Too much religion?

[klasvaakie]

I am not sure I am posting this under the correct place...so if not please forgive me. So here goes my question...

Is there such a thing as too much religion? I am talking about the people who end up not living their day to day lives...living only for the Word (of whichever God they believe in) and also destroying all human relationships including familial if they do not believe in or as much as that person. I am talking about the people who has their deity in every second or third sentence. Everyone knows people like these...they tend to make one feel uncomfortable...is this too much religion or is there no such thing as too much religion?

 

[david_x]

Is there too much of "ritual observances of faith" ? I suppose that there can be, if the ambition is only ritual and without faith. However as far as the Christian Faith is concerned you can not have to much faith, nor pray too much. Hope that answers the question.

 

[dies-l]

I don't think that it is a matter of too much, but rather a matter of the wrong kind. Religion that is worthwhile builds relationships and teaches love for all Creation, rather than to destroy or interfere with relationship building. If this is what a person is pursuing, he or she can never have too much. The problem is that pretty much every application of religion contains some mixture of pure religion as human sinfulness, so we make sometimes make something quite ugly out of something very beautiful.

 

[WhatGoesUpMustComeDown]

I would like to say it's all a matter of opinion but I really just don't know. It is interesting though... I often wonder what the real reason is that people like you described do what they do.

 

[JGL53]

I would like to say it's all a matter of opinion but I really just don't know. It is interesting though... I often wonder what the real reason is that people like you described do what they do.

Living in Mississippi I have known several people as described. Down here the term most commonly used to identify them is "bible crazy". Most people, including the fairly devout, generally avoid them like the plague.

 

[lawtonfogle]

I would like to say it's all a matter of opinion but I really just don't know. It is interesting though... I often wonder what the real reason is that people like you described do what they do.

I just realized this statement could be applied to nearly every thread around here.

 

[Penumbra]

Well, from a non-theist view, I think that there certainly can be too much religion in someone's life. They're devoting so much time to something that they can't verify as being correct, and it could call be for nothing.

From a theist's point of view, I suppose it depends on the religion. I mean, in Matthew 10, Jesus supposedly said he hasn't come to bring peace, but instead a sword, and that he has come to turn family members against one another, and that anyone who loves their family members more than him isn't worth of him. He was all about shaking things up.

-Lyn

 

[david_x]

I just realized this statement could be applied to nearly every thread around here.

ROFL, nice catch.

 

[bricklayer]

I run into the same thing, but in other forms.

To me, belief in chance is just as ridiculous as anyhting I can imagin.
I hear the world discribed from that point of view almost constantly.

 

[nolongerhome]

I run into the same thing, but in other forms.

To me, belief in chance is just as ridiculous as anyhting I can imagin.
I hear the world discribed from that point of view almost constantly.

What do you mean by a "belief in chance"?

For me chance = contingency. Are you suggesting that it is ridiculous to believe in contingency, and that therefore everything that occurs in the universe is necessary?

 

[bricklayer]

Quite to the contrary.

I believe that all of creation is contingent and therefore there is no chance that anything be other than exactly what it is.

There is no chance, no spontanaety, indepedent trials, etc.

This world's primary belief system is based of the likes of spontaneous increases, as in evolution.

Another primary presupposition of this world's system is the belief in objectivity, which is also false for the same reasons.

Of course, I'm only speaking for myself. That's just how I'm left to see it.