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Are all religions equally bad?
Do you view all religions as being equally bad/dangerous/stupid or is Christainity the main culprit? I think I know what the answer will be as this is a predominantly western website but I am prepared to be surprised.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Becca on -
All religions that actively try to convert others, are against secular politics/government, separate themselves from society and disown family members for not being of the same religion are bad in my opinion. Which means most religions out there are 'bad.'
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Permalink Reply by Tarquin St John Sh'gn'sty on -
"Do you view all religions as being equally bad/dangerous/stupid or is Christainity the main culprit?
Since Christianity lost its heretic burning privileges,I think Islam could possibly be seen as a little extreme at times. EG: In Saudi Arabia a TV presenter was arrested whilst on Hadj in Mecca.He has been sentenced to death by beheading, for WITCHCRAFT (I kid you not)
http://theskepticblacksheep.wordpress.com/2009/11/25/man-sentenced-...
To answer your question; ALL religions were invented by people to meet human needs.Their tenets reflect the values and world views of the people who invented them.The Abrahamic faiths are so contradictory that every believer, without exception, is obliged to cherry pick the beliefs which best suit his needs, circumstances,personality and character.
Regardless of declared beliefs, human beings are always able to use their religion to justify the most appalling acts, or indeed to inspire acts of sacrifice,courage and compassion.
I challenge anyone to pick the religion of any random number of ordinary people soley on the basis of their behaviour.
Religions,like the people who invented and who practice them,are neither especially good or especially bad,but capable of being both.
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Permalink Reply by Jennifer W on -
They are all bad. Marketing the myths as real life events, and polluting the youth with propaganda is almost as bad as it gets for me.
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Permalink Reply by Jim DePaulo on -
I agree. All religions indoctrinate with an irrational world view which warps a persons thought processes and actions - bullshit is bullshit no matter how "gently and loving" the purveyor is.
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Permalink Reply by Howard S. Dunn on -
Frankly, it is the religious rather than the religion that determines the detrimental level for most 'mainstream' faiths. The other question is 'bad in what ways?'
I have to tell you that, while Nixon was a Quaker, most Quakers I know - from the standpoint of their religious views - are pretty frikkin' alright by me.
Did you know that the burning cross of the KKK is supposed to symbolize Christ's (alleged) words: "I am the Light of the world." ???
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Permalink Reply by Jim DePaulo on
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"I am the Light of the world
Good thing, those dim bulbs could use some light.
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Permalink Reply by Skraeling on -
As of this moment, I have to say christianity is the most dangerous. Also at this moment I would say that paganism (the only alternative I feel I can comment on) is a pretty safe, generally good, and not particularly stupid religion.
But, if the popularity of paganism and christianity were to suddenly be exchanged, I imagine that we'd be having the same issues - trying to stop the more fundamental wiccans/druids and so on from messing with education and influencing government etc. And this applies to any currently minority religion.
As soon as power and huge amounts of money get involved, it all goes wrong. And why does no one see the relationship between the old saying "money is the root of all evil" and the state of christianity today?
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Permalink Reply by Austin on -
personally, I think that the Abrahamic religions would be, but all three of them are equal, it just depends on how extremist the person is.
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Permalink Reply by QM - [Mr. Molotov] on -
My first reaction would be to say Islam. And that would have been primarily because I know this one better than all the others and also because that this group is the main cause of violence today in the world.
But on a little pondering, I would say that all religions are equally bad because no matter which group you look at they have one thing in common, and that is they give false hope to people. All religions (Abrahamic, non-Abrahamic) tell their followers that if they are in sorrow or bad condition it is because of something they did. And if they do not "redeem" themselves they will continue to suffer in the next life as well. The details obviously change from religion to religion (or region to region) but the underlying concept remains the same. You will go to hell as per the Abrahamic sects and according to Jainism, come back as a leech (or some other lower level ife form) in the next life.
