Does Religion matter?

[meredith2kp4]

I was raised in a mainstream Protestant denomination. As a teenager I began to try to reconcile my received beliefs with what I was learning about the universe we live in. At age 16 I realized that the intellectual dishonesty I was increasingly practicing in this effort was foolish. Making sense of the evidence of our senses, including the extraordinarily powerful instrumentation that scientists have developed to aid us in this endeavor is difficult enough for me, and also is enough for me. I can live with the fact that there is much that is both important and that I do not understand. Faith is belief in the absence of evidence. Basing my life on faith, as my religious upbringing taught, is foolish and potentially dangerous. We know the excesses that can result from this by reading today's news headlines.

The practical question for us is not our ultimate beliefs, but developing the tolerance that enables us to live together in peace.

[meredith2kp4]

I was raised in a mainstream Protestant denomination. As a teenager I began to try to reconcile my received beliefs with what I was learning about the universe we live in. At age 16 I realized that the intellectual dishonesty I was increasingly practicing in this effort was foolish. Making sense of the evidence of our senses, including the extraordinarily powerful instrumentation that scientists have developed to aid us in this endeavor is difficult enough for me, and also is enough for me. I can live with the fact that there is much that is both important and that I do not understand. Faith is belief in the absence of evidence. Basing my life on faith, as my religious upbringing taught, is foolish and potentially dangerous. We know the excesses that can result from this by reading today's news headlines.

The practical question for us is not our ultimate beliefs, but developing the tolerance that enables us to live together in peace.

[Rabid_Clam]

What ever religion you have comes from within you. To claim to be of a religion is invalid where you may practise the motions of a named religion, but the religion you actually have is in your heart and your true root beleifs.

What every you are taught in the company of any religion is again only disciplines of that religious sect, but the actual religion you have is you. One may find a sect that most closely aligns with your beleifs but you will find that your root and actual beleifs are not exactly the same. A shade of grey from what is preached. And even that is subject to change!