Religion, Why do people want it?

Hi,

    We human beings are composed of body and soul.  Having a soul makes me think that I should nourish it by believing in God and obeying His teachings.  We nourish our human bodies with food.

   I'm Catholic and I believe in God.  I don't go to church every Sunday, just because I work nights (7P-7A).  I don't want to sleep in church during the Mass.  I go to church when I am off on Saturday nights.

   I won't sway you to believe in anything.  I think everyone is responsible for their own soul and salvation.

     God Bless you and I pray that you'll  realize that God loves you as His own child.

I'm Catholic. Why? Because I believe it's the truth. That's the short answer. The long answer would take me more time than I have to spare.

First I've got to say that I like your Freire quote, never heard of him but I like the quote.

Now to your question.  I can understand your Dad's and your Family's actions toward the church.  Man doesn't need religion, but mankind does need God.

Off and on for years I have studied and read God's words in His bible.  And I've never seen an earthly church that follows His words.

My paternal grandparents were Morman and they never talked about it,  but they did quit that church/religion after my grandfather (an elder) was slighted.  My maternal grandparents were christian, non catholic.  My grandfather was sort of a traveling minister.

My mother, never spoke about her religious beliefs, actually she was a 'born to be bad type of person.  My father allowed us to go any church we wanted, I don't know his beliefs.  Whenever I asked him he came up with sci-fi type answers but I did sort of figure out his beliefs, and they were that churches were a place to pick up women.

Now about my church/beliefs, I believe that the bible is God's, written and inspired, by God and His Son, and it is Their Holy Spirit that can and does help to guide those who believe in the righteous path.

I also believe that God, church, His Kingdom in in Heaven.  There is church,  believers in God and Christ,  but it is more in these time to be independent, like as when Christ told us, that when two or three (believers) gather together I (Christ) am there."

As for why I believe what I believe, because He has been there to help me to lead me in His paths through His word.

GOD created man in his own image. One of the characteristics that we possess is choice.

So. There are two choices.

1. No god- there was eternal nothingness and all of a sudden there was eternal somethingness. Somethingness became us. Say hi to your ancestor.
2. GOD- He has always been hanging around and one day created us n time.

For me, #2 is easier to believe. To embrace #1 is to remove any meaning from life. That is, we came from nothing, we live meaningless lives, and we return to nothing upon our death. Praise GOD for existentailism.

That's my story and I'm stick' to it.

I wish you well.

Jay

Thank you Midnight Poison.

All people are born with a need to worship or look up to something greater than themselves.  The Old Testament (I can not give you book, chapter or verse) says all people are born knowing there is a god.  This is just a different look at the first sentence.  What man does with this need is normally influenced by his parents or others close to him, but he does something with it.  The atheist, which really can not exist, says there is no god, but his belief in something greater than him can take form in worshipping money, power, a person in his life that has reached a higher level of achievement.  But the atheist does strongly believe in something, he believes there is no god and goes to great length to recruit others into his non- belief.  Man has over the years carved a statue, then called it a god and worshiped it.  Some say belief is a crutch for weak people, but all people are born with it.  I do believe there are people who never fill the belief part of the brain with anything, it is void and they also are killers with no remorse.  I call them people who never got a soul.

I think religion just acts like a security blanket for a lot of people, gives them something to cling to when they think everything is going down the tubes.

Just about everyone has a religion. Some people think that they don't have a religion, but actually treat atheism as their religion. Others are genuinely non-religious, but they are a tiny, tiny minority.

In other words, the natural state of the human person is to have a religion.

If you don't have one, you might be better advised asking yourself why you don't, instead of asking other people why they do. You are the exception, after all.

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