Faith vs. Organized Religion?

[Mr.X]

I don't think you will find a religion that doesn't have skeleton's in it's closet, sure there will always be bad apples in the bunch, but why should somebody who is clearly as flawed as me, sometimes even more so, interpret the words and tell me what they mean. Anyway what do you think can you have faith without religion? If not why?

 

[Corey]

Let's take Christianity for example. There are many denominations out there that have their own versions of Christianity, which is of course is bad and wrong because Orthodox faith was established by the Christ (in you believe in Him) and those rules should not be changed. But church as an organization is there to keep those words alive, which is good if you ask me.

 

[Fringe]

I believe everyone should follow their own path to faith (or no faith if they choose). Religion is intensely personal and while I see some benefits to organized religion, mostly I see negatives.

 

[Seeker]

I believe you can have faith without religion. Just like you said a human interpreted the Bible and other humans tell us what it is suppose to mean but I have found you can make the Bible say anything you want it to. This is why I believe you have to follow your heart and make the decision for yourself of what you believe.

 

[purplerain]

I think that you can have faith without religion. It's all for everyone's interpretation. I respect others as much as I can, but to those that jam it down my throat--it's hard to keep my mouth shut. I just believe that all of it is very personal.

 

[LookIntoMyEyes]

Faith is believing. Religion tells you what to believe and how to believe it and defines the rituals to go about proving that you believe it. Faith doesn't need any of that. Faith simply is.

 

[Mr.X]

On a side note Corey, at first there was only one christian religion, but than in 1024 if I'm not mistaken the church separated into the Orthodox and the Catholic church and over time when somebody saw another interpretation they split further, that's why there are so many christian churches.

 

[Rehmat]

There is a great difference between 'Religion' and 'Faith'. Religion means spiritual guidance for a race or nationality - and doesn't provide guidance for all the stages of human life - such as Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism and Buddhism.

Faith is the Divine guidance which covers all aspects of human life - from birth to death and from church to the White House. And it needs to be practiced by the Messanger of that Divine Revelation - such as Islam.

However, belief is something which doesn't accept human logic. For example, Dr. Funk, who wrote that 80% of quotes in the New Testament are not the statements made by Jesus - but in the conclusion he wrote: "However, I believe the Bible is Word of God".