- Paul Kirhagis
- Palm Harbor, FL
- United States
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Where do organized religions go wrong?
I identify with the idea that humans are built to transcend themselves to contribute to the group as a whole. Organized religion is a bridge that allows those who have similar values and morals to come together and to help others grow. But how would we explain things like the crusades or the Spanish inquisition in this context?
Does the transcendence that a group experiences fall apart at an individual level then rebuild itself into a mutated version of the original? or does some other process occur that twists the collective masses into behavior that is clearly against the original purpose of the group?
carolyn mcauley 10+
Robert Winner 50+
Going to church does not make you a christian any more than standing is a walk in freezer makes you a steak. If you like what the church stands for and you wish to be a part of that ... then join. But do not be surprised that some of the members are not there for the same reason you are ... or that they are not as pure as they would like for you to believe.
Because of the faith required in religion it has been the target of con men for centurys. I admire faith but would be cautious of "blind" faith.
I would avoid anything with a title like the Church of Whats Happening Now. Join at your own risk. I do not blame the church when a member runs afoulf of the law. Did the church go wrong or did the member?
I wish you well. Bob.
Lee-Anna Johnston
Organised religion goes wrong mostly because of fixed ideas, differences in interpreting books that were written by men, not God's, and powerful religious leaders loosing site of what is important and taking advantage of the powerful position they hold. I beleive that there is no God who would look at the religious wars that have been fought through history, or the killings carried out in the name of religion and think, yeah, that's what I was aiming for. So much of the worlds Hate comes from people who refuse to accept beliefs different from their own, and decide that if you are not like us you are evil and ungodly. Bah. I accept all religious beliefs and beleive that at the core of all religions, the same messages apply. It is about love, family, respect, generosity, forgiveness, and doing no harm, through killing, adultery, or anything else that could cause someone physical or emotional harm. It is usually only the extremists who take the words and distort them to fit with their hate and judgements.
Mathew Naismith 10+
Love
Mathew
Joanna DeLong
Mathew Naismith 10+
Yep I would have to agree totally......there are a lot of old religions out there sticking by their dogmatic doctrines which really don’t suite a more literate society.
I worked in the welfare arena for a few years & I had this young Asian lass come up to me & asked me if she should become a Christian, I said that was up to her & for her to choose whatever is going to be more comfortable for her but I advised her to stick to Buddhism as it’s part of who she is.
About six months later I saw her again & she said to me “ I went to a Christian church but found it difficult to understand that everyone came from Adams rib”, she went back to her Buddhist ways.
Love
Mathew
Mathew Naismith 10+
Love
Mathew
Mark Meijer 100+
Mathew Naismith 10+
Mark Meijer 100+
Gail . 50+
Barry Palmer 50+
Mathew Naismith 10+
Utterly agree mate......once they start dominating through political power structures & alike they are no longer serving man but themselves, true religion is of service to the people not the other way around I believe.
Love
Mathew
Feyisayo Anjorin 50+
"Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world". (James 1:27)
Religion focuses too much on keeping rules; Love is a better and perfect way.
Michel Desjardins 10+
Religions are in fact "social control frameworks". They mainly exist to lead mankind in a certain direction and to provide a sense of belonging. It's a necessity to avoid social chaos. Some clever but unethical people used it to gain power and wealth. The religions itself did not go wrong: The religious leaders did.
Paul Kirhagis
Do you think that the leaders who were the spearheads for the religious atrocities across the centuries were true believers and, if so, would we chalk up their actions to their individual insanity or to the organization itself?
Gail . 50+
Mathew Naismith 10+
Yes the leaders where & are true believers, how many priests actually took part in torturing? Many by the order of the pope that these people be redeemed in some way, what are Islamic fundamentalists doing today? These people aren’t expressive of the main stream Islamists but can be very influential to an illiterate society as was the pope, bishops & priests in the dark ages.
These religious fundamentalists truly believe they are doing the lords work to the bitter end which of course makes no sense to the true teachings of these religions. The creator is all accepting & anyone who is not of this mind themselves to some extent is not true to their faith, no fundamentalist is true to their faith.
Why were the dark ages the dark ages? Fundamentalist religionists trying to rule the world through the illiterate.
Love
Mathew
Mathew Naismith 10+
This is a very good question, how did Christianity come from such placid teachings through Jesus, Moses & others like them to the crusades, Spanish inquisition, 30 year war & South America & so on? Just like so many other religions it lost its way through power, corruption & greed which aren’t ratified through most genuine original religious teachings.
Most religious doctrines teach acceptance & tolerance & with these teachings one would never have a need to be conflictive but we are only because of our own short fall, we just don’t practice what was first preached but what is being preached at the time even though it goes against the initial teachings of that religion.
Love
Mathew
R H 20+
greg dahlen 20+
Xavier Belvemont 30+
There we set a stage where ignorance MUST by definition be applied in ever increasing levels because where as society, thought, education, progress, laws and values evolve over time, they're still bound by archaic ideology that no longer fits, but has to, because its 'infallible'..
Eventially the whole model breaks down and some people cherry-pick, some people disregard all of it and some people revert to the original in its entirety and all hell breaks loose. (Excuse the pun).
Gail . 50+
Allan Macdougall 30+
There's also the issue of group intelligence versus autonomous intelligence. Individuals tend to be far more enlightened than any group to which they might belong. Also the bigger the group, the more subordinate the individuals within it become, ripe for a charismatic leader to lead them into any religious or political ideal.
Self-transcendence starts out as an autonomous state, but if there is a commonality of profound experience, then it gets embodied into a single entity - a God. Couple this to the 'dilution' processes seen in group behaviour, then it's easy to go on to suppose that the original autonomy would erode into compliance, no matter what that God goes on to represent.
Scot Wilcox 10+
edward long 100+
Fritzie Reisner 100+
Paul Kirhagis
Fritzie Reisner 100+
Barry Palmer 50+
Fritzie Reisner 100+
As Barry writes, while religion may be involved for some people, for other people it can be other forms of group identification that they protect by caricaturing some "other" negatively..
Sharon McCann 10+
Religion serves a valuable series of social purposes. But, we need to encourage a more ethicalist take on them for them to avoid doing more harm than good.
Peter Law 30+
If each individual could educate themselves & decide what they believed that would solve a lot of problems. Trouble is the coercion & peer pressure that is more the norm. Then governments decide to invade countries which have a different belief & impose their beliefs on that country. Before you know it the whole world is at war.
On a personal level folks usually get on fine & tolerate each other's beliefs. Politics have the same problem; we swing from left to right & back again. Why can't we have common sense politics & pick the best of both worlds ? The human race seems to be bent on self destruction; organised religion is but one excuse, but there are many others.
:-)
John Smith 30+
By being organized. Having a hierarchy where a small group of old, out of touch people get to interpret holy books for you is disastrous.