Is "Religion" Good or Bad for the World?

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S

SnotBubbles

Dec 29, 2009 3:58 PM
Let's try and discuss this while putting our religious beliefs to the side. Seriously...if we had no "religion," would the world be a better place? So much of the humanity's evils are caused by religion. What do you think?
Dec 29, 2009 3:58pm
sleeper's avatar

sleeper

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27,879 posts
Dec 29, 2009 4:00 PM
Yes.
Dec 29, 2009 4:00pm
gorocks99's avatar

gorocks99

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10,760 posts
Dec 29, 2009 4:00 PM
Impossible to discuss this while putting religious beliefs to the side. HOWEVER ... I would say no, just because organized religion has played an instrumental role in building civilization as we know it today. Obviously we could do without the constant pissing matches between organized religions though.
Dec 29, 2009 4:00pm
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derek bomar

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3,722 posts
Dec 29, 2009 4:01 PM
Hard to say...large scale wars could probably be avoided but smaller acts of kindness may die off...who knows
Dec 29, 2009 4:01pm
Strapping Young Lad's avatar

Strapping Young Lad

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2,453 posts
Dec 29, 2009 4:02 PM
Religion makes people do crazy shit. We need the truth. Whatever that is.
Dec 29, 2009 4:02pm
J

jmog

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6,567 posts
Dec 29, 2009 4:05 PM
Considering our basic criminal justice systems are based off of religious morals, I'd say no, the world would not be better without religion.

Compare our basic criminal laws with say the 10 commandments, you'll see a striking similarity.

Don't kill, don't steel, don't bare false witness (perjury), etc.
Dec 29, 2009 4:05pm
gorocks99's avatar

gorocks99

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10,760 posts
Dec 29, 2009 4:06 PM
jmog wrote:Don't kill, don't steel, don't bare false witness (perjury), etc.


Sinner.
Dec 29, 2009 4:06pm
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darbypitcher22

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8,000 posts
Dec 29, 2009 4:09 PM
I don't know.... in other countries seems to cause a hell of a lot of killings, bombings, etc...
Dec 29, 2009 4:09pm
sleeper's avatar

sleeper

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Dec 29, 2009 4:09 PM
jmog wrote: Considering our basic criminal justice systems are based off of religious morals, I'd say no, the world would not be better without religion.

Compare our basic criminal laws with say the 10 commandments, you'll see a striking similarity.

Don't kill, don't steel, don't bare false witness (perjury), etc.
Do you truly believe if we didn't have the ten commandments, theft, murder, and perjury would be legal?

This is exactly why religion is bad, makes the whole population absolutely delusional.
Dec 29, 2009 4:09pm
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j_crazy

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8,372 posts
Dec 29, 2009 4:10 PM
if God exists, it's good for the world. If not, religion has created TONS of problems. Much more than it's fixed.
Dec 29, 2009 4:10pm
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Cat Food Flambe'

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1,230 posts
Dec 29, 2009 4:12 PM
At the individual level, much worse off without it. Faith doesn't require enforcement - your deity is all-knowing.

At the national level, much better off without it - even genuine faith tends to get hijacked by governments in the cause of political power because religious law are considered unassailable by many. This is why wise governments separate church and state.

Then again,we'd just find something else to serve as a "holy mandate" (example: J J H U D D L E vs. F R E E H U D D L E. :) )
Dec 29, 2009 4:12pm
S

SnotBubbles

Dec 29, 2009 4:15 PM
j_crazy wrote: if God exists, it's good for the world. If not, religion has created TONS of problems. Much more than it's fixed.
The problem with that is...there are more than 1 "gods" in the world....
Dec 29, 2009 4:15pm
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Strapping Young Lad

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2,453 posts
Dec 29, 2009 4:17 PM
Those laws which outlaw murder, theft, perjury, etc. are pretty basic ideas that help any social communtiy, ancient or contemporary, function more efficiently. I don't think it takes God to figure that out.
Dec 29, 2009 4:17pm
U

underdog32

Member

57 posts
Dec 29, 2009 4:18 PM
I think it's a wash. With or without religion people would be fighting over something. It is not so much the fault of any one religion as it is crazy people using religion as an excuse to do bad things.
Dec 29, 2009 4:18pm
J

jmog

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6,567 posts
Dec 29, 2009 4:19 PM
sleeper wrote:
jmog wrote: Considering our basic criminal justice systems are based off of religious morals, I'd say no, the world would not be better without religion.

