weaponization of religion

[Trust_Reality]

"Onward, Christian Soldiers"

From the United Methodist Hymnal (575) on-line:

1. Onward, Christian soldiers, marching as to war,
with the cross of Jesus going on before.
Christ, the royal Master, leads against the foe;
forward into battle see his banners go!

Refrain:
Onward, Christian soldiers, marching as to war,
with the cross of Jesus going on before.

4. Crowns and thrones may perish, kingdoms rise and wane,
but the church of Jesus constant will remain.
Gates of hell can never 'gainst that church prevail;
we have Christ's own promise, and that cannot fail.

[walkingman]

1. I consider religions to be the destroyers of humanity.

They are the primary reason we are not better than this.

[jfz9580m]

3. I try to be civil about religion

But best case it makes me mildly uncomfortable..I view it as inconsistent with a science/rationality based worldview.

And worse for the first time ever after losing my mom a few years ago, I vaguely saw the appeal of its siren song. I was so unwilling to accept my mom was gone I was almost willing to open my mind to something other than a science-based worldview.

My family was not religious and I was always naturally inclined towards atheism.
Thankfully it passed ..creeped me out though..

[Elessar Zappa]

4. You can accept science and believe in spirits too.

I do, as do many others. Science can’t address issues like that because it’s not provable or disprovable. I’m not religious as I believe religions are man-made but I do believe in an afterlife.

[jfz9580m]

7. I understand

I am never disrespectful of that.

Most organized religion I think we can all agree is generally very bad. But even there sometimes there are pleasant surprises. A DUer informed me a while back about how liberal the Episcopal church is..

[RobinA]

6. I Had a Similar Situation

when my father died. My family is completely non religious, it's not even a consideration. When my father died, acceptance was not an issue, he lived a good life well, but I thought I thought how nice it would be to believe that he was somewhere up in the sky, that we might see him again... Unfortunately, I just can't make that fly.

[jfz9580m]

8. That's how it was for me as well

Sorry about your dad..

[keithbvadu2]

2. Crusades... But we are also killing Christians.

Priest... Kill them all. Let God sort them out.

[Pesky1]

5. Marching as to war

I've looked back and wondered about this widely sung "hymn" myself. I grew up in a protestant church with considerable participation. Then, at some point, it became increasingly aggravating when some religionist would make a statement that God wanted us to do this or that. JUST HOW DO YOU KNOW THAT?

So this is where I am now:

1) The Bible is insufficient for giving the final rules. Anything can be supported with several sentences picked from anywhere in it. Do you take an eye for an eye, or forgive seventy times seven?

2) From reading Bart Ehrman (head of the religious studies department at UNC Chapel Hill) and others, we don't know who really wrote the Gospels. The first, Mark, appeared some 30-40 years after time claimed for the crucifixion, and contain the only "biographical" information available. No one involved is these ever saw or heard Jesus. Paul, who lived during the time of Jesus, also never saw or heard Jesus but claimed all of his writing came from "revelation".

3) Both Christian and secular scholars who actually study the Bible from an historical and literary standpoint agree that God is ineffable...meaning unknowable.

4) The massive "Christian" support for Trump, rapist and incredible liar, has really harmed the value of all the Christian dogma for me.

So when someone says that God wants us to line up behind this cross and march as to war, or to hurt some group or another because God wants it, HOW DO YOU KNOW THAT?

BTW. I still have a very strong spiritual life.

[bluestarone]

9. Hell, we see hoe religion in the BIGGEST problem in the middle East.

I can picture these traitors of our country allowing foreign country leaders to use religion to destroy our country the same way. i honestly feel the ONLY way to destroy us IS through religion. They figured this out!!