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I was raised as a Catholic, but soon realised it was as believeable as the tooth fairy.
Why do politicians and the media still treat religion with reverence.
This behaviour does have consequences e.g. The Vice President in the US believes in creationism rather than evolution, and creationism is taught in many US schools.
People treat religion with respect because they don't want to start a fight. The bible says religion is made up by men telling each other what to do. Religion does not require believing: just not arguing is good enough.
Creationism and evolution are both made up baloney, fools arguing with other fools. The first step in science is "Observe something." No evidence of creation or evolution has ever been seen. All evidence that seems to support evolution has been exposed as a hoax. Creationism has no evidence, and does not even conform to the bible's description of the process.
It might interest you to know that there were eye witnesses to what we mistakenly call creation. They recorded their observations as best they could, carving some records into stones and passing verbal accounts from one generation to the next. It has taken a very long time to interpret these records because they don't describe anything we have seen. For example the legend of the dragon is carved into rocks all over the world, but it is only recently that anybody has noticed a natural effect that fits that description. This is a long book because it tries to cover everything completely.
www.saturniancosmology.org/
JESUS promoted respect for God’s Word, the Bible. However, many of the religious leaders of Jesus’ day did not share his respect for God’s Word. Many of the world’s religions, Christian and non-Christian alike, claim to respect the Bible, therefore in the eyes others these religions and their leaders need to be respected.
Jesus condemned the religious leaders of his day for their love of titles and their desire for prominence. He said that those men loved “the first places at suppers and the front seats in the synagogues, and greetings in the market place, and to be called by men ‘Rabbi.” Matthew 23:7
Most people don't even question if that religion is in line with God's standards, because they have been conditioned to accept either what their family believed or what satisfies their need for worship. Jesus stated, "Not everyone who calls me ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the Kingdom of heaven, but only those who do what my Father in heaven wants them to do.” (Matthew 7:21,
Since there has always been a relationship between church and state, not church, God and state, there are bound to be consequences. The Bible says, “No one can slave for two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will stick to the one and despise the other." Matthew 6:24
The results has been a promotion of things that are against what the Bible says is right from God, the creator's standard. The results, Revelation 18:4 says, "Get out of her, my people, if you do not want to share with her in her sins, and if you do not want to receive part of her plagues.”
The respect and reverence that seems to be given is short lived, and much of it has already started to diminish, as we we see how many of the churches in Europe are now museums.
The Bible tells us that God loved humans so much, that he allowed His son to suffer by the hands of these so called religious and political rulers, to give those who respect and love Him an opportunity to learn about Him and his requirements for approval.
John 3:16, John 17:3.
I enjoyed sharing this information with you I hope it was informative.
For more detailed Ref. jw.org
Like you I was raised a Catholic but from an early age I knew it was about religion and not about building a close relationship with God. I started looking into other teachings and they all seem to focus on the religion part, so I started to have an indebt study of God's word the bible and there were some things in my study that really help me to see the importance of worship that's pleasing to God. Let's look at a few of them :
1) Psalms 83:18, "May people know that you, whose name is Jehovah, You alone
are the Most High over all the earth."
The above scripture tells us the importance of using God's name. Many religions
today have so many Gods and so many idols they turn to in worship.Jehovah
tells us he is the only true God, the Most High over all the earth?
2) John 17:3 says, "This means everlasting life, their coming to know you, the only
true God, and the one whom you sent ,Jesus Christ,"
This tells us it is vital to come to know God and his son so we could have
everlasting life.
3) James 4:8'says, "Draw close to God, and he will draw close to you.
God is ready and willing to reach out to us but he is waiting for us to reach out to
and meet him half way.
4) Isaiah 41:13, "For I, Jehovah your God, am grasping your right hand. The one
saying to you, 'Do not be afraid. I will help you."
This helps us to see don't matter what we facing Jehovah is guaranteeing us we
don't have to face it alone, he will help us if we allow him to.
All the scriptures above shows the beautiful relationship we could have with our loving and caring father if we become friends with him, following his councils listed in the bible could give us the best life ever.
As you mention religion may not be the answer but any group or organization who practice the above scriptures in their daily lives are worth investigating . Like I said before I was a Catholic to and had no knowledge of God's requirements and the importance of living up to them. But once I started having deep bible studies I come to realize their is no better relationship I could of form than one with my Grand Creator . the Most High , the one and only True God.
Hope the above information help you see the importance of knowing the true God and the difference of worshipping because of religious believe from family members and facts written in God's word.
If you need more information on this topic or any topic please visit JW.org
Do you honestly believe it could have come about by any other means?
Doesn't that leave you with the problem of where did the higher power come from?
Think about this: either something infinite created all thing or an there are an infinite amount of creators who created each other. Which makes more sense?
I don't see any reason for a creator or an infinite number of creators.
Science does not have all the answers, it's very ready to admit that, but it has made huge progress to explain what man previously invented God or gods to explain.
I'd rather admit that we are learning more all the time, but don't know all the answers, instead of being content with the God idea, which has not a shred of real evidence.
Well, in order to help you understand that God is real, I need to know why you feel that way?
That's a bit like saying, 'I want to help you to understand that my invisible flying pink elephant is real, but I need to understand why you don't think it is'.
You'd think I was delusional.
I'd rather trust in science and enjoy learning more rather than settle for ignorance.
The argument between science and religion was over when churches started putting lightening conductors on their roofs: more faith in science than God for protection of the worshippers?
I don't know think either of us will change our views, so I'll say goodbye now.
No hard feelings.
Steve
Unless you reply, I will make this my last comment too. The truth of the matter is Jehovah requires us to not be ignorant. When you get a chance, please read John 17:3 and Hebrews 11:1. If you truly believed science, you would know that Jehovah existed, too (Romans 1:20).
Definition: A form of worship. It includes a system of religious attitudes, beliefs, and practices; these may be personal, or they may be advocated by an organization. Usually religion involves belief in God or in a number of gods; or it treats humans, objects, desires, or forces as objects of worship. Much religion is based on human study of nature; there is also revealed religion. There is true religion and false.
A recent tabulation concluded that there are 10 main religions and some 10,000 sects. Of these, some 6,000 exist in Africa, 1,200 in the United States, and hundreds in other lands.
Many factors have contributed to the development of new religious groups. Some have said that the various religions all represent different ways of presenting religious truth. But a comparison of their teachings and practices with the Bible indicates, rather, that the diversity of religions is because people have become followers of men instead of listening to God. It is noteworthy that, to a large extent, teachings they hold in common, but that differ from the Bible, originated in ancient Babylon. (See pages 50, 51, under the heading “Babylon the Great.”)
Who is the instigator of such religious confusion? The Bible identifies Satan the Devil as “the god of this system of things.” (2 Cor. 4:4) It warns us that “the things which the nations sacrifice they sacrifice to demons, and not to God.” (1 Cor. 10:20) How vitally important, then, to make sure that we really are worshiping the true God, the Creator of heaven and earth, and that our worship is pleasing to him!
Everyone treats religion with respect because religion is about God. It's a method of prayer, it is about how we should live. Unfortunately, while we should respect religion and love God, many religions create a fear of God in us. Therefore we pray more out of fear than out of faith. This is not the right way to pray to God, or to love God. Respecting religion out of fear, blindly following scriptures, superstitions, dogmas is not the way to God-realization. Therefore we must believe in our religion as a kindergarten but then we must go beyond religion to the university of Spirituality. Spirituality is not another religion, it is just taking us forward in our journey to God.
Are you saying that life could only be started by some higher power?