Being a non-christian american in the south, I get beat up and down by the deep seeded religon that jusr pours out of the people around here. It's palpable and makes things very tense for me sometimes, especially since I work in the public eye and have to deal with some very overzealous evangelical christians some times.
My personal views (not as if yall really care, but it's nice to have a forum to espouse them) on religion is simply that all religion is man made and eventually is turned on the people as a method of control. I also believe that every religion does contain some amount of fundemental truth, it's just covered over with human corruption and manipulation. THat fundemental truth that lies in all the different religions and in our collective conscieousness is what I have faith in. All the allegories and metaphores are extremely disposable. It's the truth at the core that I look for. WHich for me right now boils down to: There is some force that controls the underpinnings of life that is quite reticent and ambiguous. There is no way to know if this force is self aware. It is not quantifyable. I believe that this force, what ever it is, resides in all things and it speaks very softly though our collective consciousness with grand subtlety. I see the complexity in nature and know that I will never understand the WHY? but I can see the beauty in it anyway. When I do what I lable as "good" in my life I notice the "good" in the world around me. When I do what I lable as "bad" I notice "bad" in the world around me. Everything is how it is for reasons far beyond my comprehension. My goal in life is to experience as much of it as I can while trying to do the next right thing in front of me and hurt as few other people as possible. There is no way anyone can know what is beyond this life, so I just dismiss it and when I get there I'll know.
So basically I believe "god" is life.
I don't really know how to explain anymore, it's kinda abstract, disjointed and jumpy, but it's what gets me through my life right now iwth a smile on my face most of the time.
later,
blake
P.S.
The best argument I've ever heard against christianity deals with the logical paradox of an all-powerful, all-loving supreme being and the existance of hell.
If god is all-loving and all-powerful then hell could not logically exist since someone that is all-loving and all-powerful would never send you to a place where you would be tormented for all of eternity in thier absence, it's impossible when dealing with absolutes. So if hell and god exist then god could not be either all-loving or all-powerful. You can pick two, but not all three, but christianity is founded on the basis that all 3 are 100% true.....hence, christian dogma=false
Everytime I have went through this little run down with a christian, they just dismiss it......