Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus

[gelandporn]

The title itself is contradictory and is what's causing all of this debate. It's nothing more than a battle of semantics.

Believing in Jesus as the Son of God/Messiah/whatever is a religion. Religion is fundamentally based on a spiritual belief.
Then there are other aspects that branch out from the core beliefs, such as the institution (the church), the practices/customs, etc. It's all under the umbrella of religion.

So really this guy is just trying to advocate the personal side of religion and attack the pomp and circumstance that has warped the institutions.
And with that said, I don't find this particularly special. It's actually pretty trite. People like Martin Luther had some of the same ideas 500 years ago.

[alexis.anagram]

It's nothing more than a battle of semantics.

Albeit a worthwhile one, in my opinion, as we are entering (or perhaps in the midst of) a very interesting era of the cohabitation of minds and society with science and religion, each playing a part for the rational thinker.

Believing in Jesus as the Son of God/Messiah/whatever is a religion. Religion is fundamentally based on a spiritual belief.
Then there are other aspects that branch out from the core beliefs, such as the institution (the church), the practices/customs, etc. It's all under the umbrella of religion.

Indeed, but not all of these branches of religion are intrinsically religious or even validated by the religion they stem from. These waters have been muddied for centuries and we have at hand a whole generation of religious people who are coming to grips with the many patterns in their belief systems which don't match their lifestyles and are not necessary within their personal communities in the way they may have been when these concepts were developed. This is one conflict of interests among many, many others.

So really this guy is just trying to advocate the personal side of religion and attack the pomp and circumstance that has warped the institutions.
And with that said, I don't find this particularly special. It's actually pretty trite. People like Martin Luther had some of the same ideas 500 years ago.

The redeclaration of old ideas is not essentially wrong. Martin Luther speculated along similar lines, true, but as you kindly clarified, that was centuries ago in a vastly different social climate. His (and others') views on the schism between Church directed religious thinking and personal spirituality in practice are as relevant now as they ever were. I can understand why you might consider this particular installment trite, believe me, but I think the greater debate is one of value and will likely continue to be as long as systematic spirituality by way of hierarchical doctrine continues to be perceived as a dominant, active force in current religious (for that matter, non-religious) society.

[Reflection]

who the hell is this alexis.anagram person and why has no one told them yet that we don't do things so eloquently and politely here

dis heres the internet

you gotta be a dick to get your point across

but seriously i appreciate that this idea is getting popular among them young hip people now. because god knows they don't give two shits as much about martin luther's writing as they do about youtube

hooray

The title itself is contradictory and is what's causing all of this debate. It's nothing more than a battle of semantics.

thank you

[alexis.anagram]

who the hell is this alexis.anagram person and why has no one told them yet that we don't do things so eloquently and politely here

Hajimemashite desu desu desu desu desu~.

you gotta be a dick to get your point across

Internet != 4chan. You're also forgetting you have to be witty and I have no comprehension of wit, nor how to execute it properly.

[SHAWTYS #1 FAN]

This guy is Christian revisionist second, a terrible poet first.

[Reflection]

Hajimemashite desu desu desu desu desu~

yep we're going to get along just fine

:^D

[Wehrmacht]

This guy is Christian revisionist second, a terrible poet first.

Seconding this.

For something that was actually written and planned, his rhymes are pretty weak. Sounds like he came up with it on the fly. Either way, it's pretty lame, and honestly just kind of pretentious.

[Reflection]

Sounds like he came up with it on the fly.

that's...generally what spoken word is

not saying it's great, because believe me i agree but...yeah

CAN'T BE CRITICAL ABOUT THE CONTENT SO LET'S POKE AT SOMETHING ELSE EH

[Ulti]

Debating about religion only turns wise men into fools and fools into bigger fools. Add in the fact the video is poorly made, we pretty much will not get a decent debate out of this.

[Wehrmacht]

The content itself is "eh" because it's just basically semantics. What it amounts to is "I don't like the institutions of religion" and not "I don't like religion". Not very impressive.

While i'm at it

wordswordswords

i don't want to sound rude (or derail this thread), but can you please try to be a little less verbose? With all due respect, it feels like you open a thesaurus every time you post, it just doesn't feel natural.

[SHAWTYS #1 FAN]

that's...generally what spoken word is

not saying it's great, because believe me i agree but...yeah

CAN'T BE CRITICAL ABOUT THE CONTENT SO LET'S POKE AT SOMETHING ELSE EH

If you want me to be critical of the content then I'll be critical of the content, but be careful what you ask for. Google is not going to save your ass in a debate with somebody who's actually studied the bible.

