This will probably turn out to be a long one, so I apologize right on the front end of the post.
I want to start by talking about how this post is targeted to both religious and non religious people, so don't get turned off too quick. I was driving home from a funeral today, not to be morbid, but all I could think of the whole time was hope. The minister of the service kept saying the sentence "....and hope for the future." And it got me to thinking:
Hope is the only reason we do anything at all.
List one activity, any single activity you do in your life and a reflection of hope can be seen in the intentions. Want to lose weight? Hope for a healthier future. Spend all day at work? Hope to make a easier future for yourself. Spend 30 years in college? Hope to change the world. Buying a cheeseburger? Hope for fulfillment. I think anyone of anyside of any issue could at least relate to this fact.
Now, let me say this, I personally believe that Jesus Christ was God himself and came to earth to seek and to save. But I think whenever I hear someone say that it is stupid to believe in any religion, I just can't rap my mind around it. I don't care is you are muslim, christian, jewish, buddhist, etc etc. Even if you do not believe in these things, one thing you must realize is that they are vessels of hope. Religion gives to the human existence what nothing else can, a hope of accomplishment, purpose, and something greater.
Look at the teachings of Jesus, he talked of the rich receiving very little, and the poor receiving much. He talked of the first being last and the last being first. What these statements accomplish is that they take hope from those who have everything they want now, but deliver hope to those who would seemingly have little to none otherwise. This type of teaching can not only be seen in Christianity but in other religious sects as well.
Without religion, what is the meaning of our existence? We are born, we live, we die, and no effect of anything we do can be heard of. Remember the guy who cured polio? Me neither. You know why? Because other crap came up. Same thing with cancer and AIDS, etc. They will get cured, and the people behind it will be forgotten. There is no hope without religion. None.
Now, I'm not saying that you are stupid for not believing in Christianity or any type of religion. People work through things in different ways and at different rates. But I will say that anyone who says that a person who does believe in something greater is in some way less intelligent than them or easily fooled, or something else, is not only inherently disrespectful to the parties involved. But also does not intuitively make sense.
Your telling them that a believe in a greater good, a everlasting purpose in life, and a hope for the future in a bad idea? Well, I'll take that trade off.
Hope is the driving force for Humanity. And Hope is the absolute only hope for the future of the Human Race.
Romans 5:2-5 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us
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I like this take on religion. Personally I believe in the values instilled in me by my Methodist upbringing. I've always found it confusing why people will go out of their way to slam on religion because they are not religious. I mean in the end, who is that behavior actually benefiting? I guess in short I agree with what you're saying here, and I guess some people are just dedicated to spread their unhappiness to others by tearing them down rather than building them up.
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