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Sex, Death And The Meaning Of Life (pg. 22)
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| srussell0018 |
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| Dj Nacht |
| quote: | Originally posted by Vivid Boy
Do you really think that those people in charge who committed Genocide were super religious?? or were they just using religion as way to manipulate and control their people? |
Talk to somebody who takes psychology and ask them that question. You would be suprised at what we are capable of when we truly believe something to be right. |
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| Dj Nacht |
| quote: | Originally posted by srussell0018
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This is just trying to oversimplify everything! If two people have different beliefs, then one must be wrong, no? It doesn't really bother an Atheist if someone believes in God. Why? Because it doesn't change anything for him, but it does bother a religious person because it casts doubt on their eternal life, and in turn they become irritated and angry. |
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| Lira |
| quote: | Originally posted by Halcyon+On+On
Yes, of all the atrocities religion has prevented, murder and genocide are at the top if the list. |
In a failed state? Among members of the same religion? In this case, it's a pretty damn good social safety net compared to anarchy.
| quote: | Originally posted by Dj Nacht
Religion has been around for thousands of years. Now look around you and tell me if you think it worked.
Religion is flawed and we need to move on just like what Dawkins' says in the OP's video. |
Are we really deluding ourselves into thinking that either religion is perfect, or we found the perfect substitute? |
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| Lira |
| quote: | Originally posted by Dj Nacht
This is just trying to oversimplify everything! If two people have different beliefs, then one must be wrong, no? |
Actually, you're forgetting one very common scenario: both can be wrong. |
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| Dj Nacht |
| quote: | Originally posted by Lira
In a failed state? Among members of the same religion? In this case, it's a pretty damn good social safety net compared to anarchy.
Are we really deluding ourselves into thinking that either religion is perfect, or we found the perfect substitute? |
Nobody has the answer to that because we haven't tried anything yet, but it's obvious that something else needs to happen. |
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| Dj Nacht |
| quote: | Originally posted by Lira
Actually, you're forgetting one very common scenario: both can be wrong. |
Sure, no problem, Atheists have no problem being wrong. |
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| srussell0018 |
| quote: | Originally posted by Dj Nacht
It doesn't really bother an Atheist if someone believes in God. |
Is this why people have been arguing against religion for the past 6 pages? If it doesn't bother you, why must you insult their intelligence constantly to try and make your points? |
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| Lira |
| quote: | Originally posted by Dj Nacht
Nobody has the answer to that because we haven't tried anything yet, but it's obvious that something else needs to happen. |
Haven't we?
Throughout recorded history we've come up with plenty of alternative solutions to the problems religion tackles (mainly politics and some metaphysics), such as philosophy, art, the nation state, a plethora of political systems, science, and so on. Despite the overlapping interests of some of these human enterprises, there's no perfect match among them that render the previous attempt completely obsolete. To this day, there are well read scientifically literate citizens in democratic societies that are religious for one reason or another - mainly because science and religion (to give one incredibly misguided opposition) are as opposed as politics and art. |
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| Dj Nacht |
| quote: | Originally posted by srussell0018
Is this why people have been arguing against religion for the past 6 pages? If it doesn't bother you, why must you insult their intelligence constantly to try and make your points? |
Quoted from De
"Besides, atheists don't attack peoples' beliefs, atheists force people (theists) to take responsibility for their claims and back them up, not just claim them. A theist's inability to support their faith based claims just makes them look foolish, that's not an atheist's fault. If the religious want to stop getting challenged, they should stop making claims." |
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| srussell0018 |
| quote: | Originally posted by Dj Nacht
Besides, atheists don't attack peoples' beliefs |
Stopped reading there. Just because it's a quote doesn't make it any less a complete lie. You sound like Mitt Romney laying out the "facts."
Do you not see that forcing somebody to back up their beliefs is attacking them? If you didn't attack peoples' beliefs, you would just let them have them.
"I will not attack your beliefs. However, you must prove to me why your beliefs are true, or else I will call you an idiot and laugh at you." |
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| Halcyon+On+On |
| quote: | Originally posted by srussell0018
People would have found a reason to commit genocide even if religion never existed. |
And indeed they always have, and likely always will. We're a flawed species, and we know it. What we also know is that on an individual basis, we are capable of overcoming and minimizing our suffering, and truncating the spread of misery through acts of reason and rationality and charity. Wallowing in spiritual flagellation does nothing for this, and merely darkens with viral resolve the ineffable tribalism and quitter suppression that authoritarianism can herald.
What could be more authoritarian than the panopticon of most organized religions' deity? Most every galvanized effort at peace is out of fear mistaken for love or reverence for the retributive aspect of God's exclusivity vestibule rather than good from the essence of passivity.
It is religious thought that is the enemy, not religions, themselves; they are all too often but symptoms of a far more widespread and poisonous ideology that shapes humans into the gears of avarice at the Soothsayer's lever, rather than the ideal citizens of personal liberty and indoctrinated regard for sustainable utilitarianism that all nationhood ought aspire to codify.
We know what's right without being told, we just choose to be ignorant because people compact foresight into nearly Pavlovian subroutines. Religion is merely one way to catalyze such gross simplifications into benefit, but it merely pays lip service to the machinations of essential liberties that all humans ought be entitled to, strictly including the right to not be slaughtered because of your race or origin because some demagogue or another ordered it so.
Sudan can claim that it found Allah all it wants, but can it claim that its people are safe or free? Are its women's clitorises going to fertilize their scarce crops for all time? Religion brings only brief respite to such regions, and all evidence points toward it being a temporary lull while the proselytization rituals roll in to recruit vapor for the next storm. |
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