians and landowners. He wasn't writing his letters to be read by slaves. So what this means is that a lot of Romans and Acts are shamelessly political. It is very easy to lose the actual moral and spiritual messages that get buried underneath all the, sorry $10 word's the only one I know to use in this situation, demagoguery.

In fact,

that verse was used by the Nazis, and throughout the middle ages as the "divine right of kings", to justify horrible mass murders and some of the worst things any human beings have ever done.

So, I have an obvious bias in favor of the LGBT community. But that aside, I think the strict legal interpretation that a lot of anti-gay Christian groups take, is spiritually dangerous anyway. I think it goes directly against the message that Jesus was trying to give.

Jesus' message isn't that hard to grasp and I think it's a good one. I find myself wrestling with and even disagreeing with some things; the passage about bringing a sword to break up families and set brothers against each other for instance. But his basic message is wonderful and something I get behind completely.

He took the 5 most important of the 10 commandments and replaced them with "love thy neighbor" for one. Then the parables, telling people to check themselves before coming down on other people. And wrap it all up with Jesus forgiving the adulterer who went on to become a better person, and the message becomes pretty clear. Just do your best, you aren't perfect, you are going to screw up, but try always to be a better person than you were yesterday, and every human being is worthwhile and redeemable and worth loving and forgiving, and just always be willing to admit when you're wrong.

Of course politics unfortunately worked its way even into the parables, such as the many senseless - sorry there's no other honest way to look at this - murders parable of Mark 12 where a land owner sends his whole family to their dooms individually at the hands of some people in order to collect a debt from them. The point of the story is simple; the land owner is supposed to be capable of vengeance and because of that the people should have paid their debts. But as a story it... has some obvious problems.

And that's really what I mean by "spiritually dangerous". It is very easy to see, if you are careful, what was thrown in there just to get the book a wider audience and influence the politics of the day, sometimes by politicians. And it is easy to see what has real value as far as advice and a greater understanding of humanity and the human condition. But if you are just looking at the Bible as a book of "shoulds" and "shouldn'ts", then not are you only at risk of walking away with a perverted version of the message the book is trying to convey, but you are very likely to walk away with some very evil things looking more attractive, and ideas that get people hurt when they're adopted by a lot of people.

Which, is really what I think Jesus meant by the famous "pearls before swine" comment. Because a hate group that calls itself Christian is very much trampling any wisdom the book contains; they simply don't understand its value.

 

I don't, but i'm able to separate religion from belief of deity/afterlife. It's therefore not as strong a disbelief, while complete acid trips like Revelations i regard with the same seriousness as i do the easter bunny. If we remove all references to homosexuality, i would still not follow any religion, because i find them all to be incredulous.

 

Yes, because I grew up in a rational church that looks at the Bible in its historical context and was the first Christian denomination to ordain female and openly gay ministers and religious leaders. In context, Matthew 19 is also identified as a call for the assignment of sexuality both at birth and by external influences. Basically, the argument is, if you can make an argument against it, you can make an argument for it... And let's be honest, the fact that eunuchus was latin slang for anybody who didn't get married to a woman (remember this was a misogynistic society, so my church takes it to mean people of all identities) seem like pretty good evidence that Jesus (at the very least) could have been pro-gay. There was also all of that about the chain of prophets not being able to reveal everything at once and that God changed things gradually as society was ready to handle the truth. We take this to mean as individual intelligence grows, so does the capacity for love and empathy. So basically, yes. I come from a pluralistic faith and more than anything, I believe that there is a God in some form, but regardless of formal technicalities, there is no discrimination and no "right way." Just a loving and compassionate way versus the destructive and selfish one. There are many paths, and atheism/agnosticism is one of them.

 

I believe that there is a God. But I don't go to any church because I haven't found one that is for what I believe. Because I believe different things than most people and churches. I don't think gay people or trans people are sinners or anything like that. I think that God loves everyone, regardless whether they're LGBT or not. I think He doesn't have anything against us for being.g LGBT, that we're fine the way we are. And I don't care for a lot of things in the Bible because there's so much stuff in it that's too old-fashioned and wrong. Like if a guy rapes a girl, she has to marry him. You're not supposed to work on the Sabbath day or you could get the death penalty for it, basically. You can't wear two different fabrics at once. And stupid stuff like that. And also the fact that the way the Bible makes it sound, women should always submit to men because men are better than women. I don't get what some of that stuff has to do with religion and believing in god, especially the fabric thing. And how is throwing a girl back into the hands of her rapist a good idea at all? That just rewards the rapist and punishes the victim. And i dont like how it makes women out to be pieces of shit, basically. They deserve more respect than that.But yet most so-called Christians nowadays don't ever mention silly things like that, though they'll remember the anti-gay stuff. I think thats bull crap because a lot of Christians nowadays just pick and choose what they want to believe. And a lot of the time, they use that idea of pick and choose to hurt other people that they don't like. Like gay people, as just one example.

