regis

Religions, as human constructs, were constructed by humans - seems kinda obvious . . .

Unless you're pointing to the One True Way (TM), and that, of course, came directly from Allah!


:devil1:

Barefoot Bree

Quick, start singing "Imagine" instead! Much nicer....

notasheep

Ygg- sorry about the Beach Boys thing. I was just trying to point out how I think religion got started. And later developed into beliefs that could be debated ad infinitum on internet forums.

OldYgg

The beach boys are better than the Wiggles - any day - even if it is just two bars of one song.

Actually, you are correct - and it is something my wife and I talk about sometimes.
Wife is agnostic at best.

Wife: Wouldn't it be nice if there was a heaven to go to when we die?
Me: Not really, what would be the point? Life on Earth has a point - we want to make things better in the future than in the past. Who knows - whenever the universe crawls to its bitter end - maybe we'll find something fundamental about existence and be able to continue in some form. Heaven has no point - just a 'nice place forever' and time would be irrelevant. Why have time - past present future - if everything is the same?

We've had varients of this a few times - and it really has nothing to do with god and everything to do with the fact that we don't want our lives to end.

Old Ygg / Alex

Chili

That is easy to do. The insight of Peter is the rock of faith whereupon Christ would built his church. This insight was revealed when Peter recognized Jesus as the messiah (the Christ) which nobody else did.

It is true that many religions are social clubs and I would think that bingo is also a human invention. But if there is such is thing as the mystery of faith it certainly is not a human thing to tuck it away as if it was an easter egg. Yet it is tucked inside religion for us to find except that the us in us is the bush wherein it is hid and that is precisely what makes it a non-human invention.

Chili

That is easy to do. The insight of Peter is the rock of faith whereupon Christ would built his church. This insight was revealed when Peter recognized Jesus as the messiah (the Christ) which nobody else did.

It is true that many religions are social clubs and I would think that bingo is also a human invention. But if there is such is thing as the mystery of faith it certainly is not a human thing to tuck it away as if it was an easter egg. Yet it is tucked inside religion for us to find except that the us in us is the bush wherein it is hid and that is precisely what makes it a non-human invention.

Don't forget here that Catholicism is a mystery religion and the rest could very well be human inventions.

Actually, if you follow Peter after he was defrocked from Judaism and went fishing again but caught nothing all night because he was naked, it follows that when Jesus told him to cast his nets on the other side of the boat where the fish are big and easy to catch, the "new cloak' of Peter will be filled with inspired wisdom from where we can slice dogma without end. Of course, that 'sea of wisdom' is ours when Peter moved to Rome and we built the Vatican on the truth that he left behind.

regis

Chili Quote: . . . the us in us is the bush wherein it is hid and that is precisely what makes it a non-human invention . . .

WTF? Could you please direct me to the nearest group of Grade Nine heads so that I could smoke up an understanding of that?


:devil1:

OldYgg

You are saying that religion is different than other social organizations because it has a basis in documentation, tradition and history.

Sorry, no dice.

You'll have to keep your references outside of documentary in nature to prove that religion is different than any other human created social institution.

Old Ygg / Alex

Chili

Yes our humanity (or human condition) is the bush wherein the Easter egg is his hid. This makes it a non human invention and therefore a mystery.

Naturally, we all have intuitions about this unknown element in life that is far greater in truth then our faculty of reason can ever hope to be and so many will run away with small portions of this and built religions on it. These would be human inventions and not infallible, I would say.

Chili

Not history and tradition but inspiration. Even part of the tradition is based on inspiration and not just inside religion but also in society itself . . . except maybe democratic rights that create war instead of peace among men of good will.