Would it be better a world without Religion?

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Would it be better a world without Religion?
Yes 54%  54%  [ 25 ]
No 37%  37%  [ 17 ]
I don't know 9%  9%  [ 4 ]
Total votes : 46

Jimbogf
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27 May 2007, 1:13 pm

Awesomelyglorious wrote:
Bush is just as fanatical as Osama???? I don't know what you are smoking there, if that statement were true then he would have pushed for a war economy and used various nuclear weapons and things of that nature. Obviously his dedication is less than that if that is true. Bush really just talks religion and walks big business which is why you can't just look at the rhetoric.


Heh, I did go too far with saying Bush is just as fanatical as Osama, I was going to edit it out, but forgot.



TheMachine1
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27 May 2007, 2:29 pm

Awesomelyglorious wrote:
kt-64 wrote:
You are a fool (I hate to call people names), religion is a deteriment to sceintific advancement, just look at the dark ages. If nott for them,. we'd have probably be flying in space ships and the like.

The dark ages were a crapped out time to begin with whether or not religion existed. However, you also have to recognize that monks during that time were the ones who still carried past knowledge and kept what we knew alive. It wouldn't surprise me that without religion we would have no need for the monks and thus would probably be worse off in scientific advancement as the barbaric warriors who ruled everything else would otherwise have even less reason to bother with these high ideas.


I think the notion that the dark ages was a time that religious oppression suppressed advancement is largely a myth. I think the word "dark" itself is where people read so much negativity into the time period.



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27 May 2007, 2:32 pm

it depends how the lack of religion came about. If it was more or less as in post-Christian Europe then yes, the world would be a better place. But if it was like in Communist Albania then no, the world would be a much worse place. So basically i think it would be good if people stoped believeing of their own accord, but it would be bad if religion were foricbly suppressed.


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BazzaMcKenzie
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27 May 2007, 6:29 pm

TheMachine1 wrote:
I think the notion that the dark ages was a time that religious oppression suppressed advancement is largely a myth. I think the word "dark" itself is where people read so much negativity into the time period.

I always understood "dark ages" to refer to the fact there was little recorded history. The Romans had lots of records. After the fall of Rome there was much less recording of events, but I don't believe it true that developments (e.g. metalurgy) did not continue, just not recorded.

IMO religion is not bad (its just a belief system) but the "Church organisation" of whatever religion seeking to gain and hold power is bad and generally the organisation is incompatible with what they say they believe in.


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skafather84
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27 May 2007, 7:37 pm

Ragtime wrote:
skafather84 wrote:
jimservo wrote:
it will cause individuals generally to become more "me" centered.



you should talk to some of the ego-centric mexicans out here in LA sometime. they're huge into christianity.


Proof positive that Christianity causes ego-centrism!



that's not even what i was leading to!


i was simply saying that your ignorant comment that atheists are ego-centric and that christianity leads against such ego-centrism is a load of crap. there's a ton of selfish, as*hole christians just like there's a ton of selfish as*hole atheists.



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28 May 2007, 9:33 pm

kt-64 wrote:
You are a fool (I hate to call people names)

"Fool" isn't a name? Oh, and we don't all have our own personal spaceships, how tragic. Guess it's not enough that we pollute the Earth with our stinking noisemobiles, are you suggesting we should spread our empire of filth to that useless hunk of rock in the sky?

Sopho wrote:
Atheism is not a religion.

Care to elaborate? Yeah, I'm willing to grant that "Atheism is a religion" is kind of a trollish thing to say. But can you explain why it isn't? I doubt it.



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29 May 2007, 1:08 am

http://www.physorg.com/news99581802.html

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The results are showing many aspects of morality appear to be hard-wired in the brain, opening up a new window on what it means to be good.



jijin
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29 May 2007, 5:45 am

I just got through reading God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything by Christopher Hitchens and it's very enlightening.

It's really dry, but I like dry so I thought it was a good book.

Religion is not good.


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kt-64
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29 May 2007, 6:25 am

If we didnt have religion we wouldn't feel entitled to spread filth across the earth.



undefineable
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29 May 2007, 10:13 am

If we didn't have religion we'd have no need to feel entitlement!



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02 Jun 2007, 7:35 am

To paraphrase the NRA: Religion doesn't kill people - people kill people.

