Again, I don't believe in any of this, and we have lots of evidence for all the bad things religions have done, but it has plenty of value for believers. — Manuel
"The opium of the masses" makes them junkies and perpetually keeps them down-and-out, dog-eat-dog ... A 'sacramental' vicious cycle. — 180 Proof
It served its purpose for a time but now needs to be let go. — Darkneos
I'd be glad to see religion phase out over time, at least then you'd be able to reason with folks better. — Darkneos
People seem to forget that religion is the reason LGBT people, who merely just exist, fear for their lives and rights. — Darkneos
They invent the problem and sell the solution. — Darkneos
I know that without Christianity my childhood could have been spared soooo much grief and many others too. — Darkneos
But what I want to talk about is the phenomenon of literalism in particularly Christianity and Islam, but also Hinduism and even Buddhism, that seems to have begun in the 18th Century
— unenlightened
Ah. As opposed to the literalism which resulted when the early Church through Councils and otherwise tossed out what's been called the Apocrypha, or which resulted through the Protestant Reformation, or the division of the Church into western and eastern Christianity, for example. — Ciceronianus
While there appears to be some uncertainty about when and which Bibles were first brought to America, authors generally agree that the first complete Bible printed in America was in 1663 at the Cambridge, Massachusetts printing house of Samuel Green and Marmaduke Johnson. — google
In a way, the Holocaust was part of a wretchedly long (sub)culture, an abominable "tradition", that you could hope ended, though it doesn't quite seem like it. :/ — jorndoe
First, to set fire to their synagogues or schools … This is to be done in honor of our Lord and of Christendom, so that God might see that we are Christians …"
"Second, I advise that their houses also be razed and destroyed."
"Third, I advise that all their prayer books and Talmudic writings, in which such idolatry, lies, cursing, and blasphemy are taught, be taken from them."
"Fourth, I advise that their rabbis be forbidden to teach henceforth on pain of loss of life and limb …"
"Fifth, I advise that safe-conduct on the highways be abolished completely for the Jews. For they have no business in the countryside …"
"Sixth, I advise that usury be prohibited to them, and that all cash and treasure of silver and gold be taken from them …"
"Seventh, I recommend putting a flail, an ax, a hoe, a spade, a distaff, or a spindle into the hands of young, strong Jews and Jewesses and letting them earn their bread in the sweat of their brow … But if we are afraid that they might harm us or our wives, children, servants, cattle, etc., … then let us emulate the common sense of other nations such as France, Spain, Bohemia, etc., … then eject them forever from the country …
There really isn't a good reason to keep it around. You can have all that stuff without religion, but a lot of the evil in the world had religion at it's heart. You'd be surprised what those who believe they are "God's chosen" can be capable of. — Darkneos
Of course. Organized religion is a social mechanism. That is its main purpose and main (only?) benefit.That doesn't sound like a religion thing that sounds like a community thing, which you can have without religion. — Darkneos
But if they truly believed that death is not dying, but a passage to something better, why would they be? (Indeed, the interdict of suicide was invented by the RCC to prevent Christian serfs escaping from their masters.) They're okay with their saviour suffering and dying to enable them to live, but they'll buy kidneys from organ-leggers to put off following Him? It does happen that true believers let go of a spent life with grace and dignity (of course, so do some unbelievers). But I'm a bit skeptical regarding professed Christians' depth of faith. (especially the ones with those teeshirts)Most people are afraid to die. — Janus
You’d be hard pressed to find one that doesn’t. Most religions have something against it. — Darkneos
The bastard has thus far shown no inclination to die at all. https://shepherd.com/book/towing-jehovah He's got more adherents now than ever before, coz they kept on keep on multiplying at His behest and for every suicide in His name, a hundred women are forced to make new ones.Yes, the jealous god dies hard. — Wayfarer
Who was killed for the sport of pirhana-baiting this time?Plenty of atheist dogma on display in this thread, but then, that's what you're going to get as soon as post an OP with such a title. Like tossing bloodied meat into the Piranha River.
Dogma is not only religious. 'The central dogma of molecular biology is a theory stating that genetic information flows only in one direction, from DNA, to RNA, to protein, or RNA directly to protein.' Political orthodoxies have their dogmas, as do many other disciplines - Soviet Communism was notoriously dogmatic. Dogma is simply the regular form of an accepted principle or axiom. In itself it is not necessarily problematic, but becomes so when it is allied with authoritarianism, which is often is. — Wayfarer
But there are some interesting associations in this space. — Tom Storm
I've often wondered if Mormons are protestants. They were born out of the early 1800's American rise in religion, but they were also ultimately driven out by protestants too. Accepting them back into the fold of Christianity, which does seem to have happened from my vantage now, is a relatively recent phenomena -- I recall Christians handing out anti-Mormon literature growing up. — Moliere
↪universeness If you guys are interested in Hitler's religious beliefs, you can read them here: — Hanover
If you guys are interested in Hitler's religious beliefs, you can read them here: — Hanover
They are, as I have said, inconsistent and varying over time. He was not a religious ideologue or zealot. It's just not a credible argument to make that Nazism was just yet another iteration of religion gone wrong. — Hanover
Yeah, just like opium, it makes them feel good, but it could shut down options that they would otherwise pursue, maybe getting into political activism or something along those lines, because why bother? We are going to a better place, etc. — Manuel
As a side note, and maybe to piss of militant atheists some more, secularism specifically came out Christianity. — ChatteringMonkey
No secularism before Jesus Christ? Really? :rofl: Did every human on Earth that existed before Jesus Christ (who himself probably never existed, believe in gods? — universeness
Maybe you have this mixed up though. Jesus was anti-religion. He rebelled against the Jews. You must recognize that there was no Christianity at that time, so he was not promoting a religion called Christianity, he was simply rebelling against religion. So when, if, he said "I am the truth", then it was in an anti-religious context. — Metaphysician Undercover
The most difficult thing about understanding the New Testament is to discern what Jesus actually said, and did, when all that is provided is hearsay. — Metaphysician Undercover
I would prefer to believe that Christ was speaking from a universalist perspective, rather than proclaiming the requirements of a sectarian religious affiliation ("Yo! Christians! Form a queue to the right! Others - outer darkness!'). — Wayfarer
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