So anyway, I believe things differently than a lot of other Christians. I don't go to church because I feel I think too differently than any churches I've come across. And I don't really pay attention to the Bible because I don't like a lot of the stuff in it because I feel it was just useless, hurtful information added later on as "the word of God" when it was just stupid rules and beliefs of the people at the time, stuff that isn't even relevent anymore. Basically, I'm probably not even really considered a "Christian" by a lot of people, except for the fact that I believe in God and Jesus. Besides that, I'm soon much different than a lot of them because I don't follow the main religions rules/beliefs/etc. I just follow the simple stuff, like God loves us all and is watching over us and we should try to follow Jesus's teachings and be kind to everyone. That's basically all I care about believing in. I refuse to get involved with the actual religion because I feel it's too cultish anymore. And I don't like the way most of them are against gay and trans people.

 

Me 2

 

I suppose I'm agnostic. But the ammount of homophobia stops me from joining any religious communities

 

Kinda hard to believe in something you can't even define coherently, which is exactly what the word 'God' is to me: a signifier with no discernible signified, and therefore unworthy of even being concerned about. A meaningless triad of graphemes. The words of holy books are the words of humans. If I have an issue, it's with the people who take these words and use them to step on others.

 

When I finally accepted my gayness, it opened my eyes to many things I was ignorant to before. Questioning WHY.

Most events in the bible can be explained in today day and age.

 

Yes, because God has not forsaken me at all! God takes good care of me and answers my prayers like miracles all the time. Also I have died twice and left my body and know for a fact we go somewhere. Once was over 3 min dead! I have already been blasted by intolerant people on here before who say it was a dream because the brain still being alive. Well I must also be the luckiest woman alive as my prayers are always answered! You won't convince me otherwise because I was there and know what I saw to be true. June

 

I do not believe in the Bible's supernatural stories because they're not scientifically plausible. The fact that I am gay and the Bible is typically the impetus behind hate for gay people is just a side issue--I wouldn't be convinced to buy into the supernatural aspects of any religion.

 

God and I have an understanding. But it's just between us.

Lex

 

:eusa_clap This made my day :eusa_clap

 

I used to believe in god... But not anymore...

 

My religious beliefs and my sexuality are two completely different things. I am a Catholic, and I believe in God, and I hope that in years to come my fellow Catholics will see that this misguided hatred of LGBT people is just as senseless as the condemnation of interracial marriage once was. But no, I do not reject my belief in God simply because of the hatred that is spewed towards myself and others like me by people claiming to be acting in his name. My Faith is my own, and other people cannot take it from me.

 

Thank you for this. I am Christian and Republican, and I'm also unquestionably bi. People assume it's from homophobia or something that I've retained it, but honestly, most of my most supportive friends are conservative in one way or another (those entitled liberal types can make shitty allies because that's how they see themselves...).

See, you can follow most of the beliefs of a political party without accepting all of them, and the Bible has been reprinted and mistranslated so many times that even if it is the complete and infallible word of God, the KJV is still not. As I mentioned before, I and many of my family/friends cite the NT as a pro-gay text anyways, but I also think blind faith is as destructive as ignorance. As Thomas Jefferson once said (and often went against): "I never submitted the whole system of my opinions to the creed of any party of men whatever, in religion, in philosophy, in politics, or in anything else, where I was capable of thinking for myself. Such an addiction is the last degradation of a free and moral agent. If I could not go to heaven but with a party, I would not go there at all."

 

For me, pretty much everyone in my family believes in God and are pretty much Christian. Where they stand on the religious scale varies from being in the middle to "meh" range to the high "church is awesome" range. Personally though I don't care. I don't believe there's a God up there, I stopped believing in him when I learned all about Santa and the Easter Bunny. So as far as I'm concerned, religion is trivial to me for no reason other than that's my belief. I still uphold the "god exists" thing for now though, just to keep my parents happy. By no means though does my reputation stand for what I actually believe.