General News Meh, fuck religion

The problem is not religion itself, it's certain members of the clergy and their interpretation of scripture that's the problem.

 

The problem isn't believing in God. It's believing in an old book more than God, the Universe, or human life. Once you wrap your existence around an unchanging book, it's all over. Religion needs to be about God's relationship with the world, not about that one piece of paper.

I say this because I have met some vile, ignorant atheists. They aren't racist, homophobic, and abusive because of their religion. They just are that way. Because people are that way. Religion just allows others like them to group together. The problem isn't religion itself. It's the false sense of power that it gives.

I say all of this as an atheist who has seen too many other atheists getting away with being assholes because of that same sense of false superiority that religion gives others.

EDIT:
I felt that I should make this perfectly clear, I'm not calling you an asshole. I just want you to realize that there are more factors in the world other than: "religion causes x".

 

I think it's more of a problem with human nature. People have a need to feel that they are better than others. It comes out in religion with "My religion is right and yours is wrong, therefore I'm better than you." But it comes out in other ways too. My race is better than your race...my sexual orientation is better than your sexual orientation, etc... There will always be people who think they have to put others down to build themselves up. So I don't think it's a religious problem exactly but it does show up in religion quite a bit. Also, religion has done a lot of good for many people so it isn't all black and white.

 

Religion is use to spread hate I'm getting tired of it because people like my homophobe parents like to pretend it's all about love when it's not .:dry:

 

As has been said before, one of the bigger issues is that people are so wrapped around a book(that was written by people) rather than thinking for themselves when it comes to the more questionable things involved.

 

From my own life story and some of the things I've been through, I think that a lot of people turn to religion for the feeling that there's someone on their side and that someone loves and cares about them.

 

In a society and community wanting tolerance, how intolerant it is.
People will kill people.
Good people will do good.
Bad people will do bad.
Religious or not, shit happens, and a person will kill or not kill, harm or not harm regardless of religious background.
Where is the freedom of speech? Where is the right to agree or disagree with something?

Your opinion of 'fuck religion' is another's 'fuck gays'.
Will you really stoop that low? Are there not bad eggs in every group?
Does Hitler being evil and killing religious and various denominations have any justification? Should we condemn Germany as a whole?

Cars have clearly killed people, let's get rid of them, they ruin the environment and "like it or not, no matter how dutifully you drive carefully with your respective vehicle, even within proper limits, driving is dangerous and foolish and naive minds will misinterpret roads and conditions and more malicious drivers will misuse it in drunkenness or influence, hurting others."

Yet clearly cars have their advantages. Yet clearly many who become religious often feel happier and have a sense of life and purpose, caring and helping others.
Are all religious people true and good? No Are there religious people who are true and good? Yes.
Are all car drivers careless and malicious? No. Are there car drivers who are careful and caring? Yes.

If a person truly loves, truly cares about humanity, truly wants peace and harmony; stop hating.
That means hating a person because they have different music tastes than you.
Stop hating someone who's more popular than you.
Stop condemning an entire group because you may or may not: 1) Like it. 2) Be part of it. 3) understand it.
Stop purposely hurting others, physically or mentally, with words or with actions.
Stop judging.
Stop gossiping, whispering, spreading stories.

 

Religion is nothing but a comforting agent for those who can't handle the realities of death.

 

I completely agree with what you have said. All religion seems to do is brain wash people with stories that have no evidence what so ever of being real and make people believe and behave in a way that judges those who don't believe it. It alienates and causes discrimination.

Religion has held the world back a lot. Imagine how more advanced we might be if there never was any religion.

 

Agreed. Talk about a hate filled thread that should not be allowed on here. Somebody's viewpoint is one thing and hate is another. This is pure hate.

 

@ DoriaN
Hey, thanks. That was a super way to put it in perspective, and there's simply no arguing with it.

 

Your viewpoint is very divisive and just as harmful as a bigot. Yes religion has hurt people and that is why I try every to teach the good news about christianity and its true meaning. You have every right to your viewpoint but your thread is downright offensive. If you push all christians away who support gay rights just because of some bigoted few than that says more about your character than it does about anything. Just offensive. plain and simple.

 

Ive come to the conclusion that it isnt necessarily Religions fault, but rather that man kind is too petty and self-interested by nature tbh.

While Duwayne said it kind of cruelly, I see his point really. Religion sounds much better on paper, but man kind is going to be murderous and immoral automatically. I dont think theres anything we can really do to stop it. I dont think religion itself causes violence and hate... it takes a person already having the capacity for those things for them to use religion as justification for their actions.

Do you get what I mean?

If we were to eliminate religion (which is kind of really impossible tbh) people would find other things to justify their evil.. (Though to be fair, using God and ur religion is more likely to convince SOMEONE that ur actions are semi-justified than... "Because I wanted to!")

So Religion, like all things, has its good and bad, as stated before in this thread..

It really boils down to... let those who use it for good keep it, and kind of remain useless against evil people who use it wrong until people AT LEAST learn to think for themselves. If people were generally more intelligent about Religion (as in, not indoctrinated to accept it 100% as is and say "fuck off" to anything different...) the world would already be a better place. I think just people being able to think for themselves, being aware of the world and especially QUESTIONING THEIR OWN OPINIONS will lead to Religion become a non-issue for hatred... At least it will decrease a lot.

BTW, Ignostic Atheist here

 

What you've said is as hateful as any religious rant I've seen before.
Communist China and Russia(Along with Albania) killed plenty religious leaders to enforce the communist ideals regarding atheism.

I am personally irreligious,
But when you rant like this and demean so many people's belief system,
Turning a blind eye to many UNDERLYING causes of death,
In which religion as used as an EXCUSE,
It's not hard to see why some religious people hate those who don't profess a belief in a higher power.

 

Exactly this, just put in a much smarter way than that I would have been able to think of.

 

It's a hell of a lot more nuanced than that. Ethnic and cultural divides will exist without formal religion (which is really just the codification of a culture), as wars between Catholic societies pretty clearly show. Those who think God is the biggest part of religion clearly do not understand religion; the cultural context of it is the most decisive factor in tensions and internal problems.

Religion is often used to justify war and oppression, but science has been used as the excuse, too. Religion is culture is nation is state. That is the most important thing to realise, and to try to separate yourself from religion as if an impartial judge is not only stupid, but is ironically the essentially religious cult of Western hyper-individualism.

When someone has an attitude of "leave your religion and listen to me, the enlightened one", it encourages people to dearly hold onto religious traditions both good and bad as a preservation of culture and identity. Not only is that clearly ineffective, it's morally wrong to treat others as less informed when you are not impartial in the first place.

Atheist/secular "science" was touted as the leading excuse for a lot of colonisations and genocides, and in a similar way religion has been. To pretend that religion is totally/mostly responsible for ostensibly religious wars is to completely deny that there are a lot of complexities in human relations.

 

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The only difference between a good religious person and a bad one is how much more the former is willing to ignore in their religion.

 

There really isn't much interpreting regarding this situation. That man is clearly guilty of blasphemy, which is something punishable by death in Abrahamic religions. The issue is that religion is dangerous whenever it's not irrelevant in society and people actually follow it.

---------- Post added 26th Jan 2014 at 12:32 PM ----------

Duwayne is just freely expressing his views. Seems like you're the one who dislikes freedom of speech.

No, it's not. Attacking ideologies is perfectly justified and necessary within society. Attacking individuals for their inherent traits is something altogether different.

Doesn't really fly when every egg is rotten.