[piby]

“Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful.”

Seneca tells it like it is so I don't have to!!

[jank]

Originally Posted by prinz

The worst states for mass murder for the last 100 or so years have been atheistic. do you shed a tear for them? Tell THAT to the millions upon millions of now dead.

LOL you sound just like Bill O'Reilly!
Watch and learn grasshopper.

[Degag]

Originally Posted by brummytom

Good and Bad.


Good in that religion serves to instill morals in society; and is of comfort and solace to people.


Bad in that it allows evil people to manipulate their positions; and some fanatics twist their religion to suit their own agenda

Hey , Tom, your still in school aren't you?

Fair play to you, your an astute fcuker.

[WildBoots]

[Coriolanus]

Originally Posted by prinz

Tell that to the good folk who fought for the abolition of the slave trade in the British Empire.

And the one's who fought for it's retention of course.

That's the main problem with religions imo. The texts and beliefs can be twisted to pretty much any motive a man can have. Religion itself is probably overall amoral, it's just how certain people use it to support their goals that makes it look good or bad.

What I mean is, a missionary in Africa would probably be still doing good works somwhere, if a man called Jesus had never existed, and a child raping priest would probably be a child raping priest. The religion has little to do with it imo.

[Corvus Maximus]

Originally Posted by GrizzlyMan

Bad! Very Very Bad!! Load of Sh1t!!

Although it was good when I was in school as the Religion Teacher was Hot so never missed her class .....and No it wasn't a Nun!!

Fcuk, my first religion teacher was really hot and yes she was a Nun!!

[jill_valentine]

Durty.

[StraddleFor6]

I think people should take 20 mins to watch these. Its a fantastic debate and Stephen Fry is amazing.

[Xluna]

Some good,a lot of bad-though if there were no religion we'd probably come up with some other tribalistic rational to murder and main each other. It does'nt matter whether it's good,bad or what not;What matters is whether it's true or not. I severely doubt it is.

[philologos]

Originally Posted by eightyfish

Simple poll.

Defining religion as: a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe, esp. when considered as the creation of a superhuman agency or agencies, usually involving devotional and ritual observances, and often containing a moral code governing the conduct of human affairs.

Let's break down the definition.

The term religion, either comes from the latin term religio, or religiare.

religiare means re-read, re-consider. If you split it up into re-ligiare, it means reconnect.

I like this definition, as it describes my relationship with God. I'm reconnecting with Him, after turning my eye away from Him.

religio is a different kettle of fish. It means conscientious exactness, sanctity, awe, superstition, strict observance. This reminds me of the legalism of the Pharisees. It is usually in this area that issues concerning religion arise.

The latter reminds me much more of Judaism rather than Christianity. In Christianity we are justified by Jesus' crucifixion, not by our own works.

StraddleFor6: A shame it only deals with Catholicism rather than all religion. If Catholicism indeed is bad, this doesn't mean that all religion is suddenly rendered bad.

[CrazyRabbit]

Religion; 200+ gods, but everyone claims theirs in the one true God.

And it always amuses me how people who worship an invisble man can look down on other people because they worship the sun, even though the sun is the true giver of life to our little world.

Religion is just politics based on the human need to feel there is something more after death.