Religion: If You Don't Believe In It Why Does It Bother You?

err might want to check your facts before you make yourself sound like a douche.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_religious_groups
http://www.adherents.com/Religions_By_Adherents.html
http://www.religioustolerance.org/worldrel.htm

Now if you really want to technical, you could break it up in groups (ie. Catholic,Baptist, etc) you could say that Islam(1.6B followers.) is bigger than the Catholic denomination(1.2B followers.) Then you could say that. But if you count the entire Christian following, meaning all denominations which stands at 2.1B followers Christianity is larger. So depending on how you want to group them will decide which is the biggest. Judging that when people talk about Christians, they include every denomination in their stereotypical comments, I would group them together in saying that Christianity is still the worlds largest Religion.

They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might,
—2 Thessalonians 1:9

Like this?

If you are conscious of nothing, how do you suffer?

where can i sign up???

as long as their is not any deities.

Where is this hell? The Bible says, "the wages sin pays is death"

Condemned to death, where does it say people will be burned in hell.

God is loving and wants all his children to listen to him. If your child did not listen to you would you take his hand and hold it over a fire?

I don't think so.

Then what makes you think God would?

Two guys from Toronto die and wake up in hell.

The next day the devil stops in to check on them and sees them dressed in parkas, mittens and toques warming themselves around the fire. The devil asks them, “What are you doing? Isn’t it hot enough for you?”

The two guys reply, “Well, you know, we’re from Canada, the land of snow and ice and cold. We’re just happy to get a chance to warm up a little bit, eh.”

The devil decides that these two aren’t miserable enough and turns up the heat.

The next morning he stops in again and there they are, still dressed in parkas, toques and mittens. The devil asks them again, “It’s awfully hot down here, can’t you guys feel it?”

Again the two guys reply, “Well, like we told you yesterday, we’re from Canada, the land of snow and ice and cold. We’re just happy to get a chance to warm up a little bit, eh.”

This gets the devil a little steamed up and he decides to get these two guys. He cranks the heat up as high as it will go. And it gets really hot. People are wailing and screaming everywhere.


He stops by the room with the two guys from Canada and finds them wearing light jackets and bucket hats, grilling sausages and drinking beer.

The devil is astonished, “Everyone down here is in abject misery, and you two seem to be enjoying yourselves.”

The two Canadians reply, “Well, ya know, we don’t get too much warm weather up there in Toronto, so we’ve just got to have a cook-out when the weather’s THIS nice.”

The devil is absolutely furious, he can hardly see straight. Finally he comes up with the answer. The two guys love the heat because they have been cold all their lives – he’ll be able to make them miserable if he turns off all the heat in hell.

The next morning, the temperature is way below zero, icicles are hanging everywhere; people are shivering so badly that they are unable to do anything but wail, moan and gnash their teeth.

The devil smiles and heads for the room with the two Canadians.

When he gets there and finds them back in their parkas, toques, and mittens. But instead of moaning, they are jumping up and down, cheering, yelling and screaming like mad men!!!

The devil is dumbfounded, “I don’t understand, when I turn up the heat you’re happy. Now it’s freezing cold and you’re still happy. What is wrong with you two???”

The Torontonians look at the devil in surprise, “Well, don’t you know? If Hell freezes over, it must mean the Leafs have won the Stanley Cup.”

hmm, beer, sex, drugs, pork.. or a bomb vest., I know which I'd choose. nuff sed.

Pretty much sums it up Kyhira.

If you're THAT into the bible, then why do you hate me? =(

Gay Marriage is an oxymoron entirely, it contradicts itself because marriage wasn't invented by gays, it was meant for man and woman. Gay marriage to me is the same as saying healthy Macdonalds double cheeseburgers.

This makes me tired AND hungry.

Let's start with the fact that marriage historically had a lot more to do with property rights than with love. Currently, the idea of marriage is to form a bond and be recognized as one entity by god or at least the state. The point is, the concept of what a marriage is about has changed; it is not static. Since it's now about two people who care for each other, what harm is there in allowing a homosexual couple to have the same rights and recognition as a heterosexual couple. It does no harm to anybody, certainly less than McDonald's cheeseburgers (which we still sell, I might add) so what's the problem?

Arguments about definitions, oxymoronic or not, seem pretty paltry, however, when it causes unequal treatment for others who are just as deserving of the same rights. Explain to me logically how gay marriage causes anyone any harm and do it without saying "The Bible says it's evil!" Questioning and giving actual reasons is something everyone, religious or otherwise, should be doing.

it's not unequal, if gays wanna *** celebrate there love, then make up there own thing and don't call it marriage

Then call it a civil union. I don't care wtf it's called, the point is they deserve rights as much as any normal married straight couple.

I never said they didn't deserve the same rights, I just said they shouldn't celebrate there love under "marriage"

Just bugs me that the thing stopping legislation for equal rights when it comes to marriage for gays/lesbians is people getting up in arms over this so called definition of a word.

Call it something else, give it a different legal process and document, I really don't care. It seems so silly that equal rights are being halted by gay marriage not matching the criteria of the word "marriage".

I think its funny people have a problem with gay marriage but don't have a problem when people get married for tax reasons or cause they are in Vegas and had way to much to drink. So its bad when 2 people who love each other want to get married just because they have a different sexual orientation, but it is acceptable for 2 people who may not even like each other to get married for tax reasons or some other reason beside love just because they are straight.

My personal feelings on marriage are that it was invented by cavemen. Cavemen had an average life span of 25 years, so till death meant 5 years if that.


Maybe that explains the massive divorce rates.

To summarize OP's thoughts:

Ok, I do believe, in a higher power, and I'm not saying what god it is, b/c I simply do not know. I don't feel it needs to be defined. Its something within yoursewlf that you feel, and it doesn't need validation from anyone else.

I think Religion or beliefs are precious and to be respected.

To each their own.

Anye... can get some input from ya, on this? thanks!

Neo!

I still feel that it's up to each individual to take responsibility for their actions, especially in the case of "following a religion." One's ignorance is an inherent weakness to subjecting oneself to all sorts of manipulative advances. Again, I'll state that humans affect other humans in one way or another, but it is solely up to the individual to decide who he or she wants to follow, and in what manner.

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Cright, these guys are right. It doesn't really do you any good to quote Ecclesiastes as it only speaks about the ephemerality of life here on Earth.

The Bible never really goes into specifics regarding Heaven nor Hell, but this is one way of looking at it (quoted from a previous post in a different thread):
-edit- ROFL--Just in time, Neon!

This. This exactly.

Given the state the world is in now, and all the ***that's happened over the course of human history, I've come to three conclusions.

1. God isn't as omnipotent or all-knowing as they'd like you to beleive.

2. God is an *** that enjoys *** with his little meat sack toys. It's a large scale version of Little Big Planet, except when you die, there is no coming back.

3. There is no God. <-- This is the answer I went with. I reject the idea of a God that posesses any of the first two conclusions as traits.

For example, let's look at what happened to Job. Just to prove to Lucifer that humans "loved" him, he let Lucifer *** this guy over in the most horrible ways imagineable. Sure, he got rewarded, but was it honestly worth going through that ***just to prove God right? I think not.