What are some misconceptions about your religion?

[Cakes]

So, you believe that if someone is a good person--but they only accept and worship God (not Jesus as their Lord and Savior)--they will go to Heaven? Don't Catholics and Christians believe that, in order to get to Heaven, you must accept that Jesus is God? I ask because some of the religions you've mentioned don't accept Jesus as God, and that He died on the cross to save humanity from their sins.

I'm not--in any way--trying to disrespect you. I'm merely curious.

Well, believing in God isn't good enough, to be truthful. Demons believe in God too, as evidenced by Matthew 8:28-34. Acts 16:31 says that you must believe in Jesus Christ, and you will be saved. (Also see John 14:6-Galatians 2:20) That's a whole different ball game. Example, Jews believe in God, but only Messianic Jews believe that Jesus is the Son of God and the Messiah they were waiting for (as opposed to a prophet of God similar to Moses/Elijah etc).

(I'm just carrying on the topic. ^__^ )

Believing that works will get you to heaven is one of the big things Christians must contend with. Works don't save you. You work because you are saved and want to work, because those works will make God happy, and because you love God (hopefully?), you want to make God happy.

This is the reason why works won't save you. Ephesians 2:8-9 - For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast.

Yes. Works definitely do not save people. I believe that the only way into Heaven is through Jesus Christ. Without Him, we have nothing.

What about the 200 000 years worth of people who were around before Jesus? They just all go to hell, or what?

 

[Hexadecimal]

I'm a Muslim. And God knows how many misconceptions people hold against us, seriously.

Let's start with the suicide bomber notion. I know that most of the people here aren't morons and therefore understand that most of the Muslim population believes that strapping a bomb to yourself and running into a crowd is extreme and pretty un-Muslim.

Allah tells us to protect human life and take good care of it, including our own. It's a gift from God that I'm alive today. This is why we are not permitted to drink or eat pork, because the Quran dictates that these things are bad for your body. Suicide bombers are effectively destroying this rule by killing themselves in order to 'cleanse' the world of 'heretics'.

Um. Feel free to ask questions? I don't know how these things go.

Not out of disrespect or anything other than pure curiosity, can somebody explain the whole 'Pork is evil and bad for your body' thing?
Because there are loads of people out there with that view (or any other that prevents people from eating delicious, delicious pork), including my spiritual kinsmen (although they'd probably look down on me as the most failed Jew ever), and I've never really got it. I doubt it's a medical thing, because that would be retarded (no ill effects in anyone that eats pork, including myself, except maybe obesity from overindulgence but that's from everything else too anyway, so that's kind of a null point), so what is it?

To be honest, I'm not sure. My mom tells me that pork is just generally considered bad for you because it has some kind of worm in it. I never really looked into it. I've also heard some people justifying the no pork rule by saying that pigs are considered filthy animals because they roll around in their own crap or something like that.

Either way, I don't mind not eating pork because I've never tried it before.

 

[faceless chick]

Ok, I guess I'll be a little off-topic here, but I've been reading the Escapist forums for a while, and while I found some topics that were fun, some that were sad, and some that made me sigh at humanity (but had worthy quoting material) , the religious topics have been annoying me to no end.

I've come to the conclusion that the most backwards and stupid people are atheists.
Why? Because you hold yourselves on very high horses and act all snobby and laugh at Christians saying things like "if i were stupid I'd be christian *ha ha*" and "if he said that he must be christian *ha ha*"


That is very ignorant of you,and as people who consider themselves superior and more open-minded than the people you criticise, you should know better than to generalise all Christians as bible-thumping pants-on-head-retarded.

I'd also like to criticise your near-obsessive love for the idea of "i believe in science, and science is always right". NO. THAT IS A STUPID THING TO SAY. Just by saying "science" as a general word, as science has so many categories -math, physics, chemistry etc- proves how ignorant you are. Don't just throw that word in there to sound smart. PROVE SCIENCE IS THAT GOOD to be worth WORSHIPING(because you are) like that.


