WRONG !
Organised religion is just a way ton control and manipulate people. One don't need religion to teach him morals. If you need religion to teach you right from wrong, you lack empathy, not religion.
I went to church for the first 18 years of my life at my father's behest. I always had doubts about religion and once I was old enough to make my own decision in the matter, I decided to stop going. I was not controlled or manipulated during my time in the church. There's nothing wrong with learning about something and then making an informed decision about it on your own. That's what I did.
People are friendly at church and there's a sense of fellowship and community. Everyone greets you with a smile and people are genuinely happy to see you. I don't have a problem with any of that. For some people, it let's them know that there are people out there who care about them. When someone gets sick or injured, the congregation acknowledges this person's struggle and prays for them. Even if it doesn't help anything, it certainly doesn't hurt to know that people are thinking about you and hoping you improve.
Because someone is forcing you to say something you don't wanna say, someone is forcing his religion on you
I say the pledge of allegiance everyday at school with my students. I never skip the line "under God" either. So far nothing catastrophic has resulted from me saying those two words. It does not bother me to say them. Whether or not I believe any of it is irrelevant. It's part of the pledge so I'm going to say it.
When students ask me about my religion, I tell them that I am a member of the Methodist Church. That is a true statement. I do not discuss my exact beliefs with them. My religious beliefs are my own. It is not important to me that other people know where I stand in regards to religion. I have no desire to denigrate organized religion. I simply don't believe in their tenets. I don't feel the need, as you apparently do, to act sanctimonious about my beliefs. They simply are what they are. I have discussed my beliefs with close friends with the understanding that neither one of us is trying to convert the other.
I don't consider saying these phrases as having religion pushed on me. That is my opinion. You are certainly entitled to yours.
You're weak and hypocrite.
I am neither. I know what I believe. I just also believe that religion can benefit
some people. If I could be afforded a little space here, I'll tell you why I believe that.
My grandmother lived to be 91 years old. She went to church on her own every Sunday up until a few months before she died. Some of my fondest memories as a youth were spending the night with her on Saturday and going to church on Sunday. She'd always have a roll of mints with her in her purse because she knew that my brother and I liked to eat them during the service. And it helped to keep us occupied. After church, we would go to lunch as a family. She would try to pay the bill every week, and my father would never let her. I don't think he ever let her pay... though she always insisted that she should.
During the days before her death, our pastor came to visit all of us while she was in hospice care. I'll never forget how overjoyed she was to see him when he first came into her room. It meant so much to her that he was there. Eventually, there came a time when we knew that she wasn't going to last much longer. Our pastor was there. And our family held hands with him around her bed as he said one last prayer for her. And it was a very moving experience for me because I knew how much her faith meant to her. She lived a very righteous life, and she believed that when she passed on she would be reunited with my grandfather in heaven (he passed away in 1985).
I don't believe any of that, but she did. And in the end, it didn't hurt anything that she believed in God or heaven. In fact, it made her more peaceful at the end. She believed that something was on the other side, and it gave her something to look forward to once her time here was over. When I spoke at her funeral, my eulogy had several religious references, and I also spoke about how important her faith was to her. Because that's who she was, and that's what mattered to her.
Understanding that religion is meaningful to some people doesn't make me hypocritical or weak. It just means that I recognize that my own values and beliefs are not shared by everyone. And that's okay as long as I know what's important to me.
