Board index › Topical Discussion › Politics, Philosophy, and Religion

If you could flip a switch and erase all religion would you?

Page 4 of 9 [ 139 posts ]  Go to page Previous  1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 ... 9  Next

Previous topic | Next topic

If you could flip a switch and erase all religion would you?
Yes 44%  44%  [ 27 ]
No 56%  56%  [ 34 ]
Total votes : 61

slowmutant
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 13 Feb 2008
Age: 47
Gender: Male
Posts: 8,430
Location: Ontario, Canada

11 Oct 2008, 6:16 am

Daran wrote:
slowmutant wrote:
When it comes to loaded questions like this, there is no right answer. What if there was a similar switch for blacks or gays or Jews? Come on, really?


That's a poor comparison, there is no genetic disposition that makes you religious.


What if there was? What if somewhere, someone had his finger on a switch that would make all autistic people go away? Or a switch that would take away some other random group of people for some arbitrary reason?



Daran
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 8 May 2008
Age: 41
Gender: Male
Posts: 868
Location: Mokum, NL, EU

11 Oct 2008, 7:22 am

slowmutant wrote:
Daran wrote:
slowmutant wrote:
When it comes to loaded questions like this, there is no right answer. What if there was a similar switch for blacks or gays or Jews? Come on, really?


That's a poor comparison, there is no genetic disposition that makes you religious.


What if there was? What if somewhere, someone had his finger on a switch that would make all autistic people go away? Or a switch that would take away some other random group of people for some arbitrary reason?


What precisely is your point? Religion is an ideology that you can change by personal choice. Being autistic, gay or covered in hair is something you are born with. Wishing away religion or fascism or greed cannot be compared to wishing away the way people are born. Well it can be compared but I don't see the point of such a poor comparison.



slowmutant
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 13 Feb 2008
Age: 47
Gender: Male
Posts: 8,430
Location: Ontario, Canada

11 Oct 2008, 7:38 am

Meh, it was a pointless exercise to begin with.



Sand
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 15 Sep 2007
Age: 100
Gender: Male
Posts: 11,484
Location: Finland

11 Oct 2008, 10:38 am

Where the hell is that switch?



slowmutant
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 13 Feb 2008
Age: 47
Gender: Male
Posts: 8,430
Location: Ontario, Canada

11 Oct 2008, 10:43 am

There is no switch, dummy.



slowmutant
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 13 Feb 2008
Age: 47
Gender: Male
Posts: 8,430
Location: Ontario, Canada

11 Oct 2008, 10:45 am

There is no switch, dummy.



slowmutant
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 13 Feb 2008
Age: 47
Gender: Male
Posts: 8,430
Location: Ontario, Canada

11 Oct 2008, 10:46 am

There is no switch, dummy.



z0rp
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 4 Jan 2008
Age: 33
Gender: Male
Posts: 747
Location: New York, USA

11 Oct 2008, 10:46 am

slowmutant wrote:
When it comes to loaded questions like this, there is no right answer. What if there was a similar switch for blacks or gays or Jews? Come on, really?

Though I agree this is a bad comparison, why not make another thread? It'd be an interesting topic nonetheless, I'm sure plenty people would like to debate over whether the world would be better without races or if everyone was the same sexual orientation etc.



Phagocyte
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 15 Oct 2007
Age: 36
Gender: Male
Posts: 1,757

11 Oct 2008, 10:52 am

slowmutant wrote:
In fact, I'd try to destroy that switch! Aside from infringing on the free will of the human race


To me, this is the most critical issue with this whole "switch" notion. Whatever wrongs have been caused in the name of religion would be nothing next to the horrific act of overriding free-will on such a massive scale.


_________________
Un-ban Chever! Viva La Revolucion!


Sand
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 15 Sep 2007
Age: 100
Gender: Male
Posts: 11,484
Location: Finland

11 Oct 2008, 11:47 am

Aaah! You're kidding. Free will is a dumb illusion anyway. Is this a switch and bait thread? I am sure as God made little green apples that there's a switch. Where is it? I want that switch!



techstepgenr8tion
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 6 Feb 2005
Age: 46
Gender: Male
Posts: 24,695
Location: 28th Path of Tzaddi

11 Oct 2008, 11:54 am

To OP: I think an important question needs to be raised; what would we have in lieu of it?



slowmutant
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 13 Feb 2008
Age: 47
Gender: Male
Posts: 8,430
Location: Ontario, Canada

11 Oct 2008, 11:59 am

More religion, that's what. The new to replace the old.

Since the psychological makeup of the human race is a constant, and since without the spiritual impulse we would not be human ... religion is inevitable. Never mind destroying it. How can we improve it, this social institution?



techstepgenr8tion
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 6 Feb 2005
Age: 46
Gender: Male
Posts: 24,695
Location: 28th Path of Tzaddi

11 Oct 2008, 12:15 pm

slowmutant wrote:
More religion, that's what. The new to replace the old.

Since the psychological makeup of the human race is a constant, and since without the spiritual impulse we would not be human ... religion is inevitable. Never mind destroying it. How can we improve it, this social institution?


I agree, environmentalism (at least when pushed to nature worship where plants are equal to people) and political utopianism are both great examples in our time.

Something else I see though, I think our need to have religion is built into our social wiring. To find a persuasive reason not to just go back to the wild and live as animals we almost need it. Not that lack of religion would turn us all the way around like that but it means that there's no good reason not to have full-blown eugenics, especially if we are able to figure out the genetic code all the way down the whole "what if we end our whole race out of an oversight?" would be pretty well shot. People of logic and reason who see themselves as atheists and have no such urges, they can argue that as proof against what I just said but - if they're parents who raised them were religious or practiced religiously inspired values, its a null argument because while they aren't particularly believers in faith they still practice the social virtues and values of religion, out of gut reflex, as these virtues were instilled in them.



Kaleido
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 18 Feb 2007
Age: 67
Gender: Female
Posts: 2,615

11 Oct 2008, 12:23 pm

No, that would be playing God.

I don't have the right to take away something that millions of people place as a priority in their daily lives.



Sand
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 15 Sep 2007
Age: 100
Gender: Male
Posts: 11,484
Location: Finland

11 Oct 2008, 12:31 pm

Decisions are made every day to take food away from people. If it's a choice between religion or food, who would choose religion?



slowmutant
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 13 Feb 2008
Age: 47
Gender: Male
Posts: 8,430
Location: Ontario, Canada

11 Oct 2008, 1:18 pm

Kaleido wrote:
No, that would be playing God.

I don't have the right to take away something that millions of people place as a priority in their daily lives.


No one does. No one should think they do, either. It really does take all kinds, after all. A whole world of atheists wouldn't last long before someone gets that God itch.