ANSWERS: 18
  • Anything is possible. However, religion seems to be one of those things that we just can't seem to get rid of (not that I want to). Many people have tried over the history of humanity, but none have succeeded. The Soviet Union spent a couple of generations trying to eliminate religion from its people. It failed. There just seems to be a deep-seated need built into just about all of us to believe in something that cannot be explained rationally/scientifically. In 2003 Michael Crichton gave a speech that I think is relevant to this question. The speech was titled "Enivronmentalism as Religion". Below is a quote from this speech: "I studied anthropology in college, and one of the things I learned was that certain human social structures always reappear. They can't be eliminated from society. One of those structures is religion. Today it is said we live in a secular society in which many people---the best people, the most enlightened people---do not believe in any religion. But I think that you cannot eliminate religion from the psyche of mankind. If you suppress it in one form, it merely re-emerges in another form. You can not believe in God, but you still have to believe in something that gives meaning to your life, and shapes your sense of the world. Such a belief is religious." Crichton then goes on to say modern environmentalism has become more of a religion than a true science*. Whether you agree with him or not on this, I think that he makes some good points about the psychology of societies and the ingrained need for religion. If you eliminate one religion from a society, then it will just be replaced by another. This has happened again and again throughout history. Over the past couple of millennia the monotheistic religions (Christianity, Judaism, and Islam) have been slowly, but surely, replacing the polytheistic religions that once dominated humanity. If try to eliminate these religions, then they will just be replaced by something else. Personally, I take this as one of the signs that there is a God. He created us with a need to believe in something more than just what we can deduce through science and physical, quantifiable, testable evidence so that we would ultimately be drawn back to Him. The trick is finding the right something in which to believe. *Go to http://www.crichton-official.com/speeches/speeches_quote05.html if you want to read the entire speech.
  • I do not believe that is possible. As other posts point out, religion appears in practically all cultures in some form. A "fairy tale" is a fanciful story that someone invents, but religious ideas are too common and too diverse to have their genesis in some fanciful story. One writer observed that the behavior and psychology of people indicates a "God-shaped hole" in our make-up that must be filled with something. Whether you agree with that particular phrase or not, people everywhere seem to need meaning in life. This is not the result of taking a story too seriously, it appears to be part of human psychology. At the very least, religion is a human search for purpose in life - and that search typically in history has led to acceptance of reality beyond time/space/matter/energy for objective purpose from an external moral authority. This purpose might be called enlightenment or nirvana or something else. I personally find the arguments for an objective Creator persuasive. Whether you accept it or not, religion may have at its root the objective reality of a supernatural Creator.
  • Absolutely not my friend, we as responsible humans must acknowledge the evolution of human thoughts and beliefs and concur with the majority, lest we be become stupid and disappear from this earth.
  • I do not believe in Jesus as the son of G-d or the resurrection, but I do not mock people who believe it either. It is rude. Oh and the Easter Bunny says cut it out.
  • No, Jesus was and is an actual person who lived sometime in the 1st century and who had a ministry, performed supernatural healing, was crucified, and whose body disappeared after he died. You can believe that he was resurrected, or that his body was stolen, or that he was merely a good man who was able to convince people that they were healed, or you can believe he is who he and others who knew him claim that he is. Either way, he did live and he did change the world by his teachings and the life that he led.
  • If jesus is a fairy tale than can you explain this... If isreal was recreated in 1948 than how can the very land of Jesus exsist without being destroyed by Iswlam & Jew hating Arabs? I say & believe Jesus is MY Lord & no matter what critics say he will always be a thorne in thier sides...
  • Ask the nuns, priests, and other clergy. I don't think they think he is a fairy tale, and I don't think they would take kindly to you suggesting it.
  • Jesus is no fairy tale in that he was an actual person written about not only by his followers but in Roman texts. Are his works a bit of tale-telling? We don't know for sure. The faithful have their opinions, as do the non-believers. What we know for sure was that he was an itinerant preacher, was tried for blasphemy and crucified.
  • Who do you think you are? You know how angry that will make The Almighty, don't you?! Be Careful what you say about Jesus, his wrath will be brought down upon you with great vengence and furious anger!
  • No, I think the roman catholic church an adult fairy tale taken way too seriously. the pope is worshipped. they invented christmas, they didn't want the people to have God's laws only the Pope's, so they burned William Tyndale at the stake for putting it in English. Kinda sounds like the Jewish priests who wanted Christ killed , huh. Power, that is what it is all about. Fairy tale, cult, antichrist. we'll see.
  • Yes I agree!! Great question. I am tired of having these fairy tales being force fed to people. Don't get me wrong I find many religions fascinating and make one think but they should be taken with a grain of salt not taken so literally
  • It could be possible, but I don't believe it is. If you've studied atleast a few religions and read the stories about how earth and humans were formed or ended, they tend to have the same storyline. It doesnt matter whether it is a religion of the east or west, there seems to be the same basic plot line. Also, there are tons of people who believe in a higher power and it has always been that way. If the thought of a higher power existing is unrealistic, it would have died out many centuries ago with many other things. While there is a basic need to have things explained, it is not always filled by religion and more so with science or simply ignoring the issue. In my opinion, this means that religion would have had no reason to exist and other things would have stopped it from forming. The thing, I think, that is keeping religion alive are peoples real life exprience with it. A question popped into my head a few days ago: Are people who believe in a higher power taking an "adult fairy tale" too seriously (I decided to you use what you said) or are they more in tuned with nature and spirtuality than others?
  • Let's see it after we die.. But one minute.. It will be too late then:)
  • It's possible, but it also might be true. You have to decide for yourself.
  • Yeah, my boyfriend is really christian, so christian, he calls me a blasphemer if I don't agree with his every ideal about religion. He's taking it way too seriously. I like more of the buddhist approach to the whole spiritual thing...self-awareness. Siddartha is cooler than Jesus anyway:)
  • Not only possible, very very probable. +5
  • I think that many of the stories within the bible, such as Noah's ark and Moses' parting of the sea, are stories that people made up to demonstrate the power of faith and other such things. I think it is ludicrous that people actually believe such stories to be fact. Other parts of the bible, such as those concerning Jesus, were very much exaggerated or even entirely invented (like the "virgin" Mary), simply to gain support for the idea that Jesus is the son of God.

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