What good is religion?

My point is that you have to provide more than correlation. Christianity was the majority faith. There were high murder rates. Whenever you come across historical events like wars, you have to remember who writes the history and why, and who does not and why. You have to ask about political and personal agendas, and you have to ask which propaganda is likely to work.

Wars do not have one cause. They have several. 'Religious' wars will have a religious foundation as the most documented cause because that served the propaganda purpose for mobilization and recruitment. It pays to look a little deeper to see others as well.

One of the traps its easy to fall into, is to give religion the blame when war is declared, and not to give religion the credit when war is avoided, or the peace treaty gets signed. If you are going to believe the King, when he says God told him to declare war, you have to believe the King when he says God told him to stop a war.

In virtually every conflict, there are people of faith and clerics on both sides, cherry picking their favorite lines, and stories and theologicians to justify their position in next weeks sermon. There will have to be both aggressive and passive peaceloving messages/passages in any religion that stands the test of time, and thrives over a large geographic area. Pragmatically speaking, both messages will be the prudent one for different situations in different societies to successfully market the faith. . So we have to decide how much credit do we give this 'faith,' these 'answered prayers' without changing the 'how much' depending on our own agenda. If you are going to blame the faith when the message is warlike, then you have to give the faith the credit in the hands of MLK or Gandhi? with their pacifism.

 

One of the evolutionary benefits of religion was to help organize and mobilize societies/ 'the Tribe' around a pragmatic goal that served the leaders and the community over the long run with severe risks for the short run. . Its very hard to convince a father, to risk his life and his children's economic security by going to war, without a God to provide the solace of another life and greater security for those children down the road in this life or the next.

If that hypothesis is true, and if we assume the fight against climate change is going to require incredible sacrifice as we upend our economies away from consumerism and the employment based on consumerism, that means success is going to have to be fast, draconian and its going to cause a disruption that will mean a huge depression, hunger, homelessness etc for a couple of generations as the economic activity constricts consistent with govt demands. . Maybe we will need to tell people to sacrifice because 'God' says we must' to get sufficient buy-in without revolution

 

I did not say bringing people together was...the sole purpose of religion.
What I am suggesting is that if the spiritual teachings of those ancient religions were being realized...
all people coming together would be the result.

 

I have proved nothing in this discussion nor have I claimed to. I stated I think you should take more care when generalizing what others think and whether you are as logical as you think you are.

We all have biases.

 

You can prove a specific negative claim by providing contradictory evidence. An example of a proof of a rather specific negative claim by contradictory evidence would be if someone were to claim that the one and only watch that you own is in the top drawer of the desk. The Burden of Proof

because you dont understand that every negative has a positive?
anything that can be stated in the negative can also be stated in the positive!

No atheist ever does either

 

Please do not generalize about my people, my family, what they or I should believe and what battles I should engage in. The fact you made the above comments evidences a lack of logic and the very belief system you accuse others of you also engage in. Thank you.

 

Yes....true enough.

But if the spiritual teachings of the religions were put into practice...any thought of war would be nonsense.
War and destruction of any kind would be the farthest thing from people's minds.
But instead religions are no more than a security blanket for most

 

you mean put into practice?
again entirely different direction, unless you want to get into a more esoteric discussion with the understanding its not 'truly' your religion if you do not practice what you claim to believe., since one quality requirement of religion is the outward practice of it.

 

Reread the post. I revised it to include a theory of mine. Mind you I have never claimed any of this was anything more than a myth or that they are not more than myths, but myths and parables can be very useful to control society.

 

so you admit the teachings of religions are for the most part 'good'
That people do not exercise the teachings is whats bad.
religion good/people bad

 

That is quite a large audience you presume thinks in a certain way and then should listen to you and your beliefs.

Will you present this on a mountain? Do you have a beard by any chance?

You engage in every act you challenge Christian religion for engaging in. Ease up man. You are just preaching your own religion.

Why?

What compels you to believe you need to, let alone are in the position to tell others what they need to do? The thread questions religions for doing that in a worthless manner.

Could it be they appear worthless because of the presumptions and assumptions they make may not be infallible?

Your last two sentenceS I am in total agreement and becausev it is a two way equation on the other side of infinite is zero, nothing.

All that was is of could be is absolutely everything so nothing.

