The Energon Pub

Lunar-tic wrote:How can people put faith into a religion that is lying to them!

Desire to be part of something larger, where they feel that something greater does operate with their best interest at heart.
Fear of the unknown, that spurns smart people to make decisions that don't seem to make sense when compared to rational thought.

warning the following is an extremely personal view yet not one that effects my own personal belief

Organized religion is a scam, perpetuating:
Death is not the finality, that you have a soul which will be rewarded in an afterlife. What is better to beleive that you will go to a wondrous paradise or that your brain shuts down and once the final synapse fails it's all over. Who wouldn't rather hang with god or even the devil if it meant you continued on? Clearly being tortured in hell is better than ceasing to exist outright. Replace God/Devil with anything from other religions whether it be Ra, Odin, Jupiter, hell even Lorn Zenu, and such are modifiers of the life after life belief.
Humanity is frail, and that it is in our nature to be the animals that we are biologically. However by giving your life, your devotion, and your material possessions to your chosen deity (and to support their support systems on earth) it doesn't matter what you do from living a pious life to murderous rampages, as long as you can "see the light" you will be saved and go to the afterlife.

While I don't believe that everyone in a church are scam-artists, there are elements inside all forms from the wacko cult in the park to the guys in the funny hats in Rome. Say nothing of people thru-out time that have told lies and everything between that and committed murder all in the name of "compassionate" god(s).

There are reasons that the sheepherder/flock terms have been adopted in church. It does have roots in Jesus and others acting as a guiding force, but also in the people following like sheep not caring why they were following as long as they did have someone leading them.

Editor wrote:Desire to be part of something larger, where they feel that something greater does operate with their best interest at heart.
Fear of the unknown, that spurns smart people to make decisions that don't seem to make sense when compared to rational thought.

Derren Brown did a program called Messiah where he showed how easily people can be pulled into believing things that don't exist. He said that if they ask him if it is all a trick he will own up and admit it, but will they ask him that question? He took the guise of a psychic, evangelist, alien abductee, among others. He had to convince some top experts of each belief system that he was the real deal. Well worth watching!

Name_Violation wrote:

Dead Metal wrote:I'm an atheist but do believe that there once was a man called Jesus Christ it's been proven as a fact.
I don't care why Christmas is celebrated I just like the atmosphere of it for me it's be best about winter.

But I am all for an accurate Jesus birthday celebration if you want to celebrate his birthday then please do so on his actual birthday gives us another holiday.

He summed it up perfectly.

Besides, what would happen to Frosty the snowman? Dusty the sandman?and Has anyone cleared this with santa? whats he got to say about this? it become more about santa than jesus.

I sort of agree with n_v here, and everyone else who's talking about secular Christmas. At this point, Christmas to most is a commerical holiday, and the entire mythos of that holiday is wrapped in the concept of it's occuring during the winter. If we're talking about moving the date for religious purposes, I don't mean this to be inflamatory or anything, but I have to ask who cares? If Christ's date can be proven as say, July 16th, and if believers want to celebrate that day as christmas instead, then they don't really need to re-write the calandar or changes legistlation or anything to do so. If I want to have the Super Bowl be an official holiday to my children, I don't need it to be written on a calander or have an ordinance to celebrate it or anything.
Modern Christmas is what the popular conception mill has produced, so why should we move it around for the sake of accuracy?
Aside from that, Islam and Orthodox Christians keep track oftheir major holidays by the cycles of the moon, if I'm not terribly mistaken. So, why can't the same have been done for Christmas?

Lunar-tic wrote:

Editor wrote:Desire to be part of something larger, where they feel that something greater does operate with their best interest at heart.
Fear of the unknown, that spurns smart people to make decisions that don't seem to make sense when compared to rational thought.

Derren Brown did a program called Messiah where he showed how easily people can be pulled into believing things that don't exist. He said that if they ask him if it is all a trick he will own up and admit it, but will they ask him that question? He took the guise of a psychic, evangelist, alien abductee, among others. He had to convince some top experts of each belief system that he was the real deal. Well worth watching!

Let's keep this to Christmas and not religious beliefs as a whole please

Mkall wrote:Let's keep this to Christmas and not religious beliefs as a whole please

Fair enough, Sorry for derail.