Was reading "The origins of the sex taboo" by Flake and got me thinking about my views on religion..

From a very early age (4-5 years old), I attended church regularly, pretty much every sunday until I was 16. However when I went to church, if I am honest I never went for my belief, it was more for the social side. There was an 'after chruch' group called 'chaos' that all the youths used to attend. There were sweets, games to play and trips to go on. I used to love going on the activity trips when I was 13-16, they were ace! Looking back some of the best times I had was on these trips. There was obviously an amount of church study time, which was compulsory, I think I speak for everyone who went that it was the most boring part of the trips, however not everything is all fun and games. At this point in my life I wasn't really that bothered about girls, I was a lads lad, liked my skateboarding and Down Hill mountain biking and I later found out all the girls in the youth club used to fancy the socks off me because of this. haha (went abit off topic there). I remember I used to ask my youth leader all these really complicated and hard question such as "If there is a god, why is there so much pain?", "Has religion been used as a scape goat in order to declare war on another man's country?" I never really got a satisfactory answer, just more questions!

When I was 16-17 my belief in religion got considerably less, I remember walking to school, not having done my homework and praying that the teacher was ill and I wouldnt get a detention haha! If it came true I would start to think maybe there was a god. But all in all my religious views started to go. But on the whole, I didn't believe in anything. I sorta liked the idea, but my logical brain couldn't make sense of this 'story'.

At the age of 21, Do I still believe in religion? I would like to believe that there is some sort of god, looking over us. However as I have seen things happen, I tend to believe that religion is more of a way to control the masses. As human beings, we have to be able to explain things, Maths is a prime example, it can be used to explain near enough anything and as human beings this is something that we need, we dont like to think, things just happen. When you think of the bigger picture you see that most religions live the more or less the same rules however have there own spin on things and through this they have a leader whether it be the pope or the chruch etc etc. When you think about it, the 10 commandments are a very good basis for one to live there life by! I dont think there are many that would dispute that fact! However I feel that some of the beliefs are out of date. I sometimes think, is there anyway that I would conclusively believe that there was this god? The only way, for me, would be an out of body experience that would give me that signpost in the right direction.

The facts remain that religion cannot be dis proven, as know one has died and come back to life. I believe that the only way to 'live on' so to speak if through the impact that you have on others whilst on the planet and the family that you have.

I know this can be somewhat of a sensitive subject! I dont mean to offend anyone, just express my views and self. I know Dolphin will have some views on the matter and many others will. Please keep this thread clean, I dont want any comments that may cause direct offence to anyone! But by all means express your views and beliefs!


Peace

NO.FX