Ease up . That paradox don't come easy to most people.

People come to it in their own way or maybe d they nevervd9, but you can not presume to havd the formula to get them to see it. That is illogical. All brains are fractal in design defying the ability of uniform beliefs we ith no variability between people. Your red is not their red. In fact it would be a different colour but you both call it the same colour.

 

Not saying anything/anyone is good or bad.
Am saying religion is neither good nor bad...and it's also not the solution.
IMO, it is not about "exercising" or "doing" anything...such as following rules
and believing certain ideas. It's more about separating reality from illusion.

 

'YOUR' religion however can only be expressed through your actions.

others religions are identified as those imposed upon you to perform through coercive force, gubmint for instant, under penalty of xyz.

 

What of the Christian and Muslim world views, that honors genocidal gods and puts sex and gender, in terms of value, above love?

What is done correctly to you? Putting man above god or putting some gods we have created above us?

Gnostic Christians put man above god, --- in recognition that no god has ever spoken, --- unless through a person.

A delusional person.

So says my god. Greatest I am.

Regards
DL

 

name one thing a G/god has 'PHYSICALLY' done?

Im sure we are far better off with atheists like stalin or mao above us

that has no bearing on who is above who, false connection

 

Indeed.

Politically speaking, via laws we have all voted on.

We chose the coercion and basically demand ourselves to be coerced for protection and uniformity.

Note that our responsibilities to our laws die with us.

Note how the vile gods do the unjust and harass us even after death, --- without any purpose other than cruelty.

Nice a hole god compared to the gods o9f Statists.

Statist gods have better rules and laws.

The gods are more like devils.

Regards
DL

 

now you want to talk about delusion?
Name the last amendment we the people were sent referendums to vote on?
why do you continue to give us this fantasy land rendition of reality?

 

Imaginary characters and gods can do nothing other than what their creator have them do.

As to which is a better community, atheists or believers.

I will go with the best. Atheists.

Because statistics show that atheists are better adjusted and are better at living peacefully and lawfully.

Only the brain dead who adore genocidal gods will disagree.

Regards
DL

 

Your post is filled with a lot of topics, and a lot of assertions we’d have to debate first. I disagree with most of your characterizations of Christianity.

 

Dr. Tony Fauci might just be able to get some mileage out of this general idea one of these days????????

It is going to be very difficult for the most

positive thinkers on earth to paint him as having been a 'heroic figure??"?????

Could Dr. Tony Fauci be a heroic figure????



Any objective thinker will tend to be reminded of the Nuremburg War Crimes Trials when Dr. Fauci is in front of some sort of committee who are free to question him in a manner that the average American is asking these days????

 

Please.

I am a Canadian and apologise when thinking you have a decent government.

The logic of what I put, you ignored for the garbage you spew.

If you do not think you run your government, that's on you.

Who you going to turn to? Those who will give you Inquisitor power?

Will you turn to St Hitler's crew?

Regards
DL

 

The problem is that Christians do not debate important issues because they cannot justify the morality they follow.

They always run away after flinging a stone or two.

Even here. You could have put, like, 3 words, to show your position on the issues, but just disagreed and ran away.

Typical Christian. No balls, unless you cans how me some.

Regards
DL

 

But how do you see religion?
I see it as a belief that some ancient scripture is the instruction manual
supposedly inspired by God. Is that true? Doesn't really matter.
Just believing it is the word of God really doesn't accomplish anything
except maybe to include the believer into a group or tribe....
separate from the non-believers. The fact that religions separate
people instead of bringing them together...IMO proves
they are not part of the solution, but are part of the problem.

 

That’s a false generalization.

You put like four or five complicated issues in one thread. Sorry, I’m not addressing these all in one post in a thread where it would be off topic anyway.

 

Yes you are dismissing their beliefs.

It's the human condition you are thinking of, one part is religion, that you think is increasingly insane. Religion is one social tool and it has always been pretty much trial and error just like our other social organizations like governing systems. Religions were invented because there is an apparent need for them and humans bring with them prejudices, intolerance, love, forgiveness....human stuff. The good and bad. Your one sided negative view is not reality.

Another point not lining up with reality is man's increasing insanity hyperbole. If you take a long view of history you will see man is more humane than its ever been, less tribal, more aware of the vulnerability of Earth. That does not mean man has done enough.