the question of if religion is necessary to human is only something an atheist need to concern with.

if you are a believer, that question does not arise, as to you it is real and obviously important.

if you are atheist, the question becomes does religion have its merits despite being something not true. thats when opinions about guidelines, moral code, control, etc comes into play.

so believers are advised to stay clear of this topic, unless you are willing to discuss based on merits despite not being true. this is a fine line to prevent the discussion devolving to "its true, it not, its true, its not..."

you disagreed with organised religion, but as a believer, religion (in your case a personal religion) is a necessity for you? the belief that there is a god (aka religion) is important to you, yes?

I suppose the concept of God and religion started off along similar lines with humans thousands of years ago. The only problem with that is that it leads to further questions. Once you conclude that everything was "created", it is only logical to consider next the question "why?" And then we go down the well trodden path of all the different belief systems in existence around the world. So honestly, your beliefs could be considered a personal religion of sorts imo.

Isn't that as simple as free thinker but why call it spiritual and that op for the definition of spirit as you have to explain. The term non believer seems like people who don't agree with the believer and don't sounds right either. I share your way of life, we have law, rules and regulations to govern our behavior so I don't need to follow anything or anyone unless my life is at stake that I must believe in something that cannot be explained or stop / close for discussion or improvement.

sheldon2105;

i'd like to have more discussion on where you get this idea of a creator that is not linked to any organized religion. did it come to you after long hours of reasoning? or were you from a religion background that gradually slipped away until a "creator" is all that remain? or some other reason?

also, i think your concept of god is the "non interfering god" the being that did nothing more than pushing the start button and watch?

however, this is all OT to this thread; so maybe all the spiritualist can head over to real world issue to get into a nice flamefest with all the atheists there?

Dyth,


P.S.: I can use my finger to point out where the moon is.  But, unless the moon exists, the pointing is USELESS.  And, once you know where the moon is, why do I need to point for you anymore??

I'd like to just throw my opinion into the ring, judging from the many people here who give me a contrasting point of view.

I've been unemployed for some time, so I was thinking about religion and this is where I got to.

Does God exist? Who knows. I cannot say there is scientific evidence that says he does. But if he does exist, wouldn't he, as per the various holy books state, have the power to stay hidden from our scientific scopes and probes? A Catch-22 there.

Is religion important? I believe it is important to those who need it. In the past, people were afraid of many things, unexplainable phenomenon. When they saw a solar eclipse the first time, a rather rare occurrence, they may have thought something 'ate' the sun, and lacking the tools to come to the conclusion the moon was in between the sun and the earth, came out with a rather comforting though that a 'God' ate the sun, and with prayer the sun will show itself again (or it was a show of strength, etc etc etc).

As time evolved, so did man, and subsequently, science. We came up with explanations, with evidence, on certain occurrences in our lives. And so did religion. Religions began creating rules, and people followed. Some had reasons that, no matter how vague, seemed to make sense at the time. One example was the prayers of Muslim followers 5 times a day, which I heard was because He wanted his people to rest from the suns of the fields (Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong with this). Others, such as in Christianity states 'Treat your neighbour as you would treat yourself', would help foster closer ties among man, allowing them to assist each other in good and bad times.

Now in the modern world, I see religion, as stated by Friedrich Nietzsche, as God is dead. Not in a literal sense, but due to scientific advances many of His previous miracles and shows of power are not explained by science, or if it cannot be done so, explained as literary liberties by the scientific community....

I.. think I'm rambling here, so I'll cut straight to the point I initially wanted to say.

Do We Need Religion?

Long term, no. I believe if religion is slowly diluted by science for the next few generations or so, then mankind will live a rather okay life.

Short term, yes. If we were to remove religious institutions here and now, alot of misguided souls who had the impression 'All sinners will be judged by God', will realise there is no higher judgement, and break religious laws, just for the heck of it. Or depression will run rampant. Either way, it would be bad.