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I do not hold to “Organized Religion” mainly because this just causes too much conflict. Here

is the plain truth lack of faith or belief in God is the reason for violence. Peoples skewed views of

God; their own personal interpretations of God and his word are the reasons for violence, strife,

hunger and hatred in the world. My belief is simple; believe in God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit,

believe in the word of God written in the BIBLE, not in any ones interpretations of the word of

God or how they think we should worship him. God will provide all we need to follow him. He

sets down the ways we are to act and the path we are to follow in the Bible. Religion in my

opinion is nothing more than a way to do the least and reap the most. Religion is man-made, used

to package faith into a neat, not too demanding, diluted version of God; this is an organization

designed to corrupt belief in God. Harrington (2006) stated “It is no secret that today there are

deep divisions in our society and in our churches.” (Uniters, Not Dividers, p. 39) > >

Denominations create divisions among Christians by only promoting certain aspects of the

Bible as their doctrine. Take, for example, the following two denominations; Baptist and

Pentecostal’s both believe in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and both preach from the King

James Version of the Bible; however there is where they start to differ, by what they preach from

the Bible. Baptist’s beliefs differ mainly in what they consider to be saved. If one has not been

baptized in the acceptable ritual such as being completely submerged in a river or pool while a

preacher says a prayer over him or her then he or she is not saved. Once baptized one is saved

for the rest of his or her life; one is guaranteed salvation regardless of sins committed. As long as a

prayer of forgiveness is said daily one can live his or her life no different then when he or she was a

‘sinner’. Things such as drinking alcohol are generally acceptable, now that is not to say that all

Baptist believe that way for even within the denominations there is still conflict on how to believe

and what is acceptable. Pentecostal’s view is different. Being baptized is not a requirement.

Asking for forgiveness and completely changing the way one lives his or her life is. If one says the

‘sinner’s prayer’, asks the Lord for forgiveness and to be cleansed of all ones sins and misdeeds

one will be saved. This, though, does not guarantee salvation; being saved requires constant

vigilance by daily prayer and meditation, reading and studying ones Bible, going to church, and

giving up ones ‘wicked’ sinful ways to live a life of humble service to the Lord. The denominations

have even been labeled. One will hear of Baptist referred to as ‘Foot Washing’ or fanatical and

Pentecostals have been called ‘Holy Rollers’; this name calling does not promote unity, community

or love. This only fosters hate.

The division created by denominations is one of the main sources of strife among Christians;

this dictates how Christians are viewed by non-Christians. Another reason Christians are viewed

negatively would be the contention that unless one believes in the Father, Son and Holy Spirit he

or she is a heathen and will not enter into heaven unless one has been converted to the Christian

faith. Christianity is the only faith that actively seeks to convert non-believers and members of

other faiths. Jehovah’s Witness actively send their members door to door engaging people in

conversations about God and how and what they should believe to get into heaven. They solicit

pamphlets and other propaganda on their beliefs and interpretations of the word of God. They will

hand out their leaflets and other materials to passerby trying to engage them in a debate over

religion. Missionaries journey to ‘third world’ countries preaching to the natives and trying to

convert the ‘heathens’. They often come on the pretense of providing food, medicines and clothing

but along with that will come a sermon on how they need to repent their wicked ways. Now I am

not saying that one should not testify to others and share of how God has been good to him or her,

how he has helped one through his or her life; however this is not for us to say that their faith is

wrong. For centuries Christian’s have been trying to convert people they believe to be ‘heathens’

to the Christian faith. The colonist who first arrived to the Americas tried to coax Native American

peoples to attend church and become ‘civilized’; indeed they would go to the camps and gather

up the Native American children taking them to school and to church. They would try to teach

them Christian ways and to give them a good ‘Christian’ upbringing. For all their good intentions,

Christians have given God a bad rap.

Our focus needs to be brought back to God. Too much of our daily lives are spent not under

the guidance of our Lord but under the mistaken belief that we are no longer in need his council,

wisdom, teachings, and love. Just look around today and see that, indeed, we are a people

divided and confused. Let us ask ourselves; how can we go on denying him and what price are we

paying if we do not get him back in our lives today, our children? I know I am not willing to pay

that price. We need to take our time to get back to the family and to the family praising God

together. Let us take a look at our lives and see where we have neglected our family and not

brought them together to praise and worship God. One Sunday a month or during the holidays, or

every once in a while when one has time is not going to accomplish anything. We need to have a

daily dialogue with God and with our family about God. We need to pray to him for guidance and

look to him for answers. Be examples to our children who to have faith in God is to have salvation

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God is not the source of all that is wrong with this world; he does not cause the wars, nor

does he cause hunger, disease, or greed. What causes these things are people with their

misguided, skewed views of what service to God means and of what faith in him requires of us.

They allow evil and temptation to corrupt what the word of God means and have a disillusioned

view of what service to him is. They disagree on even the most basic of things and fight amongst

each other instead of turning to God for answers and guidance. God gave man free will;

unfortunately, man has twisted this into a prison of war, distrust and malcontent. They believe free

will is just an illusion and doubt that one can truly have free will and still follow the Bible. They

choose instead to make their own interpretations of his word blaming God for their failures and

their misery. When they should be praying to God to guide them, to help them find the answers

they seek. God is there if we choose to call on him, he has not forsaken us. We have forgotten

him. Ones’ own since of Righteousness is what keeps him or her from being humble to God and

causes the conflict we see in our community.

