[Turbo_pro]

I spent a good deal of time contemplating the rationale that people on this thread give for belief, understanding and challenging religion. I've seen intolerance, prejudice, tension and anger.

The struggle in the thread is (in my humble opinion) "what is religion about ? I am not a religious scholar so I only have my limited experience to draw on but as I see it, religion is a path. Life has many paths but religion is a path to a specific state or condition.

From what I can tell, most main stream religion has the same goals. A peaceful heart and a quiet mind. Perhaps this assertion gives credit where no credit is do but that is the nature of my belief. It seems that they all offer a road map for this journey.

Here's the problem. Man has to read the map and interpret the meaning. Give two people the same map and it is not uncommon for them to end up in different places. Don't blame the map maker or the map for those individuals that make a wrong turn. Many here want to blame religion for the wrong choices of those who identify themselves as religious.

God loves us and wants us to be happy and I believe that he offers us the word to guide us ( not drag us) on this journey. He offers us the word in a language we can understand. Throughout history the word has had many faces (Jesus, Buddha, Mohammed, Zeus' and even those who worship the sun) but all of them have laid out a path to a peaceful heart and a quiet mind. For those who hear "one way" that is the language they can understand. Others may hear a different language but the same message. Understanding this is where tolerence comes into play.

The bible is an example of the road map and it is filled with wonderful anecdotal evidence of what is in store for us along the way. It offers us stories of others who traveled this path and how they selected the road they traveled.

God is in the message and the devil is in the detail.
God has not asked us to help others because he can not help them himself. He asks us to sacrifice ourselves (he leaves to method up to us) because that will help us find that peaceful heart. He illustrates this principle by his own sacrifice, the crucifixion of his son. In this act he also illustrates his love for us. Allowing the horrific dead of his son to enhance our belief could only be describe as love.
God does not offer us eternal life as a carrot to lure us to the right path but to help us quiet our very busy minds. Answer the question "what's next?" and life become about "what now?'"

If digging into the details of a map brings you a quiet mind, continue to dig. It looks to me like challenging the details, stirs the mind with the questions that can not be answered with science or logic and that stirring leads to fear, distrust and envy. My experience is that atheism rarely promotes either of my stated goals. Do atheists in this thread exhibit a peaceful heart or a quite mind?
Those who challenge religion rarely seem at peace in their own skin although quite often ridicule those who are comfortable in their belief.

I know my thoughts on this subject are simple minded and offer very little proof of anything but for me they needed to be said.

One last thought: It has been my experience that when a person of faith says "try this, I think you'll like it" he/she is not saying "I don't like who you are" he/she is saying "I love who I am and I want that for you".
Those who say "I need to change you" have just misinterpreted the word. This is not evil just misguided. You can't blame the word for mans flaws or shortcomings.
.