1. Christianity 2.1 billion
2. Islam 1.3 billion
3. Secular/Atheist/Irreligious/Agnostic/Nontheist 1.1 billion
4. Hinduism 900 million
5. Chinese folk religion 394 million
6. Buddhism 376 million
7. Primal indigenous ("Pagan") 300 million
8. African traditional and diasporic 100 million
9. Sikhism 23 million
10. Juche 19 million
11. Spiritism 15 million
12. Judaism 14 million
13. Bahá'í Faith 7 million
14. Jainism 4.2 million
15. Shinto 4 million (see below)
16. Cao Dai 4 million
17. Zoroastrianism 2.6 million
18. Tenrikyo 2 million
19. Neo-Paganism 1 million
20. Unitarian Universalism 800,000
21. Rastafari movement 600,000

Now that you put that list in front of me, I have to wonder why there would even be any question as to which God is the one true God, that is, if you believe that there is a God...

Most if not all of these other religions texts were written by man and they don't even claim to have any divine inspiration nor a specific god that they worship... These religions are all about personal fulfillment or becoming one with nature or becoming one with the universe, not God... ;)

...and the reason either directly or indirectly for most of the wars in the past 6,000 years.

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So how do you all think you are right? If you were born in India you would likely be a Buddhist.

Buddhism began in India, but did not flourish there. It has flourished in S.E. Asia. Indians are more likely to be Hindu or perhaps Muslim. Of course, in the past six decades or so, India has been divided along those lines. Hence, the existence of Pakistan and Bangladesh, if memory serves me correctly.

Is Buddhism a religion? I don't think The Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama, would have said so, or true Buddhists today.

In Buddhism, a buddha is any being who has become fully awakened (enlightened), has permanently overcome greed, hate, and ignorance, and has achieved complete liberation from suffering.

Add "from moderators" and you can make it a religion for SETI if you like.

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flaming balloons

So how do you all think you are right? If you were born in India you would likely be a Buddhist.

Buddhism began in India, but did not flourish there. It has flourished in S.E. Asia. Indians are more likely to be Hindu or perhaps Muslim. Of course, in the past six decades or so, India has been divided along those lines. Hence, the existence of Pakistan and Bangladesh, if memory serves me correctly.

Is Buddhism a religion? I don't think The Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama, would have said so, or true Buddhists today.

In Buddhism, a buddha is any being who has become fully awakened (enlightened), has permanently overcome greed, hate, and ignorance, and has achieved complete liberation from suffering.

Add "from moderators" and you can make it a religion for SETI if you like.

There would be a run on ET dolls to use as idols of veneration...

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Account frozen...

So how do you all think you are right? If you were born in India you would likely be a Buddhist.

Buddhism began in India, but did not flourish there. It has flourished in S.E. Asia. Indians are more likely to be Hindu or perhaps Muslim. Of course, in the past six decades or so, India has been divided along those lines. Hence, the existence of Pakistan and Bangladesh, if memory serves me correctly.

Is Buddhism a religion? I don't think The Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama, would have said so, or true Buddhists today.

In Buddhism, a buddha is any being who has become fully awakened (enlightened), has permanently overcome greed, hate, and ignorance, and has achieved complete liberation from suffering.

Add "from moderators" and you can make it a religion for SETI if you like.

There would be a run on ET dolls to use as idols of veneration...

ha ha, please no, but if some SETI members could be converted to Buddhism I expect we'd all chill, and chant satras at each other :)

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1. Christianity 2.1 billion
2. Islam 1.3 billion
3. Secular/Atheist/Irreligious/Agnostic/Nontheist 1.1 billion
4. Hinduism 900 million
5. Chinese folk religion 394 million
6. Buddhism 376 million
7. Primal indigenous ("Pagan") 300 million
8. African traditional and diasporic 100 million
9. Sikhism 23 million
10. Juche 19 million
11. Spiritism 15 million
12. Judaism 14 million
13. Bahá'í Faith 7 million
14. Jainism 4.2 million
15. Shinto 4 million (see below)
16. Cao Dai 4 million
17. Zoroastrianism 2.6 million
18. Tenrikyo 2 million
19. Neo-Paganism 1 million
20. Unitarian Universalism 800,000
21. Rastafari movement 600,000

Now that you put that list in front of me, I have to wonder why there would even be any question as to which God is the one true God, that is, if you believe that there is a God...