Until Christians can learn to live the word of God and resist temptations there can be no

community, no lasting peace. We need to return to the basics, live under one doctrine, the Bible,

pray and seek council in God every day. Live with humility and understanding. Be tolerant of other

faiths and cultures and do not assume that just because they do not believe as we do that they are

heathens bound to burn in the eternal fires of Hell. Celebrate the many different cultures and

customs, share our customs and traditions. Do not throw away our Christianity instead embrace

our faith and share Gods love for all his children. Faith requires sacrifice, trials, tribulations,

suffering. Faith requires a commitment to ones convictions to follow God and his teachings

unconditionally. Brennan Manning was the one who said best, “Authentic Christianity should lead

to maturity, personality, and reality. It should fashion whole men and women living lives of love

and communion.” (The Ragamuffin Gospel, 1991) > >

Ahh...you are a wonderful debater...what athought-provoking and deep response, I am indebted to you. However, I do believe I have not made my intentions of this clear. For you see, I myself am actually a christian. I'm not simply accusing Christians of this, exemplary occurances are also acts of terrorism--Muslims who commit these acts, explaining that it is "lesser jihad", notice the "lesser". THese unfortunate souls have acknowledged that they have deviated from the teachings of Muhammed, as I believe some denominations of Christians have. I believe that these over-zealous individuals who commit these hurtful acts "shovign religion down their throats" as I've heard, have also wandered far from the teachings and example Jesus made. But I think that we need to acknowledge these acts and improve the conditions of this world so that we may all coexist in peace with the narrow-mindedness shown by these zealouts.

If you ask someone what their experience of religion has been, and why, it will usually come down to a list of stories recounting acts or events involving those people thought to be 'religious' - whatever that means.

That is comparable to the way in which we like certain names based on the people we've met with them. The words bring connotations, but they are meanings which we all define slightly different.

It's also comparable to the way in which the Gospel narratives of Jesus are a collection of stories about Jesus. Just as if I were to ask you what your grandmother was like, the authors of the Gospels recounted stories of Jesus to convey to the readers who they thought Jesus was.

There is nothing in a typical childs name (John for instance) which makes it inherrently 'evil' wrong or bad, and in the same way, nothing in the word 'religion' actually makes it 'evil' or 'good'.

This isn't to say that 'evil' and 'good' doesn't exist, but merely that if we're going to consider whether something is evil or not, we need to do it in the light of what these words actually mean.

Stories of terrible experiences with 'Christians' telling people they're going to burn in hell, are terrible I completely agree. The question is, are they representative of what they believe, and are we justified to class 'Religion' in the light of their actions.

As with everything, we remember the bad. If i worked in a shop, and one customer came in and hit me in the face, then when I went home that night, i wouldn't tell people about the 50 good customers i'd served. They simply lived up to my expectations (whether I had a right to form them or not) so I had no need to discuss them. Instead I would talk about the aggressive one, the brutal one, the mean ones; Basically, the ones who failed to live up to the social expectation I had constructed for their behaviour. If people don't do things we agree with, we remember them much quicker.

Perhaps one exception to this rule is if someone is truly a role model, someone we should try to live up to and someone who surpasses our expectations enough to warrant discussion. If you ask someone who the greatest people in the world were, you'll get a limited number of names, namely Mother Teresa, Jesus, Ghandi for instance. All of these were religious figures.

How do we reconcile this then? On the one hand plenty of our experiences contain negative examples of encounter with 'religious' people. On the other, our role models are religious people.

You can't escape from religion. Taking the broadest definition of 'religion' as being an ultimate concern then everyone is religious. Remember that some Buddhists would say that their religion doesn't require belief in God.

We judge peoples belief systems by how they act, whether their acts are consistent with said belief systems. The biggest shame is that a religion which is rooted in the love of Jesus, and a book which is full of those who loved him sharing stories about how he acted in love, is somehow warped into something people associate with hate, by a minority.

People living a life which is inconsistent with the believes they say they live by will always happen. The church is not for perfect people after all. I just encourage people not to judge Christianity by the standard we Christians set, but by the standard Jesus set us to live by. There is a plethora of evidence to say that Jesus lived and died. There is even evidence to say that he rose, and if you're going to get to know Christianity, look at him too, not just the Christians.

In order to find out if religion is evil one first has to define evil. Many of the things that are considered "evil" by some are common place and ordinary to others. Is the taking of another life evil if it is done to save ones child, or to save many others lives?

There are groups of people who take many wives, and in some cases are married to twelve, and thirteen year old girls. To many this may be labled "evil" but to them it is their way of life.

In some countries the so called "evil" act of prostitution is a legally sanctioned profession.

By whos standard should I try to answer this question?

My own I guess. I believe that it is individuals who decide for themselves what is evil and what is not. Sure there are laws that govern for the sake of keeping society "organised" but by many standards any number of these laws can be judged as "evil" by someone.