LOVE and TOLERANCE is religion.
You are only a man or a woman, or just a person. No deity appointed you as their "enforcer." At most you are a messenger. Be a messenger, no more.
Proselytizing aggressively is only bullying! If yours doesn't "take" so be it, rely on your faith. If your faith cannot work for you, yours is no religion.
If your religion is valid and real, it will sell itself by the example of your life. Anything else is false and hypocritical for any and every "religion."
I understand if you do not like what I say, feel uncomfortable by me challenging your religion, my comments, but respect what I believe and I will respect what you believe.
I will share my views, you share yours, but do not insist yours is more or better than mine.
You can believe what you believe, have faith, and I am sure your religion will work for you. I will, however, not hesitate to call hypocrisy which I define as doing anything that goes against loving your fellow person and treating them as YOU would hope to be treated.
I will call hypocrisy any time I see a bribe offered for your faith, judging/bullying/hating/hurting others in any way for their life choices.
My belief is you are not practicing religion when you are a hypocrite.
There is no such thing as "Onward "Christian" soldiers" IF by that you mean forcing people into your religion, judging anyone that does not follow your religion, and, bottom line, doing anything that hurts those who do not believe in YOUR religion.
Promising improbable rewards in heaven is a bribe. If you cannot offer a convincing story without bribes, your religion is fake, hypocritical, and not real.
What Would Jesus Do (WWJD)? THAT is what I was taught about religion as I grew up. It feels good to ask WWJD? Jesus said "spiritual, but not religious."
""Spiritual but not religious" (SBNR) also known as "Spiritual but not affiliated" (SBNA) is a popular phrase and initialism used to self-identify a life stance of spirituality that takes issue with organized religion as the sole or most valuable means of furthering spiritual growth. Historically, the words religious and spiritual have been used synonymously to describe all the various aspects of the concept of religion,[1] but in contemporary usage spirituality has often been associated with the interior life of the individual,[2][1] placing an emphasis upon the well-being of the "mind-body-spirit",[3]:63 while religion refers to organizational or communal dimensions.[1] "
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiritual_but_not_religious#Origins_and_demography
You will find a number of religious leaders trying to argue against SBNR, all tending to ignore the reason most of us have left their particular Church, HYPOCRISY.
So read the arguments with the fact in mind that most, if not all of us, actually are SBNR because THEY are HYPOCRITES as they try all their trade ticks such as promises of a better life in "heaven" if the follow them, shame, fear, anger, cruelty, hate, even threats of violence.
Even if the idea of spirituality over organized religion did not come from Jesus, it is absolutely more "Christian" or "Muslim" or "Jewish" or "Hindu" than forcing people to choose one religion over another. If there is one God, she/he oversees ALL religions. If there are multiple Gods, same rule applies.
How can a loving "religion" say anything else? Here's a typically shaming and blaming Christian trying to rationalize how fake Christians are not perfect. Imperfect Christians are at least trying, right? Nope. When these arguments use promises of a better life in "heaven" if the follow them, shame, anger, cruelty, hate and, yes, even violence, to convert "non-believers" it should be obvious to you their weakness Their weakness is the lack of true caring and love, PERIOD. If they truly cared for you, they would simply love you and ot judge you.
The people who seek to bring you into their religion are idiotic!
These truly "religious" people will argue anything and any way to get their way!
"Being “Spiritual But Not Religious” Carries Consequences"
https://bulldogcatholic.org/being-spiritual-but-not-religious-carries-consequences/
Fr. Mike Schmitz Father Mike Schmitz is the chaplain for Newman Catholic Campus Ministries at the University of Minnesota Duluth. He also serves as the Director of the Office of Youth Ministry for the Diocese of Duluth.
Do not expect an impartial argument from Father Schmitz. Like any vested salesman, he should recuse himself, but he does not. He is part of the problem, so do not go to him for answers or a solution.
He is part of the Catholic Church, you know, the Church that hides pedophiles, refuses to allow Priests or Nuns to marry as a part of "nature," denies Priests a healthy outlet for sexual "nature" their God placed in their bodies as the OBVIOUS solution to pedophilia and abortions, demies certain people the right to be Priests (women), and who collect gold from all the believers to live a plush lifestyle wherever they choose.
Don't let his big smile fool you. It is a mask. You do not want to see behind that mask. It is ugly beyond your imagination.
"Q: I believe that I am a very spiritual person. I don’t personally believe in any religion, but that doesn’t mean I am not spiritual.
A: This is something I’ve heard quite a bit recently. I wonder where this idea comes from and if the people who say it realize the consequences. I have a feeling this inclination comes from dissatisfaction with religious people and their seeming hypocrisy. It is true that many people who claim to be Christian (even Christian leaders) struggle with sin and living an authentic Christian life. I think that those who are “spiritual but not religious” wrestle with this disparity. In a certain sense, that’s fair. We Christians should be better. And yet, there is something adolescent about demanding perfection from people."
