I agree........about being a movie buff and not owning many dvds........hell, I don't even own alot of my favorite movies on dvd.....
Some of my favorite movies I don't even own.......
The Ten Commandments (Not only am I not a Christian.....I'm actually Anti-Christian.......yet I love this movie, go figure)
Full Metal Jacket........masterpiece
Soilent Green........Heston's the man........
The Omega Man........Damn Heston is the man
This isn't the right place to discuss such political things but since you asked.............
I dislike ALL religion..........I think people who truly believe what they say they believe don't need to congregate with one another to reinforce their belief structure. If you believe everything that the Christianity religion or the Judiism religion stands for.........I'm happy for you. Everybody should have beliefs.....I'm glad your beliefs are geared towards making the world better. I love the beliefs, I however dislike the "strength in numbers" methodology that is applied.......the whole, "more of us believe this so it must be right" attitude many religious people take..............If you truly believe something with all of your heart, why do you need to get together with others who believe the same as you? Why would you need to be told, "hey man...we all agree with you, you're right"?..........religion is directly responsible for countless atrocities in our history........all could have been avoided if every man just kept his beliefs to himself.................many more people would have lived long happy lives.
Why I'm Anti-Christianity while I only dislike all other religions in general:
Christianity is the most hypocritical orginization ever have been formed in the history of man. With the power it wields over its hundreds of millions of followers it could accomplish great things in this world. Instead it takes a defensive "we're right......if you disagree with us you are wrong" posture. The religion clearly states, "love thy brother".......yet the church had no problem with African "brothers" being kidnapped from their homeland and living out the rest of their days as slaves in the Americas. The church wouldn't even speak out against their Jewish "brothers" being slaughtered in Germany........the church actually encouraged their native American "brothers" being slaughtered to near extinction. Boy those Christians really "love their brothers" don't they.
Here's another good example. Have you ever tried to suggest to a Christian that Jesus of Nazerath was a black man? He was a Jewish man (naturally bronze like all other middle eastern natives) who lived in AFRICA...........yet white Christians will flat out argue with you if you suggest their saviour wasn't white. Why do they do this? Because for some reason most white Christians think that other races are somehow inferior to themselves. I guess they forgot the whole "man was created in God's own image" part .......otherwise they would view ALL men as being equal.
Backfire.......I agree with you on this to a point. It is stupid to be anti-anything..........unless the thing you are against is responsible for hundres of thousands of deaths. I am anti-anything that results in genocide of a race (Native Americans).....slavery of a race (blacks in the Americas).....and deaths of countless millions simply because they did not believe in the same religion (crusades).
then you should be anti humanaity, not religion. humans will always kill other humans, its in our nature. plus its to damn trendy and generic to be anti religion, its quite ignorant actually. just because a few bad apples take religion to far and murder others for not believing in the same invisible man, doesnt make religion a bad thing. besides the evil people who use religion as an excuse to kill others, religion usually helps people who believe in it and gives some people hope and a reason to live who otherwise wouldnt have anything to live for or hope for in their life, it generally makes people better and its comforting to think that there is always someone their for you to talk to and someone who cares for you. again, evil people will find any reason to kill, with or without religion.
Humans will always kill other humans........'tis natural......I'm with you on that. Most other animal species on our planet also kill.........
Killing is not the issue..........mass killing without cause is the issue......or mass slavery.......or genocide of an entire race........can you tell me one other facit of humaity that has envoked such attrocities in such great numbers? I will never be anti-humanity........there are alot of good people out there. To be anti-humanity would be throwing the baby out with the bathwater............basically condemning all mankind for the hanus actions performed over centuries by one and only one party.
Have you ever heard of Buddhists, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, or any other religious faction committing such hanus crimes against humanity?
Everybody in this country condemned the Muslim religion because a group of dipshit Al Queda extremists flew a few planes into some buildings..........this killed a few thousand people.............why then did those people not use that same logic to condemn Christianity for killing HUNDREDS of thousands of Native Americans simply because they refused to convert?
well again, mass killing is not because of the religion. none of the mainstreem religion says anything about killing other nations who have different beliefs. again, this is the fault of people, not religion. most religions basically say to treat everyone good and not to kill or treat anyone badly. it is the people who do this, religion is nothing but a tool used by these bad people as an excuse to do these things.
"just because a few bad apples take religion to far and murder others for not believing in the same invisible man, doesnt make religion a bad thing."
How many of these "few bad apples" do you think it took to whipe out the Native American race....or to enslave all those Africans....or to kill all those people during the crusades? Somehow I don't think it was a few........Christians have always had a self image of superiority.......it's not just a few, it's alot.....infact it's probably most. This is why alot of Christians even today are racist and can't accept a black jesus.
