Okay, I've noticed something in the previous two threads that sparked my notice. In the Islam and Christian thread, everyone who voted against religion did so because religion has been behind many horrible events in human history. Take the crusades, witch hunts, the occasional nutjobs, brainwashed bombers, the list goes on.
In a heartbeat, everyone says "It's all religion's fault! Get rid of it!", yet nobody ever looks towards the nature of people themselves, almost as if people would be all be saints if religion never existed. Yet, even if religion was gone, would prejudices be gone? Or would sexism, rape, greed, murder, war, or any of the hectic situations the world faces?
Would they even lessen? And if you think they would, why so? Time and time again, clever people in the past and present have corrupted religion and used it to manipulate others, and because of that, it's hard not to understand why some people hate religion. But is it religion that caused all the harm, or was it the destructive nature of human beings? Did religious nutjobs create the atom bomb, and did God tell Harry S. Truman to drop two of them over Hiroshima and Nagasaki? If not, then who's at fault here?
Nowadays, even if someone says they are religious, many rarely act any different than atheists or anyone else. There are many racists, rapists, druggies, murders, or whatever that claim to belong to a religion. So did religion make them go off and get high off meth and kill themselves, or rape the girl you saw in crossing the street? Assuming they have no mental instability, even if they claim to do something "in the name of God", isn't it always the case that they are actuing on their own ulterior motives (which is more often than not exposed), or were being manipulated by someone else?
I can't understand how people can easily blame concepts over the obvious revelation of human nature and failings. even in a world without religion, humans would be violent, wage war, be prejudiced, manipulate others, and just about every other thing that you see today. All they'd do is use something else to justify their actions. [/rant]
In a heartbeat, everyone says "It's all religion's fault! Get rid of it!", yet nobody ever looks towards the nature of people themselves, almost as if people would be all be saints if religion never existed. Yet, even if religion was gone, would prejudices be gone? Or would sexism, rape, greed, murder, war, or any of the hectic situations the world faces?
Would they even lessen? And if you think they would, why so? Time and time again, clever people in the past and present have corrupted religion and used it to manipulate others, and because of that, it's hard not to understand why some people hate religion. But is it religion that caused all the harm, or was it the destructive nature of human beings? Did religious nutjobs create the atom bomb, and did God tell Harry S. Truman to drop two of them over Hiroshima and Nagasaki? If not, then who's at fault here?
Nowadays, even if someone says they are religious, many rarely act any different than atheists or anyone else. There are many racists, rapists, druggies, murders, or whatever that claim to belong to a religion. So did religion make them go off and get high off meth and kill themselves, or rape the girl you saw in crossing the street? Assuming they have no mental instability, even if they claim to do something "in the name of God", isn't it always the case that they are actuing on their own ulterior motives (which is more often than not exposed), or were being manipulated by someone else?
I can't understand how people can easily blame concepts over the obvious revelation of human nature and failings. even in a world without religion, humans would be violent, wage war, be prejudiced, manipulate others, and just about every other thing that you see today. All they'd do is use something else to justify their actions. [/rant]