So if you choose to be spiritual you are being "adolescent?"
Nope, not by a long shot. We are actually being more mature than YOU.
We are acting in accordance with clear thinking and using our minds. We are not allowing blind beliefs and declaration to confuse us about what is just, moral, and loving.
We spiritual people are exercising our ability to discern truth, kindness, and love.
We spiritual people are not "perfect" and do not expect perfection from anyone. BUT WE WILL NOT LISTEN TO "CHRISTIANS" CLAIM TO BE PERFECT AS THEY SPEW HATE!
WE WILL NOT FOLLOW A RELIGION THAT CLAIMS IT IS THE "ONE WAY" TO THEIR GOD!
We believe what we SEE and what we HEAR. We are not following Donald Trump's notion that we should not believe what we see and hear!
"“Spiritual but not religious” is just another form of idolatry. In this case, the false god is the god I have invented. God is no longer a someone. “God” is now just some vague idea, an impersonal force that makes no demands on me and is simply “there” so that I don’t feel lonely."
Really? I do not agree with your "religion," so I am wrong and you are right? You are a fool!
"There is nothing in nature alone that indicates that God is love. Nature doesn’t seem to even care about human beings."
You really are blind and stupid aren't you. Nature does not kill people or rape women, commit sins beyond belief. Nature is being "raped" by most of "religious" mankind and you want to say nature "doesn't seem to care?" You are so out of line my heads is going to explode!
I can't red the rest of your silly, self-fulfilling crap. I call "BS" on your entire "empty barrel" logic.
If religion is not 100% about loving and taking care of people, not judging or dictating lifestyles, it is not the religion I grew up with, nor is it a religion I want to know.
World religions seek loyalty to their view lovingly, and I wish the proselytizing did it always lovingly. Conversions would and should be purely voluntary.
But, SADLY, the world's big, institutionalized religions like the Catholic, Protestant, Islam, Jewish, etc. use shame, fear, hate, even violence too. These ugly approaches to proselytizing are indications of a false "God" in my opinion.
Weaponizing religion and mixing religious edicts in governing, making a theistic government, is EVIL!
Mixing religion in government is the end of religion.
Mass, organized, institutional religion has some kindness, goodness, but a lot of ugliness too, represented by American Evangelicals often, as they support Donald Trump, pretending Trump's sins are forgiven.
The American Evangelicals want to believe Trump has repented, but Trump himself has, PUBLICLY, ON FILM & VIDEO, said he has NOTHING to apologize for because he has never done anything wrong.
Labels, pick a "Bible," pick chapters and verses, pick a "god," require blind obedience, that is how too many religions operate, and take your money.
Does the word "faith" encompass all "religions?" Perhaps it does. But think another way to go at the statement is to say not all "faith" requires "religion."
Religion can be an aggressive cancer. Can it be true that the world is more religious? Maybe the world is simply more "Tribal," and religions want to think they appeal to people for spiritual reasons.
In fact I am 100% sure most "religions" are more tribal than spiritual, proven by how aggressive and cruel they are to people not of their particular beliefs.
"Religion: why faith is becoming more and more popular"
Faith is on the rise and 84% of the global population identifies with a religious group. What does it mean for the future?
by Harriet Sherwood
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/aug/27/religion-why-is-faith-growing-and-what-happens-next
"If you think religion belongs to the past and we live in a new age of reason, you need to check out the facts: 84% of the world’s population identifies with a religious group. Members of this demographic are generally younger and produce more children than those who have no religious affiliation, so the world is getting more religious, not less – although there are significant geographical variations.
According to 2015 figures, Christians form the biggest religious group by some margin, with 2.3 billion adherents or 31.2% of the total world population of 7.3 billion. Next come Muslims (1.8 billion, or 24.1%), Hindus (1.1 billion, or 15.1%) and Buddhists (500 million, or 6.9%).
The next category is people who practise folk or traditional religions; there are 400m of them, or 6% of the global total. Adherents of lesser-practised religions, including Sikhism, Baha’i and Jainism, add up to 58m, or well below 1%. There are 14m Jews in the world, about 0.2% of the global population, concentrated in the US and Israel.
But the third biggest category is missing from the above list. In 2015, 1.2 billion people in the world, or 16%, said they have no religious affiliation at all. This does not mean all those people are committed atheists; some – perhaps most – have a strong sense of spirituality or belief in God, gods or guiding forces, but they don’t identify with or practise an organised religion."
Interesting, but too bold to be believable. How in hell does anyone build such statistics? There is no way to know numbers like this since religion and spirituality are feelings, and a religion is an institution demanding loyalty. People will answer the questionnaires the way they think they are supposed yo answer, and how many people were counted to extrapolate to the final percentages?
