Why Should People Follow Religion?

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FinallyPeace

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I do have a religion but I have a question. Why should people follow religion. Why should I be Catholic, Lutheran, Protestant etc. I have the bible to guide me through everything and tell me what I can do to grow in faith with God. I feel like religions just make up extra rules. Why can’t I just do what the bible says and not why my religion says? Is it bad to be non religious but still believe in God and listen to him?
 
Because the Bible itself says the Jesus Christ Himself, a.k.a. God, created a Church and entrusted her to Saint Peter giving him the power to connect and disconnect anything between Earth and Heaven, who through apostolic succession brought her to the present as the Roman Catholic and Apostolic Church.
 
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The Bible doesn’t interpret itself and doesn’t lend itself always to plain text reading. Jesus Christ didn’t write a Bible. He appointed apostles to establish his Church and be a living institution that would protect his Church from false teachings.
 
Don’t feel stupid. This is Catholic Answers Forum and you asked questions looking for answers. According to the name of the website that is the main purpose here.
 
Stupidity is not found in ignorance of something, but in the refusal to learn. If you didn’t know and are eager to learn, then you should be very happy with yourself. We are all learning everyday. And everyone is welcomed in Christ Church!
 
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  1. The Bible itself was assembled by religious individuals for religious purposes. Why would you have more faith in a collection of religious books than the belief system that generated said book?
  2. The Bible is not a clearcut manual to grow in the ways of God. If it was, then there would not be thousands of different denominations arguing different interpretations.
 
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The message of Christianity is not “Follow God and your life will get better”. Rather, it is “God is so good that He is worth following no matter what comes”. We ought to love God because He deserves it. He wants to be our senior partner in a loving relationship. To think that God, the creator of all things in the heavens and earth loves me, that is so beautiful.

I’m not an apologist for religion. One can have a whole lot of religion, but that doesn’t mean that they have Jesus. With Him is where we need to be; it’s our only hope. Therefore, I would not advise a person to start being spiritual, because most spiritual paths lead to Hell. I would tell them to seek refuge in Christ and His mighty power to save to the uttermost. To Hell with religion-- we need Christ.
 
FinallyPeace said:
I feel kind of stupid now.
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Willingness to learn is never stupid. You came here hoping to learn something, and you did. 🙂 Thanks be to God and please come back a lot, so you can learn more and maybe help others learn.
 
People base their religion on the Bible. Your religion is what you believe in and live by.
 
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  1. The bible is incomplete. See the endings of John 20 and 21.
  2. See the story of Saint Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch (“How can I understand unless someone explain it to me?”) Acts 8
  3. I am betting that you have only 91% of the bible. Do you not want 100%?
  4. Jesus founded a Church, a gathering, a community. “Community” comes from “common” as in having something in common.
  5. Saint Paul writes that “When you gather…” Can you think of better advice?
  6. The Church which Christ founded still exists. It still has the “7” Sacraments as established by Christ as channels of grace, and which exist for our salvation. Do you not desire God’s grace? But most of all…
  7. Jesus Christ! In his:
    a. Body
    b. Blood
    c. Soul
    d. Divinity
For but a few reasons.
 
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I know you and it’s good thing you ask questions. There are many reason to follow religion:
  • this life is life of spiritual battle. We are constantly tempted by evil spirits who wants us to sin and hurt and offend the God and lose our souls. That’s the spiritual battle but we live in a physical world and just by our mind alone we are not capable of fighting off and protect ourselves and others. If somebody thinks he or she can be spiritual but not religious sooner rather than later will fall down. The “rituals” are spiritual actions grounded in physical reality. They are there for reason and one the biggest one is praying! You surely know how prayer is important? The Catholic Church and everything we do is started by the Lord himself and developed by 2000 years of tradition and contribution of many many mega super smart and spiritual saints and other members. I think it’s reasonable to think the Church knows better than any single human person out there.
    Following religion and rules keeps you in discipline and always reminded what you ought to do because we tend to “forget” and slip away…
I know you and I say go to confession, stay away from the sin and pray and all the questions you will understand in time.
 
Name three extra made-up Catholic rules that you think are in conflict with someone’s faith in God?
 
I would say you need a good catechism class and you need to get your hands on a Catechism book. These Forums will only get you so far.

Why not just read the bible you ask? Well which Bible are you reading? The Catholic bible does not have chapters removed. The Protestant bible does, because they felt they weren’t needed. Funny thing is Jesus never removed anything from the Catholic book when He walked the Earth.

If you believe in God, our Lord Jesus Christ and Truth, then you will practice that in a religion. We tend to behave how we think. If you do not truly have Christ on your mind, then you will act accordingly. You see the more you think of Him the more you want to serve Him/love Him. The order from St. Thomas Aquinas: you get to know Him (educate yourself), you start to love Him and you will find yourself serving Him. It sounds like you have some learning to do before you get there. I would suggest spend less time learning informally (especially on forums).
 
FinallyPeace said:
Sorry but I just wanted to ask a question with an answer not another question
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So, you wanted to start a conversation and talk about vague stuff in general? That’s sort of the equivalent of complaining, “My life is so hard.” “Oh, yeah? What are three things you’re having problems with?” “I don’t want to talk about my problems. But let’s just talk about how hard my life is.”

It’s far more constructive to say, “You know, this thing right here bothers me and I don’t think it’s necessary. Religion is so bad about just making up extra rules. Like x, y, and z.”

But right now, I’m hearing “I can’t point to an instance where I want to do what the Bible says but not my religion, because I know I can’t defend it, so I’m not even going to go there. Let’s just talk about how arbitrary religion is, okay?” 😉

Because you yourself just got finished saying, “I want to believe in God, and listen to him—” and what did he leave behind him on earth to keep us all moving in the right direction towards him? 😉

So now, you’re asking permission to follow your own Pope, Pope Self. 😉
 
Hi there. Do you recognize the image below? It’s an illustration of when Moses came upon the Burning Bush. An incredible moment in time, when a human person came before God and did not die. God sent Moses to begin the process of releasing the people from the hard bondage of slavery.

(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)

What does this have to do with your question?
This also is an image of Jesus, present in the tabernacle.
Just like He hid himself as a little baby, and grew up with men, he hides himself so we won’t be afraid to come close to him.

Jesus also has begun the process of releasing us from the hard bondage of slavery to sin.

This is why we come to the Church, why we have the sacraments, why we go up and receive communion.

This is why we have confession to a priest. When we fall to sin, Jesus has set it up so we can have repentance, say that we are sorry for God, and by the merits of Jesus, continue on in the friendship of God.

It’s God’s design, and it’s awesome.
Don’t miss out on it.
 
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