An Agnostic ponders religion.

[Avatar4321]

At 72 I am an Agnostic but I’ve been thinking about religion. I was confirmed a catholic in 1960 but I have a hard time seeing the Pope as the living God especially after he leaves the bathroom. In addition, the Catholic faith has a real problem with its silence during Hitler’s extermination of Jews. And there are those piles of wealth accumulated Mafia –style. I’m no Catholic.

I want to pick the religion that has the best God but I’m not going with the Jews because they’ve got one mean God with “wrath” as his middle name. Historically, they write backwards which affected their map reading skills likely explaining why they got lost in the desert for forty years. And I’ve become fond of a part of my anatomy that I don’t want lopped off. The Jews are out.

I have no desire to return to the Middle Ages with medieval crusades and barbaric discipline that buries females up to their necks in dirt while the people test their pitching skills by launching rocks at a human head. Anything Muslim is off the table even though we are probably just around the corner from the first Sharia states in the US.

My problem is that I don’t believe in anything intensely enough to kill other people for it. I do support the Golden Rule but only those who are suicidal would kill for it. As an Agnostic, I’m not sitting on the fence; I’m hiding behind a wall.

All this religious love in the world is downright dangerous and the slings and arrows of the past are nothing compared to what’s festering just under the surface of contemporary religious human culture. Mike Pence’s injection-molded haircut does nothing to mitigate my anxiety about the atavistic direction the human race is veering toward.

I thought I had it figured out in 1973 when I rode my motorcycle to the “Summer Jam” at Watkins Glenn NY to atone for missing Woodstock. I saw naked people rolling in the mud Bonobo style, with no way to keep themselves clean. They just came home, went through penicillin by the barrel and were right back at it again. We call them Atheists today. Aleister Crowley and Rasputin are not on my list either.

I conclude that I cannot be saved by religion; I just can’t get excited enough to bayonet non-believers. If I spend an eternity in Dante’s Inferno for the sin of sloth then so be it.

Your Catholic background is a handicap.

The faith is about you and God, nothing else. John 3:16.
All the rest is commentary, so now go study the word.

Study the word? Best way to turn an agnostic into an atheist that has ever been found

And yet when I didnt know whether there as a God, it was studying the scriptures and daily prayer that led me to some of my first revelations and a witness

 

[Avatar4321]

If Protestant you follow Paul.
If Catholic you follow Jesus.

Jesus is not allowed in Catholic Church.

View attachment 260764

Plus it creates morons like you who claim Jesus was not a Jew and you only hate Nazis because they didn’t finish the job.

I do not hate Nazis. They were merely following their leader like the trampers are.

So you hate all of us not the Nazis....

 

[Avatar4321]

You cannot have varying beliefs in God and all of them be true.

Right. You cant even have two of them be true. Most likely, they are all false.

All being false is impossible.

If you have one belief that God is real and another that He isnt they cant both be false

 

[Fort Fun Indiana]

All being false is impossible.

Is that a joke? Of course its possible. Just as all the versions of greek mythology -- and there are many -- are all false.

You only think it impossible because you are certain that your preferred little magical fetish is the correct one. Of course, it's also a myth.

If you have one belief that God is real and another that He isnt

That isn't what we were talking about.

 

[Hawkins]

To me, it's a bad idea to look at a man then say, "This man is bad, so that I don't believe God".
Basically, how bad a man is has nothing to do with how true God is.

 

[BULLDOG]

To me, it's a bad idea to look at a man then say, "This man is bad, so that I don't believe God".
Basically, how bad a man is has nothing to do with how true God is.

I agree with your remark. However, it is perfectly natural to reject a religion, and it's concept of god if that religion uses their concept of god to justify the actions of that bad man. Any religion that justifies bad behavior is a false religion, headed by a false god.

 

[Slyhunter]

To me, it's a bad idea to look at a man then say, "This man is bad, so that I don't believe God".
Basically, how bad a man is has nothing to do with how true God is.

I agree with your remark. However, it is perfectly natural to reject a religion, and it's concept of god if that religion uses their concept of god to justify the actions of that bad man. Any religion that justifies bad behavior is a false religion, headed by a false god.

You used the word "any" and therefore your statement is false. If Buddhist are correct there is a heaven realm filled with many gods whom may have followers here. I doubt "good intentions" is a requirement for a god title.

 

[BULLDOG]

To me, it's a bad idea to look at a man then say, "This man is bad, so that I don't believe God".
Basically, how bad a man is has nothing to do with how true God is.

I agree with your remark. However, it is perfectly natural to reject a religion, and it's concept of god if that religion uses their concept of god to justify the actions of that bad man. Any religion that justifies bad behavior is a false religion, headed by a false god.

You used the word "any" and therefore your statement is false. If Buddhist are correct there is a heaven realm filled with many gods whom may have followers here. I doubt "good intentions" is a requirement for a god title.

Good intentions might not be a requirement for a god title, but it is certainly valid grounds to reject a religion or god that condones bad intentions.

 

[AZGAL]

I want to pick the religion that has the best God but I’m not going with the Jews because they’ve got one mean God with “wrath” as his middle name.

This is a rude and ignorant simpleminded point of view. Educate yourself as you are new to the world of faith...You seem to be god shopping at the discount store...

 

[BULLDOG]

I want to pick the religion that has the best God but I’m not going with the Jews because they’ve got one mean God with “wrath” as his middle name.

This is a rude and ignorant simpleminded point of view. Educate yourself as you are new to the world of faith...You seem to be god shopping at the discount store...

Can you think of a more rational way to shop for a god? There is no verifiable reason to believe in any one of the hundreds or thousands of gods on the market. Who says a discount god might not be just as good as one of those high priced ones?