Should religion be illegal?

[Dispatcher]

Originally Posted by Martel

Religion should be abolished, put simply, because religions are the root of most wars. If you look at the evidence, it is easy to see where religion has made its contribution to a large majority of wars that have taken their place in history.

Islam starts wars because they believe without a doubt that anyone who isn't a Muslim should be executed simply for not being a Muslim. Christianity tries to seem peaceful, but if you meet a fanatical Christian, they're anger would almost certainly turn into fury and then into murderous rage at the slightest blasphemy against their so-called God.

The list of hateful religions is quite extensive, religion in itself tries to preach peace even while they kill in the name of their God, for petty and insignificant reasons. Someone once told me that they would never watch the movie, "The Da Vinci Code," because it says that Jesus was married and had a kid. And it also "supposedly" subliminally states that Jesus killed a man. Now, I have seen the movie numerous times and never once, even in the slightest, does it make any suggestion that Jesus killed anyone. That movie simply states that Jesus was a mortal man, not the Son of God. And that Jesus' divinity was created by man.

Religions create fanatics, fanatics become killers in the name of their religion, and killers start wars. Therefore it could be concluded that religions start wars.

-Martel-

You have to understand....anything that people in great numbers want to do just goes underground if outlawed ( i.e. "The war on drugs").
People would just meet secretly in basements and back rooms.
And, I happen to believe in freedom of thought...even if that thought is not reality.

[Kytro]

Originally Posted by Martel

Religion should be abolished, put simply, because religions are the root of most wars. If you look at the evidence, it is easy to see where religion has made its contribution to a large majority of wars that have taken their place in history.

Religion is an excuse, but if it was not an excuse, something else would have been.

Originally Posted by Martel

Religions create fanatics, fanatics become killers in the name of their religion, and killers start wars. Therefore it could be concluded that religions start wars.

Usually wars use religious as fodder / excuses for political reasons.


In any case, religion is merely an symptom of the human tendency to want some form of explanation as to feel safe. While religion can achieve more than this, that is the basis of faith.

[Rhianann]

Any time you make something illegal, you make it more desirable. Case in point: prohibition.

Although I think if religion never developed the world would be a happier place, it's here now so we have to deal with it. Millions upon millions of people have died at the hands of one religious sect or another for refusing to convert.

[PJF]

Of course religion should not be abolished! This would be an enormous waste of time (and would be yet one more war-trigger, which sorta defeats the purpose of any point to such an abolition); if one wants religion done away with, it will be with not the tip of a sword but with the tip a tongue.

Here's my well-thought thoughts on religion; considering this to be my first post of any quasi-political substance in these forums, I hope you'll get to know me a little better:

...I eventually came to the realization that every faith ever practiced in the history of humanity has caused a cessation of intellect; if one book (The Bible) has all the answers and is unquestionable, then what incentive is there to think about anything else? I deeply hold the belief that any embrace of immutable dogma is a grave sin.

I believe faith is a function of the limits of the human psyche. It never fails; if we understand an idea, we take it as common sense, never invoking faith of any kind; we don't believe in a rain-god, because we understand the water-cycle; our astrophysicists understand a branch of calculus known as perturbation theory, therefore we don't need a god to explain the otherwise miraculous stability of the planets' orbits around our sun. Isaac Newton did not understand perturbation theory (it had yet to be discovered); because of that lack in his knowledge (which was vast but limited, to be sure), he could not mathematically explain the regularity and stability of our solar-system. According to his calculations, the orbits should be unstable, causing the planets and moons to fly away along random paths. In his Principia he concluded that this could only be due to an omnipotent force:

"The six primary Planets are revolv'd about the Sun, in circles concentric with the Sun, and with motions directed towards the same parts, and almost in the same plane....But it is not to be conceived that mere mechanical causes could give birth to so many regular motions.
...This most beautiful System of the Sun, Planets and Comets, could only proceed from the counsel and dominion of an intelligent and powerful Being."


