I've come across plenty of hateful acts but at the same time, you see that in almost every group, in people as a whole. I don't think you can demonize a whole group based on the actions of some of the people within. I agree with you for the most part I think.
Maybe it's just a coincidence but the % of people on anti depressants is pretty high in utah.
"On that note, if any church imposes the book to make people feel worthless and depressed, then unfortunately they have missed out on the main principals. "
I don't think that's the intention, but it does seem to happen.
I agree with you to an extent I guess. If believing something makes you feel better than that's fine for the person. I personally believe that knowledge is incredibly under rated these days. Right now we have pretty much everything you could possibly find out right at our finger tips yet at the same time people are incredibly ignorant. That isn't an attack on religion, their is plenty of ignorance to go around outside of religion. Doesn't seem like the general population is capable of real critical though.
“Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our mind" Bob Marley
Yeah I quoted marley but I feel it's a really good message. That was something that always mattered a lot to me.
As far as culture I was just generalizing a lot of stuff. Was talking more about certain aspects.
"All I'm saying is respect that, there's no need to look down on other peoples upbringing"
I'm not looking down on people as much, just seems like a trend of keeping things the way they are. For al progress that's made, it seems like there's a massive push against it. Not all change is good, but being close minded towards change in general isn't helpful either.
I do try and keep an open mind. I would have a completely different set of beliefs if I didn't. I'm always open to finding out knew things even if they change what I previously thought was true. This seems like the main obstacle that a lot of people get hung up on. It'd also fairly prevalent in religion. Once they think they "know" something, their minds are closed to finding out that they were wrong. I'm not saying they are wrong, I don't "know".
"The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge" - Daniel Boorstin
This is where my feelings about the people that were brought up religious comes in. If they were brought up to "know" something, their minds were never open.
I remember a sermon from one church I used to attend. It was at the time when the methodist church had that campaign "our hearts, our minds, and our doors are always open"
I remember the pastor talking about how it wasn't a good thing to have your mind open to anything. I can understand what he was saying, you don't want to pollute your mind by taking in just anything, but at the same time you can't completely close yourself off if you ever want to really learn. I know this example doesn't hold for every church, every christian, I'm just using it as an example because it's a first hand account and it applies here. A lot of people that say they "questioned their faith" at one point still had that "knowledge in the back of their heads. Yeah they had some questions and weren't sure of everything, but in the back of their mind they still knew that christianity was the truth, and that ultimately helped to guide them back into it. Again this doesn't apply to everyone, but it is a trend that happens.
You also don't see much encouragement toward the pursuit of knowledge coming from most churches. I don't here many people saying, leave the church, question everything you know, try to prove everything you have ever believed wrong, and then pursue what you found out to be true. If you never question your reality you can't really "know" that your beliefs are in any way true. Again, this applies to people in general but massively to the religious.
"Statistically, less and less people are going to church, so I don't think its the vicious cycle you are depicting."
That's true, but it's becoming a little less mainstream these days. Every community doesn't turn out in full to the local church every sunday. The cycle I was talking about still happens. The majority of religious people had religious parents who had religious parents who had religious parents. On the other hand it's not going to stick permanently in every child.
"Myself I am undecided what my eventual choice is (I may never know) but im keeping doors open, knowing that the possibilities are not as black or white we make it out to be."
I completely agree with you. I look at it the same way. I've tried to find out as much information as I can about things, but I'm always open to have everything proven wrong. I'm open to the possibility of any or all of the religions being true. I'm open to anything. We definitely agree on some things.
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