religion,, is it really needed? Options

[Spirited Away]

again with the not everyone thing.

you really dont like me, dont you?

why do you think that?

i said the word 'people' is generalizing and i thanked you after you cleared up what you meant.

all of a sudden that means i don't like you?

this is a debate forum and you said that religion makes people do good things. however, you contradicted yourself by saying that even religious people will be bad...

i only wanted to point that out for the sake of debate.

i did not mean to make a personal offense. if so, i apologize.

[aznxdreamer]

why do you think that?

i said the word 'people' is generalizing and i thanked you after you cleared up what you meant.

all of a sudden that means i don't like you?

this is a debate forum and you said that religion makes people do good things. however, you contradicted yourself by saying that even religious people will be bad...

i only wanted to point that out for the sake of debate.

i did not mean to make a personal offense. if so, i apologize.

im not offended. i said it in a you know..cutesy way. dont worry about it

[Spirited Away]

im not offended. i said it in a you know..cutesy way. dont worry about it

now that i think about it... it is cutesy. thanks.

[ItzOnlySydney]

i am athiest. therefore i don't rly have a religion. but for some people it is something to fall back on.

[smile4me]

if the world didn't have religion, i think that we'd invent it anyway. or some form of it.
some things can't be explained (yet), and when people can't explain these things, they think of something and explain these phenomenons through that reasoning.

its liek the ancient greeks. a big storm? a god is mad.
infatuation between a man and a woman? a god is playing matchmaker.

[fameONE]

Reiligion can be abolished altogether but then some form of religion will be invented for the "good of mankind." Haven't any of you ever read Brave New World? Aldous Huxley was a muthaf--kin' genius.

[*xcaitlinx*]

i actually think it would be a lot better. For one, people wouldn't view other people as "sinful" or "evil" because they believe in a certain god/thing or even nothing at all. Like touch my monkey said, people find comfort when they believe in a god...so i think that people would be a lot less dependant on others if there were no religions. They'd probably have their own beliefs that developed in THEIR minds, not the minds of others meant to be followed.

[skateforfree]

religion doesn't really have a point in my life, but to others, it's a source for comfort and answers other things can't provide. i'm not religious myself, cause i just believe other things to be more logically true to me, but different people need different things to keep their minds stable.

[kandeep9]

I think that society needs religion...because if we didn't have it, then we'd fall apart. Religion is something that keeps large groups of people together, striving for the same belief. Yes, the religions are sometimes separated from each other, but the belief that there's a higher being brings us just a little bit closer. =]

[*Weird addiction*]

Seriously, i find religion useless (no offense) i mean, what good does it do? It does more bad than good IMO.

[OriskybusinessO]

exactly, it does cause more good than bad, war, etc.

[*mona lisa*]

religion, to some people, gives them a reason to live. it tells them how to behave, what to do, what not to do. there are also other reasons, but religion contributes to it. without it, some people have no reason to go on with their lives, because they have no way to keep society stable.

[antix10_kos]

Ancient people made up stories about magic and magical creatures to explain the world around them. The world was confusing and strange to them and they had no scientific way of explaining the things around them. Their stories varied from simple tales about morals...i.e. fables and rhymes, to complex plays, epic poems and songs...which is how the Bible came to be.

It was easier to believe that if you do a dance or if your pray to the invisible man above the clouds, rain will come pouring down, than it was to believe that nothing controlled it or that nature was uncontrollable. Religion was a source of solace to anicent peoples.

Ancients had a god or a goddess for everything. Some religions around today do the same. Some religions only have one God. In the end, most religions have the same messages...acceptance for all, love for all, and heaven/the next life awaits the good person. Even if you don't follow any one religion or any religion at all, those are still good rules to follow.

In conclusion, some people just need re-enforement and explination of the rules. That's why some people believe as they do and attend church every Sunday and do the "right things", whatever those are to them. Even if God/religion had never been capitalized or formalized, religion would still be around. Every ancient society had some form of religion, every civiliization has their fables, creation tales, and legends. There's no way religion could NOT have ever existed.

Could we find more possibilities of creation if we tried harder? yes. Will we ever? yes. Will people ever accept them within our lifetimes?? probably not. Thousands of years of beliefs and explination and re-enforcement against the announcements of a few scientiests and academics will not stop the power of religion.

[lolthissiteisfun...]

Lets say that no one ever knew about God, or how we got here (im not trying to offend anyone here, or saying this is true etc.) but do you think that we could go on w/o something to tell us how we got here. Which brings me to another point, what if someone just made all this religion stuff up? So, if from everyones brain, religion was erased, do you think we could go on w/o making something up, or discovering something new. Hey, i thought of something else, do you think that if there were more people focused on finding out how we got here (without God) would we find out?

Im trying not offend anyone by saying their religion is false, which i am doing, but nevermind this has no point...

I think people need something, no matter what religion, to put their faith in, and not to feel like something is missing. They need something to help explain why things are happening, and science does not fill that void for some people. Also I think religion and the morals that go along with some religions keep our world from getting crazy

[demolished]

Religon helps potect people and has restriction for bad things such as killing.

W/ out religion, i think most people will do more of a bad things. i'm just guessing.

[OriskybusinessO]

umm, what about the U.S. Constitution and Laws?

[Spirited Away]

I'm going step away from normalcy and argue for religion. Just for fun this time because I've read a funny article about "moral free-riders". Trust me when I say I have already formulated a response against this way of thinking that has to do with perception, but I would like to see how everyone else feels about this.




Religion is important to society no matter what any one may think. Atheists and Agnostics reap the benifits of religion by free-riding societies whose morality is derived from religious worship.





