Originally Posted by
TaffTalk
I understand what your saying Tash, I don't want to offend but once again your slipping into the classic mistake of thinking that only two religions exist - Islam and Christianity.
Religion is negative because if you look at it, the majority of wars have some sort of religious undertone. How anyone can say they are representing their God in a war of all things is beyond me because as far as I know God said we should all get along.
-Religion does play a huge role in warfare, and for this reason it is extremely positive. Consider this, no religion, no reason to try and justify a war in terms of Divinity, no higher power than the state.
Most leaders pepper speeches with Religion because they know that declaring a war needs to be religiously justified. In terms of the Roman Catholics, the minuet the Pope denounces the war, all support with fall apart.
Without anything higher than the state totalitarianism reigns. Classic example: The Third Reich. The fighting is coming from the perversion of holy scriptures by those who see that they need to overcome religion and make their cause appear just.
Religion also creates extremism, people who are willing to pretty much break every rule in their holy book in the name of their god.. which sort of negates the point to me
- You don't get more extreme than Hitler, Pol Pot, Stalin, Lenin, Amin, Mugabe, Tse-Tung, amongst others. Your Atheist martyrs.
Further to this, religion, organised at least, creates too many boundaries and rules, the majority of which limit a persons life because they are afraid of what might happen to them (heaven/hell etc).
- A couple of laws that Religion try's to enforce, please outline which ones you think society would benefit from if it was seen as acceptable.
Ten Commandments (Foundation laws of Christianity and parts of Islam)
ONE: 'You shall have no other gods before Me.' - Not to deny ones religion.
TWO: 'You shall not make for yourself a carved image--any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.' - Force people to believe you are high then God. (See: Charles I, Stalin, Amin)
THREE: 'You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain.' - Manners.
FOUR: 'Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.' - A day of rest (Remember without Religion forget Religious international holidays, also forget Weekends, as Saturday and Sunday are the Sabbath days).
FIVE: 'Honor your father and your mother.' - If you don't do this already you should be ashamed.
SIX: 'You shall not murder.' - ...
SEVEN: 'You shall not commit adultery.' - Honouring marriage and relationships.
EIGHT: 'You shall not steal.' - ... even if its the only way I'm ever going to get an Aston Martin, Sigh.
NINE: 'You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.' - To remain truthful.
TEN: 'You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife. - The hardest of all to obey, we're talking the seven sins, particularly lust and envy.
The Ten Precepts (Buddhism)
Refrain from taking life. - ...
Refrain from stealing. - ...
Refrain from sexual misconduct. - Honouring relationships.
Refrain from lying. - ...
Refrain from using intoxicants. - For ones own health. Alternativley it is acceptable to drink alcohol aslong as one does not intoxicant themselves beyond mindset.
Refrain from gossiping. - ...
Refrain from praising oneself. - Arrogance.
Refrain from meanness. - ...
Refrain from aggression. - ...
Refrain from slandering the Three Jewels. - This is basically respecting each other and not denouncing ones self also.
Like I said, is it the murdering or the sexual deviance that you would think makes these simple rules restrictive?
Homophobia is supposedly wrong in almost every single mainstream religion and for someone who doesn't believe in God to see the hypocrisy of this beggers belief to me because some who follow it cannot see it.
- Like I said, I can think of one religion where this might be applied. I know for a fact that Christianity, Buddhism, Taoism, Conservative Judaism, Episcopal, United Church of Christ, Lutheran, Methodist, Presbyterian, Puritan and Scientology are openly acceptable of homosexuality. This is your most valid point.
Hopefully I have enlightened a little bit to the common misconceptions.