Well most major religions are a load of crap imo.  This one is no different, although I would rank it as equally assinine as Christianity, Hinduism, etc.  If I were forced to choose a religion at this point, I'd probably go for something like one of the modern verisons Wicca which also has spooky "God magic" that the other religions do, but doesn't seem to promote ignorance, intolerance, and general stupidity as much.  I do believe in spirituality and perhaps some kind of spirit realm, but I don't buy into the dogma/mind control of the major religions are selling at all.

Stormcrow wrote:

I must admit I'm puzzled by the concept of "choosing" a religion...is belief a conscious decision?  Don't get me wrong, I went that way myself long ago.  There was a point in my life that I felt there was something wrong with me because I didn't have religion.  Which also leads me to believe that school prayer isn't harmless after all.  I mean, we didn't even have that and I still felt inadequate over the whole thing.  I tried inventing my own belief system, but in the end, belief in the supernatural isn't a choice that most people have available to them.  I could see shopping for a church say, looking for a community you felt at home in, but shopping for religion really seems a bit self-indulgent to me.  Not that self-indulgence is necessarily bad, but that's a topic for a different forum

It may seem self-indulgent, but I think that is at least a step above the people who only believe something because their parents raised them into it and have no will to question things or think for their selves.

Last edited by J-Syxx (04-25-2007 09:00:16 PM)

Stormcrow wrote:

I must admit I'm puzzled by the concept of "choosing" a religion...is belief a conscious decision?

I think as organized religion more as mixture of certain beliefs that it's members share and a sense of "belonging" to a comunity. Every time my mom gets me to go to church with her I always observe that right after we arrive a ritual "extra-religious" is done, you say hello to people you know, get presented people you don't know ask how is their life or if the mass that day is because of an especial event you talk about it. Right after you finish the rituals of bonding start again now with more freedom of time. Also add the chit-chat here and then in the midle of the mass of how about the priest only seems to have the same 4 topics for all the sermon (sex, abortion, stranged brothers, and free union) and how at least uses 3 in each sermon XD

Some people are not religious, but is the community they were raised in it and they find solace in that small rituals of bonding.

Like everyone else I say you can't choose what you believe - if we could, things would be different. I don't know why I believe what I do, especially since it's so different from what I believed two years ago.