While officially religious most people don't take religion seriously, as in it doesn't interfere with reason and common sense like in America and most people are agnostic. Thing is in Romania the word atheist has gotten a very bad connotation ,sounding too much like communist and any survey is thus irrelevant. The only strongly religious people are women in general but especially the ones with children(fear for their children and uncertainty makes people go emotional and stupid). I have several atheist friends, while most other don't give a fuck but play it safe and those who do frequent church aren't at all preachy or run their lives by their religion. So if anything Romania is far more secular than America or any catholic country.

All I know or care about religion is that it's behind 99% of every war that have ever been fought

Include fanboy wars on here, because fanboyism is a version of religious devotion.

You should have just said facism, which was in many many cases supported/in bed with the catholic church.

Yes, I did edit the above to get to the two points I was going to ask about.  So, question: How does something that really doesn't exist be power?  Either it exists and does something, or it doesn't.

And this relates to a question I had also and was going to ask: What has religion actually done?  The same goes for any philosophy here.  What have they done?  Have they done anything?  Has Christianity, Islam, or whatever done anything?  Do belief systems do anything?  Or is it the people in the systems that do things.

And then, the question is: If people are considered hypocrites when they do things that are bad, then how does one fault what the religion says as being in error?

I heartily applaud the original author, and I believe that your divine inspiration would approve. The truth is that religion by its very nature should be debated, considered, confronted, and understood. However your goal was to defend a concept, but that concept is unique to the individual. Faith is a journey, and religion is a road, and even if someone tells you that they are on the same road you travel. Rest assured that every person has their own road. They only end up being the same road if you both reach the same end.

Gandhi once said something along the lines that Christianity was a good idea if only someone would try it. Some may see that in the light of jest or a political statement. However I think if you ponder it long and hard it could mean something that is really profound. Perhaps the work is incomplete. Perhaps the work will never be complete. Perhaps it is up to you to complete that work for yourself.

I will say this a true Christian is probably one of the rarest things on this Earth, because that isn't a person that thinks that they have the answers, or even one who is looking for questions. It probably isn't even the person who thinks they have to act in a certain way, or believe in a certain thing. Just the person that is inspired by Jesus, and has decided to dedicate themselves to attaining the greatest understanding possible.

Christianity doesn't exist its just supposed to be a goal. You can't say it is or isn't something. That is something you are supposed to try and discover for yourself. That said it is good that you want to talk about your journey. That means you might just be open to new ideas that will help you on your way.

lol right, I guess by that you mean when the Church was too pussy to call out the Nazis on slaughtering Jews etc., which though cowardly was not "supporting/in bed with" them. 

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Look if we're down to random potshots and Bible-quoting, this thread needs to die while it can still die gracefully. 

So please:  Stop.  OK? 

You want to get into this and stretch the thread out further?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vatican_City_during_World_War_II

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Pius_XII_and_the_Holocaust

Meeting with German Jewish visitor in 1941

Testimony has emerged revealing that, in 1941, Pope Pius XII received a German Jewish visitor at the Vatican who was seeking help for certain Jews who were being held in an Italian internment camp. After welcoming the young man and promising him help, Pius told him not once but twice, in emotional language, in front of a large group that included German soldiers, "Be proud to be a Jew!".^[19]­