Is religion natural?

[24Seconds]

I dont think religion is a natural thing, I think its got to be taught. YOu can either be taught that a god exists, or you just die at the end. Thats my $0.02...

What do you think?

[Akkarin]

Well, you are taught good manners, you are taught how to speak, you are taught how to walk. Are those things not natural then?

I don't know about Religion, but it's part of belief and belief/believing is natural is it not?

[Conor]

If you have to be taught to do something, technically its not natural.

I think that religion can be natural but I don't believe that someone should be born "into" a religion. For instance someone could have Catholic parents, and they are automatically considered Catholic, yet they don't believe the story. Therefore, I think all children should have the oppurtunity to choose what they want to believe in at a certain age. (say 13)

[FeZ.06.925]

Its been around for over 2,000 years of human existance.. why would it not be natural?

[flapietoetoe]

i think religion is natural ... because the human grew this smart ... they needed a drive in life to keep on living , the idea of a heaven if u lived a good live is a good thing to have in ur future ...

[the-void]

Well, let's look at it from a different point of view. Children depend on their parents for love and support. When they grow up, however, they can no longer rely on this form of protection. Thus, they look up to a "higher being" as a surrogate parent. In this manner, religion provides a sense of security for humans. In some cases, however, religion has been imposed by people in power in order to maintain control over and suppress the common folk.

[mattspec]

religion/nature used to be closly tied in the middle ages, nowadays we have thins thing called "freedom of choice" some choose religion, some do not, be according to law, many things like not killing another person, these things are calssified as "Natural Law" (usually timeless) basically knowing right from wrong religion these days are like positive laws (things that improve the quallity of life in your surroundings, things ste by the state, things like not smoking in public areas and such) so religion is not natural, it is tought, and you do not choose to believe in it these days, you are tought to believe in is (in most cases) as the parents drag the youngins to church and thats all they know, so they "believe", thats my $0.02

[_Xero_]

Religion blows. I believe in God, but religion is so corrupt. That is the main cause of war.

[Wai_Wai]

If "natural" is meant to be innate, the answer is "no". We need to tell the infants (or at least they have ot learn) about the religions, ghosts, Gods, devils, heavens, hells and so on, or they will never know.

[Wai_Wai]

Should I go to heaven, or perferably hell?

Strange to say, sometimes I would like to go to hell.

It is very, very sorry to hear when someone, at the time of death, do not believe in God/Jesus, it will be sent into hell *permanently*. Everything comes to a very dead end. There is no appeal, no bounce-back, no chance, no hope, no future...

How horrible the hell is? As far as I know, it seems to be an absolute misery to live in. You have no way to escape that kind of life. Wanna suicide. Sorry, you are dead already. You cannot end this miserable life. You MUST live with it, and it is *permanent*!

One proverb says, "I need to go to hell. If I don't go to hell, who should go?" It means we should try to sacrifice oneself in order to help others.

Perhaps I shouldn't go to heaven when there are some poeple in the hell. I would like to go to hell and see how miserable these people are. If possible, I *MUST* do my best and help them out. At least give them a chance to get to heaven:
- How about an appeal? Thus the God/Jesus can hear why that guy doesn't believe in you in the first place? Maybe it has its own some difficutlies.
- How about a re-examination? Thus some guys who sincerely regret have chances to rehabilitate.
- Even better, perhaps I should rather persuade the God/Jesus to discard the idea of hell.

Sounds really weird?! But I can't help pondering on this over and over again:
Should I go to heaven, or perferably hell?
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