Crisis and religion

Professionally I spend a lot of time in churches and find them a real source of peace and tranquility. I adore the music, the litany and liturgy of the Anglican and Roman Catholic Church(es) as theatre. But other than being a member by accident of birth I have no "calling" back to religion as a means to salve or solve. Religion may be opium for the masses and dull the senses when they are raw and sore. But I truly respect people with a faith and and am sympathetic to the suggestion thay atheists must suffer if they have no faith - but of course faith does not have to be only in the supranatural. My answer to your question is unequivocally "No". But my belief in God transcends anything that a mere religion can offer and is always with me, crisis or not.

I am a Christian (Jehovah's Witnesses) and a Bible student. The more crisis there are in the world, the more I go back to the Bible to see if what is happening is what was predicted to happen. The Bible spoke of the mother of all crisis called the "great tribulation." (Matthew 24:21) In this great tribulation most of mankind will wipe each other out. Yet there will be survivors all over the earth and from all nations. (Revelation 7:9-17) After this crisis of crisis the survivors would begin a new life with much caring for God, one another and the planet. I would like to be part of that new society that gets a fresh start. So yes, as I see crisis after crisis because of lack of love and unity of purpose in mankind then I get closer to my religion.

The current world situation certainly has brought me even closer to God. Should people bring about the destruction described in the bible, I would not want to be outside the realm of the church. The bible simply says that the earth will be burned up. It does not say who instigates the fire. We could well do it to ourselves.

My initial reaction to your question was to say that the condition of the world has nothing to do with my relationship with God, but on second thought maybe it does. You see, I believe in the Rapture of the church and since I want to please God and be among those who are raptured, and since today's world seem so much like what is to be expected in the end times, yes I've pushed myself further into my faith.

I don't believe people with strong religious traditions ever left God. Those whose faith was always weak, could go either way. A sudden crisis such as 9/11, will bring many of the weak back to God for a moment; but when things get back to normal, they'll no longer feel the need for God. My faith has always been strong. I don't run to God or cling any stronger to Him during a state or world crisis. The only personal crisis I've had was a house fire, and it turned out to be a blessing. In that situation, it wasn't a case of returning to God but of praising Him for causing the fire. My closeness to God comes more from study of His word and a personal relationship with Him but not from any crisis.

I believe in God but not the rituals. Being in the attitude of gratitude at all times makes it easy for me to face what you term as crisis. For me there is no question of turning to God because being in the attitude of gratitude helps me look at the various blessings I have been endowed with and I am there all the time. In other words I have a positive approach to life. Religion as they say is opium of the masses and most resort to it when facing crisis alone becomes difficult. I wonder whether this approach helps any one!

Not for me but then I do not have a strong religious background. I started questioning religion very early on because I could not understand the inconsistencies in it. I also felt rejected because I was female. In fact it was that discovery that led me in search of a religion that I could follow and having found none I simply let go of the whole idea.

Not into my religion but more into myself. To be honest the rallying call makes me very resentful where extremists are concerned. There is a difference in taking comfort in ones religion and using religion as an excuse for violence. I respect all people and their right to a religious view but I can not accept that one might kill me or my children to make a religious point. To me it doesn't matter what they call their God...I'm sure that he is not calling for them to commit murder and start mayhem. Most religions are united in the fact that they are supposed to be a symbol of peace and structure. It is the people that make it different. Organized religion is a mixed emotion subject for me in a huge way..lol.

religioon is the biggest crisis/

I can never belong to a religion for the simple reason that I'm after truth. Religions do not have the total truth and many of their teachings are shaped by mankind. OK back to the discussion. We must not get a one sided view of religion and blame it for all the world's troubles. Many terrorists simply use religion to justify their actions. If they can convince you they have God's backing, they can do anything they want. Is the real problem religion in this case, or the greed for power in the people wanting to control others? Religion is mankind's attempt to understand God. That can never be a bad thing. It's when the people who choose evil, realize they can use religion to gain followers that is the real problem. Finally in all fairness, we must look at the entire picture not just the trouble in life. There are more good people in religions that go out into the world helping people, caring for the poor, battered women, homeless people and runaway teens than terrorists. With me, it's not about religion but PEOPLE. If we glorify terrorists by splashing them all over the news, let's do the same for the goodness and good people as well. They paint a much better picture of reality.