Religion and Money.

S

Socerwhiz

New member
So, I have been brought up as a Catholic and I'm saying now that I really regret it. Here's why:

We have a family friend over from the U.K. and she asked if we could go to Lourdes, just to do a few things,(like collect some holy water and other such crap). So we did. Now I've been before and I didn't really take any notice of the place at all, mainly because I was bored witless. But this time was different. I realised what a money laundering scheme the Catholic Church really is. Everywhere I looked, I either saw icons, holy water bottles, rosaries or saint statues for sale. It really pissed me off to quite honest.

So I stated my opinion to my parents. They agreed mentally, I knew it, they just didn't want to move me away from my faith. So then I had the fucking guilt clause in my brain playing up. The whole society of the world, constantly takes the piss out of Jews, for being "tight with their money". Now take a look at the Church; do they fork out their own money to help with charity and such things? Do they hell. The sponge off the congregation in the Church at the time, saying that they will get into heaven easier and other such shit like that. And with the Jews being tight and being the richest people in the world? I think bloody not. Have you seen the estimated net worth of the Church recently? It includes all the art from the Renaissance Masters, all the books and documents from said famous people who were opposed the church in the past and then they have all the "Charity" money that they get given every year.

So now due to these arguements and such other things, I am questioning my own beliefs, whether I should feel guilty or not for the worlds stereotyping and whether i should just give a damn or not.

Suggestions? Anything would be good.
 
Well, it's unfair to simply look at the flaws of the religion...

Just think of all the positive sides of Christianity: Christian Aid for example; that money could contribute to the help of others. You can't just call an entire faith (well, a denomination) greedy bastards without voicing the other side.

Meh, just my 2 cents...

EDIT: Just noticed how that doesn't make sense at all. Meh.
 
Nope, sure didn't.

Anyways, it's all religion. In God We Trust, Inc.

Fuck religion. Fuck it's rules and rituals.

You can believe whatever you like. I think it's great that you're faltering. Why don't you take this opportunity to read about things that other people believe and explore the many philosophies that exist.

Good for you! :thumbsup:
 
Thanks, but we did an entire year at school on the philosophy of religion, and to be quite honest it didn't help me at all. In fact, it was a pretty shit year. But yeah, I'll try out the other people belief things and philosophies, hopefully it will be interesting and pass my time. I'll maybe even come out with a different point of view about the world in general. But until then, I still think the church is just a ploy to earn money. So at this point in time, Screw it.
 
Maybe your year of philosophy and religion just didn't come at the right time. You were pretty strong in your beliefs then, am I right?

I was 15 when I started to really search for something else. I was 15 when I started straying away from the idea that Jesus wasn't the "son of God". There was this book I read at that time in my life that changed how I felt about life and the world that I live in.

Ishmael by Daniel Quinn. Read it. :thumbsup:
 
Yeah it probably did, I mean, I still wasn't very firm, but I did believe in God at the time. I guess I should probably diversify into other things and philosophies and such. I'll try and read the book if I can find it somewhere. Thoug it's pretty hard to find English books here in France. But thanks for help.
 
Most organized religions do request a tithe, or donation, or offering, and in theory, that money is used to support the infrastructure of the establishment as well as to provide monetary support to those within the congregation/parish when in need. There's a business side (for things like a new roof and books/toys for child care) and a spiritual side. Both are run by people, and as such, can be corrupted or uplifted, depending on the persons in charge.

It's easy to label each organized religion, based on what has historically happened, but not so easy to define the generosity or altruism of an individual church/synagogue/temple, etc. They are as varied as the belief systems on which they are based.

What you believe spiritually is up to you. If you find an organization that supports those beliefs, you may choose to be a part of it. Seems to me that once one had made that educated choice, it is up to the individual to work within to make it better. You can't change the past, but you can be a part of the future.
 
There are two hospitals in my area. One is private, the other is ran by the Catholic church. The first will sue the shit out of you. The second will wipe off part of your bill if you have no health insurance.

If the Catholic church did not sell there wares, do you really think that they would make enough money in donations to support all of the hospitals and charities world wide?

What about the fathers and nuns, they offer many services (no sex jokes, assholes) such as caring for orphans and disabled, low cost day care, spiritual/faith help, suicide and domestic violence intervention.

Considering that the attendance has dropped off severely in the last half century (thats in the bible, too, as a prophecy), and that people no longer tithe 1/3 of their crops, exactly how would you expect the Catholic church to support its non profit organizations world wide?

If you are really worried about it, look at what the fathers and nuns drive. In our Catholic church, they all drive modest to low cost vehicles. Lessor vehicles than the congregation, if they drive at all. None of them live in multi million dollar houses. Rev. Jerry Fallwell, on the other hand, helped Virginia car dealers skip taxes in trade for much, much nicer cars than a poor pastor could afford.
 
You can't bash any religion just because it has money. Sure, the net worth or the Catholic church is quite high. All those fancy paintings? Most of them were donated to the church or commissioned by the church at the time they were painted. The church didn't pay millions for them.

As far as the Catholic church goes... yes, many of their buildings are large and opulent. But that's part of that particular faith. But the church also goes a long way towards providing services not just to its followers but the rest of the world. As DG said, they often support hospitals. They do a lot to feed and clothe the less fortunate, to give shelter to the homeless and food to the hungry. And not always in your own back yard. They do a LOT of food airlifts to starving nations in Africa.

Much of what the church does is altruistic. Much of what it does is not. But as for the opulence of the buildings... the church is trying to attract not only the poor but the wealthy. And frankly, wealthy people don't like to go to crap shacks. Hell, if I told you you had to go spend an hour in a building listening to some boring crap but I'd let you pick one of two buildings would you pick the crappy looking building that's falling down or the one that's really nice? (It's kind of a "they have to spend money to make money" thing.)

If you don't want to believe that's fine. But deciding not to believe just because the church has money is kind of silly.
 
Ah but you misunderstand me, I'm not saying that I don't believe because of the money. I'm saying that my judgement is being clouded because of the money. I also think that if the church needed more money to help with its excapades around the world; such as the airlifts to africa, caring for orphans and the like, then they could just go about it in different ways than trying to get money off people themselves. The paintings for example, they could just maybe sell one of two of them, I know that this leads back to the people eventually but it would be a nicer way to earn the money needed, e.g. a sacrifice made for a greater cause.

To Caffeinated:Yes indeed the money is used to support the buildings and such things, but do you actually realise how much money goes towards the infrastructure in the end? Take Christian Aid for example, it's a fairly big Chuch-run charity set up for helping Africa and the church all over the world. It's been estimated that about 90% of donations get lost during the admin phase if the process of the money. So if you gave
 
The problem with that is that the paintings are a very finite resource. They only have so many and individually, each wouldn't account for very much of what the church needs to bring in. Regardless, they can only sell each one once. Say they sold them all.... the church could last maybe a year on the proceeds.



Well, sure the faith is important but even if the type of building shouldn't matter it does. A nice building or a decrepit building? You can have as much faith in either one. In the nice building you're just more comfortable while doing it. It doesn't lessen your faith. And we both know that most people's faith doesn't run all that deep anyway.

Yeah, it's about money and power. Always has been, always will be. Which is why I don't go to church at all.
 
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