This is another reason why I can't religion seriously.
 

SUVs on the alter. Wow, just wow. I mean everyone knows Big JC rides around in an old beat up bus.

http://www.reuters.com/article/marke...46551320081207

Rrrrrrright. :roll: That gotta be one of the stupidest thing I've heard in awhile.

Makes you really wonder what 'the Almighty' is thinking about this.

Man, I hope he has a sense of humor. Otherwise we are all _______!

:doh:

It may interest you to know that even amongst the religious, there are idiots, just like everywhere else. I'd be willing to bet that these people are equally as stupid about things other than religion.;)

Religion always was and still is about the wellbeing of clergy. Without believers who believe what they are being told, clergy can't grow fat and round. Believers' stupidity is clergy's basis of power, control and wealth. Spirituality has nothing to do with either religion, or clergy, or believing.

That's so cynical it's depressing. How do you get through the day with such a great attitude?:roll:

By not mismatching "spirituality" with "religion". ;) actually, I get through the day very well - free, and happy. Cynism and realism - are two very different things.

Here in Spain, mainly in rural Andalucia, many small towns and villages usually "take the Saint out in procession" to ask for rain, meaning they take the statue of the local Saint (Who supposedly advocates for that city to the eyes of the Allmighty) and make a procession to pray for having rain (Southern Spain is a very dry place as you might know, and it badly hurts harvests). But it has not been rare over history to take the Saint out to ask for rain, and then having to take him out some weeks later to actually pray for rain to stop, when a mediterranean storm fixed over there :lol:

Good point. Religion doesn't always have to be as you describe it, though, in my opinion. There are actually religions where the preachers volunteer their time to preach and don't get fat off of their parishioners, or drive fancy cars or live in fine houses that they haven't paid for from their "real" jobs.

I have always had trouble religioning seriously.

There are, and always will be examples on both sides of the "bell curve", this episode far out on the left (silly), Jones Town was far out on the right (woefully tragic).

Thankfully, most people tend to fall more in the center...

Man, Skybird, short winded response. Coming from you that is something special. I agree on all points in just the four sentences you have written. :up: Brevity!

<sigh> Hmmm... ok. So, because I believe in God, go to a "church" which has a form of "clergy", that makes me stupid? I have a Masters in Computer Science but because I go to a building with other like minded people and receive the Word of God from a "clergyman" that makes me less intelligent than those who don't? If I didn't already know who the poster was and his particular, unwavering point of view, I might have found some offense in the remark. :lol:

Why, pray tell, should your sense or definition of spirituality be any more correct (or intelligent as the case warrants) than mine?

If god is real why does the pope need a bullet proof ride? That shows how much they believe right there.

Nothing to do with belief, it's pragmatic survival these days... it's like saying, "Gee, if God exists, then I can walk off the edge of this cliff and He will prevent me from killing myself." Who in there right mind would walk off a cliff? No one I know of. By the same token, the Holy See isn't going to go out in public when there are known "bad guys" around who would like to take him out. Prudent precaution...

Believing in God doesn't mean taking your brain out and ignoring the Real World and it's problems...