And I can easily prove science is outdone by religion-I don't even have to mention how science at the time the bible was written was merely a fetus in the womb of mostly Greek and roman philosophers-

No, let's take something out of my school books: "Pluto is the 9th ,last and smallest planet in our Solar System" . This sentence was true about 10 years ago. However, now Pluto isn't the last planet anymore, since they've discovered another 2 after it. It isn't the smallest either since those 2 are even smaller. It isn't even a PLANET anymore since it's been re-dubbed a "dwarf planet" which isn't in the same category as the rest of the planets.

In less then 10 years, what was "irrefutable scientific proof" that was 100% correct is now completely wrong. And i can guarantee in even less time than that, what they say now will be proven wrong.


Science is NEVER RIGHT, since it's ever-changing.
However, the 10 commandments have remained unchanged for 2000 years,and what they say- don't steal, don't kill etc.- still apply to this day.

Most of scientific "proof" never lasts that long.
Using that logic, the bible>science.


Another common dick-move i see from atheists is how you laugh at me for thinking "only idiots believe there is an old man in the sky who throws lighting at you" , whereas I laugh at you for thinking everyone sees God like this.

The thing is, religion is NOT that simple.Everyone sees and reads into their religion differently. I don't agree with the OP- I'm CERTAIN man evolved from monkeys, and that Darwin's law is right-whereas someone else will not agree with me.

Also, the idea of God is relative.I don't see God as a real person, I see him as a concept- God is the human belief in a further life after death, a supernatural force there to aid you in your time of need when nothing else can help you -basically, the definition of the word "miracle" and that is something no scientist can disprove, as it's not something you can grasp or study.


And I'm sure I'll get lots of replies that say "omg that is so not true you picked such a special example, and now you make a general statement about it all?" or "why are you stating all atheists are assholes? I'm not like that" or the simpler "hey fuck you, stop raining on my parade!", which i got a lot till now on othr sites.

This will just serve to prove my point- generalizing about a whole group of people because of some assholes, calling them names or being completely subjective in your views will get nasty, sometimes violent relies, as nobody wants to be judged as being a simplistic moron.

 

[Cakes]

I've come to the conclusion that the most backwards and stupid people are atheists.
Why? Because you hold yourselves on very high horses and act all snobby and laugh at Christians saying things like "if i were stupid I'd be christian *ha ha*" and "if he said that he must be christian *ha ha*"

Thanks for painting us all with the same brush. Did you know all Christians hate gays and want Creationism taught in school? Right.

That is very ignorant of you,and as people who consider themselves superior and more open-minded than the people you criticise, you should know better than to generalise all Christians as bible-thumping pants-on-head-retarded.

OH THE IRONY.

I'd also like to criticise your near-obsessive love for the idea of "i believe in science, and science is always right". NO. THAT IS A STUPID THING TO SAY. Just by saying "science" as a general word, as science has so many categories -math, physics, chemistry etc- proves how ignorant you are. Don't just throw that word in there to sound smart. PROVE SCIENCE IS THAT GOOD to be worth WORSHIPING(because you are) like that.

We worship science...? That's news to me.

And I can easily prove science is outdone by religion-I don't even have to mention how science at the time the bible was written was merely a fetus in the womb of mostly Greek and roman philosophers-

Uh-oh.

No, let's take something out of my school books: "Pluto is the 9th ,last and smallest planet in our Solar System" . This sentence was true about 10 years ago. However, now Pluto isn't the last planet anymore, since they've discovered another 2 after it. It isn't the smallest either since those 2 are even smaller. It isn't even a PLANET anymore since it's been re-dubbed a "dwarf planet" which isn't in the same category as the rest of the planets.

In less then 10 years, what was "irrefutable scientific proof" that was 100% correct is now completely wrong. And i can guarantee in even less time than that, what they say now will be proven wrong.


Science is NEVER RIGHT, since it's ever-changing.
However, the 10 commandments have remained unchanged for 2000 years,and what they say- don't steal, don't kill etc.- still apply to this day.

Oh man. So your problem with science is that it is ever changing, thus getting closer to the truth? And you'd rather stick with your religion that has remained stagnant for thousands of years? Oh, you people.

Most of scientific "proof" never lasts that long.
Using that logic, the bible>science.

Oh man...you people. You are so silly.

Another common dick-move i see from atheists is how you laugh at me for thinking "only idiots believe there is an old man in the sky who throws lighting at you" , whereas I laugh at you for thinking everyone sees God like this.