"religion usually helps people who believe in it and gives some people hope and a reason to live who otherwise wouldnt have anything to live for or hope for in their life, it generally makes people better and its comforting to think that there is always someone their for you to talk to and someone who cares for you."
Believeing is good.........sharing your beliefs with friends and family as you stated is also good. Getting a GANG of a few hundred million people together is however not good. I believe the police refer to it as mob mantality. It serves no purpose.........other than strength in numbers. I ask again..........if you believe 100% without a doubt that there is a god, the god put you here for a purpose, you are going to live a good life , and go to heaven.............why do you need others to reinforce this belief? You will be just as good on your own as you will be with a religious affiliation. You will be a good person.......even if you never meet another person who believes the way you do.
"again, evil people will find any reason to kill, with or without religion."
my reply is......
good people will find any reason to be good......with or without religion.
so what is the purpose of religion? Perhaps alot of good people wouldn't have participated in bad acts (killing, maming, raping,etc.) had they not been affiliated with a religion. Mob mantality.
"religion is nothing but a tool used by these bad people as an excuse to do these things."
I agree..........
One person can accomplish great things on his own........he doesn't need hundred of millions of people to help him..........
One bad person can't do the horrible acts mentioned in posts above....he needs hundreds of millions of people to help him........
so again, what is the purpose of religion? you can be just as good on your own........but you cannot possibly be as bad on your own. One man could not enslave a race or completely destroy a race.......it took a whole religion to do it.
i agree with some of what you've said, but as a whole, religion is a good thing. as i said, it gives alot of people hope and a reason to live. some people who have had horrible lives get to have hope that when they die they will go to a wonderful place full of love and joy and all that stuff. and to answer your question, how many people are these bad apples i spoke of. well in percentage. probably about 1% percent of all religious believers are the bad apples. the rest are good people who use their beliefs for good and to help themselves and others live a better life.
I'll meet you half way on this........although I havn't stated it in this thread, I've stated before in other more fitting arenas that religion does have it's good points. It's a double edged sword........it influences many people who are riding the fence of good/bad to be good purely out of fear of damnation............it is kind of like a scared straight program. If the only thing that's keeping some guy from being a mass murder is the fact he is afraid to go to hell.......I'm all for him belonging to his religion. That is the good side of it. The problem I have with religion is that historically the bad has outweighed the good tenfold. Hopefully those days are far behind us now. I think religion could be extremely productive if everybody would take the beliefs they claim to hold to heart. I.E. if you say "love thy brother".......they should really love thy brother and not look at him with a feeling of superiority..........some are more extreme than others like the Ku Klux Klan (you must be a Christian to join).........but many Christians I meet do have a "holier than thou" approach to others........as if they are somehow better because they sit in a building with a steeple on it every Sunday. If they could get past that.........and stop preaching their gospel to everybody else (trying to convert others....force them to see the errors of their ways), religion would be okay in my book.
most people who get together at church and that are there to celebrate there religoun or show respect, and there have been mass killings over the words of religoun but not because of the words of religoun its peoples choice its all about choice thats pretty much what life is Choice like everything religoun is there and its up to you to pervieve it as you wish, its your choice to believe or not to believe religoun doesnt kill people, people kill people LOL
RagesRemorse...........welcome to the forum..........yeah, this post got way off topic but we were bored so indulged ourselves in this religious discussion..........it really shouldn't have been discussed here at all......but since you did chime in with , "religoun doesnt kill people, people kill people LOL" I must reply with this (and yes I know you were just joking and it was a funny line):
Guns don't kill people.......people kill people but man created guns which makes it easier.
Knives don't kill people.....people kill people but man created knives which makes it easier.
Religion doesn't kill people......people kill people but man created religion which makes it easier.
Catastrophic Luv........I've actually got 320+ dvds now.........the movies I listed were merely my horror dvds......I'm a movie buff so if I like a movie I will usually watch it several times. It's cheaper to just by the dvd than to rent it 3 or 4 times.
thanks for the welcome evil, and you guys did travel far from the subject, senseless killings for the sake of looking god to horror LOL thats pretty much the opposite ends of the spectrum there except for the preyers the people give out before being killed with a hatchet in the head. i know me contributing to the conversatio just fuels it but i just wanna make a point of my own real quick see what you htink. I myself do believe in God and Jesus but i still think man did create the concepts of religoun i mean when it comes to religoun i believe there should be no titles or barriers outside your belief. but now religoun is marketed and pumped into everyone whenit should be there to be learned and embraced other than forced upon it still should be introduced so everyone has ther knowledge even if they dont believe it. but out of all the deaths that are supposedly to religoun dont you htink there are just as many that are saved by it even if you dont believe it oh well thats all ill say about that even though its quit a mouth full and back on the subject has anyone seen the movie rawhead REX or seven doors of death i havent seen these movies in a long time seeing how there out of print but at one time they were my favorite horror movies i was just wandering if anyone has seen them