Most if not all of these other religions texts were written by man and they don't even claim to have any divine inspiration nor a specific god that they worship... These religions are all about personal fulfillment or becoming one with nature or becoming one with the universe, not God... ;)

Some of the religions above are "reformed" parts of others, like the Sikhism can be defined as "reformed" Hinduism; others are also pagan religions, like Hinduism, or Shintoism which has several gods with the sun goddess Amaterasu above them; and others can be defined as New Religions (Cao Dai, Tenrikyu, Rastafari); or rather as ideologies like Juche, which is an invention of Kim Il Sung, the former leader of North Korea. Spiritism again, is a a quite new movement (about 1860) which also adores the Biblical God, but has no formal membership.

Principally, it can just be spoken of (a) pagan or multi-god religions, (b) monotheism (based on the Bible: like Judaism, Christianity, Islam) and (c) philosophies without a God (like Buddhism, Juche or Atheism) - so you can say that, besides the natural gods of the Pagan religions, there is only one superior God as creator. And, hasn't even the Bible mentioned the adoration of pagan godheads like Baal, Belial(/Beliar) or Astarte? And that God was against it?

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So how do you all think you are right? If you were born in India you would likely be a Buddhist.

Buddhism began in India, but did not flourish there. It has flourished in S.E. Asia. Indians are more likely to be Hindu or perhaps Muslim. Of course, in the past six decades or so, India has been divided along those lines. Hence, the existence of Pakistan and Bangladesh, if memory serves me correctly.

Is Buddhism a religion? I don't think The Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama, would have said so, or true Buddhists today.

In Buddhism, a buddha is any being who has become fully awakened (enlightened), has permanently overcome greed, hate, and ignorance, and has achieved complete liberation from suffering.

Add "from moderators" and you can make it a religion for SETI if you like.

There would be a run on ET dolls to use as idols of veneration...

ha ha, please no, but if some SETI members could be converted to Buddhism I expect we'd all chill, and chant satras at each other :)

If you are the same religion or political party as your parents, you havent studied or considered the other possibilitys. You were born with somebody elses opinions. Yeah, I know...me too

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So how do you all think you are right? If you were born in India you would likely be a Buddhist.

Buddhism began in India, but did not flourish there. It has flourished in S.E. Asia. Indians are more likely to be Hindu or perhaps Muslim. Of course, in the past six decades or so, India has been divided along those lines. Hence, the existence of Pakistan and Bangladesh, if memory serves me correctly.

Is Buddhism a religion? I don't think The Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama, would have said so, or true Buddhists today.

In Buddhism, a buddha is any being who has become fully awakened (enlightened), has permanently overcome greed, hate, and ignorance, and has achieved complete liberation from suffering.

Add "from moderators" and you can make it a religion for SETI if you like.

There would be a run on ET dolls to use as idols of veneration...

ha ha, please no, but if some SETI members could be converted to Buddhism I expect we'd all chill, and chant satras at each other :)

If you are the same religion or political party as your parents, you havent studied or considered the other possibilitys. You were born with somebody elses opinions. Yeah, I know...me too

I don't know if you mean me by this comment Lester, but my parents were strict Evangelists and I have just about total contempt for Religion. However I believe in religion strongly and have looked at many to find, not what suites me, but what fits the religion I was born with, and I don't meant anything to do with my parents or man-made nonsense.

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flaming balloons

So how do you all think you are right? If you were born in India you would likely be a Buddhist.

Buddhism began in India, but did not flourish there. It has flourished in S.E. Asia. Indians are more likely to be Hindu or perhaps Muslim. Of course, in the past six decades or so, India has been divided along those lines. Hence, the existence of Pakistan and Bangladesh, if memory serves me correctly.

Is Buddhism a religion? I don't think The Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama, would have said so, or true Buddhists today.

In Buddhism, a buddha is any being who has become fully awakened (enlightened), has permanently overcome greed, hate, and ignorance, and has achieved complete liberation from suffering.

Add "from moderators" and you can make it a religion for SETI if you like.

