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Is religion beneficial? (pg. 3)
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| Lomeli |
| I am not religious but extremely spiritual. Until you have experienced what I have you will have absolutely no understanding of what life really is. |
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| Beat Blog |
| quote: | Originally posted by Lomeli
I am not religious but extremely spiritual. Until you have experienced what I have you will have absolutely no understanding of what life really is. |
:haha:
So everyone but you is just an unenlightened moron?
I don't mind religion because it teaches good values, but "spirituality" is just rubbish.
While religion may be for people who have trouble dealing with death or bad events, in my experience so called "spirituality" is for people who are so hopeless that they can't even handle day to day life and constantly need to keep meditating, aligning their chakras or whatever the you people do, rather than just getting on with life and facing reality.
However,
STOP HIJACKING THE THREAD.
The original question at hand concerns the overall well being of humanity in regards to religion, not everyone's individual preferences and beliefs. |
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| Paradox Lost |
| quote: | Originally posted by Beat Blog
:haha:
So everyone but you is just an unenlightened moron?
I don't mind religion because it teaches good values, but "spirituality" is just rubbish.
While religion may be for people who have trouble dealing with death or bad events, in my experience so called "spirituality" is for people who are so hopeless that they can't even handle day to day life and constantly need to keep meditating, aligning their chakras or whatever the you people do, rather than just getting on with life and facing reality. |
I don't understand your reference to 'you people' in regards to spirituality (in the sense of practicing spiritual beliefs independent of a religious tradition) in that rather antagonistic post of yours
People who would describe themselves as 'spiritual, but not religious' retain core beliefs and practices that can vary wildly from person to person, so there most certainly is no 'you people' in that regard.
Besides, a good number of the spiritual practices that people adopt can often be similar to (meditation isn't exactly something exclusive to 'spiritual' people), or perhaps the exact same practice, as is found in a certain religious tradition, in which case they derive from these religions certain practices that they find relevant and meaningful to their own lives (this has become known as the 'cafeteria' approach to spirituality, and also has its critics).
You may be basing whatever broad categorization you're making upon 'New Agers,' which is a type of spiritual person, but even then, there may be enough variance in different New Age beliefs to make a broad references like that inappropriate. |
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| pkcRAISTLIN |
spacechica is a ing moron.
anyone that talks about "spirituality" is also ing dense. "ooh, spirituality which cannot be measured in any sense of the word is just a copout for anything more tangible but i'll believe it anyway coz im a ".
believe what you wanna believe but my belief is that you're a turd sandwich. |
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| spacechica |
who's a "turd sandwich?" you'd better not be talking to me
| quote: | Originally posted by pkcRAISTLIN
spacechica is a ing moron.
anyone that talks about "spirituality" is also ing dense. "ooh, spirituality which cannot be measured in any sense of the word is just a copout for anything more tangible but i'll believe it anyway coz im a ".
believe what you wanna believe but my belief is that you're a turd sandwich. |
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| eckmek |
| quote: | Originally posted by Beat Blog
The other thread about terrorism and extremism within religion has left me wondering whether religion has been beneficial for humanity in the long run.
Personally, I’ve considered myself Athiest since probably age 14 or 15, despite being baptized and bought up in a fairly religious environment.
As much as this will offend some people on this board, I see belief in a higher, benevolent, omnipresent being as a sign of weakness; an unwillingness to accept that there are things out of our control, disasters that happen for no reason, and that death really and truly is “the end”. I see myself as a pragmatist, ready to accept life for what it is, rather than believing in some “greater plan” or greater good.
This confuses me somewhat because I know that some of the greatest analytical and practical minds of all time, some of the best scientists, have also been some of the most devoutly religious people, and who am I to refute the viewpoints of such geniuses?
However, I digress.
Throughout history, a great number of conflicts have occurred simply because of a difference in religion. Sometimes marauding invaders have actually adopted the religions of the people they were conquering, or vice versa, but religion, even with the best of intentions, preaching peace, love and all the accoutrements, has bought about a substantial amount of suffering to all mankind.
It has bred such horrific things such as the holocaust and the crusades, as well as persecution and the concept of martyrdom. In the past people have died because their religion tells them that to fight is wrong.
In return for such atrocities, religion has given us charity programs in other countries, community counseling and support, schools, hospitals and an enourmous amount of other projects that contribute positively to the world.
So, the question is thus: would humanity be better or worse off if religion had never been established?
Would the world be a better place for lack of wars and differences between people? Would humanity have flourished more in the Middle Ages had they spent their time inventing things and building houses rather than constructing cathedrals and mosques and paying heavy taxes to their church? |
Religion caused The Holocaust? That's a bit rich. |
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| pkcRAISTLIN |
| quote: | Originally posted by spacechica
who's a "turd sandwich?" you'd better not be talking to me |
no, i think i clearly stated that you were a ing moron. |
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| Teezdalien |
| quote: | Originally posted by spacechica
if religion had never been established is an iffy assumption because who knows if you could prevent history from being recorded? if Jesus really existed, then wouldn't His teachings have been copied and passed down? |
WTF:conf: |
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| Beat Blog |
| quote: | Originally posted by eckmek
Religion caused The Holocaust? That's a bit rich. |
Okay, so perhaps the Holocaust was more racially motivated than faith motivated, but that's just one example.
There are plenty of other examples throughout nearly all parts of history when differences in beliefs caused war, persecution or invasion.
Please try to stay on topic rather than nitpicking at small parts of my original post which are incorrect. |
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| Rostros |
What can I say about Religion , Well I was Christened at birth because its family tradition but im not getting married in a Church as I dont practice the faith of Christianity. I have often thought about praying and going to church etc but to be honest I dont think I want to believe in something I cannot understand.
I know 9/11 is a tough subject to discuss but all those people didn't deserve to loose there life's. The terrorist who did it thought they were serving Allah and were very religious if religion can make people do acts like that then I dont want to be part of one.
peace out. |
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| dj_alfi |
| quote: | Originally posted by kadomony
For instance, when Jesus (if we're assuming he existed) spoke about God, he was not speaking about a single omnipotent being but the Being that is inherent in everything when you take away labels and forms and accept things for what they truly are. |
Thats not how you spell impotent, silly. |
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| Darkarbiter |
| quote: | Originally posted by Beat Blog
So everyone but you is just an unenlightened moron?
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Moron maybe.
Serious amount of atheist snobbery detected in said post. |
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