I'm not sure what you're point is. My point is the laws of the land aren't enough to keep the masses in line. Any kind of moral guidelines does a great service for many people. Religion happens to cover a lot of people these days so if they were all eliminated something would have to take its place, in my opinion. Look how many people AA saved. Their philosophy is to find a higher power, someone stronger than you to guide you. That higher power can be a brother or friend but for most people it is the Almighty.
On 7/24/06, Gruss Gott wrote: > Yup, that's my point. I'm no atheist, but I'm not religious either. > I used to be, and I took many college theology classes, but I decided > that religion had equal powers to do good and evil. So maybe I would > change my last post to: > > "If you eliminated religion, you'd likely have world peace." And I'll > stand by the 2 stated benefits unless someone has some others. > > For me, part of the problem of Christianity is summed up in the > apparent disagreement between John and Thomas. > > If you look at the Gospels included in the New Testament you'll find, > of course, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and ... John. John? > > If you compare them you'll find that Matthew, Mark, and Luke agree on > just about everything: times, dates, places, events, people, etc. > John, however, differs quite a bit. So one of the questions of > canonization is why was John included when differs so much? > > One answer is that, at the time, there was a need to tie together the > many branches of Christianity. Because many had to hide their > religion, they developed their own branch. John was vehement on the > "right" form of Christianity and so used as the hammer. > > So where am I going with all of this? Well one major place John > disagreed with the other Gospels is on Doubting Thomas. John didn't > like him, but Matthew, Mark, and Luke saw him as a great leader. > > One core place of disagreement between John and Thomas was "the > light". John insisted that the The Light was from God and that only > by ascending to heaven could one attain The Light. > > Thomas said that The Light existed in all of us and the pursuit of > truth helped one reveal this light. To this end Thomas travelled the > world to find truth and The Light, dying in India. > > Modern Christianity - modern Christian *religion*, however, reflects > John's views. Thomas' view seems to be that it is not religion that > helps one to grow, it's the pursuit of truth. This means you can > explore truth as a Jew, a Muslim, or a Christian. > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Introducing the Fusion Authority Quarterly Update. 80 pages of hard-hitting, up-to-date ColdFusion information by your peers, delivered to your door four times a year. http://www.fusionauthority.com/quarterly Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:211734 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=s:5 Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5
