Would The World Be better Without Religion

Gregg Easterbrook

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

"Hitler and Stalin stood for a whole without religion, "

Leaving Stalin out of it for the moment, didn't Hitler exterminate vast numbers of people based on their religion?
Could not being Jewish be considered a cause of death in Germany in 1940?
It's all semantics. I do believe my point was understood well enough.

[Windshark]

Good generalization.

Too bad you didn't say much. But neither did your article. Refute what I said with some facts (facts? we don't need no steenkin facts!). I suppose Lenin, Stalin and Mao were religious too. The sorry fact is all horrors (I have no use for that kind of horror either) done in the name of religion are miniscule compared to the ones done in the name of atheism or non-religion and their dogmas of "brotherhood"

Equating occultism with religion would mean every idea is a religious idea.

Without definition you have no argument. Along with John Lennon you can "Imagine there's no nothing"

[Pistias]

You must have taken Telepathy 101 this semester...

[colorado tanker]

Good point. The roots of modern determinism are firmly embedded in the 19th century.

[jwalsh07]

The murders committed by communists can be laid at the feet of religion, at just one remove.

LOL, spoken like a true ideologue.

[watchin]

Ok, I'll spot you 6 million right off the bat for all the people that were killed because of their Jewish faith.

You're confusing the issue, and you know it. People being killed because of their religion is not in the same category as people being killed in the name of religion - and hardly a condemnation of religion. It is a condemnation of those who hate God, which illustrates my point. Far more people have been killed in the name of atheist regimes than in the name of God.

[watchin]

The murders committed by communists can be laid at the feet of religion, at just one remove.

That's the craziest thing I've ever read on FR. By the same reasoning, all crimes can be blamed on the victims. Really twisted thinking.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

"You're confusing the issue, and you know it. People being killed because of their religion is not in the same category as people being killed in the name of religion"

I may be confusing the issue but I am attempting to clarify my point since almost everyone that replied to me seemed to think I stated that people were killed, as you say, "in the name of religion".
That's not what I stated. I made no distinction between the two categories. That may be seen as intentionally misleading or disingenuous, but I know full well that far more people have died by other means than being killed in the name of religion.
Besides, my original comment was an attempt to paraphrase George Carlin and was meant to be facetious anyway.
There. Hope that clears it up.

[MonroeDNA]

Organized religion versus your own personal relationship with God.

[MonroeDNA]

Let's take your premise a step further... and prohibit any discussion of religion since discussing religion may influence someone thus diminishing independent thought.

This is too easy. Would you care to point out exactly where I said discussion of religion should be prohibited? Please quote the exact line, if you can. :)

<<<"crickets">>>

[drstevej]

You never said it however your position, I believe, could lead to this as a logical consequence. I was once told by the head of the social studies department for the Dallas School District that history should be taught without discussion of religion since such discussion might influence people.

[MonroeDNA]

Huh?

Please explain how this means anything towards our topic.