If religion were eradicated tomorrow, it'd take... ooh... 24 hours before mankind found another excuse to wage war on itself. Lest we forget, some of the greatest crimes against humanity of the 20th century were carried out by largely secular regimes, for reasons unconnected to faith (for example: the Final Solution, the Soviet gulags, the Rwandan genocide, and the Killing Fields of Cambodia), so as much as people have used religion as an excuse to carry out violence against their fellow man... race, culture and territorial/economic rights have all been used just as frequently.

And trying to paint, say, St Francis of Assissi or Mother Theresa as tools of an entirely negative influence on the world is frankly daft. Both of those people used their beliefs as a basis for helping people, and nothing else. Somebody saying "God doesn't want this, that, or the other thing" is usually just reinforcing their own prejudices and using their twisted version of their particular religion as an excuse.

This is coming from somebody who has been drifting towards agnosticism for years, by the way, so it's not like I'm trying to post a rabid defence of Christianity (in fact, I seem to be wandering towards Buddhism at the moment, which seems a far better place for me to be, as it's a peaceful, tolerant religion).


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02 Jun 2007, 2:42 pm

sopho wrote:
I can't think of anything I actually agree with him on.


I can see the libertarian objections (although I personally don't mind), but any takers?

Quote:
On Malaria Awareness Day, we focus our attention on all who suffer from this terrible disease -- especially the millions on the continent of Africa. We remember the millions more who died from this entirely preventable and treatable disease. As a compassionate nation, we are called to spread awareness about malaria -- and we're called to act. That's what compassionate people do. When they see a problem, they act. And that's what we're here to talk about. On this special day, we renew our commitment to lead the world toward an urgent goal, and that is to turn the tide against malaria in Africa, and around the globe...

As we mark this first Malaria Awareness Day, it makes sense to begin with some facts. Every year, more than a million people die of malaria -- and the vast majority of them are children under five years old. It's a sad statistic. In some countries, malaria takes even more lives than HIV/AIDS. Malaria imposes a crippling economic burden in sub-Saharan Africa, where so many are struggling to lift their families out of poverty...

In other words, we've solved this problem before. And the fundamental question is, do we have the will to do the same thing on another continent? That's really the question that faces this country and other nations around the world. My commitment is, you bet we have the will. And we've got a strategy to do so.

Defeating malaria is going to be a challenge, but it's not going to require a miracle. That's what I'm here to tell you. It's going to require a smart and sustained campaign.

And so what does that mean? Well, first, it means distributing insecticide-treated bed nets; secondly, expanding indoor insecticide spraying; thirdly, providing anti-malaria medicine to pregnant women, and delivering cutting-edge drugs to people living with the disease. Those are the four steps necessary to achieve our objective.

Thanks to our leadership in science and technology, we have a unique ability to help in all these areas. We have a responsibility to turn that ability into action. When America sees suffering and know that our nation -- when Americans see suffering and know that our nation can help stop it, they expect our government to respond. Most Americans believe in this timeless truth: To whom much is given, much is required, and I believe in that, as well.

We have a strategic interest in reducing death and disease in emerging nations of Africa. Societies with healthy and prosperous people are more likely to be sources of stability and peace, not breeding grounds for extremists and terror. It's in our strategic interests that we follow through on our pledges.

I launched the President's Malaria Initiative in 2005. Through this initiative, as Laura mentioned, we're spending $1.2 billion over five years to provide bed nets and indoor spraying and anti-malaria medicine in 15 heavily effected African countries. We're working toward a historic goal to cut the number of malaria-related deaths in country by half. The Admiral has got a goal. It's a measurable goal.


(source)



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02 Jun 2007, 3:44 pm

kt-64 wrote:
If we didnt have religion we wouldn't feel entitled to spread filth across the earth.


It is because of religion that people feel entitled to what? Oppose Kyoto? I don't understand. There are plenty of religious people who take the religion to me we cannot "abuse God's Earth" hence meaning there should be tougher environmental regulations. On the other hand, if you think those regulations aren't effectively or are needed then there isn't much of a point of supporting them (regardless of religions convictions).

undefineable wrote:
If we didn't have religion we'd have no need to feel entitlement!


So if religion didn't exist, no person ever would have petitioned the government to set up, say, a social security system? If religion didn't exist people wouldn't feel jealousy, which is part of (along with financial security) where the feeling of entitlement derives?

Does eliminating religion remove human nature as well?

Where does transform form from denial of belief into the type of utopian fantasy that have been so dangerous the physical world in which we live.