Compare our basic criminal laws with say the 10 commandments, you'll see a striking similarity.

Don't kill, don't steel, don't bare false witness (perjury), etc.
Do you truly believe if we didn't have the ten commandments, theft, murder, and perjury would be legal?

This is exactly why religion is bad, makes the whole population absolutely delusional.
Actually yes, look at human history, civilizations have tended to have laws based on their religious backgrounds, for good or for bad.

To the Mayans, murder (human sacrafice) was "ok" because it was part of their religion.

In the US, our basic moral standards, like them or not, agree with them or not, are from the Judeo-Christian moral standards.

10 commandments, "treat others as you want to be treated", etc.

If you don't believe this, then I suggest you research some historical civilizations.
Dec 29, 2009 4:19pm
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j_crazy

7 gram rocks. how i roll.

8,372 posts
Dec 29, 2009 4:22 PM
another thing that irks me is how stubborn people get about it. if tomorrow they replicated the big bang and proved once and for all that God didn't create the earth, people still would blindly deny it. religion is fear mongering in disguise.
Dec 29, 2009 4:22pm
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Strapping Young Lad

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2,453 posts
Dec 29, 2009 4:26 PM
Only a small percentage of our laws are actually similar to the commandments anyhow. Murder, theft, perjury.

Those are pretty basic to keeping the peace in a social group. Nothing divine about that.
Dec 29, 2009 4:26pm
sleeper's avatar

sleeper

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Dec 29, 2009 4:35 PM
jmog wrote:
sleeper wrote:
jmog wrote: Considering our basic criminal justice systems are based off of religious morals, I'd say no, the world would not be better without religion.

Compare our basic criminal laws with say the 10 commandments, you'll see a striking similarity.

Don't kill, don't steel, don't bare false witness (perjury), etc.
Do you truly believe if we didn't have the ten commandments, theft, murder, and perjury would be legal?

This is exactly why religion is bad, makes the whole population absolutely delusional.
Actually yes, look at human history, civilizations have tended to have laws based on their religious backgrounds, for good or for bad.

To the Mayans, murder (human sacrafice) was "ok" because it was part of their religion.

In the US, our basic moral standards, like them or not, agree with them or not, are from the Judeo-Christian moral standards.

10 commandments, "treat others as you want to be treated", etc.

If you don't believe this, then I suggest you research some historical civilizations.
I understand that our laws are closely related to religion, but that's not what I asked. I asked if you thought killing someone else would be legal without religion? Can you even imagine a society in which it is okay to kill someone? Basic social law would include the inability to kill another person, whether you like it or not.

Plus, your mayan example is piss poor, because their religion clearly was a detriment to society as human sacrifice is not a good thing.
Dec 29, 2009 4:35pm
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bigdaddy2003

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7,384 posts
Dec 29, 2009 4:37 PM
I'm not a religious person but how can we sit here and say that it's a fact that our laws would be the same if there was never religion? The truth is we don't know how things would go.
Dec 29, 2009 4:37pm
U

underdog32

Member

57 posts
Dec 29, 2009 4:54 PM
j_crazy wrote: another thing that irks me is how stubborn people get about it. if tomorrow they replicated the big bang and proved once and for all that God didn't create the earth, people still would blindly deny it. religion is fear mongering in disguise.
But what created the big bang :huh:
Dec 29, 2009 4:54pm
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CenterBHSFan

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6,115 posts
Dec 29, 2009 5:00 PM
With or without religion people would be fighting over something. It is not so much the fault of any one religion as it is crazy people using religion as an excuse to do bad things.

Yep!
Dec 29, 2009 5:00pm
B

BCSbunk

Senior Member

972 posts
Dec 29, 2009 5:10 PM
I voted yes. Though there are some goods out of religion but not too many.
Dec 29, 2009 5:10pm
S

slide22

Senior Member

330 posts
Dec 29, 2009 5:14 PM
Since religion is just PURE evil, I voted yes.


Sarcasm alert..
Dec 29, 2009 5:14pm
U

underdog32

Member

57 posts
Dec 29, 2009 6:38 PM
While there are many terrible things that have been associated with religion, let us not forget the religious charities that help people out every day. Not to mention many hospitals have ties to one religion or another. If anyone has any statistics on that it would be nice.
Dec 29, 2009 6:38pm
F

fan_from_texas

Senior Member

2,693 posts
Dec 29, 2009 6:54 PM
I think the world is better off with religion. FWIW, many of our common law concepts (most?) are derived from the Bible.
Dec 29, 2009 6:54pm