(06-02-2010 12:27 PM)Bracket Wrote:  I'm completely with you UNR. I've had religious people screaming in my face about believing in God. Like you, i'm willing to believe in a higher power but i don't believe in religion. I find it funny when these people are yelling at me because i probably live a more moral life than they are.

I too find it disturbing when I get religious zealots pushing their beliefs in my face. I've been stopped in the street before and bombarded with questions about my faith, I've had people at my door asking me to open my heart to their idea of God etc, so I totally and utterly understand why it would annoy somebody. But I still think it's worth pointing out here that you'll get just as many athiests doing bad things and making wrong choices as you will religious people. Doing bad things is a personal thing, not anything to do with a belief system.

People who act like they are better than others just because of their belief system, well, it's disgusting -and hypoctrical- but I believe there are just as many people who have faith and are religious who are decent, honest people trying to follow what they believe.

Yes, there are bad religious people but there are bad athiests. It's such a shame that there are many people who attend a church (I don't, by the way, haven't for years), they are probably good people but because of a handful of shameful characters (don't we find them everywhere?) we find it too easy to say we're better than them and look down on them. I like to consider myself spiritual rather than religious but I do feel bad for those who are religious who try to lead a good life because they're lumped in with the dodgy characters.

(06-02-2010 12:55 PM)Fiona Wrote:  

(06-02-2010 12:27 PM)Bracket Wrote:  I'm completely with you UNR. I've had religious people screaming in my face about believing in God. Like you, i'm willing to believe in a higher power but i don't believe in religion. I find it funny when these people are yelling at me because i probably live a more moral life than they are.

I too find it disturbing when I get religious zealots pushing their beliefs in my face. I've been stopped in the street before and bombarded with questions about my faith, I've had people at my door asking me to open my heart to their idea of God etc, so I totally and utterly understand why it would annoy somebody. But I still think it's worth pointing out here that you'll get just as many athiests doing bad things and making wrong choices as you wil religious people. Doing bad things is a personal thing, not anything to do with a belief system.

I do get why people who act like they are better than other just because of their belief system is disgusting -and hypoctrical- but I believe there are just as many people who have faith and are religious who are decent, honest people trying to follow what they believe.

Yes, i agree with you. It's the zealots that i always seem to run in to though.

We have a new thing in my area at the corner of my Grocery store we have a bunch of Christians holding signs and screaming to repent.
Holding up bibles and having angry faces telling people there going to hell if they do not repent. I honestly think this is not would Jesus would do LOL.

Agreed 100% ^

Those people who act that way push people AWAY from God! I wish they could see that.

(06-02-2010 12:57 PM)GypsyMoon Wrote:  We have a new thing in my area at the corner of my Grocery store we have a bunch of Christians holding signs and screaming to repent.
Holding up bibles and having angry faces telling people there going to hell if they do not repent. I honestly think this is not would Jesus would do LOL.

is that legal? do they have a permit? i can only guess the owners of the store approve. i would write a letter to the editor of your newspaper.

I asked my other half he said as long as there on the street corner there is little they can do. Although they do this at a huge intersection between the Grocery store and Mall. I am just afraid there going to distract someone so much they might wreck. I dont think the paper would do anything to be honest the entire town seems to be Christian and huge supporters of these people and this kind of displays.

(06-02-2010 01:16 PM)GypsyMoon Wrote:  I asked my other half he said as long as there on the street corner there is little they can do. Although they do this at a huge intersection between the Grocery store and Mall. I am just afraid there going to distract someone so much they might wreck. I dont think the paper would do anything to be honest the entire town seems to be Christian and huge supporters of these people and this kind of displays.

yeah it would be like hitting a brick wall.

Plus drawing attention to myself.. I try my best to avoid the Witch Hunts LOL.

Who write's, or what is defined as moral's, if it's not hurting an individual i agree 100% people should be respectfull and not hurt each other.

But i also agree that i don't have the right to dictate someone else's moral's to them.

And also yes an individual can lead a moral life without God being present in their belief's. IMO
They or anybody need's to understand what's considered moral or not in their society.Some are stricter than other's in their moral code's.

I myself lead a very moral life but that is my own choice.

Whether or not you believe in God, the influence of the belief in God is always present... and that belief, through generations, has dictated what is moral and what is not.

... and whoever decided murder was a bad thing? Trace the history of that back and back to the oldest accounts on record and it was, apparently, God who told Adam and punished Cain. Even if you don't believe that story, it was people who DID believe it who set the standard "Thou Shalt Not Kill" as it is recorded in the Bible. In the United States, the very merits of the constitution were based on a very simplistic faith in God... even our money bears the language "In God We Trust".

So... whether or not you personally believe a God exists in the way religion dictates, everyone on Earth today is subject to the histories and practices based primarily on that belief in a God (or gods) of some manner through laws or cultural practices.

... so if you did turn your back on God and you decided to generate your own morals based on your own beliefs... there are still laws based on the belief in a God that dictate behavioral patterns.

I find it paradoxical to say one can have morals without the impact of God... because where did the morals come from? Trace it back to the source and you cannot deny the impact of the ideology that God was involved in the very creation of the morals anyone claims to have without God.

In conjunction with that belief, I'd like to bring up the fact that most serial killers deny the existence of a God and believe in killing someone, they did nothing wrong and they have no regrets. Wish I could remember the guy's name, but the "Most Evil" fellow interviewed a serial killer who looked him straight in the eye and denounced the existence of a God and then recounted in detail what he'd done to a victim (that was edited out). He had no remorse... no God and... no morals.

So, whether or not you agree with me, I personally don't think you can have morals without the influence in some way, shape or form, of God (however you define God)... and if you don't... why would you obey the laws of the land?