There would be a run on ET dolls to use as idols of veneration...

ha ha, please no, but if some SETI members could be converted to Buddhism I expect we'd all chill, and chant satras at each other :)

If you are the same religion or political party as your parents, you havent studied or considered the other possibilitys. You were born with somebody elses opinions. Yeah, I know...me too

Well, I know enough people who - like myself - considered other possibilities than what their parents had taught them. For my own person, I've converted from atheist to Christian, and I do not regret it, though I have more ideological opponents now than before, especially among my family and friends.

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So how do you all think you are right? If you were born in India you would likely be a Buddhist.

Buddhism began in India, but did not flourish there. It has flourished in S.E. Asia. Indians are more likely to be Hindu or perhaps Muslim. Of course, in the past six decades or so, India has been divided along those lines. Hence, the existence of Pakistan and Bangladesh, if memory serves me correctly.

Is Buddhism a religion? I don't think The Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama, would have said so, or true Buddhists today.

In Buddhism, a buddha is any being who has become fully awakened (enlightened), has permanently overcome greed, hate, and ignorance, and has achieved complete liberation from suffering.

Add "from moderators" and you can make it a religion for SETI if you like.

There would be a run on ET dolls to use as idols of veneration...

ha ha, please no, but if some SETI members could be converted to Buddhism I expect we'd all chill, and chant satras at each other :)

If you are the same religion or political party as your parents, you havent studied or considered the other possibilitys. You were born with somebody elses opinions. Yeah, I know...me too

I don't know if you mean me by this comment Lester, but my parents were strict Evangelists and I have just about total contempt for Religion. However I believe in religion strongly and have looked at many to find, not what suites me, but what fits the religion I was born with, and I don't meant anything to do with my parents or man-made nonsense.

It must have been tough for you to do that. I have an evangelist that lives down from the street from me. He spends more in a day that we do in our lives. How old were you when you cut the cord? What made you ?

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So how do you all think you are right? If you were born in India you would likely be a Buddhist.

Buddhism began in India, but did not flourish there. It has flourished in S.E. Asia. Indians are more likely to be Hindu or perhaps Muslim. Of course, in the past six decades or so, India has been divided along those lines. Hence, the existence of Pakistan and Bangladesh, if memory serves me correctly.

Is Buddhism a religion? I don't think The Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama, would have said so, or true Buddhists today.

In Buddhism, a buddha is any being who has become fully awakened (enlightened), has permanently overcome greed, hate, and ignorance, and has achieved complete liberation from suffering.

Add "from moderators" and you can make it a religion for SETI if you like.

There would be a run on ET dolls to use as idols of veneration...

ha ha, please no, but if some SETI members could be converted to Buddhism I expect we'd all chill, and chant satras at each other :)

If you are the same religion or political party as your parents, you havent studied or considered the other possibilitys. You were born with somebody elses opinions. Yeah, I know...me too

I don't know if you mean me by this comment Lester, but my parents were strict Evangelists and I have just about total contempt for Religion. However I believe in religion strongly and have looked at many to find, not what suites me, but what fits the religion I was born with, and I don't meant anything to do with my parents or man-made nonsense.

It must have been tough for you to do that. I have an evangelist that lives down from the street from me. He spends more in a day that we do in our lives. How old were you when you cut the cord? What made you ?

Oh it took a long time. That indoctrination lasts pretty long. I was hacking at that cord at 15 and finally managed to break free many years later.

Awareness doesn't happen overnight, at least not with me; for me it is still happening.

Buddha is always depicted as laughing or smiling. Wouldn't you be if you saw a world full of people deludedly following religions that other people invented?

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So how do you all think you are right? If you were born in India you would likely be a Buddhist.

Buddhism began in India, but did not flourish there. It has flourished in S.E. Asia. Indians are more likely to be Hindu or perhaps Muslim. Of course, in the past six decades or so, India has been divided along those lines. Hence, the existence of Pakistan and Bangladesh, if memory serves me correctly.

Is Buddhism a religion? I don't think The Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama, would have said so, or true Buddhists today.

In Buddhism, a buddha is any being who has become fully awakened (enlightened), has permanently overcome greed, hate, and ignorance, and has achieved complete liberation from suffering.

Add "from moderators" and you can make it a religion for SETI if you like.

