Jambi

Of course i do, but that isnt reason itself to stop believing. I agree that beliefs are dangerous, but not all of them are. Remeber that movie Dogma? Well i think that Chris Rock said it right, that "beliefs are dangerous, and its hard to change a belief, you shouldnt have beliefs, but rather IDEAS" And, no, I dont need the threat of Hell to "scare" me or the reward of Heaven for me to live right, i do it for it is commanded and expected of me. Christ said "If you love me, you will obey my commandments" I dont know about you, or if you even believe in God, but i do and the God i believe in dosnt "advocate the enslavement of your enemies" How can you say that? Have you never heard "It has been said 'hate your enemeis and love your friends', but I tell you, LOVE your enemies and pray for those who persecute you"? Now, I am a devout Christian, but I dont go to Church every Sunday, and I can tell you why- The church that i would go to was full of the types of hypocritical congregants that Christ preached so fervantly against. I left that Church and, rather than abandon my own faith, i sought a more personal relationship with God, because afterall Christianity was never meant to be a religion, but a relationship with Christ. I TOTALLY agree that a large part of organized religion is, for lack of a better word, flawed. Again, i will use a movie as an example, Stigmata made an excellent point (if you havent seen it, do so) it talks of a gospel that was written by Christ himself (i think that the movie was based at least partially on the gospel of St. Thomas, that isnt in the bible because the catholic church deemed it as "heresy" due to its view of the church, or rather, the lack of one) in this gospel, it talks of how the kingdom of God is inside you, and all around you, and that a church is merely wood and stone. This basically agrees with what is in the New Testament, but anyway, my point is, you dont need a church to love and serve God, you dont need a man in a collar to tell you that your sins are forgiven, as only God can do that, and you don't need any man to serve as the "middleman" between you and God. No one should be forced to believe, and no one should exploit those who do. I think that we can all agree on this.

Remember, we are all still brothers to each other and we should all play our part to make it better, regardless of faith.