Is organized religion distorting our views on God and Jesus?
912087
The church is the body of Christ. Jesus intsructed Peter to institute it. Therefore the "church" is essential.\n\nI do agree that there is a lot of bad that can come from so-called "churches".\n\nI don't think that Jesus would neccessarily endorse every group of people that call themselves his "church".\n\nMany people claim to be christians, but do not follow Jesus' teachings. I believe this has given organized religion a bad name.
331951
You make an interesting point. I have made an exclusive study of the trinity in the Christian scriptures and found it to have a solid premise, albeit that particular word isn't in the bible, and neither is the concept directly addressed. I wouldn't attempt to go into it here - it's too much - and that wasn't your question. I know  little about the Hindu religion,  so I'm not really qualified to comment.  What I find interesting about your point - the trinity notwithstanding - is that Mary, the mother of Jesus is worshiped in some Christian religions, as some  pray to various saints as well. It does indeed sound like at least some Christians have more than one god. I think that's rather odd. But...I haven't answered your question. It's a bit tricky. If you were a Christian we could discuss it.
304473
Christianity is not a religion. It's a relationship with God. Of course it's up-to-date. The Holy Spirit guides us and helps us apply the Bible to our daily lives.
454941
Okay, I think I can answer this honestly because I do not practice an "Organized Religion".  \n\nMy heart says we are all the same and we all have the same Creator.  I feel that because our Creator is so vast his children exemplify a mere fraction of what is possible within Him, but it would explain why we come in many shapes and colors.  \n\nI feel that the many religions popped up because many prophets were sent to Earth to teach us.  After the prophet ascended to Heaven people took note and began to practice their teachings and this would explain why we have several different religions.  \n\nI feel we are simply here to serve and help one another and protect the earth.  I feel we must acknowledge our creator and praise him through prayer, giving thanks and by living harmoniously.  It is like you said, faith comes from within and it's home is your heart so I think as long as you acknowledge your higher self and your creator faith will lead you in the direction of the Divine.
1061317
Yes... I believe so. I am technically "christian"... but i am open to a lot of beliefs from other religions as well. I definitely take certain beliefs and values from other religions as well as christianity. I don't think I could say that I "worship" Jesus either. I worship GOD. Whichever god that may be. I choose to have a personal spiritual relationship with god and live my life the way I should.
180115
It isent. I study all religions. I have a bumper sticker that says: God is big, hes in every religion. Religion is just a foundation for you to seek in the begining of your path and try to get you in the right path of enlightment. But being spiritual and religion really go hand in hand. Believing there is a higher power or god or whatever you choose to call god.. and knowing hes omnipresent is a good start.
862807
I most assuredly do.  Honestly, I think Elton John is crazy, for the most part, but I totally believe that organized religion is a very bad thing that has led to many horrible events in our earth's history.\n\nWill it rid the world of evil?  Not by a long shot... but it would help tremendously.  \n\nI'm not advocating an elimination of god belief... just organized religion.  It's like ridding the schools of prayer... you can still pray all you want... to yourself.  Just not outloud and forcing others to participating with you.\n\nWorship on your own, just don't force everyone else to join you and don't belittle those who don't want to join you.
493861
Some do, yes, but probably not in a traditional way. I am a UU, and I have christians who believe in the divinity of Jesus in my congregation as well as those who do not (like me). I believe in a primitive Christianity in the sense that I believe that Jesus was a very good, holy person, a great prophet & philosopher. I think anyone would be well to emulate Jesus in their personal life. I don't believe he was God, though, and do not believe that there is only one way to God. \n\nAs I understand it, the "traditional" christians in the UU do think Jesus was God incarnate, but also believe, as I do, that there is not only one path to God. There are many religions, and all of them have merit. I do not think that God would be so close minded as to create all the world, then allow only one narrow path to find him. I also do not believe that God would prohibit, say, the Dalai Lama from his presence, just because he did not follow one doctrine or another, as he is a good, holy person.\n\nSo, yes, there are still christian UU's, but probably not too many, and not very traditional, in the strict sense.
228372
I'mm not sure how others see it but I say that when we become Christians, we become part of the body ofChristt. we, as believers, become one witheach otherr as a unified being. we are not the same rank as Jesus because he is the Ultimate, Lord of Lords, King of Kings, Omnipotent, Omnipresent, Omniscient. we are simply sinners to whom God has shown an extreme level of mercy and grace. \n\nBasically Jesus is saying that His mission is to connect us (people like you and me) together as He and his Father (GOd) are one.
90961
As I am Jewish, I find a lot of contradictions in Christians. And narrow minded ideals, which is also a contradiction, as Jesus taught the exact OPPOSITE of that sort of behaviour. So forgive me, but you goyim just confuse the hell out of me.
1094464
Today, I think that most, if not all, organized religions are off the mark a bit.  To rephrase, while I am struggling with the notion of God, I know that I do not believe in the God that Jews, Christians, Muslims, and Bahai's belive in.  Today, I believe that if there is a God, that he/she/it pressed the "start button" and left us to work out the rest for ourselves.
531562
If there was any truth behind Christianity (or any other religion for that matter) then it would be reasonable to assume that we would all be able to discern it, so we would all have the same beliefs.  Since there are in fact hundreds or thousands of different beliefs, there's no reason to suppose there is any underlying truth in any of it, including 'Jesus'.  So, the answer is 'No'.
