How are you losing your religion?

True Christianity is religion. James 1:26-27 - Jesus also makes a distinction between true religion and false religion. True religion is God's commandments. False religion is man's commandments. No, I am not losing my religion of Christianity. To be religious means to be devoted. I am devoted to Jesus.

Another post that fails to understand what "religion" really means. The irony, of course, is in the numbered list.

It's hard because lead to enter the strait gate.
God is waiting for u to come before Him by His meekness and patient.
And..He Loves you always

I hate to break it to you, but Jesus is from a man made religion... how can you stop following man made religion if you continue to follow jesus? Not trying to rain on anyone's parade or belittle anyones belifes, trust me, it's so far from that, but I genuinly want to know how that is possible, especially given what I know about the history and Origins of the Christian/Catholic religion (and I pride myself on knowing a lot).

@scifly@xanga - When defined like that you're right, it does make sense.

 I gues the only real issue i have with christianity, and most of the monotheistic worship, is the bible itself, but mostly because it promotes the stoning and murdering of those who do not obey, labels women as the origin of sin, and then goes on to say that you should love your neighbors as you love yourself and that you shouldn't kill.

Like I said, I'm not drying to dog anyone's views, it's far from that. I've just been trying to understand christianity as a whole for years and most of the time, I just don't get it. It's why I label myself Pagan for simplicity's sake. The rules for Paganism and Wicca are simple: Don't hurt anyone, don't kill anyone, live true to yourself, promote understanding and learning and tollerance, and respect the earth for what it has given youto survive.

I guess in that aspect christianity and paganism are one in the same, however, christianity just seems so much more complicated to me than just doing all of that. you guys seem to have so many more rules other than just being true to yourself and others and being kind.

@LoBornlyte@xanga - I am beginning to theorize that perhaps you are really a disgruntled atheist, based on how hard you try to make your points seem ridiculous.  It would be an excellent ruse.  Pretend you're a dedicated follower in order to make real followers look bad.

@LoBornlyte@xanga - "The words and thoughts of a mental midget. It's ironic that the stupid are so consumed with pride. Whooops! I think I read that in the Bible. And lo! You provide empirical evidence that what the Bible says is true!!"

I love this. No attempt to disprove my claim, not even a hint of intelligent conversation. Nothing but an ad hominem attack, just what I expected from you. Really the pot calling the kettle black, you feeling so superior as to fling insults about intelligence. Hypocritical, too.

Thank you for showing the entire Xanga community your level of maturity and "loving" Christian nature. And that's directed at you specifically, because I know several loving Christians.

@LoBornlyte@xanga -  "But you did not back up your claim with any empirical evidence."
You're kidding, right? There is no proof that any other being wrote the Scripture. Who else would have physically written them besides people with opposable thumbs and who spoke the language? The local monkeys? Please.

"The evidence for the existence of God permeates the vision of heart, mind and soul every minute of the day!"
Wow, love this poetic blob of abstract nonsense.

"And who else but God could reveal Himself? That's what the Bible is. It is the Revelation of God by Himself."
It is a physical book written by physical humans.

When you can continue this in a mature, civil manner without ad hominem attacks - "mental midget," "stupid," "moron," "idiot" - and can provide some actual evidence that Scripture was not, in fact, written by humans... let me know.

@OMG_amIstill_breathing@xanga - Concerning labeling women as the origin of sin, I take it you're speaking of the events in the garden of Eden?

As far as rules are concerned. Yes, in many ways I suppose we have more rules. But it's really not about the rules. Following rules won't get me to heaven. Look at it this way. Your boyfriend spends hours and hours just watching TV. You want his attention but he's more interested in the TV. Or how about if he gives more attention to some other woman? How is that gonna work out? No so hot. If you love someone, there are boundaries created to protect that relationship. It's not about the boundaries, it's about the relationship. Christianity is a relationship with God. God (amazingly enough) wants our attention. God has given us guidelines to help us maintain that relationship. That's why so often God uses the marriage relationship as an example of His love for us.

I could say more, if you want to hear it. I like hearing and understanding different perspectives. I just started reading Dawkins' The God Delusion... I don't know much about wicca. Can you give me a summary of what all that involves? You speak about being true to yourself? What do you mean by that?

@scifly@xanga - Yes, I was talking about the Garden of Eden with the first comment. It just bugs me.

As for the relationship thing, it all just doesn't make since. Even after religion came around, marriages were basically just political contracts between two families. You marry my daughter, you get all this land kind of thing. I did a lot of research on it and actually did a blog, which you can see on my site. So you can see where it just doesn't make sense that marriage is a huge religious thing. but I can see where you're coming from.

I like hearing other views as well, which is why I do frequent a lot of Christian sites, even though I myself don't practice any Monotheistic faith. As for Wicca and Paganism, the tennants are different, but the basic "An Ye harm none, Do as ye will" Is the unifying factor of belief for both systems. A lot of people translate this as basically you can do whatever you want as long as you don't kill anyone, but that's far from the truth... like pluto from the sun far. We don't believe in manipulating people and we try as hard as possible to only take what we need, and no more, so that everyone else can have their fair share. We think we should respect the Earth for what it has given us to survive on a daily basis, and we believe that almost everything has a soul (plants, trees, animals, humans, etc) which goes hand in hand with the theory of reincarnation which basically states that when our human body dies, our souls go to a place commonly called the summerland, where we review the life we lived and decide whether or not we learned the lessons we set out to learn. If we cannot say that we learned those lessons, we are forced to live similar lives with worse and worse conditions, until we learn those lessons. I could keep going on, but I don't want to sound like i'm preaching, it's not my job to stear people to "the right path" because personally, i don't think there is ONE right path. The paths are different for everyone and what is right for one, will probably never be right for the other.

As far as living true to myself, that's a little simpler to explain. Basically, I'm just here to live and learn my own lessons. It is my job on this planet, in this life, to learn as much as possible, and be the best person I can be. No taking away from other people, no hindering others, just living, observing and learning. Being true to myself and the kind person that I am and doing what I believe to be right, despite the trouble that comes from toher people for doing so. I believe that this is the greatest lesson a person can learn, and it will always be the hardest.

Maybe I'll actually sit down and take the time to make a well thought out post about what my religion is and why I chose it... I realize that this post is a little, badly organized lol.