[Lugez]

Originally Posted by TheNumber42

Except science, government and political ideologies all have tangible benefits for their adherents.

You sure about that? I find their "tangible benefits" are often very questionable much of time. Religion isn't much different in the end.

Originally Posted by TheNumber42

And jsut because many of the great minds in history were able to overcome that pparticular shortcoming doesn't mean anything. Many of the greatest minds in history were male. Does that mean being male gave them some advantage over females? Correlation does not equal causation

I wasn't correlating anything, just stating a fact.

Religion wasn't a shortcoming to them. It was a tool they used that helped them achieve what they wanted to achieve. In my eyes: Depending on the person, religion can either be a crutch, or a tool for their success. It's about how you use the belief to achieve your goals.

Originally Posted by TheNumber42

All religion has is shaky promises of a better afterlife. Pair that with moral immunity since you are only following God's orders and it becomes a pretty serious problem.

The only thing that religion does that secular organizations couldn't is to make fancy promises of some better afterlife and to offer false hope and fairly tales. All of the charitable functions could be fulfilled much better by secular organizations who didn't feel the need to preach as part of their mission.

Then there is the part where religion brainwashes children, promotes archaic bigotry because their magic book says so, corrupts education, stifles science and promotes violence among other things.

I agree. Though religion treats the putting everyone else down part practice
a commandment.

Going to disagree here. I'll argue that most religious communities aren't the way you're portraying them to be and pretty much everything you said here is false, to an extent. It seems like when people hear "religion," they think of the Westboro Baptist Church, or Scientology, and ignore all the rest.

Yes, religion has a bad side (it is an institution run by people, after all), we can all agree to that. But is it enough to completely abolish it? How prevalent is this "archaic bigotry" that you claim? Religion isn't the only thing that teaches this stuff, you know.

I went to Catholic school until high school, and I sure as hell was never taught to put down others.

Originally Posted by TheNumber42

Because it is harmful. People are scared into spending their whole lives living up to the expectations of religion by the idea of hell and with the promise of a reward in the next life. They essentially throw away this life for a most likely imaginary reward. It's no different than if you told someone all they had to do was follow a strict set of arbitrary rules their whole life and they could be resurrected as one of Santa's elves.

I mean, it's just like any other mental illness, they have to want to get better, but I would feel like a heartless human being if I didn't at least try to help.

And how is society any different? Every single one of us is forced to live up to certain expectations, whether those are religious or societal. One might be more practical, sure, but people do find mental stability and comfort in Religion. So why try to take that away?

And you honestly put religious people on the same level as the mentally ill? If that's all it takes to be mentally ill, then get ready to get a great majority of our population some help.

I'm tired of people saying "this" is right, or "that" is normal and anyone who disagrees needs to be helped (this leads to very questionable thinking). Maybe the person doesn't want help because they don't need it. They live their lives just great with their own beliefs.

I also want to note that I believe people do throw around their religious affiliations too freely at times. Someone may "claim" to be Christian, but doesn't do anything a Christian should do and completely disregards what Jesus taught. I've met Atheists who are better Christians.

On a very unrelated note, here is a stealing seagull.


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