There would be a run on ET dolls to use as idols of veneration...

ha ha, please no, but if some SETI members could be converted to Buddhism I expect we'd all chill, and chant satras at each other :)

If you are the same religion or political party as your parents, you havent studied or considered the other possibilitys. You were born with somebody elses opinions. Yeah, I know...me too

I don't know if you mean me by this comment Lester, but my parents were strict Evangelists and I have just about total contempt for Religion. However I believe in religion strongly and have looked at many to find, not what suites me, but what fits the religion I was born with, and I don't meant anything to do with my parents or man-made nonsense.

It must have been tough for you to do that. I have an evangelist that lives down from the street from me. He spends more in a day that we do in our lives. How old were you when you cut the cord? What made you ?

Oh it took a long time. That indoctrination lasts pretty long. I was hacking at that cord at 15 and finally managed to break free many years later.

Awareness doesn't happen overnight, at least not with me; for me it is still happening.

Buddha is always depicted as laughing or smiling. Wouldn't you be if you saw a world full of people deludedly following religions that other people invented?

I can't agree more. I had to break out of more than 20 years of indoctrination when I started my quest. Now, though I was baptized a dozen years ago, I still am critical, and cross-check everything they preach whether or not it is according to the scriptures and to the things I know from science and common sense...

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Very Well Said, iCe, ninjadwarf & Lester . . . Very Well Said . . . kudos to Each of You

So how do you all think you are right? If you were born in India you would likely be a Buddhist.

Buddhism began in India, but did not flourish there. It has flourished in S.E. Asia. Indians are more likely to be Hindu or perhaps Muslim. Of course, in the past six decades or so, India has been divided along those lines. Hence, the existence of Pakistan and Bangladesh, if memory serves me correctly.

Is Buddhism a religion? I don't think The Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama, would have said so, or true Buddhists today.

In Buddhism, a buddha is any being who has become fully awakened (enlightened), has permanently overcome greed, hate, and ignorance, and has achieved complete liberation from suffering.

Yes, Ice, it is. I have posted on this before.
Siddharta Gautama, the first Buddha, was from India and the religion that developed around him can be said to be a response to Hinduism. If you call Hinduism a religion, you must also call Buddhism a religion. Here is why.
The Enlightenment of which you speak was to reduce the karmic residue to zero. Positive karmic residue = reincarnation into a better life (or into a better "form," including as a god or goddess in some level of Hindu heaven). Negative residue = ... you get the point. When attaining 0 karmic residue, the Samsaric reincarnation cycle would end and one could attain moksha, the final release.

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Capitalize on this good fortune, one word can bring you round ... changes.

The point I was trying to make is since we first evolved we have been creating Gods. There have been thousands of them. My question is why are you so convinced that your one God is correct? Why are you an atheist to all other Gods except your own God?

Most if not all of these other religions texts were written by man and they don't even claim to have any divine inspiration nor a specific god that they worship... These religions are all about personal fulfillment or becoming one with nature or becoming one with the universe, not God... ;)

Jeffrey we are the universe.
"We are the local embodiment of a Cosmos grown to self-awareness. We have begun to contemplate our origins: starstuff pondering the stars; organized assemblages of ten billion billion billion atoms considering the evolution of atoms; tracing the long journey by which, here at least, consciousness arose. Our loyalties are to the species and the planet. We speak for Earth. Our obligation to survive is owed not just to ourselves but also to that Cosmos, ancient and vast, from which we spring." - Carl Sagan

All you are and I am and we all are is just a bunch of atoms arranged in a certain way. We are all illusions. Inside the brain you have millions of synapses and million of neurons all firing at once which creates the illusion of consciouses. We came from the universe. We are part the universe. We are a result of billions of years of evolution and we have a psychological need to believe in something bigger than ourselves. In ancient times we needed Gods to help us explain phenomenon which we did not understand. As humans we need to feel a part of something bigger than ourselves. ( For me this is SETI ) We need to feel comforted because we are scared by the truth that this is all we are. Just a bunch of atoms and that when these decay we will become no more. Don't any of you see the bigger picture? Don't any of you question why? Or do you all just ignore all challenges to your intelligence and turn off your brains and say God did it? I personally think that if you believe in a God then you do not understand what you are and you do not understand our place in this universe, because if you did open your minds and understand it then you would see that there is no God.
It took me over 7 months to see the universe as I do now. All the beauty of it. It took me 7 months and I am now just beginning to understand our place in it. It is much more than saying you know that you live on a planet that orbits a star, that this star is just one in our galaxy and that our galaxy is one among billions. It is more than saying you know we evolved, do you really truly understand it? If I could share this great feeling I now have with each and every person on this planet I would. However I fear that most people get too caught up in their lives and never really understand or see this universe we live in, much less to stop and question why things are the way they are.