594240
Yes and no.\n\nIf you start, as both Christians and Muslims do (and Jews), with the belief that there is only one God, then neither can truthfully say that the other is worshipping a 'different' God, because there is only one God.\n\nHowever, they have essentially different views of who God is, and as a result, one could say that the character of the God they each worship is quite different.  \n\nThe question is, if you misunderstand God in meaningful ways, and worship Him in that imperfect way, is it still worship of God?  I believe so.  However, only the one true God is able to make that judgment.  \n\nThere is a more important issue.  Beyond worshipping God, our relationship with God is based on our understanding of Him. Key issues, such as whether Jesus is the Messiah, and the Son of God, whether God provides the Holy Spirit to guide us, and the means of reconciling with God, are critically important, and expose enormous differences among the different faith traditions.  \n\nChristians, for example, believe that Jesus was God manifested in the flesh, and provided the sacrifice that stands for all eternity, and that any (of any faith tradition) who accept His gift find forgiveness through Him.  Other faith traditions insist on some form of human works to justify themselves. Perhaps it requires a great deal of humility to accept that God doesn't need our help to achieve His way, but once we put our egos aside, we may see that God is truly in control. Only then can we begin to truly understand His will.
206540
I personally do not believe that any church in particular will help the body and soul. What will help that, is a deep personal spiritual life and devotion to having a greater understanding and meaningful personal relationship with the Creator (which often one refers to as "God".)\n\nI assume by denomination and church you are referring to Christianity. There are many other religions of the world that could loosely fit into the categories you have given here. Since you mentioned "Gospel", that is why I focused on Christianity. There have been many who have studied the question you ask, myself included. One of my favorites was a professor of humanities who specialized in mythology. His name was Joseph Campbell. He likened denominations to a computer program (not the most elegant of analogies, but it will do for this example). Campbell said that we each view the world and our concept of "God" in a unique and individual way. So, what your perception of God is and what my perception of God is are two different things.\n\nIn Christianity, we are taught in the Gospels that Jesus was God who loved the world so much that He gave his only Son to the world by becoming incarnate (born into the flesh and not just a spirit) of a virgin woman of Nazareth in ancient Israel named Mary. He lived among us until he was accused, tried and crucified for teaching people to love one another, have a personal relationship with God and know that God loves each one of us no matter what. Jesus gave His life as a sacrifice of the sins of everyone dead, alive and yet to be born. This was something different from every other religion. Three days after He died, witnesses testified they saw him and that He had risen from the dead. This is something that all Christians take on faith. We have no proof, we do not know for a fact. We only believe. Now comes the rub.\n\nAfter Jesus died and resurrected He ascended into Heaven. We do not know if this was meant literally or figuratively because we only have the word of those who were present and even at that, what was written down was hearsay, passed from one person to another before it was written down. There is much debate and it has been argued that one of the gospels was written by one of Jesus' original twelve apostles. Because this was all shrouded in obscurity and the early Christian church was small and did not worship openly (it was punishable by death if they did), people began to worship in slightly different ways. \n\nThe Roman Catholic Church was the Church in Rome. There were also other early churches but the first church of Christ was in Rome. There was also a church in Constantinople (today Istanbul, Turkey) where the Pope originally resided and later moved to Rome. When that happened, there was a rift in the Church and one became the Roman Catholic (from Rome and 'catholic' meaning 'universal') and the orthodox church. Today there are two major branches: The Greek (Eastern) Orthodox and the Russian Orthodox. As time went on, church doctrine and biblical interpretations caused yet more conflict and in 1520 A.D. a German named Martin Luther (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther) wrote a treatise in which he declared the Pope in Rome to be the antichrist. This caused quite a stir and eventually Luther's writings and influence caused many Germans to break from the Holy Catholic Church and both the Lutheran and Protestant Church developped from his teachings and writings.\n\nIn the 1530s, King Henry VIII of England (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_VIII) was married to Katherine of Aragon. He wished to divorce her so he could marry Anne Bolyn. The Roman Catholic church (Pope Clement VII specifically) would not allow divorce so Henry defied the Pope and the Catholic Church by separating from the Church. Clement excommunicated Henry and Henry declared himself supreme ruler on Earth and head of the Church of England. Thus, the Anglican Church was
485378
The fact that most churches are divided has nothing to do with God it is us as individuals, we know what God require of us and yet still we don't put into practice what we know and believe God is not the problem we are.see god doesn't want religion either what he wants us to have is a relationship with him see if we get caught up in religion we'll be constantly questioning which is the right one when we have a relationship with God we begin to know and understand
727901
The gospel of Thomas contains material that supports a gnostic view of Christianity, where each believer is to meditate and pray and come to know God by himself rather than trust into mama church and let the priest tell him what is correct.\n\nUnderstandably, organized religion has taken a dim view of this.
993369
It dosen't matter so much WHAT they're thinking about it, as much as it matters that they ARE thinking about it.  Organized religion has always been & still is very corrupt.  They make up their own doctrines, misinterpret the Bible, or re-write it altoghether.  Because of a number of factors, I believe we need to interpret the Bible subjectively & remember the context (or discount it altogether).  It is a fact that The Bible reflects the political, societal & cultural ideals of that time. Not only that, but it was put together by Church officials who used their own beliefs & desires for total control to decide what got in & what got thrown out.  At least these issues have been brought to the forefront.  Question everything!!!