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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]

[b]Yes, God "commands" love, but is it possible for the human brain to respond to a command to do something as personal as to love?  [/b]While it's a nice idea -- and one put forth by many religions (do unto others....) it's not one that religion in general has lived up to very well.  Instead, religions, including Christianity and Judaism, often command its followers to kill people who believe differently[/quote]

The love we are "commanded" to is love as a verb, not as a feeling.  You must behave lovingly regardless of how you feel.  If you act lovingly, perhaps you may come to feel more love toward that person but maybe not. Doesn't matter. You still need to love in your actions.  You are right that, sadly, many religions instruct followers to kill those not like them, but, at least for Christians that instruction is 100% counter to the teachings of Jesus who said the two most important commandments are to love God and to love your neighbor, and indicated in parables that EVERYONE is your neighbor. (I'm not familiar with the primary writings of other religions so I can't comment on how it fits in those instances)[/quote]

Christians were sent to distant lands kill people of another religion during the Crusades.  They also went to war with different Christian sects after the Catholic church split.[/quote]

But does that mean Christianity has no value in today's world? I don't think that's the correct conclusion.[/quote]

It means that religion has been misused in the past, and used to manipulate people who identify strongly with faith into doing bad things for the gain of the manipultors.

Some faithful folks can get past this, but other people are skeptical of religion. I do not want to carry strong beliefs because I want to think for myself without worrying about how much of faith has been human manipulation. What's the point of life, living so close to what others tell you to believe.[/quote]

You have made a different choice than I have. There's room for that.[/quote]

Thank you... I'm glad that you didn't add ".... in hell!" to your post :wink:

Are you saying religious belief is relative?  That's it's OK, expected, perhaps, for people to make it up for themselves, loosely based on on existing doctrine?

[/quote][/quote]

Yes, of course it's okay to decide for yourself. Didn't all religions begin somewhere? Even Jesus' followers began their own religion.

It's also okay to not carry religious beliefs. I attend UU church and we acknowledge all beliefs, but not necessarily follow all the different dogma.

Please don't bring up Hitler (again) as a result of this post. His acts were reprehensible but I'm tired of him as a character being used to exemplify what can go wrong without dogma and god(s)' laws. His acts had nothing to do with religion, as there are bad apples from all faiths and from no faith as well.[/quote]

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