Religion is the enemy of God

@duploshoes Said
But you actually made the point that religion is "not OF God" which I think is right.

The obvious philosophical leap is to ask the question "is religion something that God would want?" (Again, supposing that God is good and wise).

@duploshoes Said
"their interpretations"

@alexkidd Said
f*** the box, what are you actually talking about?

@adrinachrome Said
That is not something we can answer.
We could only put a humans interpretation on it.
And as I said before how can we hope to understand the divine?
The next philosophical question should therefore be
"Is religion something that is beneficial to mankind"?
and the obvious answer is
"sorta".

@duploshoes Said
Quite. We cannot answer it? So why form religion?
And the answer is: sorta - at one time in history but not now.

There is nothing that religion does that couldn't be done by other means.

@duploshoes Said

There is nothing that religion does that couldn't be done by other means.

@alexkidd Said
exactly,
all religion is subject to 'their interpretation'
saying that god is against them is simply a different interpretation with even less basis than god loves them.
at least they rely on some ancient belief and texts that state he does.

there's no tradition that says 'god hates you'

i don't believe in god, but if you believe in him and you believe he loves you then he does, saying he doesn't is saying god is different than what they think he is.
since it can't be shown if he even exists in the first place, it can't be shown that they're wrong about him.
if your imagining that he is then you're imagining a different god.

on a moral level, god seems like a jerk, he kills people all over the place for jack all, but if you believe that its all part of a cosmic plan and he actually loves us then thats enough.

@duploshoes Said
Quite. We cannot answer it? So why form religion?
And the answer is: sorta - at one time in history but not now.

There is nothing that religion does that couldn't be done by other means.

@alexkidd Said
....what about, let people believe in god?
thats pretty religion specific.

you can debate that belief in god is illogical till your ears fall off but it doesn't matter to someone who believes,
logic was never especially important in the formation of religions.

its an idea people like. nothing else can fill that void right now because people en masse don't like other ideas, so be definition religion is all that can do what religion does.

as maddening as it seems for someone who doesn't need what it provides.

@adrinachrome Said
Religion was first formed
out of the need to control people
to put structure in ones life
and meaning in ones deeds.
Now perhaps it stays because of
our need to believe that what we do here on earth
will be reflected for eternity
in either heaven or hell.
It is a justification of sorts.
We all need a little justification sometimes.

@duploshoes Said
Okay, I will make it even clearer. Religious people think they do right by God and that God is good (The God that they believe in). What I'm saying is that their actions are a contradiction to "good" and therefore would be against any God they believe in.

Take worship, for instance. To worship wisdom is an insult to wisdom for noone who was truly wise would want to be worshipped.

@duploshoes Said
True. Good point, but there are other things that could provide now. Religion was probably a valid thing once but now we should grow away from it and become better.

@alexkidd Said
why not?
they believe that god transends even our notions of what 'good' and 'bad' mean, thats why its ok to punish people or send them to hell or whatever.
its above our understanding.

their actions are only against god by your definition of god, by theirs its good.
its all subjective.

its generally assumed that god must be all knowing, all seeing, all powerful and all good.
why?
no reason other than what people have interpreted and made up.

you can make up any god you want and live by his rules, you'll never go against god because you're living exactly within terms you've imagined are his desire.
if someone says they're wrong, then it doesn't matter, they're not talking about your god so you don't believe in it anyway.
this whole thing is silly

@alexkidd Said
i agree that would be a positive step for humanity,
but alot of people don't, if you believe in god then that would be a terrible thing.
and you're not that superior to them to say god hates what your doing,
you have no basis to say that.