God But Not Religion?

[sdnuol 0]

i forget where but I remember reading about someone who said they believed in God but not religion. Is this possibe and what would it involve? Would that be like thinking there is a god but saying **** the ten commandments and bible?

[BigDMcGee 3,352]

i forget where but I remember reading about someone who said they believed in God but not religion. Is this possibe and what would it involve? Would that be like thinking there is a god but saying **** the ten commandments and bible?

I believe in religion, but not in god.

[KONGOS 0]

i forget where but I remember reading about someone who said they believed in God but not religion. Is this possibe and what would it involve? Would that be like thinking there is a god but saying **** the ten commandments and bible?

What is "God"? Who's idea of "God" is correct? God and religion don't necessarily go together. Believing in God doesn't have to mean ritually going to church or habitually following the "laws" and ideas in the Christian bible. Sometimes religion has nothing to do with God or ones' perception of it/him/her. Believing in God but not (organized) religion may include meditation or attempting to be aware of your breath, your words, and all your actions. It may include the struggle to raise your own level of conciousness in order to possibly "communicate" with a "higher being". This "higher being" could be internal, or someone else on another level of understanding and conciousness than you. People always talk of God being much bigger than us, even beyond our current understanding, yet somehow a majority of people believe they have a chat with him every night. If we are unaware of even our own actions, if we "sleep-walk" through our days, how can we expect to be aware of something much "bigger" than us, such as the concept of God. Because the Bible tells us so?Sorry, that was long.....

[herokid7 0]

Religion is a man-made thing that we as humans use to get to God, the cross is what God used to reach us. I hate religion and am a diehard Christian. There is asong we sing in church called "Fields Of Grace" one line in it says "There's a place where Religion finally dies. Dancing with my Father God in Fields of Grace." Relgion places focus on rituals and sacraments to get closer to God. God does not need rituals and sacraments what he wants is a relationship with us. Religion and religious people forget that.

[Mercury69 3]

God is a concept that live within us. As we manifest our own will, we manifest God's will. One can only hope that the will is borne of compassion, love and hope, among other things.

[SilentSnow 1]

Making any statement about "God" is worthless because God might be the most poorly defined word ever. But defining God is impossible since everyonedisagrees on a meaning. So instead we just agree to make meaningless statements when we want to talk about God.As to your original question, when talking about God, the answer is yes and no.This usually is the answer when talking religion.

[Petoria 0]

Go watch the movie "Dogma" and listen to it. Should give you pretty good insight on the subject of God vs. religion.

[socalpoker_j 1]

James 1:26-27 speaks about what the true heart/vein of religion looks like... 26If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless. 27Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.Religiousity and legalism often pollutes the true intention of what church and believer should be and stand for. Many times people confuse ritual, religion, etc with a true Christian walk.

[Loismustdie 0]

James 1:26-27 speaks about what the true heart/vein of religion looks like... 26If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless. 27Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.Religiousity and legalism often pollutes the true intention of what church and believer should be and stand for. Many times people confuse ritual, religion, etc with a true Christian walk.

Actual translation:26] If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain.[27] Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world. That's a great scripture by the way. The challenge that I have for you is this- define unspotted from the world. That is the part of that scripture that most people/christians fail at. In other words, that is the rub. I can tell you this- generally when a pastor/preacher tells you that something is legalism, it's just a way to lessen the blow. Legalistic should tell you, yeah, God said so and so, but my Church has decided it doesn't apply today. So, then , the question is, how do you think God feels about that?

[the shank 0]

the bible is like a fiction book, kinda interesting ,mostly a waste of time

[sdnuol 0]

the bible is like a fiction book, kinda interesting ,mostly a waste of time

i have to say thats how i think about the bible. i tend to doubt a book 2000 years old that has information from 3.5 billion years ago. i do find things i agree with and disagree with though. im not sure if i can bring myself to say that i am a true believer of God in a christian sense. However, I believe in some of Jesus's teachings. I think that you should help those who are in need of it and try and love as much as possible, but there is too much unsureness in the bible for me. anyone get what im sayin?

[Mercury69 3]

Go watch the movie "Dogma" and listen to it. Should give you pretty good insight on the subject of God vs. religion.

Damn, dude, grow the **** up. Going to a Kevin Smith movie to gain spiritual enlightenment is like believing that Count Chocula is nutritious. ;-)

[DonkSlayer 1]

Damn, dude, grow the **** up. Going to a Kevin Smith movie to gain spiritual enlightenment is like believing that Count Chocula is nutritious. ;-)

Good movie. Not to be taken seriously.

[crowTrobot 2]

Good movie. Not to be taken seriously.

you mean alanis morissette isn't god??? what a relief.

[sdnuol 0]

this was a good topic. lets keep it that way

[socalpoker_j 1]

Actual translation:26] If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain.[27] Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world. That's a great scripture by the way. The challenge that I have for you is this- define unspotted from the world. That is the part of that scripture that most people/christians fail at. In other words, that is the rub. I can tell you this- generally when a pastor/preacher tells you that something is legalism, it's just a way to lessen the blow. Legalistic should tell you, yeah, God said so and so, but my Church has decided it doesn't apply today. So, then , the question is, how do you think God feels about that?

Do you use the KJV solely as a pt. of reference?

[Loismustdie 0]

Do you use the KJV solely as a pt. of reference?

No.

[MDXS 0]

you mean alanis morissette isn't god??? what a relief.

