Posted on 04/11/2002 2:47:21 PM PDT by catonsville
Not true. Faith is merely an excuse to kill other people.
The fundamental problem is that there are some people who just want to tell other people how to live their lives.
In some cases, it's "Worship my god, or I'll kill you".
In other cases, it's "Worship me, or I'll kill you".
In other cases, it's "Don't eat/smoke that plant, or I'll kill you".
And so on.
If it wasn't Faith used as an excuse to kill, it would be something else.
The real question, then, cannot be Whether the world would be better off without "religion."
Actually, it was fought to keep North America from picking up a new country.
I remind you that Lincoln himself said "If I could save the Union by freeing all of the slaves, I would do it. If I could save the Union by freeing none of the slaves, I would do that. If I could save the Union by freeing some of the slaves and leaving others in shackles, I would do that" (or something along those lines).
Flawed Article.
He needs to prove that the examples he cited are religious conflicts. Are they really religious conflicts, or simply conflicts between people of different religions.
He needs to prove his dichotomy of all religions vs no religions. No devote member of a religion would consider all religions equal. Nor would they defend the actions of the other religions, in order to justifiy their own.
He needs to compare religious wars vs all wars. Is religion a major cause of war, or a rare cause.
and finally
He needs to examine all the good that religion has done vs the harm. How does the good compare to the evil.
1Chronicles 17:21. I think this United States is this nation. It says, "WHAT ONE (ECHAD, UNITED) NATION in the earth is like thy people Israel, whom God went to redeem to be his own people, to make thee a name of greatness and terribleness, by driving out nations from before thy people, whom thou hast redeemed out of Egypt?" Jeremiah 6: 16 Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls.
Peace,
DrMike
1Chronicles 17:21. I think this United States is this nation. It says, "WHAT ONE (ECHAD, UNITED) NATION in the earth is like thy people Israel, whom God went to redeem to be his own people, to make thee a name of greatness and terribleness, by driving out nations from before thy people, whom thou hast redeemed out of Egypt?" Jeremiah 6: 16 Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls.
Peace,
DrMike
Radio Free Republic Thursday night April 11th 8PM CST "Faith in Action" with Michael Curtiss MD. Join us in our inaugural show when we discuss the biblical foundations of the United States of America. Call in lines are 1-886-radioFR and 1888-802-9293.
Bump this post and FReep mail me your input. Agape, DrMike
Ahhh, I should have made myself clearer. I was attempting to imply that religion as a social force can be a brake on the excesses of a state if they are decoupled.
Personal relationships with God are productive. But that would mean individual decisions, based on personal, independant thought. Not for the faint of heart. It's a lot easier to just follow your book, and priest (rabbi, whatever), and be part of the "accepted" crowd. We want to belong, to not think, to not question, to not be ostracized. That hurts.
Organized religion leads to "us against them."
"WE are the true believers, and those that oppose us oppose God. Everyone else is wrong, and are going to hell."
Sound familier?
Would the world be better without TV, the Internet, or politicians?
Not a question of religion, but of faith. The world would not be better without faith, because of belief in tomorrow we can get through today. Faith that things will get better requires hope and love. Faith that things will get worse is not faith at all, but depression and despair, which require a faith that things will get better to keep on living.
"Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love you tomorrow. You're only a day away."
If we didn't have religion, we would revert to tribalism as a substitute. Just look to Somalia to see what it would be like.
A very odd statement. Tribalism is inherently religious. The Somalis are very religious.
I think, in interpreting what many people here are saying, is that they think of religion in strictly western/levantine terms: a universal religion, absolutely true for all time and for all peoples, without exception. If that is "religion" then some "bad guys" have been religious, and some have not, some have been "tribal" and some have not.
But communism and other "non-religious" ideologies happen to share most of the underlying assumptions of "religion": that they have all the answers, for all people, for all time, everywhere, and that everything will be fine once their "truth" is universally acknowledged. This kind of thinking leads to war and intolerance more often than not.
But you can't just look at total body counts when talking about the 20th century: there were a lot more people alive then - you have to look at "per capita slaughter" if you want to claim to be objective. What distinguishes the larger body count of 20th century ideologies compared to, say, the wars of religion in Europe (one of which, for example, the 30 Years War, killed 1/3 the population of Germany), is that the 20th century had larger populations of "people in the way" and better technological means at the disposal of warring parties to more efficiently wipe them out.
That's "progress" for you.
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