Originally posted by: ntdz
Originally posted by: TastesLikeChicken
Originally posted by: Steeplerot
why wouldn't I?
If this is some attempt to turn me forget it I dont need a smelly old bible....
Just curious how you see yourself in the coming years. ime, most people don't adhere to their more radical phases through their entire life.
Turn you to the bible? Me? Eh, you're barking up the wrong tree. I'm a confirmed agnostic who personally believes organized religion has foisted some of the worst ills of mankind on our society.
I'm athiest/agnostic (I really don't know which right now), but I don't think Christianity has been harmful to our society. Most of the morals and values we have today come from Christianity. Christianity teaches good things, and there aren't many people blowing themselves up in the name of Jesus. Could you be specific and name what ills you think it's caused mankind?
First I just want to make it clear that I purposefully phrased my statement as "organized religion" because I wasn't singling out or picking on any one religion. There are many religions that are the culprits. The phrase "our society" was probably a bit wrong though because it implies today when I really was pointing not only to our society, but back throughout written history.
As far as Christianity, some specific ills it has foisted on mankind that I consider absolute crimes would be things like the destruction of the libarary at Alexandria, the Dark Ages in Europe - along with the brutal fuedal system, the restrictions on reading and writing, and the wars it fostered under the name of God - the Inquisition, and the systematic imperialistic rape of countries and cultures throughout the world during the time of expansionist Europe.
I've heard the argument that it wasn't Christianity respsonsible for those things. That it was groups or individuals that fomented those evils using Christianity as their cover. The claim is that "real" Christians wouldn't be that way or do that sort of thing.
I would agree as well. Supposedly "real" Christians wouldn't. But that doesn't go to the organization of Christianity; that statement goes to the ideals of Christianity and individuals that adhere to those ideals. Unfortunately people don't always stick to ideals and organized Christianity made those things I named possible and were often directly involved in the orchestration of those events right to the people and groups at the very top.
Today we have fundamentalist Islam wreaking havoc and being used as an excuse to murder and control people around the globe. That's what happens when religion and politics mix and thankfully the great men who founded this country were smart enough to know to keep them more or less separated. Religion has no place making determinations in government and that's the way it should be everywhere. That's where the evils from organized religion always seem to arise. If religious organizations want to exist to service their professed member's needs, great and fine. Don't expect me or any other non-professed members to act according to their edicts though and stay the hell out of governments because evil almost invariably arises from such an arrangement.
Sorry for the rather vicious rant, but that's one of the touchier subjects with me.