As far the human rights record goes, each group is perhaps trying to out do each other. In recent times there are several stories that I have read in various newspapers that would appall any decent human. For example, there was a case of Christian family who refused to give dinner to a young child because he would not say grace. The child died as a result but even that did not manage to shake the parents to reality, instead they started praying to god to raise their child to life again as a "better Christian"!. In Saudi Arabia, last year a 8 year old girl married to a much older man was refused the right to divorce her husband because she was too young to know what a divorce means. In India the Hindu fundamentalist party (the Shiv Sena) is known to go around pubs and beat women present there for their "immoral act" of enjoying a drink with friends in a bar.
This is only a mere glimpse at what collective madness is capable of doing. These examples are just simple daily life happenings in different parts of the world, following different sets of beliefs. So are all religions equally bad? I would say yes they all are the same. And if you want to make it worse, just add a little drop of nationalism into it as well.
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Permalink Reply by Tom Thompson on -
Define religion. If it includes words like "dogma" or establishes an unquestionable authority then I would say that they are equally bad. The danger of religion is not in particular acts of religious adherents but in the potential to compel those adherents to do things they would not otherwise be inclined to do without religion.
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Permalink Reply by James on -
Personally I think they are all about equal. I've seen what militant Islam is first hand. Of course we all know what those nut-jobs are capable of. But do you remember a while back, when (I think it was 20/20) did that special on the child soldiers for god? That was christians.....psycho!! Tie that up with snake charmers and stick-nine drinkers add a dab of tongue speakers and a dash of Catholicism and you have a perfect recipe for danger.
Then of course you have the Jews. People tend to lay off of them because of their history. I didn't think they where that dangerous till I met a few in Egypt during NTC. Make no mistake...they are dedicated. I don't think we have much to worry about from them because their numbers are so small in comparison to the others. BUT if they ever do get back up there in numbers.....watch out militant Islam.
Satanists and Wiccans I believe are the most feared (usually) but in my experience, they are the most scared and meek minded people I have ever run across. Not much to fear there. Buddhists....well come on!!! Really? Nothing to fear there. Taoists? Right.....moving along...
Scientology? Well if they actually have that "secret weapon" to blast Xenu away, we may have to be worried. Do they brain wash people? Yeah probably. But if they where weak minded enough to fall for it they would have fell for one of the others anyway. People are always stressing how "dangerous" they are. Financially? Yeah! Sure! But when is the last time you seen a scientologist strap c4 to his chest and blow himself up in a train station to prove Xenu is coming? Didn't think so.
Hindu....indigenous...Sikhism....Juche....Baha'i...well none of those even make the list. So I guess the "Holy Trinity" (Islam, Christianity, and Judaism) take the cake in my opinion
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Permalink Reply by Johnsky on -
Bad? Not necessarily.
Dangerous? Yes, emphatically YES.
Any mass of people who believe whole heartedly that they must not pursue evidence that disagrees with their belief is inherently dangerous.
It's called brainwashing, and it's never used to support a truth... truth does not require faith... nor can it co-exist.
All religions make one fatal mistake.
They provide a claim, and then seek evidence to support it.
None of them have ever found that evidence.
We however do not make claims, unless we encounter evidence which demands a claim be made for it.
It is in this process that we cannot be "wrong".
It is by this process that we know religions are wrong.
What is our evidence?
Our evidence is simple, and inescapable.
They have made claims for which they have been desperately trying to find evidence to support for thousands of years.
Our evidence is that they have none.
Our claim is that they have made an unsupported one.
Thousands of years to provide their evidence... quite frankly, time's up.
We however have entire libraries filled with evidence supporting our claims, from the structure of the atom, to molecular bonding, scores of results from physics tests, chemistry tests, museums filled with the evidence of evolution through not just thousands of years, but millions. We have shaped our entire world using what we have discovered. You need not look further than your microwave oven... your television set... just about everything in your home is due to our discoveries.
... and none of it agrees with the claims of religions.
Time's up religion. Best get off the tracks before the discovery train explores your faith in its brake line.
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