There.

[sadolakced acid]

no;
religion took these morals from society first.


religion with morality came after religion without morality.

human sacrafices; then the greeks made thier religion require morality.
however; religion was used to propogate morality, not create it.

a society without religion would have morality none-the less.

[Spirited Away]

Haha, I didn't expect you first Mr. Acid... but hey, I'm not good at arguing for the other side... so, instead, i'll just let you read this excerp from the text I read from.

In economics and political theory, free riders are people who benefit from actions of others, without doing anything to merit it. I asserted in The Moral Free Rider Problem that liberal-socialists are free riders on the social order of Western civilization, which they did not create and do not support.

Western civilization is founded upon the moral rules of conduct deriving from our Greek philosophical and Judeo-Christian religious traditions. Atheistic and agnostic liberal-socialists are moral free riders who benefit from living in a society ordered by the morality of spiritual religion, while sneering at spiritual religion and moral codes as simple-minded ignorance. At best, they do nothing to contribute to social order. Too many of them do everything in their power to discredit or to destroy the very source of social order. Without Judeo-Christian morality, they would be in the position of scientists and scholars in Nazi Germany or Soviet Russia: working under orders for the collectivized National State.

It's funny, but the first thing I thought when I read that was... if religion=morality, then what was the Crusades! Haha.

[Domonic]

Um. Although I dont agree with it, it IS needed now that it has been introduced.

Society needs it. They need to feel safe. They need comfort. I think the majority (notice I said "majority") of people practice religion either because of the environment they were raised in, or because they hate thinking that when they die, they are dead, and that's where it ends. They don't want to say goodbye...

Religion will always be a part of society. Most humans will always need it. Now that people's moral decisions are based off of religous claims, religion will always be here. Although I find it absurd and contradictory, the majority of people dont and majority rules.

Religion has caused death and suffering, amongst other things..but take away the concept of religion after it's been introduced, and you will see society crumble.

The only way we could expel religion (which would never happen) is if new born children were kept isolated from society and raised by atheist parents. But even if that occured, it would not be definate, being that Christianity was introduced to the parents. Yes, they are atheists, but people can change...and over time, it would happen. The concept of God would slip into someones mind, then another, and another. It is an infectious disease. Heh heh

So: Civilization would have to completely start over. And eventually, the new generation, like us, would invent the concept of a higher being.

Hmmm. That would make an interesting film...o_0

Religion came and it will forever stay.

"It is an interesting and demonstrable fact, that all children are athiests and were religion not incalculated into their minds, they would remain so."
-Ernestine Rose

[sammi rules you]

^ and that's the coolest kid everrrrr. :p

you should make that movie.

[winterzflamez88]

I've questioned God a lot also. I always wondered those things. For Christianity, they always say that if u dont believe in God, then you're going to hell, but wut if sumbody was never exposed to the religion? It wouldn't be fair for them. And when God put down evrything in the bible, wouldn't that be unfair to illiterates? wut if mary was a liar, then christmas wuld b all a lie.

I think religions are good to make you a better person, but they're not absolutely necessary. ppl can believe in god, but that duznt giv them a rite 2 say evry1 that duznt is doomed. n i dont think it's rite 4 ppl 2 revolve their life around God. It's just wrong

but no matter how much i doubt christianity, there r so many ppl out there who believe in it, so it must mean sumthing. i'v red parts of the bible and bn 2 church a cuple times. those ppl try so hard to "save me." i can't understand them, no matter how hard i try. i want 2 no, but it duznt seem like i can

[Domonic]

but no matter how much i doubt christianity, there r so many ppl out there who believe in it, so it must mean sumthing.  i'v red parts of the bible and bn 2 church a cuple times.  those ppl try so hard to "save me."  i can't understand them, no matter how hard i try.  i want 2 no, but it duznt seem like i can

I hate when people try to convert others. It's sickening. I can relate. I've dated someone who broke up with me because I refused to go to church with her family and take part in religous activities. Like worship group, etc. They wanted to "save" me, but they actually made me feel awful by shutting me down because I was different from them.

It's one thing to have a firm belief in something, but to force it upon others is disgusting. It's like a slap it the face. Overtime, though, I just found it amusing.

Oh, the amusing/offensive/hilarious thing's I've said to people on my doorstep asking me: "Have you found Jesus?"

[xXYouMeBedNowXx]

There are quite a few points on this that I'd like to reiterate. First of all, I do not believe in a God, or in this case, what people say is God. I find myself in my own context of a supreme force or process rather than a being. In other words, a manifestation. I am a Fatist. I believe in Fate and its process simply because it makes logical sense to me and the other religions of the world don't have much back.

Religion, I feel, was created because we needed an explanation for things we could not understand. When we did not understand how the Sun worked, religion provided an answer. When we wanted to know how we began, religion gave us an explanation. Very simply, what we do not understand, is provided. And, what we do not understand instills fear into us, providing the comfort of religion. Simply put.

The abolition of religion could do better without. Or at least, what we know as religion today.

I'll come back on this later.

[tmauze]

this is actually related to something i've thought about alot. the way i take what this, you're asking what would happen if no one had a religion, right?! well, if so, i think that religion is something that gives comfort to all those who believe, and a reason to live. plus, by human nature people are curious and without religion, we WOULD find some other way to describe the beginning of time. go as far back as you want, and there was always an explanation for unknown things, whether myth or truth. so basically what i'm saying is that people find comfort and day-to-day strength from religion and if we had no religion in our world today, we would just find another way to explain evolution.