Once again, paintin' us with the same brush.

The thing is, religion is NOT that simple.Everyone sees and reads into their religion differently. I don't agree with the OP- I'm CERTAIN man evolved from monkeys, and that Darwin's law is right-whereas someone else will not agree with me.

You also show you have no understanding of evolution, as well. We didn't "evolve from monkeys", we share a common ancestor with apes.

And I'm sure I'll get lots of replies that say "omg that is so not true you picked such a special example, and now you make a general statement about it all?" or "why are you stating all atheists are assholes? I'm not like that" or the simpler "hey fuck you, stop raining on my parade!", which i got a lot till now on othr sites.

This will just serve to prove my point- generalizing about a whole group of people because of some assholes, calling them names or being completely subjective in your views will get nasty, sometimes violent relies, as nobody wants to be judged as being a simplistic moron.

So...you admit you just completely generalized? Damn.

 

[More Fun To Compute]

And I can easily prove science is outdone by religion-I don't even have to mention how science at the time the bible was written was merely a fetus in the womb of mostly Greek and roman philosophers-

Not sure where you get that from. Many of the most famous the ancient Greek philosophers, who are the equivalent of modern scientists, were born and died long before the Bible was compiled by the Romans. In many ways they were more influential on Roman thinking, and therefore western thinking, than Christianity.

 

[Deacon Cole]

As an atheist, I am rather tired of people saying I believe in nothing.

 

[FightThePower]

Science is NEVER RIGHT, since it's ever-changing.

The flexibility of science is a strength, not a weakness.

 

[Woodsey]

That Atheism is a faith - it isn't. For it to be a faith I'd have to have faith in a higher being (spiritual or a person) who's rules/guidelines/teachings I would follow and have (you guessed it) faith in. Therefore, it's not a faith.

 

[Deacon Cole]

Yes, that Atheism is a fucking religion!
How could a belief in something be the belief that there is nothing to believe in.
It's not a religion

"If atheism is a religion, then being healthy is a disease."

 

[FinalGamer]

A lot of people think that Orthodox people are incredibly suspicious.
To which I say, have you SEEN what happens on Friday 13th? *kisses his lucky charm*

 

[FightThePower]

Yes, that Atheism is a fucking religion!
How could a belief in something be the belief that there is nothing to believe in.
It's not a religion

"If atheism is a religion, then being healthy is a disease."

"Calling atheism a religion is like calling bald a hair colour."

 

[Swaki]

i wouldn't really call it a religion, but i don't believe in an afterlife, love (not the chemical reaction, but the perverted version of it) nor do i believe in ghost/spirits/any other thing that "cant be explained"

most people think this makes me an evil and empty person, not at all, i still fear that just not enough to believe in an eternal life full of bliss after it, i still feel love, i just dont buy the whole "unexplained" feeling about it, that im narrow minded and have lost all imagination, HELL NO, im still nervous when walking in the woods in case of dragons, i have a zombie plan, hell i can imagine everything but deep down i know that theres no dragons behind every other three and i know i wont wake up tomorrow to find the streets filled whit the living death, and im not evil, the fact that i don't fear eternal flames/being reincarnated as a worm/or whatever doesn't make me behave any different, i still help people and give to the homeless, heck ive done more volunteer work than paid work.

uh and as an added bonus, i totally respect other religions, i will at all times try to convince a Jehovah's witness that medicine can be good for you, Christians that homosexuals are perfectly normal people, Muslims that removing the cloth around their heads can be a good idea in case they pass out from the heat (i was actually in this situation once, she refused to remove it, scary as hell since she was pregnant), so i yer, i respect religion as long as they dont die or hurt them self because of it and as long as they respect my sexuality

 

[faceless chick]

Lol the replies are great. I see you failed to read the last paragraph(probably stopped after the "high horse" phrase) , where I stated I generalised for the sake of proving that a lot of statements about religion are really just thrown out there, and saying what you believe is a hoax will upset you and you'll sum up all your wits to try to disprove that, which is exactly what a lot of atheists have been doing to Christians.

To be serious though, I don't agree with Christians just because they're Christians- I hate having religion shoved down my throat, I don't like extremists or over-thinking about the bible as much as I hate the other side-the war against all that is christian.

