Religious-Bill Maher

[patriot]

Must see. Goes into some Zeitgeist stuff.

[FourtySecondRip]

religuous

[№1]

Religulous...

[LetsPlayYourWay]

Full
MEGAVIDEO - I'm watching it

[№1]

I just got done with it, some funny parts, nothing earth shattering. I wouldn't have paid $10 at the megaplex to see it, but if the library was showing it on a Saturday afternoon I'd sit for an hour and forty.

[SageTree]

I thought it decent.

I like how he only talked about The Abrahamic Religions and Scientology.

I don't think that is really that's the way people's minds are going to change though.

One of his interviews he says this is FOR the relgious people, I'm not trying to mock them. Fred Phelps, from the Westboro Baptist Church, who brought us Westboro Baptist Church Home Page and "God Hates Fags" , said in a print he is the ONLY person who really loves them because he tells them what they are doing wrong. I fail to see the difference in means here.

Wasn't a bad watch thought.

IMHO,
Sage

[Captdoug713]

I liked it. Guys head catching on fire made me laugh crazy.

[Canuck Wisdom]

You guys didnt feel a little bit let down that he didnt talk to anybody with a progressive understanding of relgion or even spirituality?

I mean, of course religion is gonna look stupid if you only interview idiots who can't make a rational argument about the meaning of the stories and not the literal translations or old traditions.

I am sure there are dozens of people just on yahooka who could make an argument for spiritual practices that is rational and beneficial and down to earth.

The film was pretty fun though.

[SageTree]

I am sure there are dozens of people just on yahooka who could make an argument for spiritual practices that is rational and beneficial and down to earth.

I really like how he parted ways with the gentlemen in the Trailor Church. That was practically the most hopeful moment of the entire thing, concerning positive dialog. They responded well as did Bill.

It's a fine line between saying religion really enables alot of people to believe they can do good, and adhear to a commitment. The other side of that is does the good out way the bad, or rather CAN it?

[v3d4]

there was noting very serious or real about it

any one of us could make a documentary called "marawanna" or something and show every pot smoking nut job, freak, idiot and ffa poster child as "proof" of how bad and retarded drug users are and blame it all on weed and it would be just about the same thing.

[Debaser]

You guys didnt feel a little bit let down that he didnt talk to anybody with a progressive understanding of relgion or even spirituality?

That's the problem...religion isn't supposed to be progressive. It takes the laws set down way back when and expects everyone to live by those rules, no matter how much time passes. Any progession of religion there has been could at best be called progressive re-interpretation.

[v3d4]

yeah that whole "love your neighbor" thing is so outdated

[SageTree]

yeah that whole "love your neighbor" thing is so outdated

They revised that after 9/11 in the Patriot Act.

The Great Capitalist Commandment " Love thy Neighbour, IF:

They aren't a terrorist.
They aren't brown.
They drive a nice American made car.
They can advance your career.
They.........


I could be this sarcastic all day on this topic......

[Debaser]

yeah that whole "love your neighbor" thing is so outdated

Obviously, I'm speaking of all parts of religion that people use to persecute others, good cherry picking though!

[v3d4]

what you dont realize is that your view of religion is warped. it has been warped by ppl who dont follow the most basic religious teachings but claim that they do.
so this idea that religion is all about intolerance and keeping people from thinking for themselves has been propagated by ppl who dont have understanding of what basic fundamental religious teaching is all about.

so when you talk about "all parts of religion that people use to persecute others" you are talking about the excuses ppl have made to justify their political ideas and campaigns that had/have nothing to do with real religious teaching.

[SageTree]

I'd basically have to agree with that.
When you give it away to someone they make it what they want from it.
Thanks Veda for not letting generalization get in the way of facts.
I am bias on this matter as a spiritual person.
My religion is Kindness. I learn and get inspiration from text and experiance. So I feel that the religion I practice my True Self through, isn't harmful in a way that I can see. How can you go wrong with Love?
Everyone is a hypocrite at some time or other about what they believe and what they actually do, but to say that there is no good in religion is a huge generalization imo.
Humans practice religion/value/moral code so there has to be as many ways to experiance that, as there are people on earth

SageTree

[Debaser]

what you dont realize is that your view of religion is warped. it has been warped by ppl who dont follow the most basic religious teachings but claim that they do.
so this idea that religion is all about intolerance and keeping people from thinking for themselves has been propagated by ppl who dont have understanding of what basic fundamental religious teaching is all about.

so when you talk about "all parts of religion that people use to persecute others" you are talking about the excuses ppl have made to justify their political ideas and campaigns that had/have nothing to do with real religious teaching.

