Do you believe that the reason some men use religion to have comfort to live a substantial life that they find worthy and know at the back of their mind that there are alot of truths failing in the religion, but it doesn't matter because it makes them feel comfortable anyway.

Now that is the longest question I have ever asked in one paragraph ever!

"religion is about comfort and not about the truth" - told by a retired priest

I think religion is more about the fear of eternal damnation than about truth. MOST believe because the want a one way ticket to heaven not because they believe what religion teaches.

the truth shall set you free...this I know: God is real.

That's depends on which religion you're referring to.

If you are referring to the religions that threaten eternal damnation to anyone who disbelieves the religion, then yes, many people find comfort in appeasing those religions in the hope that they are also appeasing God.

However, there are religions that view spirit in a more practical manner. No fear factor involved. God is seen as loving and merely has things to offer anyone who is interested.

Those religions offer constructive things that people can do to actually improve the quality of their life. So yes, that probably still comes down to a matter of comfort, but I would argue that there is also truth in those religions as well. At least truth in the idea that if you practice what they preach you will indeed find joy, happiness, peace, and thus comfort.

I think Christianity is the greatest irony of humanity. Christians do everything but what Jesus preached.

Talk about a religous lot that has abandoned their God.

Like Mahatma Gandhi once said, "I like your Christ, it's your Christians I can do without".

And so it goes.

First, let's define truth. Well, I say that truth is a model which explains phenomena so well, we are not let down should we use the model to make predictions.

Second, how does one go about finding truth? The only way I can think of is the Scientific Method:

Observe>Hypothesize>Observe & Examine>Conclude

Well, one aspect of religion obeys this Scientific Method to the letter.

Example: 1)The sun, it moves across the sky! 2)...maybe someone in chariot is pulling it. 3,4)Yes, it certain looks possible - that is, if someone could fly through the sky and all that. At night, the driver stops pulling the sun around, puts it away, and rests.

Thus, there was a time when religion gave us truth. For any predictions we needed to make, mythical explanations of the sun sufficed.

Now, when we use the Scientific Method, we employ more sophisticated tools and ideas. Religion can still provide us with certain truths, but not as many as it used to.

To summarize, the birth of religion was perhaps the birth of truth as well. However, what was the reason for the conception of religion-truth? Comfort.

Thus, both religion and truth are about comfort.

I'm not really convinced, so help me out guys.

You will find many idealogies that clinges true for each person. Some sound absurd as others sound realistic. Each individual has a different opinion about religion or spirituality.

What is important is you find inner peace that works best for you to shed laughter, joy, and happiness onto others.

I personally enjoy Buddhism for inner peace practices and as you already know Fantasiscm, which is converting everything I read,see, and hear into a imaginative world , but for others this is a absurd practice and it doesn't work for them.

Joseph Campbell a professor in Mythology always said to his students - Follow your Bliss

meaning to follow what works best for you.

A favorite quote that I like to read also includes the following:

"When I examine myself and my methods of thought, I come to the conclusion that the gift of fantasy has meant more to me than my talent for absorbing positive knowledge.


Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955) Physicist & Nobel Laureate

"god is a concept by which we measure our pain"...john lennon

Or our righteousness or our superiority or our value to society and on and on and on...

This is exactly the sort of conversation I would expect from those who intellectualize God & really don't try to KNOW Him.

Have your debate...your psuedo discussions...it will get you no closer to the Father.

How's that for comfort?

Intellectual:

1. appealing to or engaging the intellect: intellectual pursuits.
2. of or pertaining to the intellect or its use: intellectual powers.

3. possessing or showing intellect or mental capacity, esp. to a high degree: an intellectual person.

4. guided or developed by or relying on the intellect rather than upon emotions or feelings; rational.

5. characterized by or suggesting a predominance of intellect: an intellectual way of speaking.

–noun 6. a person of superior intellect.

7. a person who places a high value on or pursues things of interest to the intellect or the more complex forms and fields of knowledge, as aesthetic or philosophical matters, esp. on an abstract and general level.

8. an extremely rational person; a person who relies on intellect rather than on emotions or feelings.

9. a person professionally engaged in mental labor, as a writer or teacher.

10. intellectuals, Archaic. a. the mental faculties.

b. things pertaining to the intellect.


Oh ya QuickStep, can't have that, that's just un-American!!...

Now where was I.....

yeah quickstepper, only smart people can tell us what the truth is!!! lol

Mans Religion is about Power and Control.

Pure Religion and undefiled before Almighty God YHWH the Creator is this:

To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction,

and to keep himself unspotted from the wicked and corrupt world.

James 1:27



Yamin

Uh no.... only people of GOOD faith can...an honest heart & clean hands...those who earnestly seek.

God said He would use the foolish things of the world to confound the wisdom of the wise. From all the head scratchin' around here what does that tell yu?

faith has no room for truth ...funches 3:16

I agree to some extent. Religions or traditional teachings are to answer the questions that cannot be answered just by living daily. They are then taken too far by over zealous people and become stiffling.

"Men never commit evil so fully and joyfully as when they do it for religious convictions"
- Albert Einstein

right, what you need to do is turn off your brains for thinking is a sin.
The only way to god is to just follow blindly and not think for yourself.
Just stand in line and follow.