This is my last post in this thread.

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The point I was trying to make is since we first evolved we have been creating Gods. There have been thousands of them. My question is why are you so convinced that your one God is correct? Why are you an atheist to all other Gods except your own God?

Most if not all of these other religions texts were written by man and they don't even claim to have any divine inspiration nor a specific god that they worship... These religions are all about personal fulfillment or becoming one with nature or becoming one with the universe, not God... ;)

Jeffrey we are the universe.
"We are the local embodiment of a Cosmos grown to self-awareness. We have begun to contemplate our origins: starstuff pondering the stars; organized assemblages of ten billion billion billion atoms considering the evolution of atoms; tracing the long journey by which, here at least, consciousness arose. Our loyalties are to the species and the planet. We speak for Earth. Our obligation to survive is owed not just to ourselves but also to that Cosmos, ancient and vast, from which we spring." - Carl Sagan

All you are and I am and we all are is just a bunch of atoms arranged in a certain way. We are all illusions. Inside the brain you have millions of synapses and million of neurons all firing at once which creates the illusion of consciouses. We came from the universe. We are part the universe. We are a result of billions of years of evolution and we have a psychological need to believe in something bigger than ourselves. In ancient times we needed Gods to help us explain phenomenon which we did not understand. As humans we need to feel a part of something bigger than ourselves. ( For me this is SETI ) We need to feel comforted because we are scared by the truth that this is all we are. Just a bunch of atoms and that when these decay we will become no more. Don't any of you see the bigger picture? Don't any of you question why? Or do you all just ignore all challenges to your intelligence and turn off your brains and say God did it? I personally think that if you believe in a God then you do not understand what you are and you do not understand our place in this universe, because if you did open your minds and understand it then you would see that there is no God.
It took me over 7 months to see the universe as I do now. All the beauty of it. It took me 7 months and I am now just beginning to understand our place in it. It is much more than saying you know that you live on a planet that orbits a star, that this star is just one in our galaxy and that our galaxy is one among billions. It is more than saying you know we evolved, do you really truly understand it? If I could share this great feeling I now have with each and every person on this planet I would. However I fear that most people get too caught up in their lives and never really understand or see this universe we live in, much less to stop and question why things are the way they are.

This is my last post in this thread.

For me, God is behind the power which commands quarks to form hadrons, protons, neutrons and the other basic parts of matter; and which makes those basic parts form the several kinds of matter; which makes life out of matter, which makes life finally produce intelligence, able to find out the laws how the universe works.
To know how (for example) a clockwork works, doesn't mean I should ignore the maker of that clockwork. Even though I personalize God, it doesn't mean that I'm not interested in science. IMHO science reveals the divine in universe.

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So how do you all think you are right? If you were born in India you would likely be a Buddhist.

Buddhism began in India, but did not flourish there. It has flourished in S.E. Asia. Indians are more likely to be Hindu or perhaps Muslim. Of course, in the past six decades or so, India has been divided along those lines. Hence, the existence of Pakistan and Bangladesh, if memory serves me correctly.

Is Buddhism a religion? I don't think The Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama, would have said so, or true Buddhists today.

In Buddhism, a buddha is any being who has become fully awakened (enlightened), has permanently overcome greed, hate, and ignorance, and has achieved complete liberation from suffering.

Yes, Ice, it is. I have posted on this before.
Siddharta Gautama, the first Buddha, was from India and the religion that developed around him can be said to be a response to Hinduism. If you call Hinduism a religion, you must also call Buddhism a religion. Here is why.
The Enlightenment of which you speak was to reduce the karmic residue to zero. Positive karmic residue = reincarnation into a better life (or into a better "form," including as a god or goddess in some level of Hindu heaven). Negative residue = ... you get the point. When attaining 0 karmic residue, the Samsaric reincarnation cycle would end and one could attain moksha, the final release.

It depends on the definition of 'religion' I guess. If it involves worshiping a god and feeling blackmailed into going to hell if you do bad, then Buddhism is not a religion. It is just an awareness of how to live without man-made fears and restrictions.