Yeah, that's exactly what I'm talking about. But unfortunately that's what most people use religion for, they cherry pick scripture here and there as an excuse to keep whatever group of people they don't like down, and they forget all about the good stuff.

But even on that good stuff note, is that really religion? Love thy neighbor, do unto others and all that...that SHOULD be basic human values that are not exclusive to religion. After all, I try and be a good person, but I wouldn't say I was religious.

It's a pretty sad fact, but since the original teachers/prophets (jesus, mohammed, etc) left the earth, religion has been used mostly as a tool for control and persecution. This is of course, just my opinion.

[SageTree]

religion - noun 1 a belief in, or the worship of, a god or gods. 2 a particular system of belief or worship. 3 colloq anything to which one is totally devoted and which rules one's life • mountaineering is his religion.

Just like to post these for consideration

[I10HaulR]

I think religion is pretty simple, as humans everything we do there are two choices, ones right, ones wrong. You just have to take the time and consider the effects of every choice. If everyone understood this, and made a conscious struggle toward truth, and charity, we'd most likely live in a better world, but people's greed, ego's etc get in thje way.

[SageTree]

I think religion is pretty simple, as humans everything we do there are two choices, ones right, ones wrong. You just have to take the time and consider the effects of every choice. If everyone understood this, and made a conscious struggle toward truth, and charity, we'd most likely live in a better world, but people's greed, ego's etc get in thje way.

I don't think the two choices of right and wrong is the problem, generally people want to do right. It in the considering what right and wrong means , and can we totally understand what means to our future? , Is at the heart of misunderstanding and judgement. This story comes to mind when I think of choosing a path. Not being so sure whats absolutly right and wrong, could lead to a life filled with more charity which is a Truth. I think this story is a good one for considering our Ego's and Attachment to out comes, "good" and "bad", whatever that really is ?

The Mani Man
There was once an old man in far eastern Kham known as the Mani Man because day and night he could always be found devotedly spinning his small homemade prayer wheel. The wheel was filled with the mantra of Great Compassion, Om Mani Padme Hung. The Mani Man lived with his son and their one fine horse. The son was the joy of the man’s life; the boy’s pride and joy was the
horse.

The man’s wife, after a long life of virtue and service, had long since departed for a more fortunate future. Father and son lived, free from excessive wants or needs, in one of several rough stone houses near a river on the edge of the flat plains. One day their steed disappeared. The neighbors bewailed the loss of the old man’s sole material asset, but the stoic old man just kept turning his prayer wheel, reciting “Om Mani Padme Hung,” Tibet’s national mantra. To whoever inquired or expressed condolences, he simply said, “Give thanks for everything. Who can say what is good or bad? We’ll see…”

After several days the splendid creature returned, followed by a pair of wild mustangs. These the old man and his son swiftly trained. Then everyone sang songs of celebration and congratulated the old man on his unexpected good fortune. The man simply smiled over his prayer wheel and said, “I am grateful…but who knows? We shall see.”

Then, while racing one of the mustangs, the boy fell and shattered his leg. Some neighbors carried him home, cursing the wild horse and bemoaning the boy’s fate. But the old man, sitting at his beloved son’s bedside just kept turning his prayer wheel around and around while softly muttering the gentle mantra of Great Compassion. He neither complained nor answered their protestations to fate, but simply nodded his head affably, reiterating what he had said before. “The Buddha is beneficent; I am grateful for my son’s life. We shall see.”

The next week military officers appeared, seeking young conscripts for an ongoing border war. All the local boys were immediately taken away, except for the bedridden son of the Mani Man. Then the neighbors congratulated the old man on his great good fortune, attributing such luck to the good karma accumulated by the old man’s incessantly spinning prayer wheel and the constant mantras on his cracked lips. He smiled and said nothing.

Hope that illustrates my feelings better.
SageTree