Derevon wrote:IronLionZion wrote:I am against any dogma - anything that favors faith and blind adherance above independant reason - which is essentially what all religions ask of thier followers.
Religion may be contrary to your reason, but not mine. I can assure you that religion is not merely about blind faith, as many atheists seem to believe. Do you truly think that beliefs would last in a person if they were merely guesses grabbed out of thin air? Eventually, everything without substance is doomed to fade into nothingness and perish.
My problem is that religion is dogma, and therefore, asks its adherants to follow its tenets without question.
This, in my opinion, is
always wrong, as fluid intrepretations of dogma lead to atrocities which are motivated and supported by religious beliefs.
Quote:It is well-known that information, truths, wisdom etc, can be twisted and perverted by wicked minds to suit their own evil ends; religion is no exception here. What you're saying here is basically that any knowledge which can be twisted and turned into evil (which pretty much would include everything) should be abolished because it's potentially dangerous. As far as I'm concerned, that's insanity.
Not true. Science is knowledge, and I can't remember any wars fought to recapture the holy trillobite of palestine. Can you?
It is not that I oppose any knowledge that could be twisted for evil means. Indeed, that would be silly. Religion goes beyond that by demanding blind adherance, and then basing that on a collection of vague fairy tales which have consistantly been intrepreted to support almost anything.
Quote:It is true that a lot of evil has been committed in the name of religion, but to ascribe these to religion itself is very unfair in my opinion. After all, only people are evil. Besides, most so called "religious conflicts" have nothing or little to do with religion itself, they are mostly related to ethnical differences, history etc.
If indeed "only people are evil" then religion consistantly provides them with a way to manifest thier evil.
How else would you motivate the Spanish Inquisition, the witch hunts, the Crusades, September 11th, the subjucation of countless foriegn peoples, etc, etc, etc. The fact is that all of these atrocities were commited by people who felt thier religions demanded it of them.
Quote:Anyhow, the main problem, as I see it, is not religion itself, but rather the arrogance and narrow-mindedness of people who claim that their own particular beliefs or interpretations of religious writings are the only true ones, and that anyone who believes otherwise therefore is in error.
.....but that is exactly what you are doing when you claim that the peacefull intrepretation you subscribe to is correct and the violent, evil intrepretation is wrong. Is it not? You cannot have it both ways.
Quote:Don't you realise that it's thinking like that which you just demonstrated above (basically "I'm right, you're ignorant"), which is the problem, and not religion? I suggest that you try to approach religion with a more open mind in the future, and that you try to accept that everyone is entitled to freedom of will (which includes religious freedom). Instead, why don't you seek out your own truths by your own means, rather than taking upon yourself the impossible and utterly futile task of ridding the world of religion? Religion will exist for as long as free will exists. Of that I'm thoroughly convinced.
Sure, everybody is entitled to believe whatever they want. But when those beliefs effect society in the profound way religion does, I think that believers should be held to a more stringent standard than 'just cause.'
In fact, I do encourage all people to "find thier own truth by thier owns means"..... rather than adhering to whatever subjective religious intrepretation is prevalent in thier place, thier time.
