Religion does more harm than good - poll

[and-justice-for-all]

82% say faith causes tension in country where two thirds are not religious.

more..http://www.guardian.co.uk/religion/Story/0,,1978045,00.html

[Erika]

1. Religion is a myth used by all for warmaking purposes

I'm downright sick of religion. W says God is on his side, the Islam extremists says God is on their side.

It gets old very fast.

[Skittles]

2. I am with you, girl

and they ALL think they are soooooooooo right

[Erika]

3. True...Ann Coulter says we need to kill their leaders and

the followers who won't convert to Christianity, and Al Qaeda says the same about those who won't convert to Islam. A bunch of sickos.

[az chela]

5. religion uses fear to force control on people

To be truly free go within your self and you wont need any one elses teachings or beliefs only your own

[wickerwoman]

7. But I think the primary purpose

is making money. It's a total racket.

There have always been sons of soldiers who weren't very good fighters and something had to be done with them and they certainly couldn't demean themselves and become farmers or tradesmen, so organized religion was set up so the aristocracy could provide comfy jobs for their extra kids who couldn't cut it as soldiers or landholders.

I'll never forget visiting the town in Ireland where most of the ships left for America during the potato famine. It's this tiny fishing village with barely any two-story buildings except for this monster cathedral towering over everything built on donations of poor, virtually starving families who wanted good luck on the sea voyage. It makes me nauseous to think of all the money that various religions have taken out of the pockets of the poor over the years- money that could have been used to feed and educate...

Sure, they give a little back (mostly in the form of free labor from those same poor people who coughed up the money) but a hell of a lot of it is lining the pockets of people who don't do shit to help anyone but themselves.

[az chela]

4. We have had wars since man was put on this planet

And they used religion to torture and take people's possesions and to cause hate
.Religion is responsible for wars,always has been

[davhill]

6. Religion is Like any Strong Emotional Experience

It can be used by amoral people to manipulate others and rationalize immoral actions. In that it is like love of country and love of family and all other kinds of love. Yet it is seldom proposed that all types of love be eliminated or avoided.

[Erika]

8. To put it simply, it is a comfortable crutch n/t

[davhill]

16. I don't know about the comfortable part

Right now in this country there is a nun sitting in jail because her faith led her to protest the military. I doubt the Reverend Martin Luther King was comfortable when he was imprisoned, nor were the hundreds of priests, nuns, rabbis, ministers and other people of faith who expressed that faith by marching with him. In China right now there are people of faith suffering persecution for their beliefs. Throughout history people and in the present day people have suffered and are suffering for their faith. I doubt if they are comfortable.

[wickerwoman]

9. I dunno...

my family is real. I can see them, touch them... They have done palpable things to help me- they took care of me when I was young. They sent me to school, fed and clothed me. They're there to bail me out when I screw up.

I don't think you can compare "love of family" with "love of country" or "love of God". I think "love of country" is absurd and should be eliminated because countries are just artificial constructs. I think "love of all mankind" is a thousand times more useful than "love of country". And again, mankind is demonstrably real and showing love for my family and for other people have observable good results. "Love of God", on the other hand, is based on faith and to the extent that faith is intolerant of other faiths or that it refuses to allow people to question it, it is dangerous and efforts should be made to contain it's influence on the big decisions in the world.

I don't think "love of God" should be eliminated. If you want to love God, knock yourself out. But the moment "love of God" is used to justify killing people, intervening in other people's lives or choices, preventing science from find cures for horrific diseases, or denying people equal rights because "God wouldn't approve" then I think "love of God" needs to be escorted out of the discussion.

[and-justice-for-all]

11. ^^^BRILLIANT^^^^^nt

[Sherman A1]

14. Well Said!

[davhill]

17. I'm sure your family is very real to you

They are not to me because I cannot see them or touch them. In a similar way, because you cannot experience God, that does not make those who do wrong.
Often you read about the perpetrators of spouse abuse, or even rape, justifying their violent acts in the name of "Love". This does not make love itself evil. My point is that the fact that some people use religion to justify their evil, or to manipulate others into doing evil, does not in itself make religion wrong.

[wickerwoman]

21. If you buy the plane ticket,

I'll give you the address. Of course you can see and touch my family. I'll even provide blood tests if you need proof of our relationship.

And I never said people who experience God are wrong. I'm saying people who use their beliefs in things that can't be substantiated to write policy that effects the lives of millions of others for the worse should not be put in the big chair.

Whether or not religion is "wrong" is beside the point. This thread is about the real life impact of saying you know for certain things that you can't possibly know. And that impact has been overwhelmingly negative both in our own time and in the past.

[beam me up scottie]

19. POTD !

:applause:

[and-justice-for-all]

10. My love for my family....

..or country DOES NOT have the similar effect that come with dogma filled ideologies. Loving tangables, like say family members, love is not the issue. The issue is in the dogma of socially toxic religious belief systems, LOVE in the realistic form is not a social poison.

Devote love for that which can not be seen and only loved on a bases of "faith", is in itself, delusional. Its also harmful to ones self and others.

[Skittles]

12. lol

good try

[Meshuga]

13. If it is not religion then it's something else

that makes people different that will cause the tension.

[Oleladylib]

15. Faith doesn't cause tensions...religions do..differentiate please.

[beam me up scottie]

18. That's a direct quote from the Guardian article.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/religion/Story/0,,1978045,00.html

[Oleladylib]

20. Interesting..I had not read the article or actually ever heard of the

Guardian.