Comments on: God Hates Religion…?

By: andy

andy — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 16:32:42 +0000

Dude what are you driving? A freaking bicycle? I have no problems reaching my max speed by the time I’m about to merge.

Must be hard driving in a state that has like, other cars on the road huh Ken?

By: kenhicks

kenhicks — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 14:12:13 +0000

That’s cause you idiots in Pennsylvania don’t know how to build an on ramp. it’s pretty hard to merge into traffic when you can only get up to 25 mph before you run out of on ramp.

By: Andy

Andy — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 22:06:56 +0000

The honking comment made me laugh! I’ve seen it at one of the local “mega churches” that is up the road from my church! Worse off….they are unwilling to stop and let a Presbyterian brother turn left onto the highway!

By: Doulos Christou

Doulos Christou — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 21:00:40 +0000

Nathan, when you say that (Christianity) is a relationship more than a religion, I think you might be drawing too fine of a point on what Andy was saying. The relationship is one aspect of the religion of Christianity, but without the additional practices of love, where would it be.

By: Doulos Christou

Doulos Christou — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 20:58:19 +0000

James says “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. ” In other words, religion is not simply a set of practices separate from the relationship with God. Religion, properly understood is a combination of knowing God, the knowledge of God, and the twin practices of love and holiness.

As you rightfully point out, those who use ‘religion’ as a negative word refer to a practice or lifestyle that is missing one of the crucial elements mentioned above, usually the depth of the relationship necessary. So many dead churches are filled to the brim each Sunday with people practicing their religion only to honk (and worse) at each other the second they try to leave the church parking lot.

Peace brother.

By: Andy

Andy — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 18:49:16 +0000

I agree Nathan. My argument wasn’t about how Christianity differs from other religions, nor was it to prove that Christianity is the only true religion (I usually leave matters of apologetics up to my wife, who has spent much more time and energy studying the issue than I), but rather that Christianity is indeed a religion. I would hope my post didn’t make anyone feel as if I’m reducing Christianity to the same playing field as other world religions. That wasn’t the point was to simply show that the claims of “Christianity is not a religion” are misguided.

By: Nathan Gilmer

Nathan Gilmer — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 18:43:21 +0000

I agree and disagree with you. While I don’t think religion is bad, I think it is important to express the differences between Christianity and other “religions”.
Most of the time, religion is mans attempt at getting to God. In Christianity God came to us and wants to get to know us, thus making it a “relationship” more than a religion.
And while our traditions such as communion and baptism are vital, even they are done to build the relationship with us and God. “Do this in remembrence of me…”.
By the Wikipedia definition it may be a religion, it is very different than any other religion.