Would the world be a better place without religion?

AckwelFoley

WhiteWashMan wrote: »

would the religion or philosophy or theology forums not seem a much better suited to this sort of debate than AH?

seriously, whats with all the rubbish in AH this week?

i suggest you read the original post again..

Particularly the "quoted bit" from the other thread where i say its one less reason to kill each other :rolleyes:

Perhaps, may i respectfully suggest you dont troll threads... and let the moderators of this area close a thread if they consider it ""rubbish""

WhiteWashMan

snyper wrote: »

i suggest you read the original post again..

Particularly the "quoted bit" from the other thread where i say its one less reason to kill each other :rolleyes:

Sorry, thats your argument?
:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

What makes you think that if you take religion away there wont be another reason to replace it.
People use religion as a front.

Buddhism is a religion. I dont see them going about killing anyone. or anything.

In fact, Buddhism is one of the largest religions int he world. I dont think I have heard to many stories about gun totting buddhists.

one less reason to kill each other. I dont think so.

snyper wrote: »

Perhaps, may i respectfully suggest you dont troll threads..

trolling? how am i trolling?
I suggest you learn to express yourself better in future instead of being lazy and using ill-suited worn phrases.

WhiteWashMan

Death Sentence wrote: »

On another note, along with Stalin being a nutjob, usually dictators as a whole would have religion as a motive, or a major part of their motive behind their antics.

id be insterested to hear which of the following modern day dictators used religion as their motivation...




* Adolf Hitler, Germany
* Augusto Pinochet, Chile
* Benito Mussolini, Italy
* Chiang Kai-shek, China, later Taiwan
* Francisco Franco, Spain
* Juan Peron, Argentina
* Eva Peron, Argentina
* Idi Amin, Uganda
* Josef Stalin, Soviet Union
* Juvénal Habyarimana, Rwanda
* Mao Zedong, China
* Jiang Qing, China
* Mobutu Sese Seko, Congo-Kinshasa
* Ngo Dinh Diem, South Vietnam
* Pol Pot, Cambodia
* Saddam Hussein, Iraq
* Saparmurat Niyazov (he called himself Turkmenbashi), Turkmenistan

Some people who are dictators now

* Kim Jŏng-Il, North Korea
* Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan
* Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe
* Alexandre Lukashenko, Belarus
* Teodoro Obiang Nguema, Equatorial Guinea
* Fidel Castro, Cuba
* Paul Kagame, Rwanda

Black Swan

If there wasn't a God, humans would invent one. In time they would want to share their God (or invention) with others, and get in groups to do so. Eventually one of their members would emerge as the leader, and after delegating (as leaders do), status hierarchies and organisational structure would too begin to emerge. Time and resources would be committed to the emergent organisation by members, and with such commitments, the members would have to justify (in their minds) the purpose and importance of the organisation in relation to other commitments in their lives. Some people that didn't buy into the organisational purpose would be seen as outsiders and discriminated against; i.e., us and them. Behaviours that supported the new organisation would be encouraged and repeated, and the insider culture would gradually emerge, with do's and don't norms evenutally becoming rules for conduct, and deviance from such rules considered unlawful (or sinful). Along with this, a symbol that the organisational members idenified with would take hold. Examples? Cross, quarter moon, star, broken cross, hammer-and-sickle, etc., etc. To the extent that the members began to believe in the organisation and it's leaders, what some call a religion would be acknowledged to exist.

(We will now break from The World According to B!ue to hear a word from our sponsors)

Would the world be a better place without this religion? If it's going to happen anyway, what's the point? Moot?

Run_to_da_hills

Religion is the WORST thing that has ever happened to this world, Countless Billions of souls have been danmed to Hell by false religion

Overheal

Religion is for sheep and sheppards. Atheism is for the wolves.

WhiteWashMan

Run_to_da_hills wrote: »

Countless Billions of souls have been danmed to Hell by false religion

/irony

Reku

I've voted yes though I think all proper religions have their pros and cons in that while they are an attempt to create what is effectively an elitist club (if you're not part of our religion you're damned and a heathen!) and the whole them ("heathens") vs. us (the supposedly rightous), most of them have a moral code that benefits all society, within and without the religion's flock (they do not usually distinguish between believers and non-believers when stating what it means to be a good believer).

Unfortunately far too often that moral guidance is either forgotten, pushed aside or warped by those in power within the religions so as to either further their own ambitions or to exercise there control and lead those under them to fight those over whom they have no control, those who do not follow the religion and so are effectively outsiders/heathens and easy to target.

If I'm not mistaken every major religion has it's own wording of don't kill, don't attack, don't steal, don't lie to get others in trouble. Now think how much of a better place it would be if people did try to follow these guidelines, instead people offer but lip service, claiming to be followers yet making little-no attempt to obey the teachings.

Basically religion's greatest flaw is the human element, through those who spread it and those to whom the others look for guidance.

redzerdrog

without a shadow of a doubt the world would be a far better place without religion

Dinter

I wouldn't be considered a Catholic by the Church as I don't do my Easter dues, haven't gone to confession in years and very rarely go to mass. However, in the privacy of my own head I have a small wavering candle of belief that there is something beyond my life as it stands.

