Why Have Any Religion?

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Kei said:
Why have rules of chess? I’m not saying it’d be better without chess, don’t get it twisted, but the world would definitely be better without “international rules”. I wanna win no matter how it is!

But to answer your question, Church is the physical, visible institution with which we are connected to the Divine.
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Your first paragraph doesn’t make any sense to me.

Why would the world be better off with “international rules”?
Are you a closet pirate, not having international laws would suit that.
You really need to support such a strong assertion, it’s not a given, I doubt anyone here agrees with you.
 
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I mean international rules of chess. As in, I could just win by playing by “my rules”. It’s not meant to be a good argument, but to similarly mimic the claim in the OP.
 
Jesus said to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, etc. Because He came and gave us grace, people responded to the sick so hospitals came about. Medicine, nursing. Orphans needed care. Education grew from Christianity. Universities. Music. Art. Decency. The dignity of the human person. These things grew because of God working through people. We are standing on the shoulder of giants and enjoying the view. Now we can say ‘Oh, we don’t need religion’. We can’t imagine what the world would be like today if Christ hadn’t come!
 
Well I don’t really understand this question because your not asking someone else is. Are you struggling with this? The answer is pretty simple:
  1. Christianity gives me the belief of an everlasting life. There’s nothing more meaningful than that. Many athiests if not most have the impression that if Christianity is real it doesn’t make any difference because they will go to heaven because they obeyed the law, didn’t kill anyone, etc. I don’t know have a heaven and hell list but the commandments say more is desired than simply that.
  2. Religious war is often pushed as the cause of so much death/destruction. Historians actually but religious war at about 5% of the cause of war. Not much. And communism shows how antireligion certainly doesn’t result in a good government.
 
You know, I’ve been thinking of this question and I’m glad you asked.
My question would be to the person… What kind of world would we have if we had a magic wand and could make a wish that every person on the planet would only have sex with their spouse and not before, not with any one else. What kind of world would we see?

One huge change would be that there would be no more teen pregnancies.
What did teen pregnancies give us? Millions of abortions. I have no idea how many young women kept their babies. Maybe they finished school, maybe not. How many women are in single parent families with no dad around? How many are living in poverty without the support of the other parent? What impact does that have financially on the country? On the taxpayer? On the families working hard to make ends meet?

Sexually transmitted diseases would disappear. Even the ones that are resistant to antibiotics. Gone. What on earth would that be like?

God designed marriage and family life to be a certain way and it’s a most excellent way. It’s good for families, good for women, good for children and good for men! It’s good for the country. I wish I had that magic wand!
 
Agreed. You sum up why Christianity is the pillar of Western Civilization.
 
I’ve heard a description of the Catholic religion as such, “where beggars help other beggars find bread.” A community that bands together and adheres to a specific set of beliefs concerning man’s relationship with God, is stronger than any one individual relying on his/her own understanding.

I think you “someone” is really saying, he/she would be better off without religion so he/she can do as they please???
 
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  1. That person is judging others who have faith.
  2. That person contradicts themselves. If we got rid of religion, how would anyone learn about faith? If people were to not learn about God they would either be atheist or start worshiping false Gods, animals, etc.
  3. Anti-religion breeds communist minded people. Those who hate religion tend to justify the murder of those who are different from them.
    4… It is important to ask those who claim to “know God,” or “believe in God” who hate religion, how they pray. Usually those who bad mouth religion get angry when you ask them about prayer or their specific beliefs.
 
I had a chat with a good looking atheist once. He was 30.
He wasn’t ready to change his stance. That was that.
But it was fun to hear him talk of " No God " -
Just be free, do right when you can…and live your life.
I said that I did that too, but gave 'thanks to God ’ for doing such nice things.
I then added that - he - did those nice things - for - well, ‘for nothing’.
He laughed - and quickly retorted " God for nothing "
 
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I think the person who asked why have any religion may have listened to John Lennon once to often.

Ask any anthopologist and they will likely tell you that religion is one of the things all human beings have in common. Not the same religion necessarily, of course. But every culture throughout time has practiced some form of some type of religion. You might as well ask why do human beings have to act like human beings?
 
I think Father Pontifex (Claude Burns) answered this far more eloquently than I can…

 
When Mother Teresa left her home to go to India, she picked up her first person dieing in some awful street, and then the next person, and the next person.
She didn’t do it because she was a social worker, or an atheist, or was being paid, and no one was there from the press taking photos to splash her name in the news.

And so it’s been like that with Christians for 2000 years. Giving of themselves, serving others, often at great cost to themselves. Quietly, without drawing attention. Hard things done. They have been the hands and feet of Christ in the world. We will never know what the world would have been like without Christ coming and turning it upside down.

When you hear comments like that, gently remind people. Yes there were people of terror that used the excuse of religion to cause injury and death. All the more do the souls following Christ show a bright light in this darkness. Christians are indeed salt and light to this world.
 
cody.helscel said:
I’m struggling with a comment someone posted:
Why can’t religion just vanish all together? The world would definitely be better off without religion! Not without god so don’t get it twisted, just religion.

This person is saying God exists but why have religion?
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since there is no salvation outside of Jesus all religions can vanish and we would be better off.

if our religion is true all other religions are of the devil.
John 3:16 ESV
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

Acts 4:12
Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.
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Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. James 1:27
 
Over the centuries and epochs of time religion has provided us with standards of behavior and goals for the inner life. There’s also a concept called “Progressive Revelation”:

"Among the bounties of God is revelation. Hence revelation is progressive and continuous. It never ceases. It is necessary that the reality of Divinity with all its perfections and attributes should become resplendent in the human world. The reality of Divinity is like an endless ocean. Revelation may be likened to the rain. Can you imagine the cessation of rain? Ever on the face of the earth somewhere rain is pouring down."

– Abdu’l-Baha, The Promulgation of Universal Peace, p. 378
 
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