I believe religion is against homosexuality due to its "unnatural" nature, which isn't surprising considering when the Bible was written and how prevalent prejudice was then. But I think it's more a question of when they will wake up and realise that there's no fixed scale of "natural" and "nature", but only our perception of it. If people grow up with this preconception that homosexuality is wrong, chances are they are going to take on this belief for life for obvious reasons; they've grown up getting used to this idea and don't want to know any different. I must emphasise that this is becoming an older and older issue, due to the evergrowing acceptance of homosexuality. So society is getting better, and society is becoming less and less conservative. It lessened with sexism, racism and now sexuality. Can confirm. One of my best mates is a strongly religious guy, pretty damn smart too. He scored in the top 2% of the state in a subject I did last year; not to mention being a school year below me as well. Hates gay people with a passion and justifies it with, "the Bible says it's wrong".
Christians are horrible. They are responsible for a lot of ignorance throughout the west, stuck in their primitive fable-worshipping ways.
We need not to confuse religion with church. They are not the same thing as people say they are. Every church has it's own doctrine and that is why I don't attend church. There is one truth, one bible and one way to get to heaven and with church there are many false truths, false bibles, and false ways they think gets you into heaven. The bible was mistranslated into English and many churches use the English bible. The original bible never condemned homosexuality and Sodom and Gommorah was about greed not homosexuality. For getting into heaven read JOHN 3:16. If you believe in Jesus who died for your sins you will enter the kingdom of God. The verse means exactly that and is one of the most important parts of the bible. God loves you and he is on your side not the side of the religious who condemn us. ---------- Post added 12th Jan 2015 at 10:46 AM ---------- No of course not all christians are like that. ---------- Post added 12th Jan 2015 at 10:47 AM ---------- I respect your beliefs even though I disagree with them. I don't call them full of shit either. ---------- Post added 12th Jan 2015 at 10:50 AM ---------- It is completely healthy to be gay and a christian if people really looked into what the bible actually says. You don't have to believe in God to know the bible actually does not condemn homosexuality. ---------- Post added 12th Jan 2015 at 10:53 AM ---------- I guess I am horrible than.
This goes for every religion... If religion is about peace then why does it cause problems in our lives ? No matter which religion Christian , Islam or Jewish it's all controlling.
If you insult and throw scorn on someone because you don't like something about them, be it their orientation, education, race, ethnic origin, religion, or lack thereof, you're a bigot. Period. That goes for all of us. As far as I'm concerned, gays who portray all Christians as homophobic idiots are every bit as bad as the Christians who portray all gays as evil sinners. It's all the result on taking one's personal opinion or belief or life experience, and assuming that it represents that of the entire world. Some Christians are intolerant. Some, however, are not. Hate breeds hate, and it's pretty clear that the religious people aren't the ONLY ones capable of hating.
You don't have to stereotype. It is self-confessed in the religious texts. ---------- Post added 12th Jan 2015 at 09:13 PM ---------- Correction: organised religion. Deism is fine.
you're stereotyping by assuming that all religious people who follow those religious texts accept all parts of those religious texts literally. This is pretty obviously not the case. for example, do you immidiately assume about Christians that they do not have tattoos because Leviticus bans tattoos?
If You follow a religion you must abide by it , if you don't you're a hypocrite. If there is one thing i don't tolerate is hypocrisy. You're either in or out of it simple as , it is why I chose to be an atheist because I rather live my life the way I want it to be without having to be part of a religion that tells you what you can and cannot do. There are many contradictions about people who are lesbian , gay , trans who claim to be Christian , Catholic , Jewish etc.. yet it prohibits their lifestyle so why follow it ? For example if a Muslim man eats pork and drinks alcohol its claimed to be Haram, Same applies if you replace the pork with beef for Hindu's it's forbidden. Divorce is also prohibited in Christianity , Judaism and Catholicism and a few others. Personally you don't need religion to have morals. If you can't determine right from wrong then you lack empathy, not religion.
If people followed (let's say) the Bible word for word, then they would be left with severe cognitive dissonance. Also, I agree with you, that people need to look in their own backyard before judging others.
Atheists are not raised in vacuums in which they completely independently develop their philosophy and culture. Religious people usually have secular education and are not beholden solely to their religious texts. Also, the original texts of religion are not the only and final expressions of theology and religious philosophy. Advancing and leaving behind parts of the original sacred texts is absolutely normal and you would be criticising that stagnation as much as you criticise what you call hypocrisy - what most religious people would call adaption to modernity and the refinement of their beliefs over time as religious advancements and secular/other religions' achievements render particular aspects of the original scriptures irrelevant. Or they feel that such changes are more compatible with the core tenants of their religion than the laws of those who compiled the first holy texts, which is definitely a move for moral and logical consistency, not hypocrisy.
I have a few Jewish friends and they are very accepting of gays, at least the ones I know. My parents and extended family are all Catholic and again they are very accepting of gays, my Grandmother actually grew up with a priest that was gay and everyone knew. The only person I met that was anti gay was my friends mother, she's a Christian and bat shit crazy. She thinks the end of the times are near because of gays and abortionists and refuses to get a full time job because she thinks prayers will pay her bills (when in reality her daughter pays them from her late fathers life insurance)
you realize this is the exact argument taht religious fundamentalists (like Osama Bin Laden, Anders Breivik, etc) use right? This is an incredibly unacademic way to examine faith. It's also a false dilemma, in that your view you HAVE to be a religious fundamentalist or an atheist. This is not the case. good for you. so inside your own argument (that you have to be a fundamentalist to be religious) this does follow. unfortunately, that isn't how people who are actually religious live their lives, so I fail to see what you're objection to "well I just don't follow those parts of [insert religious text here]" other than "you're a hypocrite!" which 1. isn't actually a problem or 2. says nothing about the truth value on their faith or the importance of faith in their lives. what point do you think you're making? that people who sin aren't real religious people? okay that'd be fine if I had actually made the argument that you need religion to be moral, which I haven't. in fact, quite the opposite, despite being very religious myself, I think using religion as a way to get ethics cheapens religion. objective Morality ought to be derived from secular sources ---------- Post added 12th Jan 2015 at 05:06 PM ---------- omg such hypocricy :tears:
So basically, you're saying that the moral teachings in religious texts are manufactured by humans from situational ethics. Though, most Muslim people might have a problem with your suggestion... ---------- Post added 12th Jan 2015 at 10:18 PM ---------- Sorry to ask, but I am just interested if you could give me a couple of brief reasons on what benefits you derive from religion?
I'm converting to Islam and I have zero issue with what Aussie said, I'd appreciate it if you didn't generalize my faith. a sense of community, ritual, and a relationship with God. that said, even if none of those things went along with being religious, I still would be religious, because I'm not religious for purely pragmatic reasons, I'm religious because I genuinely believe.
Do you or do you not believe that the Quran is a line-for-line word of God and is the perfect final revelation?
Yes, I am, though it's obviously not entirely fluid. Do you think Protestantism's rise and the Great Schism between the Catholic and Orthodox churches came from the same interpretation of the Bible with only one truth and no further scholarship after the end of Antiquity? Also, please explain your second comment. I hope you actually know what you're talking about, both in terms of Islamic beliefs and the statistics that would justify "most" and the snide tone.
