Religion

[T.I.P]

There is no possible way that god could exist??? Know one has ever known. Even science is just guessing and theory, (a) god is just as possible as a big bang out of nothing. (just so you know i dont believe in what the bible says or follow a religion.)

and you would still get trouble and wars without religion. some people just use religion as an excuse. some people are (A) full of hate (B) or are ignorant (C) are weak and easily influenced. to blame bad things on religion is just a cop out. just an excuse that dosnt solve anything.

and if you think a *being* couldnt have created everything, whats your guess? it just appeared out of nothing? that seems just as silly.

 

[InsaneMystic]

My opinion on religion in general:
It's stupid. If it wasn't for religion half of the bad things that have happened in the history of this world were done in the "name" of religion. See: The holocaust (sp?) and The Crusades.🙂

That's more a problem of organized/dogmatized religion holding worldly political power, not of religion in and of itself. If they're unable to do the "thought police" thing, forcing Their Truth upon any "right thinking citizen", nothing like that is ever likely to happen.

To me it would be MUCH simpler if everyone would just embrace science.

Erm no, that wouldn't work. Leaving aside the fact that science in itself is just another form of faith (see my above post about "extent of human knowledge", I don't want to give the full rant on solipsism again), there are people (I freely admit to being one of them) who are unable to find a base for ethical behavior without religion. If you leave God out of the picture, I don't get why I should respect the "human rights" (including life and physical integrity) of anyone else but me, as I'll never be able to know whether any other person really exists or not. To someone like me, a religious person coming from solipsism, the only difference between shooting someone in a video game and doing the same in the real world is that the latter is a child of God while the former isn't... so take religion away, and you've got a problem keeping people like me from running amuck once we get frustrated.

Maybe I'm being a little harsh, but I think people like me need to be harsh. This is why people still believe in bronze age myths, because people like me don't speak up enough. And the reason why we don't speak up is because we're scared. I also don't understand why people think other people that don't believe in a god are automatically evil.

The problem I have there is that your attitude displayed here is religious intolerance in itself. Don't get this as a personal attack, please, but I don't exactly see how you rationalize "People who believe in God are stupid" to be a valid viewpoint while "People who don't believe in God are evil" to be invalid. It seems like exactly the same mindset behind both sentences: "You are different, therefore inferior."

I wholeheartedly agree, though, that I get shivers down my spine listening to people whose religion is of the "unbelievers are evil and will burn in hell" variety... which goes double if they pull off the (to me) impossible stunt of calling their God a being of pure love in the same breath.

In my view, there's one and only one question to be asked about the "validity" of a faith/religion: Does upholding this system of convictions help you treat other people, regardless of whether they're sharing your faith or not, with more love and respect, or does it hinder you from doing so? If the former, it's a damn good thing for both you and the world at large that the faith exists and you follow it. If the latter, the world would be better off if that faith disappeared, the sooner the better.

 

[doppelgänger2]

I think that we need to set apart faith and organized (western) religion in this debate/discussion. Because there is a hugeass difference. Terrible things have been done in the name if religion by us humans, that however does not mean that religion itself is evil. It's pretty simlple: people are evil, and thus they do evil things, and they find reasons to be evil. It can be religion, politics or science.

During the 19th century, Brittish scientist went down to Africa to investigate the "black race" and came to the conclution that black people are lower beings and should be killed (like animals) and certainly not mixed with white blood. So, they killed thousands of thousands of people. Does that mean that science is evil? No.

It's silly how people put science against religion; I'm a firm believer in both. I do not belive in what the Bible says about how God created this earth, but I do believe that there is more than just cold science behind the evolution of the planet earth.

I have alot of friends who are atheists, and most of them treat me like I'm stupid because I am very religious. Being Unitarian Universalist means that I respect all beliefs, including atheism, because according to me every individual has the right find their own path to happyness and peace. But, I'm sick and tired of people talking down on me, treating me like I'm stupid and telling me how sovereign science is. It's very disrespectful to talk down on any beliefs, no matter how stupid they sound to you.

For me, religion is one of the most important things in my life. It influences the way I dress (modest), the way I style my hair (dreadlocks), what I eat (vegetarian), my political stance (anarchist) and it keeps me down to earth, calms me down when I'm agitated or stressed out and gives me strength when I need it. Now, if everyone would just act like it's tought in basically every religion, to love thy neighbour and treat others like you would like to be treated, we would be so much better off. Unfortunately, as mention, people do really stupid things in the name of religion. All the time, everywhere.