fuck religion

[Rog]

the cause of all the world's ill's.....well, nearly all......

[Deckard]

Naaa. It's all above the LOVE Rog.

Seriously though, humanity will move on from religion when it's good and ready.

Small problem is, it may never be good and ready.

Perhaps our species' robotic successors will manage it in the next millenium? We apes just need to be able to hold off from destroying ourselves and the whole of civilization in the meantime.

And that's by no means guaranteed.

[the mongoose]

You will go to hell with those thoughts. Repent now and Jesus our Lord will forgive you and shine light into your soul....leading you into enternal salvation. Amen.

[Sappys Curry]

Hey, it is mostly Islam and Christianity to blame. Buddhism and Taoism are pretty neat. >.>

[Deckard]

True, of course there are gradations. I doubt anyone would deny that.

Also no question that there's a lot of good that comes from religion, and a lot of good people who are religious. (Mostly, it has to be said, the ones who don't take their holy book too literally.)

The problem is that 'the bad' is a natural end product of something fundamental about religion: the whole 'decision-making-based-on-unshakeable-faith-in-absolute-truth' thing. With the best will in the world, there is no escaping that.

And while there are other culprits in that regard (e.g. nationalism), religion really is unmatched in the scale and scope to which it personifies this mindset.

Ultimately, the closed-mind is the problem.

[34958hq439-qjw9v5jq298v5j]

Originally Posted by Deckard

True, of course there are gradations. I doubt anyone would deny that.

Also no question that there's a lot of good that comes from religion, and a lot of good people who are religious. (Mostly, it has to be said, the ones who don't take their holy book too literally.)

The problem is that 'the bad' is a natural end product of something fundamental about religion: the whole 'decision-making-based-on-unshakeable-faith-in-absolute-truth' thing. With the best will in the world, there is no escaping that.

And while there are other culprits in that regard (e.g. nationalism), religion really is unmatched in the scale and scope to which it personifies this mindset.

Ultimately, the closed-mind is the problem.

I was going to comment in this thread but this post pretty much says it all. I mean people can come up with the idea of "ethnic cleansing" or other atrocities without religion. A twisted mind is going to justify whatever it wants however it wants. The problem is people, not religion.

[myrrh]

I don't think that religion itself is to blame for all the worlds ills. For example, religion wasn't the cause of the WW1, WW2, Korean War, Vietnam War, Cold War, Desert Shield/Storm or the Iraqi War. You can say that Afghan War was started because of religion, but I think it was more about foreign policy and how the US used the Afghans to beat the Russians, then left them to fall into civil war.

Maybe you can say that during medieval times religion was the cause of wars, but even then it was mostly the Church deciding to reclaim the Holy Land, and the Popes that issued Crusades weren't doing it for religious means, but using religion to rouse the people - much like Al-Qaida is doing today.

Then you have the British Empire and colonialism, Napoleon and France, US and Native American's. Were these act's caused by religion?

I also don't think that religion will go away any time soon. I was initially going to say that it will never go away, but then I remembered that according to Islam, at the end of time it will be gone. This is when the Sun will rise from the West, which according to modern science won't be for a looooooong time.

With regards to mongoose, and I don't mean to be insulting or anything like that, but let me ask you this:

According to the definition of the Trinity - the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, are one co-equal and co-eternal. This means that if one part of the Trinity ceases to exist, then all of them will cease to exist.

Therefore, according to Christianity, when Jesus died on the cross, God would have died. This creates a dilemma according to Christianity because Christians also believe that God is eternal and can not die. This leads to the illogical - such as that Jesus was human and God, and when you inquire about this with Christian theologians, eventually you get to the point where you are told that you 'just have to believe' and that is 'the mystery of faith'.

So, my question is, if the concept of the Trinity is so important to the salvation of humanity, why isn't the word Trinity found anywhere in the Bible?

[Sean]

Originally Posted by myrrh

...because Christians also believe that God is eternal and can not die. This leads to the illogical - such as that Jesus was human and God, and when you inquire about this with Christian theologians, eventually you get to the point where you are told that you 'just have to believe' and that is 'the mystery of faith'.

So, my question is, if the concept of the Trinity is so important to the salvation of humanity, why isn't the word Trinity found anywhere in the Bible?

You're looking for logic in religion?

[//\/\/]

SPOILER ALERT!!!!!

adrian; in the next episode, jesus comes back to life!


organised religion is always going to cause inherant problems as soon as you have differences - it's human nature. religous belief is based on the fear that 'this is it, and this is all there is'. religion denies that, and says 'psssst. do x, y and z and you get eternal life. imagine that, eh?' however, when a bunch of people start to get told that doing a,b and c are the way to do it, fear sets in. 'i've been doing x,y and z and those a,b and c folk have to change because i'm too scared to contemplate them being right all along. they can't be - i've been told all my life. they're wrong. aren't they. best shut them up. HEY! SHUT UP YOU LOT! YOUR'E WRONG? WHAT'S THAT? NO, I WON'T SHUT UP!...' etc...

i see buddhism more as a nice way to go about your life, than a religion; but have issues with the reincarnation aspect. i think that stems from the same old fear...

[jOHN rODRIGUEZ]

Originally Posted by //\/\/

i see buddhism more as a nice way to go about your life, than a religion; but have issues with the reincarnation aspect. i think that stems from the same old fear...

Yeah! There aren't any hypocrite Buddha or Hindu following/practicing people, huh? And, in no way am I referring to you Mr. INN guy with my sarcasm there.