Just as soon as we reach the boundaries of knowledge, we chalk up events to the supernatural. This is dangerous. We humans don't handle superstition very well, we get afraid, we worry about others' views of it, we kill and die over it. From A.D. 800-1100, Baghdad was the science capital of the world (Arabic numbers and algebra are products of this intellectually fertile period). Then Imam Hamid al-Ghazali (A.D. 1058-1111) whose philosophy basically said math is the work of the devil enters the equation. He forbade any thinking beyond the Koran, thereby undoing any intellectual progress and ushering in an age of violent fundamentalism that continues to this day. The Catholic teachings against contraception have had a profoundly negative impact in some parts of Africa, where use of condoms is considered sinful, but overpopulation and high AIDS rates are somehow taken for granted. Religion often tells us what is right, even if we know better.

. . .

I base my belief system on one premise: as an integral (albeit infinitesimal) part of reality, the ultimate job of being human is to humbly respect what actually is, regardless of what our terribly limited minds may want to think. Existence exists. I don't think anyone can disagree on that point. Since existence exists (in whatever form it does) we are compelled toward honest acknowledgment, whether we understand it or not.

So, do I belong to a sect? No. Am I an atheist, a deist, a pantheist? No, no, no. Am I undecided? No. Do I believe in the existence of God? That is an unanswerable question. Do I have faith? Yes, I have 100 percent faith in the fact that what is, IS.

The entirety of reality may be infinite, therefore impossible to define. It makes no sense to assign anything as the last word.

Respectfully submitted,
PF

[Libertaire]

To outlaw religion would be to outlaw conscientiousness. All human behavior that could considered institutional or individual beliefs, practices, or morality would be forbidden by state. It is often said that everybody worships something whether they call it that or not. Some worship the state. Some worship reason. Some worship self-esteem. For me, my faith is an essential element to liberty (though really the other way around). It encourages cooperation as something necessary in society for peaceful coexistence. Unjust aggression is wrong whether it is in the name of religion or in the name of the state. The state, however, is by its nature coercive.

[Schrödinger's Cat]

Originally Posted by Libertaire

Some worship the state. Some worship reason. Some worship self-esteem.

I disagree with that latter two. Worshiping reason would be like worshiping speech. You have the faculty to do both, or not. If someone advocates reason as something that should be used to weigh opinions, that isn't the worship of reason. You are misusing the word "worship". As for the first part, the state is only worshiped when it takes on the role of a pseudo-religion. A perfect example of this is N. Korea.

[Libertaire]

Originally Posted by Schrödinger's Cat

I disagree with that latter two. Worshiping reason would be like worshiping speech. You have the faculty to do both, or not. If someone advocates reason as something would should be used to weigh opinions, that isn't the worship of reason. You are misusing the word "worship". As for the first part, the state is only worshiped when it takes on the role of a pseudo-religion. A perfect example of this is N. Korea.

North Korea would be a perfect example of state worship, but the state takes on many roles of religious institutions to a lesser degree in other places as well. Marriage would be the most obvious example.
Reason is a function. I agree. However, there are those who deify reason as the source and solution of all human action. I may be oversimplifying, but I hope you understand my point.

[Rouger2]

Originally Posted by Martel

Religion should be abolished, put simply, because religions are the root of most wars. If you look at the evidence, it is easy to see where religion has made its contribution to a large majority of wars that have taken their place in history.

Islam starts wars because they believe without a doubt that anyone who isn't a Muslim should be executed simply for not being a Muslim. Christianity tries to seem peaceful, but if you meet a fanatical Christian, they're anger would almost certainly turn into fury and then into murderous rage at the slightest blasphemy against their so-called God.

The list of hateful religions is quite extensive, religion in itself tries to preach peace even while they kill in the name of their God, for petty and insignificant reasons. Someone once told me that they would never watch the movie, "The Da Vinci Code," because it says that Jesus was married and had a kid. And it also "supposedly" subliminally states that Jesus killed a man. Now, I have seen the movie numerous times and never once, even in the slightest, does it make any suggestion that Jesus killed anyone. That movie simply states that Jesus was a mortal man, not the Son of God. And that Jesus' divinity was created by man.

Religions create fanatics, fanatics become killers in the name of their religion, and killers start wars. Therefore it could be concluded that religions start wars.

-Martel-

Religions are good for most of the people in them. They build societies by teaching people how to work together without killing each other. You need people to know how to live with each other to create a society for protection and making life easier. Religions do not get along with other religions and that is the problem