Hello! I opened this topic to hear your opinions about religion in general. We know that in our days people are very busy and they are in a continuous pursuing of money and other material benefits. National traditions and customs are not respected especially in the cities. But what about spiritual goods? Do they still exist in our souls? Do we still believe in something divine? I want you to express your opinion about this subject and at the same time I want to express my one.
For me, to be spiritually complete means to be free and helpful for me and for others.

Thank you for the interesting topic, nicker. I think the primary role of any religion is to give people right way how to live their lives. Of course, you can find this way by yourself but often it required years and sometimes people find out how to live only when they are too old and they understand they spent their lives in a wrong way. So, for most people religion gives kind of concentrate of wisdom how to treat others, yourself, your body, what to eat and what to not eat, drink, marry etc. This is particularly important for young and not very educated people. Of course, there is a question – is religion really needed for well-educated adults?

I wonder what does it mean the expression “right way to live this life”? Does it exist, a single correct way to live? I think here is the point: there is no a universal and perfect way to live a life. Everybody has his own road and everybody receives what he deserves. It is good when the person has some moral principles which guides him, but at the same time it is wrong to put a lot of people to follow the same moral principles. I think it is impossible and unreasonable because everybody has his own believes in which he trust.

nicker пишет: Of course it would be hard to say about a single way of life. I believe there are many. However, everybody would agree that every person in the world would like to live long, healthy life without trouble and worries be respectful by other and so on. Some people understand it only when they are too old, their life has been passed and they cannot anything to change. Too sad. This is why I believe most of religion provides a good direction how to build your life in this way. For example, everybody would agree that overconsumption of alcohol or tobacco is a bad thing both from position of personal health and social harm. And many people find it out through their own experience, sometimes loosing their lives. And most of world religions not trying to explain how exactly it can harm you but just saying it is a sin and so on. So for young or not educated people it would be a better strategy to prevent smoking or drinking through religion rather than through social propaganda and so on. This is why I thing religion has a very important societal function educating people, maybe not saying about a “single correct way to live” but at least giving some right direction.

Yes, you have described the positive role of religions and different religions movements and I agree completely with you about it. Religion gives us hope when nobody else does and it tells us about good and only good values (exception make religions which promote suicide, human scarification, etc). But we also should not forget about the hidden part of it. I think that the hidden role the religions play is human manipulation for an easier government. We should not forget that religion is an institution and it differs from our personal independent believes. I think that sometimes is better to listen to your feelings than to some people from that institution.

Hello, I also want to tell my opinion about this topic and about the right way to live a life. Of course we can’t put someone to do the things he doesn’t believe in, but in spite of it some moral principles which are common to all of us exist and they should be respected. It is not mandatory for them to be a religion, they can be simple people relationships as helping each-other, friendship, positive attitude to other people, etc. I think that this values are appropriate to every person and everybody accept them.
What about the right way of living? Here I want to underline that beside the religion which tries to tell us how to live, there are a lot of other “teachers” who also tries to inspire in us some new values. Here I mean self-help books, audio courses of self improvement, seminars, webinars, etc. I think that the correct way is to listen to all sources we have possibility and wish to listen, but to make personal, own conclusion and have personal attitude to your life. In this way you will never be mistaken because everyone has some good and some bad ideas and selecting all what is good will make you almost perfect.