Now before everyone jumps in with their boots on, to dissuade me from my ignorance believe me when I say that I happy with it. I've heard all the arguments, the sneering of atheists etc, yet when my brother was in a crash and lay in a coma for three weeks my candle became a lantern. I prayed constantly and drew great comfort and succour from the thought that should the worst happen perhaps he would go to a better place.

I would hate to have to go through that time again with sterile hope in medicine my only assistance.

I cannot think think of anything worse than living in an atheist run world. Knowing that every day that passes is one step closer to when I vanish for ever. When I think of that it actually makes me feel claustrophobic. Why bother doing anything when in a few brief years you'll be nothing but dust in the wind? Atheists give the impression that they believe in nothing but frankly I'm impressed that they have such self belief. To take on the burden of knowing that your mortality is approaching and yet, do everything they can to live for the day. That's incredible but unfortunately well beyond my own capabilities.

I would never force my opinions on anyone else and honestly I have strayed very far from when I was baptised, but I think I understand why religion will never go. I think the idea of some form of resurrection, be it spiritual or reincarnation, is necessary for a large portion of people to function on a day to day basis.

Reku

Dinter wrote: »

Now before everyone jumps in with their boots on, to dissuade me from my ignorance believe me when I say that I happy with it. I've heard all the arguments, the sneering of atheists etc, yet when my brother was in a crash and lay in a coma for three weeks my candle became a lantern. I prayed constantly and drew great comfort and succour from the thought that should the worst happen perhaps he would go to a better place.

Bringing comfort to people = clearly a good aspect to religion.

Dinter wrote: »

Knowing that every day that passes is one step closer to when I vanish for ever. When I think of that it actually makes me feel claustrophobic. Why bother doing anything when in a few brief years you'll be nothing but dust in the wind?

I'm not mocking your beliefs or anything so please do not take this as such but I just find it a slightly amusing, in a morbid way, irony that this thought is one of the few I find comforting, far more so than any I've heard from religion (I had the same thought upon once hearing someone state that their idea of hell was oblivion, to me that's what I hope for). At the same time I will admit that I like the thought that some of the wonderful people I've had the luck to encounter might get to enjoy a place where they deserve to be and would be rewarded.
I'm not atheist, simply, undecided/unaligned with any of the religions.

AckwelFoley

The Crusades were a series of military conflicts of a religious character waged by much of Christian Europe against external and internal threats. Crusades were fought against Muslims, pagan Slavs, Russian and Greek Orthodox Christians, Mongols, Cathars, Hussites, and political enemies of the popes
In India, the practice is mainly associated with Muslim rule and the persecution of the Hindus in the name of Islam, vividly remembered in its instances of West Pakistan 1947, East Pakistan Yet, it didn't start with the Muslim conquests themselves, from the conquest of Sindh by Mohammed bin Qasim in AD 712 onwards. Conquerors imposed Islamic rule by force, and some also tried to impose conversion to Islam on the population, but the physical removal of non-Muslims from a given region mostly took place only at a later stage, because it required the presence of a

In a bid to counter the grim and wide-ranging Hindu case against Islam as a destroyer of Hindu lives and culture, Marxist historians have propagated the claim that Hindus had done likewise to Buddhists: destroying their religious establishments and killing the inmates. This claim has gained wide currency, including in Buddhist countries where it impedes the natural solidarity between Buddhists and Hindus. However, this claim is entirely fictitious.

Even a very general knowledge of Indian history already shows that any instances of Hindu persecution of Buddhism could never have been more than marginal. After fully seventeen centuries of Buddhism's existence.

There are countless, almost a never ending list of examples of wars and crimes carried out in the name of god.
Yes, i personally agree that it is omewhat of a front and that humans will always find a reason to kill each other, but religion is just one more reason.

The church has been responsible for a sickening amount of crimes in this country, their influence had put Ireland years behind other nations in terms of progress, Condoms were not legal in Ireland until the early 80's.

Yes, for ppl there is a sence of comfort in being able to pray to a god in time of need, you dont however need religion for that, all you need is faith in the belies of somthing greater.

Dinter

snyper wrote: »

The church has been responsible for a sickening amount of crimes in this country.

Pope Adrian IV gave Ireland to England.

That was to cause a fair few problems down the years.

ditpaintball

Take a look at the first part of this video and it offers another point of view of the Christianity. It is a good 40mins long but worth it, if only to hear the point of view. Some will brush it off as coincidences but for some it be be the answer they were looking for.

Zeitgesit is the Internet movie: http://www.zeitgeistmovie.com/

Basically it is questioning the very existence of Jesus.


Anyway back on topic, I said that no, the place would not be a better place. Despite what the film is all about, if there was no religion, there may be some other form of control. So better the devil you know that the one you don't I suppose.

Meadows

Religion is very ridiculous, its hard to believe in this day and age people still believe there is a giant man/security camera in the sky and you must increase your brownie points by praying to him/it at one of his outlets so you can be gain entrance to his magical themepark, if you don’t do this he sends you to unhappyland.

Some day we will look back and laugh at how people once believed it and how they were so passionate/violent about something that is clearly false to anybody with even a slight hint of objectivity.