Youtube is extremely guilty of these wars, and this vid has a pretty good point:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojYEEswvQZo&feature=player_profilepage

Religions are very similar one to another, they pretty much all praise "goodwill" and "kindness" and such. The wars don't come from religion itself, but from the misinterpretation and skewing of its principles, and corrupt leaders who wish for their own selfish well-being at the expense of the people.

These people are already racist or homophobe, the bible/koran etc is just used as an excuse for their actions.

Also some said, that if religion were to disappear, people will just find something else to fight about.Liiiiike...console wars

 

[Lexodus]

I'm a Muslim. And God knows how many misconceptions people hold against us, seriously.

Let's start with the suicide bomber notion. I know that most of the people here aren't morons and therefore understand that most of the Muslim population believes that strapping a bomb to yourself and running into a crowd is extreme and pretty un-Muslim.

Allah tells us to protect human life and take good care of it, including our own. It's a gift from God that I'm alive today. This is why we are not permitted to drink or eat pork, because the Quran dictates that these things are bad for your body. Suicide bombers are effectively destroying this rule by killing themselves in order to 'cleanse' the world of 'heretics'.

Um. Feel free to ask questions? I don't know how these things go.

Not out of disrespect or anything other than pure curiosity, can somebody explain the whole 'Pork is evil and bad for your body' thing?
Because there are loads of people out there with that view (or any other that prevents people from eating delicious, delicious pork), including my spiritual kinsmen (although they'd probably look down on me as the most failed Jew ever), and I've never really got it. I doubt it's a medical thing, because that would be retarded (no ill effects in anyone that eats pork, including myself, except maybe obesity from overindulgence but that's from everything else too anyway, so that's kind of a null point), so what is it?

To be honest, I'm not sure. My mom tells me that pork is just generally considered bad for you because it has some kind of worm in it. I never really looked into it. I've also heard some people justifying the no pork rule by saying that pigs are considered filthy animals because they roll around in their own crap or something like that.

Either way, I don't mind not eating pork because I've never tried it before.

The worm thing is bullshit (or, more topically, pigshit). Agreed, rolling around in your own crap is disgusting, but that's what washing is for. Also, you're missing out. Pork is delicious, and I couldn't live without it

 

[ljd184]

something i just realised that people say the money is the root of all evil but the the book that has made the most money is the bible
just saying not try to offend any one

 

[faceless chick]

I'm a Muslim. And God knows how many misconceptions people hold against us, seriously.

Let's start with the suicide bomber notion. I know that most of the people here aren't morons and therefore understand that most of the Muslim population believes that strapping a bomb to yourself and running into a crowd is extreme and pretty un-Muslim.

Allah tells us to protect human life and take good care of it, including our own. It's a gift from God that I'm alive today. This is why we are not permitted to drink or eat pork, because the Quran dictates that these things are bad for your body. Suicide bombers are effectively destroying this rule by killing themselves in order to 'cleanse' the world of 'heretics'.

Um. Feel free to ask questions? I don't know how these things go.

Not out of disrespect or anything other than pure curiosity, can somebody explain the whole 'Pork is evil and bad for your body' thing?
Because there are loads of people out there with that view (or any other that prevents people from eating delicious, delicious pork), including my spiritual kinsmen (although they'd probably look down on me as the most failed Jew ever), and I've never really got it. I doubt it's a medical thing, because that would be retarded (no ill effects in anyone that eats pork, including myself, except maybe obesity from overindulgence but that's from everything else too anyway, so that's kind of a null point), so what is it?

To be honest, I'm not sure. My mom tells me that pork is just generally considered bad for you because it has some kind of worm in it. I never really looked into it. I've also heard some people justifying the no pork rule by saying that pigs are considered filthy animals because they roll around in their own crap or something like that.

Either way, I don't mind not eating pork because I've never tried it before.

The worm thing is bullshit (or, more topically, pigshit). Agreed, rolling around in your own crap is disgusting, but that's what washing is for. Also, you're missing out. Pork is delicious, and I couldn't live without it

It's called trichinellosis, and it can be deadly if you eat the meat before inspection.
That said, I don't think that's the real cause for not eating pork, but a lot of religions or cults forbid pork.

