I believe most theists on this board at one time or another have stated that at the very least religion has helped them in their lives. They tend to say we shouldn't use the negatives of religion to remove it from the lives of the individual. If it makes them feel better or live better lives why should it matter to us? I would like any theist to tell me how the lack of evidence of something helps the individual but more importantly I want to know how it can help society especially on the world stage. You will claim faith or even things you consider to be evidence but those things are entirely subjective even within the same religions. How can it be used as a tool without having the compacity to corrupt and create conflict when there can never be a set standard? If no one can deny you your interpretation of God you have no right to deny them theirs even when it leads to violence because there is plenty of that in every religion. How do we create a moral standard from credulity?
It seems to me that the problem with religions is that they tend to worship various gods instead of focusing on becoming better people. Therefore they get hung up on kissing up to some imaginary entity instead of improving their social behavior. How will sacrificing a virgin to a volcano or burning certain parts of an animal on an altar to a god make one a better person? A normal rational person will admit that such acts do nothing to make one a better person. All they do is to illustrate how nutty the people are who do those things. Will praying five times a day make you a better person or improve your disposition? It might if you like to follow set rituals but it could also drive you nuts. Will giving money to those in need make you a better person? It might if it stops you from robbing them or stop them from robbing you. Will it do anything for you if you do it with anger or contempt? Do you really need a deity to tell you to treat your parents with respect and honor? Some people might but others would treat their parents like dirt regardless. I think if a person can free himself of all negative and hurtful emotions, or at least control them, he will live a better life than any person who believes in a popular deity.
I think that good things can come when good people gather together in a spirit of community. Too bad it has to center around superstitious nonsense. And when I say "good people" that automatically eliminates conservatives.
Not only is this a caricature of religion, for many the worship of God or gods includes improving social behavior. The idea of sacrifice, human or otherwise, was a ritual that pulled communities together. But how many faiths still do that? Why are they nutty? Human sacrifice was a way of showing power over an enemy in most cases. Animal sacrifice was a way of showing the world did not belong to humanity, that we must give back to God. It is nutty in today's world, and thus not done as a main way of worship. Again why would it drive you nuts? Pray, for most, is a way of focusing beyond themselves. Stopping to ignore the material world to focus on how to be a better person is exactly what prayer is about. It is what you are asking for. Perhaps you should educate yourself about what you seem to complain about. This shows massive ignorance and sad that you seem to hate something you do not understand at all. Apparently you very statement suggests that this might be something that thinking beyond one's self could help. Funny, many popular deity faith traditions are designed to do just that. But you argue against it here using negative and hurtful emotions.
To be honest though we can see how theists have improved a great deal in regards to this because they do understand that such things are immoral and absurd so they change the text to something more metephorical. This of course is an evolution of ideas rather than the way there religion always was. Indeed, we are talking about improving the human condition and creating a middle man only serves to confuse the situation and when we look at the good and bad things done by theists we see that after all their faith in God they are no different from anyone else in regards to their morality.
You started out with a premise that was valid and then ruin it with your bias towards an entire group of people. Not only that but you prove on some level that you don't understand how the lables have been corrupted by those who are anything but conservative. And no I don't consider myself a conservative but many of the atheist I know indeed are.
I lived for several years in what the people from the right and left coast call "fly over country". They tend to be conservative there. We may get a few so biased and ignorant that they think all christians are fundies. A lot of christians complain of that, tho I've never seen it. Now we get the smartest man in the world making an equally invidious and ignorant statement about conservatives, that they are all the same, and, bad besides. What a peach he must be to have to deal with on a daily basis.
But is this a product of religion or simply human nature? His caricature is a valid point depending on the time and place you attribute it to. People progress but you can tell by the lowest rung of the American populace that it is often slowed greatly by credulous belief. We come from people who used to bury their children in post holes to prevent their buildings from being knocked down by their Gods. These are the types of people who wrote the bible who thanks to our moral and societal evolution are a far cry from those now reading it. The issue is that those reading it actually believe they get their morals from it rather than realizing they are simply applying their morality to it. This sounds more like meditation or some form of buddism and I won't say that it isn't valid for some who pray but in my experience this is not the case for the theists in my life. Theism rejects existentialism because you do not give your life meaning, God does. I assumed he meant that your actions should be tied to a real conviction and that if they are great but doing something considered good for the hope of reward or the fear of punishment changes their value. See above. True but we know that at least as much negativity comes from those same traditions making those who participate in it no different from those who don't.
I think the biggest thing missed in this religious debate is that we are all just human and that we are trying to find the best way to improve the human condition. We are just disagreeing on the best way to do it. For atheists we understand that credulity may make the individual feel better but when mapped onto a society conflict will always arise. I just realize I should say most atheists?
A world-wide, well-established, stern and powerful, and single religion would in fact translate to stability, law and order and peace on all the planet. It's ironic that white conservatives do not enthusiastically welcome Islamic Sharia Law to the United States. Islam is the only far right-wing religion available. It is also ironic that Democrats advocate and clamor for Islam to be instituted in America. Islam hates everything America's free-lifestyle Democrats love. When Islam arrives, it will have no mercy for homosexuals, socialists, liberals, the politically correct and Democrats in general. Take America back -- bring on Sharia Law! O Allah! It is written. I will be done.
My dislike of theists is primarily an adjunct to my dislike of mindless conservatives. I would not consider an atheist conservative much if any improvement on the other kind. And I would more highly regard a liberal theist over an atheist conservative. I don't have much respect for clueless moderates who keep insisting that I should be nice to HORRIBLE people either. For those who just can't understand why here is a tiny little sample of the ever expanding list of reasons.
Hmmm... Historically, religions of many kinds existed over a world which believed the Myths explained why a Caesar or Pharaoh could claim total power over everyone. Christianity changed all that. Christianity made god a personal relationship between the believer and the only Almighty. This ultimately led to Democracy and the removal of even Kings. Zech. 13:1 In that day there shall be a fountain opened, (the New Testament), to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness. Zech. 13:2 And it shall come to pass in that day, (380 AD, when Emperor Theodosius I enacted a law establishing Catholic Christianity as the official religion of the Roman Empire and ordering others to be called heretics), saith the LORD of hosts, that I will cut off the names of the idols out of the land, and (Paganism) shall no more be remembered: and also I will cause the prophets, (especially of Astrology), and the unclean spirit (of Libidinal sexual excesses) to pass out of the land.