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It depends on the definition of 'religion' I guess. If it involves worshiping a god and feeling blackmailed into going to hell if you do bad, ...

You mean like preached in some Christian churches? well, in the Bible is written that each sin can be forgiven except the "sin against the Holy spirit" which is denying God after having known him; and that a sin is only when you do something despite KNOWING that it's against the rules.

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It depends on the definition of 'religion' I guess. If it involves worshiping a god and feeling blackmailed into going to hell if you do bad, ...

You mean like preached in some Christian churches? well, in the Bible is written that each sin can be forgiven except the "sin against the Holy spirit", and that a sin is only when you do something despite KNOWING that it's against the rules.

That all depends on which medieval monk defined the rules, or tweaked them around to suite what they wanted, and also on which preacher is trying to define what the Holy spirit is. Excuse me for being totally naive but why should I believe anything some old men conjured up hundreds and thousands of years ago, or claim what someone said 2000 years ago, a record of it recorded third hand even if not made up.

What I do know is what the Christian Churches say today. Which is contrary to Darwinism. Contrary to the fact that dinosaurs existed. And generally contrary to any rational understanding.

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It depends on the definition of 'religion' I guess. If it involves worshiping a god and feeling blackmailed into going to hell if you do bad, ...

You mean like preached in some Christian churches? well, in the Bible is written that each sin can be forgiven except the "sin against the Holy spirit", and that a sin is only when you do something despite KNOWING that it's against the rules.

That all depends on which medieval monk defined the rules, or tweaked them around to suite what they wanted, and also on which preacher is trying to define what the Holy spirit is. Excuse me for being totally naive but why should I believe anything some old men conjured up hundreds and thousands of years ago, or claim what someone said 2000 years ago, a record of it recorded third hand even if not made up.

What I do know is what the Christian Churches say today. Which is contrary to Darwinism. Contrary to the fact that dinosaurs existed. And generally contrary to any rational understanding.

I can see your point. Darwinism is contrary to what some of the churches still preach. But that doesn't prevent me to have belief in a God. For me, Darwinism is just a theory (even one based on scientific observations); and who tells that the world as we know it hasn't developed (made?) out of the ruins of another one, that one where the dinosaurs have existed? In my own view there is no inconsistence. But may be it's because I knew the Darwinist point before I began to believe...

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It depends on the definition of 'religion' I guess. If it involves worshiping a god and feeling blackmailed into going to hell if you do bad, ...

You mean like preached in some Christian churches? well, in the Bible is written that each sin can be forgiven except the "sin against the Holy spirit", and that a sin is only when you do something despite KNOWING that it's against the rules.

That all depends on which medieval monk defined the rules, or tweaked them around to suite what they wanted, and also on which preacher is trying to define what the Holy spirit is. Excuse me for being totally naive but why should I believe anything some old men conjured up hundreds and thousands of years ago, or claim what someone said 2000 years ago, a record of it recorded third hand even if not made up.

What I do know is what the Christian Churches say today. Which is contrary to Darwinism. Contrary to the fact that dinosaurs existed. And generally contrary to any rational understanding.

I can see your point. Darwinism is contrary to what some of the churches still preach. But that doesn't prevent me to have belief in a God. For me, Darwinism is just a theory (even one based on scientific observations); and who tells that the world as we know it hasn't developed (made?) out of the ruins of another one, that one where the dinosaurs have existed? In my own view there is no inconsistence. But may be it's because I knew the Darwinist point before I began to believe...

Oh don't get me wrong. I don't disregard everything that Christianity, or any other religion, believes in. Not everything. It's not black or white, yes or no. I believe there is something, called "God", but not necessarily the "God" that you or others might define. There is truth is general concepts, good and evil, a right way to live, and a wrong way to live. You don't need religion to know these things, or even have to consider "God" to know these things. In fact all of what you need to know is in your head. Whether "God" exists or not, what you do in life is your own choice, not a life that has to be lived by some rules and definition of "God". And if you say you are already doing that, then why do you need churches, and why do you keep on and on about everybody else having to attend a church to be able to do what you do 'naturally'?

And I wonder how many parents still tell their children that if they don't go to church they will go to hell? What's with all this blackmail? And to the children?

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