A question for Jews: my teacher said Jews don't eat pork because their religion says "don't eat a creature that has 2 toes and digs into the earth with its snout". Is that in anyway true?

 

[Lavi]

I was raised a cradle brethern (meaning I was taught the belief of that denomination but never went to church) then my father remarried and I started going to a catholic church and I remember my stepmom telling me that women were the source of all evil because eve ate the forbidden fruit and so on and so forth so that was the final nail in the coffin for my christianity

The problem is never the Bible, but rather that the everyday person reading it, well, they're almost always wrong and not thinking about it. If Eve and Adam weren't supposed to eat the fruit, why the hell would there be a fruit even there? Simplest solution? They were always meant to eat it.

People read the Bible to meet their needs. The Bible has been used to attack every minority in existence, and usually these passages are ridiculously interpretated poorly. Humans are stupid, end of story xD

 

[FightThePower]

Religions are very similar one to another, they pretty much all praise "goodwill" and "kindness" and such. The wars don't come from religion itself, but from the misinterpretation and skewing of its principles, and corrupt leaders who wish for their own selfish well-being at the expense of the people.

These people are already racist or homophobe, the bible/koran etc is just used as an excuse for their actions.

Surely it works both ways though? If religion is not responsible directly for the bad things attributed to it then surely religion cannot be responsible for the good things attributed to it either?

 

[Lexodus]

I'm a Muslim. And God knows how many misconceptions people hold against us, seriously.

Let's start with the suicide bomber notion. I know that most of the people here aren't morons and therefore understand that most of the Muslim population believes that strapping a bomb to yourself and running into a crowd is extreme and pretty un-Muslim.

Allah tells us to protect human life and take good care of it, including our own. It's a gift from God that I'm alive today. This is why we are not permitted to drink or eat pork, because the Quran dictates that these things are bad for your body. Suicide bombers are effectively destroying this rule by killing themselves in order to 'cleanse' the world of 'heretics'.

Um. Feel free to ask questions? I don't know how these things go.

Not out of disrespect or anything other than pure curiosity, can somebody explain the whole 'Pork is evil and bad for your body' thing?
Because there are loads of people out there with that view (or any other that prevents people from eating delicious, delicious pork), including my spiritual kinsmen (although they'd probably look down on me as the most failed Jew ever), and I've never really got it. I doubt it's a medical thing, because that would be retarded (no ill effects in anyone that eats pork, including myself, except maybe obesity from overindulgence but that's from everything else too anyway, so that's kind of a null point), so what is it?

To be honest, I'm not sure. My mom tells me that pork is just generally considered bad for you because it has some kind of worm in it. I never really looked into it. I've also heard some people justifying the no pork rule by saying that pigs are considered filthy animals because they roll around in their own crap or something like that.

Either way, I don't mind not eating pork because I've never tried it before.

The worm thing is bullshit (or, more topically, pigshit). Agreed, rolling around in your own crap is disgusting, but that's what washing is for. Also, you're missing out. Pork is delicious, and I couldn't live without it

It's called trichinellosis, and it can be deadly if you eat the meat before inspection.
That said, I don't think that's the real cause for not eating pork, but a lot of religions or cults forbid pork.

A question for Jews: my teacher said Jews don't eat pork because their religion says "don't eat a creature that has 2 toes and digs into the earth with its snout". Is that in anyway true?

Naw, it's to do with the hooves, for some reason. The scriptures say that they may eat only of those species that chew their cud and have split hooves.

 

[lwm3398]

Hurray! People who say Christianity excepts science!

I fully except all of evolution, just that god designed it as he went on, making whatever he could that branched off of the common life-cell predecessor of all mankind. He got the ball at the top of the hill rolling, for the Big Bang, dust crashes that formed Earth, and evolution.

I guess I'm more a believer that he isn't fully in power, just that he has power. You know, he can do anything, and to make all the Universe he did everything he could to make it awesome, but now he just sits back and relaxes. Like, he didn't make Hitler. Hitler had his own beliefs and made his own army to kill Jews. God can't do anything about anything that happens. So I don't think prayer for stuff you want to happen will help, but a little homage prayer for big guns is fine.