Look at your own first ...

A quote from long-dead Rabbi Levi Yosef Yitzhak of Berdichev

"Men and women are being beaten, tortured and killed. True, they are victims of men. But the killers kill in God's name. Not all? True, but let one killer kill for God's glory, and God is guilty. Every person who suffers or causes suffering, every woman who is raped, every child who is tormented implicates Him. What, you need more? A hundred or a thousand? Listen, either he is responsible or he is not. If he is, let's judge him. If he is not, let him stop judging us."

When are people and countries for that matter , going to start taking responsibility for their own actions ?? Instead of blaming everything on 'God' , their religion, the devil , the bible, the Koran and the rest of the paraphernalia......

I'm sorry but it's all crap to me.....The above listed aren't doing anything but humans are for as long as they existed and will continue to do so......

I agree. I totally agree. Mahatma Gandhi expresses these sentiments well when he said: "As soon as we lose the moral basis, we cease to be religious. There is no such thing as religion over-riding morality. Man, for instance, cannot be untruthful, cruel or incontinent and claim to have God on his side."

Yipeeee...... For once we agreeeee.....

Religion doesnt start wars, evil people hide behind religion.

Amen to that.....

I think more along the lines of there are no evil people, because everyone was created by the One. So if you perceive 'evil people' you are seperating yourself from the One(love)because He created them too. So people can do things which are horrible but they are still not evil because God created them all and He creates out of love. So the evil should be kinda looked at as error of the ego's because its not a forever thing. Like I believe when God creates something He loves, He creates it forever so the only real evil(error)is seeing that your brother is evil and not of God and is not forever. And if you see that your brother is not forever then you have to live by the same laws for yourself because you are equals seperated. If that makes sense.

So I think wars happen because our brothers ego's fight because they dont see that we are all apart of the One.

And fearful people.


What Man doesn't understand, he fears. What Man fears, he destroys.


Too often, people fear the unknown, the "other"; and unscrupulous leaders ( both secular and religious) use that fear to drive their flocks. It is not necessarily true that these leaders are "evil", as much as they are also fear driven. But that is not to say that some ARE evil.

Yeah, find any evil man though and you'll find he is full of fear.

I agree with you here. I was only figuratively speaking. We are all not only part/expression of the one but are the one itself.

is there more of this quote....is this all?

Each person must take responsibility for our own actions. When you use your religion as an excuse for war you are the one who condemns it.

Read what the Dalai Lama says about war.

http://www.dalailama.com/page.62.htm

All mainstream religions share the following

Love
Peace
Harmony

When people attack other people or hate other people they should question themselves

"am i going against my own religion?"

But there are points in all religions that we can disagree on. I don't like the Abrahamic religions in general. There are many things written in them I disagree with that are not so lovey dovey and do not contribute to Love, Peace and Harmony. Don't I have the right to point them out as you have the right to promote them?

It's my belief that evil people are behind the religion and use it as means of control and excuses for their actions.

That belief seems similar to gnosticism, in which the shaper of our universe is the Demiurge, who is both god and the devil, and who sends the Archons to control us through religion and other authority figures.



There is supposed to be, apparently Rabbi Yitzhak wrote out a whole manuscript where he put god on trial. However, it's considered a very rare book, and I don't have the text.

It's interesting how it's usually the nations with a monotheistic God who are the biggest warmongers, though. I think the notion of a God who demands universal conversion is a very big cause of war.

It's been both my observation and long experience that religions only "appear" to promote Love, Peace and Harmony. While saying they teach this, they most definitely do not practice it, for the most part by and large.

The bible has Jesus saying that we would know his true followers by their love for one another. I have yet to see that in the vast majority of churches. They are mainly social groups who form the very same cliques as one could find at a country club.

Add/Edit: For a religion with a Monotheistic God who demands conversion and genocide, plunder, etc. to say it's promoting peace, love and harmony is the same as saying we can bomb other countries into Democracy.

I couldn't have said it better myself

Peace,

RadicalGnostic