Anyway, the description of the video begins with the words "A poem I wrote". If this wasn't pre-written then he certainly chose his words poorly, but you shouldn't even need that to understand that this was meticulously rehearsed -- the dude's got a camera crew with him, and his performance is inexcusable. Even if it was made up on the spot, he's got no flow to speak of and he rhymes like an amateur. Chihuahuaman could do better.

[Dogenzaka]

As mentioned on my facebook feed (said by a Christian):
The only problem is the ambiguous use of the term religion. It's very popular now (among Christians) to use the term religion to describe "cultural American Christianity", and if this is your understanding of the word religion then this is a great video. However, if you are not in the Christian "inner circle" so to speak, then this video is very confusing and misleading, as most people correctly believe that Christianity IS a religion, and so this video can cause more harm than good.

If you want me to be critical of the content then I'll be critical of the content, but be careful what you ask for. Google is not going to save your ass in a debate with somebody who's actually studied the bible.

Anyway, the description of the video begins with the words "A poem I wrote". If this wasn't pre-written then he certainly chose his words poorly, but you shouldn't even need that to understand that this was meticulously rehearsed -- the dude's got a camera crew with him, and his performance is inexcusable. Even if it was made up on the spot, he's got no flow to speak of and he rhymes like an amateur. Chihuahuaman could do better.

Ohhh because people who are pro-Bible clearly haven't studied the Bible as much as you ^.^


See Ravi Zacharias.

I am still too lazy to watch this video that has been blowing up on my news feed but I'm sure I can guess what it's about lol

[gelandporn]

The redeclaration of old ideas is not essentially wrong. Martin Luther speculated along similar lines, true, but as you kindly clarified, that was centuries ago in a vastly different social climate. His (and others') views on the schism between Church directed religious thinking and personal spirituality in practice are as relevant now as they ever were. I can understand why you might consider this particular installment trite, believe me, but I think the greater debate is one of value and will likely continue to be as long as systematic spirituality by way of hierarchical doctrine continues to be perceived as a dominant, active force in current religious (for that matter, non-religious) society.

And I never said it is wrong, I just don't understand why this video is receiving the attention it is.
If it is a way of reaching out to a certain age group or whatever, fine, there's just no unique substance in the video to actually be debated. And that's why we have people splitting hairs over, like, the title and a few words he uses. Once you get past that, there's nothing.

You're right in that this brand of religion is more relevant now than ever, but that's precisely why I'm just not that impressed by it. Lots of people believe the same thing and I don't think this puts it any more eloquently.

If you want me to be critical of the content then I'll be critical of the content, but be careful what you ask for. Google is not going to save your ass in a debate with somebody who's actually studied the bible.

Anyway, the description of the video begins with the words "A poem I wrote". If this wasn't pre-written then he certainly chose his words poorly, but you shouldn't even need that to understand that this was meticulously rehearsed -- the dude's got a camera crew with him, and his performance is inexcusable. Even if it was made up on the spot, he's got no flow to speak of and he rhymes like an amateur. Chihuahuaman could do better.

It wasn't even done in one take, you can tell from how the camera disappears in certain shots lol.

[SHAWTYS #1 FAN]

Ohhh because people who are pro-Bible clearly haven't studied the Bible as much as you ^.^

My first inclination was to respond to this politely and explain how I was referencing another exchange that had taken place off-site. But the more I think about it, I'd rather just pull an Elle and let the Internet fight my battles for me this time: Atheists/Agnostics More Knowledgeable About Religion | Psychology Today

Fight smugness with smugness.

[Dogenzaka]

That survey covers a lot of broad stuff (numerous religions, numerous people) that has little to nothing to do with who I referenced and what my point was (which was, regardless of whether you did or did not to begin with, don't try to assume that people who are pro-Bible know less than you or haven't studied the Bible as much as you. Why? Because there's always someone who knows more than you, and I personally know Christians who have studied the Bible (and Christian history) for decades both in seminary, secular undergraduate and graduate education, and in their personal time).

And if you were referring to something else, sorry about that, I sometimes tend to cut into conversations like that. I am tired and haven't read everything in this thread (and probably won't get around to it anyway) so continue whatever it was you wanted to continue I guess.