UncleChrist said:
With every new day
It Becomes more and more Obvious to me
that religions true purpose is actually to seperate people
keep the Sheeple pre occupied squabbleing and feuding over
which imaginary friend is more real then the other imaginary friend
While the powers that be pick your pocket and rape the world
"Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain"
:bugeye:
Simplistic.
Have you studied comparative religion? Have you even studied History?
Yes, Protestantism is divisive -- afterall, it conceived itself in rebellion, and all of its doctrines source from Paul who had intended to subvert Messianic Judaism and the Teachings of Christ. So, yes, we can hardly expect that Protestantism would stand up well with the True Higher Religions.
And then there is Zionism, which is not a Higher Religion at all, but an instance of Tribal Animism -- having a War God is not the same as having a Higher Religion. And the Jews have never had a civilization. They have been incorporated into other People's Civilizations, but their Religion was too morally flawed to support a Civilization of their own (their problems being two-fold, that the Patriarch Jacob was an an obvious fraud and a liar, making a horrible moral example for every subsequent jew who would think it some kind of a Religious Duty to lie and to scheme. What Civilization can survive when Corruption is not only not discouraged, but openly encouraged. and then there was the War God Doctrines which pretend to tell the Jews that they can commit genocide against the entire world. All successful Civilizations have incorporated their neighbors and expanded themselves among other peoples and other Nations. But the Jews only want to kill kill kill because their Religious Scriptures endorse such behavior. and it doesn't work).
Islam also made the mistake of endorcing civil conflict. Mohamed, who makes a virtue of martyrdom should have became a martyr himself in order to protect and exemplify True Religion. Instead, he at various times ran away and then committed theft and murder in order to save himself. And then he would write about it... justifying violence. And then, what no Muslim seems to recognize, is that Mohamed finally surrendered everything he had fought for... asked so many people to kill for and to die for. he started out preaching that the Powerful Priests of Mecca should discontinue their Idolatry ... dancing around their Big Black Rock and such in their annual pagan festivities. When these Priests attempted to take action against Mohamed, the "prophet" ran away and then assembled a bandit army to raid caravans and to harass the Wealthy Community Leaders of Mecca. But finally the better financed Armies of Mecca won the conflict and forced Mohamed to the Peace Table where Mohamed, rather than accepting Martyrdom, signed a Treaty that would commit all of his Followers to a perpetual Surrender to Idolatry... that every Muslim would be duty bound to participate in the annual Idolatry... to dance around the Big Black Rock and pay all of the usual tourist fees. Mohamed loses the war and surrenders to evil and signs away the future virtue of every Muslim, and still they think he is the Greatest Prophet. Yikes! Who then would be the worst, if such as that is the Best?
But these are by no means the ONLY Religions in the World. One only has to look back into History to identify the successful and viable Civilizations and one can identify at their source instances of True Higher Moral Religions. We have the Goddess Religions of Ancient Sumaria and the Pre-Aryan Indus Valley Civilizations. We have the Zoroastrianism of Persia. Egyptian Civilization was surprisingly resilient. China, though its native religion never developed technically much beyond ancestor worship, the moral and spiritual writings of Confucus, lifted that simple animism to the Higher Moral Spheres. And then their was Mahayana (Big Wheel) Buddhism which had taken the original amoral and stoical Buddhism and developed it into one of the better Higher Religions, supporting Civilizations in Northern India and improving the chances for Chinese Civilization.
So, Religions, while they are valid, are unifying and civilized.
Your problem is only with Barbarism that wear the cloak of Religion. But there, did not Christ himself warn us of Wolves who would come to us wearing Sheeps Clothing.
Remember Zarathustra, perhaps the First Prophet of Higher Religion, having been the First Philosopher to speak of Good and Evil, and to advocate the one while rejecting the other (unlike Judaism that can admire a Jacob for his cunning lies and frauds). Zarathustra, in his Zoroastrian Religion, had warned us all that in the World there will be a Struggle between Darkness and Light, between Good and Evil. The Evil would not go without a fight. Evil would try to deceive us. And so, yes, Evil would try to masquerade as Religion.
But if one has any intelligence and perception at all, then one should have the discernment to know the True from the False.
But some people aren't much better than idiots.