Religion is good
Offline I hear a lot of atheists claim that religion is "dangerous" or some nonsense like that.
Whenever I ask atheists about why they're "sooo concerned" about other people's belief in god or why they bother arguing with theists, I oftentimes get a responce along the lines of how "dangerous" religions are supposed to be.
Are there any atheists on here that believe this way? That religion is somehow prone to executing violence or discrimination?
In my opinion, it's almost entirely human nature. If someone wants to commit mass genocide, he's going to do it with or without religion, religion just MAYBE at best, gives him a better veil to hide in.
But it's funny how everyone conveniently skates around the fact that religions also do alot of good. Churches hold countless functions to benefit the poor, and you can't tell me that the values taught by most religions have not been used to help others.
So besides the fact that theists may believe in an entity that you might think is "illogical" or disagrees with you bigoted points of view, why do you atheists in general hate religion? Human nature spawns ignorance, bigotry, and violence, NOT religion.
Thoughts?
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Don't everyone be so rough on philosophy. A degree in philosophy allows a person to ask that all important question in life. " Would you like fries with that? "
It takes a village to raise an idiot.
Save a tree, eat a vegetarian.
Sometimes " The Majority " only means that all the fools are on the same side.
LOL, good one.
But all the lawyers making six figures who studied logic and philosophy as a foray into law school would disagree with you. There are also plenty of college professors, journalists, writers, international relation specialists who would disagree with you.
I have a degree in philosophy and I'm a social worker.
Just check this out:
http://www.worldwidelearn.com/online-education-guide/arts-humanities/philosophy-major.htm
If that's the only degree you have and you are in the US I call bullshit. You need a Masters in Social Work to do that.
Matt Shizzle has been banned from the Rational Response Squad website. This event shall provide an atmosphere more conducive to social growth. - Majority of the mod team
So far, lets sum up this thread. You people have failed to prove the association between certain irrational beliefs (belief in God maybe?) and being "prone to abuse power." For example if someone rationally or irrationally believes in God (makes no difference) how does that then make them prone to abuse power, or moreso than somebody who does not? Non-sequitur.
So far, let's sum up this thread. You asked:
I don't hate religion, but I do oppose religion. I do so because religion's an inherently authoritarian system, and I oppose all authoritarian systems.
That sums up the thread.
Now you're asking:
It doesn't. Once again: I'm not a supporter of authoritarian atheists, either. Any system that seeks to establish unquestionable authority is inherently evil. The simple fact that good people can put an evil system to the service of the greater good doesn't change that the system itself is inherently evil, it simply means that we do not need to let such inherently immoral tools serve the ends to which they are designed.
"You've got to remember that these are just simple farmers. These are people of the land. The common clay of the new West. You know... morons." - The Waco Kid
Too many unsupported assumptions there and inconsistant logic. I'm not a supporter of authoritarian theism either! I agree that any system that seeks to establish unquestionable authority is inherently evil, but fortunately this is not necessary with a theist taking office. Your unsupported assertion is that belief in God is necessarily bad or "evil".
Even most Scientologists are willing to help the community; they believe that Scientology exists for the benefit of mankind in the first place, so, why not? However, the bottom line is that dogma is dangerous, for the individuals cannot think freely and are controlled by the institution or system.
Although, I think we might be discussing two different things since a belief in a creator, by itself, isn't a system. For the record, I don't think that a belief in God is somehow inherently evil or bad, as long as the proponent of the belief reached this conclusion independently and will be willing to change in the face of evidence.
Our revels now are ended. These our actors, | As I foretold you, were all spirits, and | Are melted into air, into thin air; | And, like the baseless fabric of this vision, | The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces, | The solemn temples, the great globe itself, - Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve, | And, like this insubstantial pageant faded, | Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff | As dreams are made on, and our little life | Is rounded with a sleep. - Shakespeare
Not at all. Faith, by itself, may be self-deceptive. It may even be self-destructive in some cases. In other cases, faith can be uplifting and fulfilling. Even if there is no God (to say nothing of if there is), faith can be the instrument our minds use to give us a reason and a willingness to face the world every day. Faith is a belief, and beliefs can be good or bad, depending on how we respond to our beliefs, but are inherently our own.
Faith and Religion are two very, very different things. And you asked about Religion.
Religion is a set of ordered, organized beliefs and practices, strictures and taboos, handed down from an external source in order to maintain their coherance and uniformity across a group or community of people. Religion is the hierarchy of acceptance of that sourcing. Religion depends upon the priest, whether he be called a priest, a minister, a rabbi, an imam, a kannushi, a swami, a brahma, etc etc. The uniform continuity of beliefs and practices across the community is where religion comes in. Religion is the maintenance of that conformity, and the establishment of the hierarchy whose function is primarly to perform that maintenance.
Religion is the establishment of a structure of authority intended to ensure uniformity of thought and behavior which cannot be questioned, because to question that authority only proves your need for it.
That's evil.
"You've got to remember that these are just simple farmers. These are people of the land. The common clay of the new West. You know... morons." - The Waco Kid
Religion is evil
Making statement with disregard for the evidence is lying. Factual statements made in disregard for the know facts are lies. The fact that in the future evidence may become known does not justify making factual statements that contradict the known facts, even if evidence is discovered in the future that overwhelmingly supports those previously unsupported statements, it would not justify them. Religion is just lying to yourself and others – it is simply a form of evil.
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Definition of “prejudice”: beliefs that are not based on evidence.
Definition of “bigotry”: thoughts, speech and treatment of other people based on prejudices.
Religion is bigotry, and bigotry is evil.
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Definition of “rational faith”: confidence in proportion to the known evidence for a belief.
Definition of “irrational faith, blind faith, dishonest faith, religious faith”: confidence in disregard for the known evidence for a belief.
Irrational faith is obtained by techniques of self-hypnosis or self-brainwashing usually by lying to yourself and others repeatedly until you generate dishonest confidence.
Irrational faith is the root of all evil. Irrational faith was the method by which the Nazis were able to believe that it was good to send Jews and others to concentration camps where ten million died.
Irrational faith was the method by which the Stalinists and Maoists and Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge were able to believe that it was good to send dissenters and potential reactionaries to gulags where tens of millions died.
Irrational faith was the method that Christian Hutus in Rwanda convinced themselves that it was good to hack to death 100,000 Christian Tutsis with machetes in 1994.
Irrational faith was the method by which Christians convinced themselves that it was good to murder by sword and burning alive tens of millions of pagans, heretics, Moslems, witches and Jews.
As far as I can determine, every atrocity ever committed by man was based on irrational faith.
Almost everyone who commits some antisocial crime uses irrational faith to convince themselves that there is some justification for their crime.
Religious faith is just a species of evil irrational faith. It is not inherently different than the irrational faith used to justify communism or fascism or racism or any other bigotry or rationalization for evil.
Your religious beliefs are false and your irrational faith in them is evil.
when you say "faith" I think "evil lies"
when you say "god" I think "santa clause"
Religion is a system that seeks to establish unquestionable authority. By your own statements, you are agreeing the religion is evil.