Would the World be Better off Without Religion?

It is actually beautiful poetry but you dont read ancient languages . It lost a lot in the translation .

Yeah it's mafia boss 101.

"eh, comier a minute. You say you don't believe I'm the boss? How bout I break your fingers, then we will see if you believe I'm the boss?"

I dont know who told you pair you know the Bible but they did you a great disservice . Those stories were discussion points . They were used to determine what one would do in similar circumstances . Later on priests made those stories approved by God . Many priests were and still are in this day and age, atheists .

I also think a lot of people have never really pondered what it would mean to exist for eternity. How it would work and what exactly the consequences would be. When I pondered over it for a while, the only conclusion I kept coming to was eventually it would get so mundane that I would beg for non-existence. In some ways it is a good thing that we don't exist for ever. Or at the very least it is a good thing we don't remember that we do.

And they mark you as a member by cutting the end of your whanger off. No, thanks. Mom made me a turtleneck, and I'm going to keep it.

Some of the stories do not read like they are a "What would you have done?" scenario. For instance, what would be the point in describing the exact measurements of the Ark if the story were just about, "What would you have done?" It seems to be quite a bit out of place. It would be like trying to tell your child a moral story but you get so involved in the minute details about something insignificant to the story that it just ends up sounding like pointless ramblings.

Maybe it involves losing the part of your brain responsible for boredom?

I can relate to not knowing that you even exist. I've been under general anesthesia about 8 or 9 times. Zip! Straight into non-being. I always wake up feeling like it's the best sleep I'd ever had.

Some stories like the ark were simply stolen as is...they were ancient even before the Hebrews told them .

Yep a god creates the universe with it's perfect symmetry and laws of physics and chemistry but for some odd reason insists that you sever a piece of flesh that he designed you with in the first place to have.

Sounds more like. In the past males were subject to infections and some died as a result of these infections so they assume it was god's wrath and by removing it, they were less likely to get infections and not die.

Many of the jewish laws if you examine them with medical knowledge you can see the correlation between them. Except they didn't have knowledge of bacteria, virus and the body's immune system. They just assumed god was angry and decided certain things were to be avoided least you be killed for not obeying.

A more immediate reason than deadly infection is, for a polygamist society, where a foreskin can carry very nasty infections from one woman to another . When they do pornos they cut filming for the penis to be wiped down with swabs to prevent germs healthy to one woman but dangerous to another from spreading . Having penetration with a woman then taking that fluid and bacteria to another will cause very severe infections most times . This made circumcision necessary for the health of women in a desert .

Yeah, like salmonella from shellfish. God's wrath be upon thee! Yea, ye shall **** yourself to death for that one, buddy!

At least you can't fault god for having a sense of humor on creative ways to kill humans.

Heh heh. Yep.

I am not qualified to speak for any person's religion. I am not qualified to speak for any person's place of worship. I can only speak for myself. I am not a religious scholar or expert. In my youth I was brought up believing in God and Christ as my savior. My mother made sure that I went to church every sunday in my youth. Yes, I do see myself as a Christian. My limited understanding of my Christian faith teaches me to treat everyone with kindness. Help the sick. Help the homeless. Help the hungry. Help the poor. Help people who are most in need of a helping hand. My Christian belief also teaches me to realized that everything that I have I was blessed with and to thank god for those blessings. Based on my Christian beliefs, that would make me liberal because I believe in helping those less fortunate than myself. In fact based on bible teachings, Jesus Christ would be considered a liberal because he taught believers to help people who are less fortunate. The poor, the sick, the hungry, etc. Based on my Christian belief, I believe that Jesus would strongly support Medicare, Social Security, food assistance programs, housing assistance programs, and various other liberal programs that helps those in need of assistance. I also believe that Jesus would want mankind to take care of our planet. I believe Jesus would teach us to stop destroying our planet with mankind's climate change. Stop polluting our precious land and oceans with oil spills and other poisonous pollutants. Jesus would also promote peace not war. Remember I never claimed to be a bible expert. If I am wrong about any of these points, it is okay to correct me. I just wanted to point out why I believe that true Christian beliefs are much more liberal than they are conservative. On the other hand, I notice that conservatives who called themselves Christian totally ignores all of the points I just made. The conservative Christians seems to only know two issues. That's banning gay marriage and banning abortions. That is sad that conservatives don't put that same tenacity and level of energy in helping the less fortunate.

Hi, Real Music. I enjoyed reading that, even though it wasn't addressed to me. I hope you don't mind if I ask you a question. If you weren't Christian, would you go around stealing, killing, voting against Medicare, the SSA, ignoring the environmental crisis, etc? As for me, neither my level of compassion nor my urge to help the hungry and poor were affected when I stopped believing. I still volunteer to help the poor, donate, etc.

Irregardless of my religious belief I would never go around killing. As regard to stealing, I don't believe I would ever go around stealing. But, who really know if truly desperate enough would steal or not. When you ask what kind of person I would be if I weren't a Christian. It is difficult to separate that part of me. I believe that I am a product of my upbringing. I also believe that all of life experiences help shaped me into the person that I am today. For example, I can sympathize with people in need of financial government assistance. Me and my siblings were raised by our single mom. She had many struggles bringing us up. Yes, there was a time when she was on welfare. She also use to often work two jobs to support us. I remember many of times we were on the verge of being evicted by our landlord because she was late on paying her rent. When we actually did get evicted we were blessed to have relatives that let us live with them until my mom was able to get back on her feet. My grandmother often help take care of us by letting us stay with her and feeding us. Also, my grandmother's only source of income was social security and she lived in subsidized housing. I was always a Christian. There were events in my life that strengthen my beliefs. Once I drove cross country not knowing where I was going to live. I also did not know what I was going to do for income, because my unemployment check at that time was about $386 per month before taxes were taken out. I was also living off a credit card. At the exact same time at got to my destination on the other side of the country an old friend of mind had just purchased a house and was getting ready to move in. He told me that I could stay with him. Also, I found out that I had been offered a government job almost the same time. Getting a good job and a place to live almost immediately after driving across country. Living on a credit card at the time. I truly believe that I was blessed. Many years later I have my own house with a mortgage which will be paid off in another 5 or 6 years and a good job that I've had for 20 something years. Yes I do believe I am blessed.

Hmm. Well, during the time that I was a believer (from childhood until mid-twenties), I was poor and living on credit, too. Now, years after leaving the faith, I'm in better financial shape than ever. I don't see much way to correlate faith with economic success.

Also, about 50% of Koreans say they are not religious, yet there was the Miracle on the Han (huge economic upturn a few decades ago), and here both faithful and faithless seem to fare about the same.

Faith is a belief. No one can make anyone have faith. That is something that can only come from within. I am not trying to convert anyone. Each person has to find there own way in whatever they believe.

Oh, sure. I agree with that, and I hope I'm not coming across like I'm attacking you. You seem like a nice enough person. I'm just curious about the various ways of thinking that surround adult faith. I was born into one, reasoned my way out as an adult, and now I'm wondering how other adults use reason while staying in. That's all. Sorry if I made you uncomfortable. I'll move on. Thanks for putting up with my questions.

It sounds like your understanding of the bible is more allegorical and not very literal. Would you say that is accurate?