Dave Coulier would have been ****ed.

[BuffDan 0]

Good movie. Not to be taken seriously.

Perhaps, but, much like the show "South Park," in between some of the more ridiculous jokes there are some very good points made.

[gadjet 11]

i have to say thats how i think about the bible. i tend to doubt a book 2000 years old that has information from 3.5 billion years ago. i do find things i agree with and disagree with though. im not sure if i can bring myself to say that i am a true believer of God in a christian sense. However, I believe in some of Jesus's teachings. I think that you should help those who are in need of it and try and love as much as possible, but there is too much unsureness in the bible for me. anyone get what im sayin?

I can relate to what you're saying... for you I would really recommend reading the book of John, as it's one of the books detailing the life of Jesus and his teachings and that seems to be what you can best relate to... And before and while you are reading pray and ask God to show you, that's it, don't try and find God on here, cause half of the guys here are being sarcastic, and the other half are nuts and don't try and find Him through logic cause that can't be done either... well it can but only through the means of exhausting all other possibilities and still knowing there's something more but that's the long route ... but if you step out on your own in faith and just pray that God would teach you and show himself to you, I honestly believe He will respond... I'd recommend praying before you read... If you're interested in trying this out, I'd love to hear about it either on here or by PM, and I'll answer anything personally as honestly as I can...As for not sure about believing in the bible, that's cool, don't worry about it, if Jesus' teachings are what you can relate to, then relate to them, and don't worry about the rest, if it sits well with you it may come in time...

[Ferret lord 0]

Religon is something practiced, Faith is felt inside you.Personally I don't think any religon solely has it right.People need to find what they feel is the path for them. There is no book, scroll, tablet or anything that can define it for them. It must be done within yourself.Dont get me wrong. If 90%+ religons in the world are based on love, they cant all be wrong. I am just saying, I dont think ANY of them have EVERYTHING right.Steve

[Loismustdie 0]

i have to say thats how i think about the bible. i tend to doubt a book 2000 years old that has information from 3.5 billion years ago. i do find things i agree with and disagree with though. im not sure if i can bring myself to say that i am a true believer of God in a christian sense. However, I believe in some of Jesus's teachings. I think that you should help those who are in need of it and try and love as much as possible, but there is too much unsureness in the bible for me. anyone get what im sayin?

What information from 3.5 billion years ago? And, let's extrapilate that. Are you saying that the information contained would not have been available to the author when he wrote it? Because that would, could, point to divine inspiration. Or, are you saying that the author just lied, whether 2000 years ago or present day translators in the last 50 years. However, if you want to go there you have to realize that makes no sense- what do they gain by lying in such a blatant way as to be so easily caught?

[Ferret lord 0]

What information from 3.5 billion years ago? And, let's extrapilate that. Are you saying that the information contained would not have been available to the author when he wrote it? Because that would, could, point to divine inspiration. Or, are you saying that the author just lied, whether 2000 years ago or present day translators in the last 50 years. However, if you want to go there you have to realize that makes no sense- what do they gain by lying in such a blatant way as to be so easily caught?

What I see as the real problems with the bible are 2 main things.Emperor Constantine had a group of scholars and priests compile a list of books of teachings that THEY thought would be appropriate for the culture of that time and put them into one book. Thus creating a religon that they could promote to the general public. This list ended up only using about 1/3-1/4 of the teachings used at that time. For example, there were over 400 psalms originally. Were are the rest? Why did they not put them in there as well? Popular belief is that the writings that were not entered would have altered the way Christianity was viewed and taken direct authority from the church of the time.The other main problem is that over time monks, local rulers, church officials and others have tried to translate the different passages so that the society of the time can understand it better. Unfortunately, this ultimately changed the meaning according to what the translator thought the passage(s) meant. Also passages were left out and some were combined to make reading easier or to intentionally change it outright.Someone would need to get ahold of the original writings in Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic from the Vatican in Rome and do a direct translation to current teminology and they would need to translate it as the people of the time meant it to mean. No editing at all.The result would be shocking to the modern world.

[Loismustdie 0]

What I see as the real problems with the bible are 2 main things.Emperor Constantine had a group of scholars and priests compile a list of books of teachings that THEY thought would be appropriate for the culture of that time and put them into one book. Thus creating a religon that they could promote to the general public. This list ended up only using about 1/3-1/4 of the teachings used at that time. For example, there were over 400 psalms originally. Were are the rest? Why did they not put them in there as well? Popular belief is that the writings that were not entered would have altered the way Christianity was viewed and taken direct authority from the church of the time.The other main problem is that over time monks, local rulers, church officials and others have tried to translate the different passages so that the society of the time can understand it better. Unfortunately, this ultimately changed the meaning according to what the translator thought the passage(s) meant. Also passages were left out and some were combined to make reading easier or to intentionally change it outright.Someone would need to get ahold of the original writings in Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic from the Vatican in Rome and do a direct translation to current teminology and they would need to translate it as the people of the time meant it to mean. No editing at all.The result would be shocking to the modern world.

At some point, if you believe in God then you have to have faith that he watched over his word. The KJV is the closest version available, as far as I know. I am affiliated with the most biblically correct Church of Christ I know of. I seek the truth excluseively- and if ye seek, ye shall find. So, I am sure that God will watch my back.

[crowTrobot 2]

Or, are you saying that the author just lied

the bible is full of lies. Allah be praised.