Is Influence of Religion Too Much?

Recently, in class, I got mad at something and I said "Jesus Christ" in frustration, to which my teacher snapped at me to NEVER use the name of her lord in vain. Now, I think it's respectable that she said that, that she has her own beliefs and she cares for them and stands firmly by them, but to what extent should people's enforcement of religion be stopped? I just heard that Christian protests have cancelled some show on NBC about a priest who imagines Jesus follows him around and has talks with him. Is the relgious community out of hand?

Generally people would rather talk about their beliefs than listen to someone else's.

quote:

---

Is the relgious community out of hand?

---

No more than anyone else.

It's just that what people freak out over can seem very strange or rediculous out of context or from a different perspective, and or set of beliefs.

Take away religion, people's insecurities still exist, and that is what they are really freaking out about.

Insecure that their beliefs are challenged, or that they are right and you are a true blasphemer perhaps sent from the devil to destroy them (you never know what people are thinking, especially religious ones).

Religion is not the source of many things it is given credit for. War, morals, sexual disfunction. None of it. It's simply an attempt to label and control theses already existing things. The knowns and unknowns, people, and their insecurities about themselves (their desires) and the universe, the things that make them react as your teacher did.

There is a good chance that she may have reacted differently on another day as well. Perhaps she was pre menstral, had a tooth ache, or indeed is just a severe bible thumper. Point being, there could be a lot behind something that includes a different source than just religion.

quote:

---

Is Influence of Religion Too Much?

---

No, the gullibility of dumbed down uncritical minds is too much.

i dont say "thanks" when people say "bless you" and it got me thrown out of a class because when she said "SAY THANK YOU!" i said... "i dont believe in your god, that shit, and my god is better than you god." and shes all like "!!! WHY IS THAT?!"
"because i dont even know if mine exists" awkward silence followed by "LEAVE!"

I could see why the teacher asked you to leave. You went beyond religion by threatening her authority. Teachers don't like that infact nobody likes that. You can't step on someone's balls and expect them to be ok with it.

Well, when someone has a bug up their ass about something like that, it's kind of hard to keep cool about it. Some people look at the bible as a refrence to all the answers of life, and some look at it as a piece of literature, how could two tiny viewpoints have such a massive affect? And people are afraid of Christinas, terrified of Catholics. When you dig right to the core, is it really right for these people to say, "Here's my belief, and whenever you're around me you have to respect it in it's entirety."
Now, of course you can always respect it in the snes that you're not going to try to influence them into something else or convince them that they're religion is the wrong one (in which sense Catholics are a little less respectful), but what if their idea of respect is to say "God bless you," as you brought up, when you don't believe in God? What if they tell you to help them debate someone about how Christ is the real savior or something when you don't believe in it yourself? When is it appropriate to say to someone of the faith, "Back off, a little."

If you know it will offend someone to use the names of their deities then why not be sensitive to it? This does not mean you must believe in the same things as others but at least show some common respect. People pick primarily on western beliefs in this regard. I have never heard an angry person exclaim "Dear Allah!" or "Oh my Buddha!" in a fit of rage so why pick on Jesus? If you want confrontation on your hands then be all means say whatever you like, but if you wish to be peaceable then perhaps you should consider others feelings.

quote:

---

When is it appropriate to say to someone of the faith, "Back off, a little."

---

When they start imposing their religion on you. Your religious beleifs are your own business, no-one else's, so you have every right to tell someone of the faith to piss off if they start pushing their beleifs on you. This is not to say that you should not respect their beleifs though. Their beleifs are just as vallid as anyone else's, but as soon as they stop respecting your beleifs, you can stop respecting theirs.

Gotta tell ya, Decius, you put a pretty light hearted twist on the end of your post that I couldn't help but laugh at. You make some good points I never thought of.
Now, to raise another issue, do you guys think religion has lost its roots? George Carlin once pointed out that murder may be the worst sin, but that more people have been killed in the name of God than for any other reason. Religion's contradicted its teaching in quite a few other ways. For example, a Catholic may say, love thy neighbor...unless he's a jew.
So what're your opinions on this?

Start a new thread.

What about Christmas and Easter as official holidays? Isn't that imposed on us?

Well, the thing about that is that not too many people are gonna bitch over Christmas being considered a national Holiday, because if they're Jewish and don't tell anyone, they'll get the day off.

Why not have other religious holidays off too?

That's a good point, but I've noticed that all of the teachers' work days (and I know this is just the school system) are "coincidentally" placed on the majority of Jewish holidays. Face it, the president is Christian, as are most people involved in politics, so they get their day off and everyone's happy. Once there's a Jew or a Muslim in the white house things will change for the better.

Do you think having Christmas an state holidays endorses Christianity in any way? Albeit, it is more of a commercial holiday than a religious holiday now.

Well, yeah, in some places it's been very commercialized, but for the most part I think it's still a very Christian holiday. Yeah, I'l grant you the fact that forty years ago the line to get into a church on Christmas morning was probably a bit longer, but there're still the people who send out religious Christmas cards (Christ for Commercialization) and go to church. I live in Miami, so we don't exactly have a flood of carroler, but I'm sure in other states choirs go around singing from door to door.