Americans Reject Labels, Not Faith

God will always love and guide me, no matter what the catholic church or James Dobson say. I simply removed the problem --them.

People don't have faith because it makes sense. They have faith because it feels so good.

Faith has to be maybe the oldest scam of them all. You are expected to believe that what is impossible and ridiculous is real and factual. Like there's this Godfella up there in the Heavens who loves everyone who is good (and gives money to the church), and if you are very good you will live forever with this Mr Magic guy in the sky.But you only get to check out these claims efter you're dead and buried.

Sounds fishy to me.

These religious guys talk and talk about God, but nobody ever gets to see him.
He is never anywhere. He never does anything. But when you're dead - then he'll show up. Yeah sure. I can hardly wait,

CCNL (Church of Clancy, Nusbaum, and Luigi)

We hear again from our representative from the Church of Clancy, Nusbaum, and Luigi (CCNL).

The impending demise of his fellow embryonic stem cells has all but frazzled
CCNL's potential brain (cell). And we though of a different biostratum, extend our heartfelt condolences.

I see you have either not seen the Sainted Archbishop Luigi of the Lasagna for pastoral counseling or that you have, but need to go again.

As you now know, he has returned from his visit with the Holy Sauce.

You should not be embarrassed to go again to him for guidance. These are perilous times for you and all your fellow embryonic stem cells.

Until you see him, ask yourself WWLD (What would Luigi do?). You can then ask him directly, but do not ask, WWLD, since you are no longer speaking to yourself. Say instead, WSID (What should I do?). If you wish, you can later compare answers (yours with his).

Until you see him, why not say the famous Luigian chant, with which you were wont to begin your posts: "Hmmm"

May you have peace in the name of the Pasta, the Meatballs, and the Lasagna.

Hmmm

"Faith, n. Belief without evidence in what

is told by one who speaks without

knowledge, of things without parallel."

A. Bierce, 1911

"Faith" is therefore something we should be glad to be rid of.

Sorry to disappoint your Rabbi, but it does mean more Americans are rejecting faith.

How many of those counted never had any faith in the first place? I know this may be a difficult concept for you to accept, but many of us never rejected faith, we never had any to reject.

Then there are those who may have actually rejected faith ... perhaps they never had it in the first place and are only now recognizing that, or perhaps they thought they but are no longer able to con themselves into believing it - no longer able to suspend their sense of disbelief.

your need to maintain some internal sense of validity in your own faith is perhaps making it impossible for you to perceive these people. You are interpreting the statistics in an effort to help you remain convinced. I would feel sorry for you, but hey, I don't.

Get over it already, it's time to grow up.

Narcissism and selfishness (not to mention specifically wishing or even doing harm to those in disagreement with their views) appear to perfectly describe the character of those most deeply committed to the most triumphalist expressions of the most recognizably currently "successful" religions, whereas it is among the non-religious and non-religiously-affiliated who are committed to personal freedom and individual dignity that one finds generally a far higher sense of concern for and obligations toward the welfare of others. "Faith" in the sense of some kind of confidence that life can go on and become better if people will cooperate, respect each other, think rationally, and collectively plan ahead does not require (and, in fact seems to work considerably better without) foolish superstitions about supernatural powers or parasytic narcissistic sociopathic moneygrubbing "religious leaders" getting in the way.

Its one thing to believe in a "god" or a "creator", something that has never been proven, but organized religion goes a step further. It claims to not only know god exists but to know what it thinks.

It seems to me that more Americans are realizing that while they may believe in a creator, that organized religion is bogus and is the creation of men. Man uses it for the abrogation of power and nothing more. People are slowly beginining to see the scam that is organized religion.

scottish or egyptian, manu or money. for what? for agriculture? for forestry? for marilines? for carpentry? for what? to have unity?

to have unity while the trunk is lying from East of Europe to Northern Iraq, as a bridge and highway?

and armenians, seperated or prepared, sea pirated or pared off the tree.

and the shoes of german submariners, hair of women, and the fingers of children for the bullets. and the helmet for the head while having rails under the shoes to ride on snow.

did Robin Williams have his meal, after the heart surgery?

Schindler's List and snow crystals in Canada, coming from the sky other than corporal fat in ashes.

earth and agriculture? seeds? plants and trees? wheat and flavour? sunflower and olive oil? bread and fruit? fish and sheep?

scandinavian fish and their helmets, not from bull horns but from back wings in the rear half of northern fish?

goats and salt? sand and storm? house and beach?

what is the difference between Label and BAbel? Lord and Iraq? Rocks and Rains?

It is not about losing faith but all about being smarter and not buying into the mumbo-jumbo that has been fed to us for many a millennium:

To wit:

Judaism, 6000 years of supposed human history (when it actually is at least 60,000 years). There is no proof that Abraham even existed. Ditto for Moses. And David was not some rock-throwing hero but a minor king in a minor kingdom embellished by the scribes of the OT.

www.simpletoremember.com/vitals/ConservativeTorah.html

Christianity- 2000 plus years of a simple preacher man being the son of god who rose from the dead. Both bogus as per a thorough analyses of the records.

http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/theories.html

Islam- 1400 years of a "pretty, wingie (gay?) thingie" aka Gabriel talking to a womanizing, warmongering, hallucinating Arab who wanted to conquer the world. His followers still do!!!

(Angels/devils are the mythical creations of ancient civilizations, e.g. Hittites, to explain/define natural events, contacts with their gods, big birds, sudden winds, protectors during the dark nights, etc. No "pretty/ugly wingy thingies" ever visited or talked to Mohammed, Jesus, Mary or Joseph or JOE SMITH. Today we would classify angels as fairies and "tinker bells". Modern devils are classified as the demons of the demented. )

http://www.pantheon.org/articles/a/angels.html

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07049c.htm

Contemporary biblical and religious scholars have relegated these "pretty, wingie thingies" to the myth pile. We should do the same to include deleting all references to them in our religious operating manuals. Doing this will help eliminate the prophet/profit/prophecy status of the founders of Christianity/MORMONISM and Islam and put them where they belong as simple humans just like the rest of us.

"If the use of traditional religious labels is on the decline, those who remain comfortable with those labels must ask ourselves what we have done to "degrade our own brand" and even more importantly, what we must do to fix it".

Well said.
But even if we could "fix it", the very need to do so implies that the "truth" that we believed in is not eternal, and intrinsically false. The God that we worshiped no longer represents the deathless.