What good does religion offer the world today?

NSFW Forums: Religion, Social Media, Idle Discourse, Anti-Religious Memes
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Blood and wine, flesh and bread? The lure of miracles and an ignorantly silent, unscientific God? Animal sacrifice? Barbaric stoneage customs? War and superstition? Opposition to human rights? Unsubstantiated "mysteries"? Without religion we would still have philosophy...

Charities with a fear catch and strings attached? Tax-free havens for bigotry? A social club for desperately lonely people?

If there be an virtue in it please name it...

An invisible God with an invisible spirit? A sociopathic way to write off your wrong doings? Highly errant holy books?

If it is religion you are selling please make a rational case for it.

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@TheCobbler,

Far be it for me to defend religion, because I'm not a big fan. But I know a lot of good people who are religious and they seem to find the best in it. Many of them claim they are good because of religion. I have my doubts that's true, but who am I to contradict their claims of their own motivations.

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@TheCobbler,

Quote:

If it is religion you are selling please make a rational case for it.

It makes me a better, happier person.

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@rosborne979,

Quote:

Many of them claim they are good because of religion.

Humans are both good and evil. Used correctly religion promotes the good in us.

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@hawkeye10,

Quote:

Humans are both good and evil. Used correctly religion promotes the good in us.

I'm a non-believer and I don't need religion to be a good person.

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From what I can see around me, it offers (albeit false) comfort. It also offers justification and rationalization for ones actions, as well as the childish practice of wishing on the candles of a supernatural birthday cake, and hoping your wish comes true.

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@argome321,

argome321 wrote:

Quote:
Humans are both good and evil. Used correctly religion promotes the good in us.

I'm a non-believer and I don't need religion to be a good person.

That's a huge thumbs up argome.

Living promotes the good in us. Personally, I think it takes a pretty insecure person to attribute their goodness to a religion or a god.

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Simple social cohesion, interaction, acceptance, tolerance and harmony inspires goodness, not an introverted dogma that isolates individuals to the point of extremism.

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@hawkeye10,

Put religion in life's controlled petri dish and observe how often it has actually benefited society? I wager to say the results would be disappointing.

Many martyrs have lived and died and still we have bigots, racists and hater and most of them profess some sort of faith based justification.

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@TheCobbler,

I'm not sure how much interaction and social interaction is needed (I know, you said social cohesion). Introverts can be very good people too.

Sometimes more so than extroverts. I think extroverts like to recruit.

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@chai2,

I hate to use a biblical cliché but

Proverbs 27:17 Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man [society] sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.

Comment:
Introverts sharpen themselves and quite often erroneously....

But I do understand your point.

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@TheCobbler,

As far as I can tell, in general the nicest religious people seem to be those who tend to keep religioius tenets at arm's length. Trouble seems to begin when they start tightly embracing those tenets, and particularly when they start insisting others do likewise.

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@TheCobbler,

TheCobbler wrote:

Comment:
Introverts sharpen themselves and quite often erroneously....

I don't understand why you say that. Or where your evidence for that is.

Being an introvert is not pathological. It's not even necessarily being shy.

I'm far from shy, but definately an introvert.

Introverts, as far as I can see, and from what I do, perform just as many good acts as anyone else. Many times I think introverts just don't have to announce everything they do to the world at large, or invite others to join in.

Sorry to stray from the topic, but that just hit not exactly a nerve, just induced exasperation that there is some kind or error in the way we handle ourselves or do things.

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@chai2,

Same here, chai. I'm very introverted, but I do volunteer work and go over and above what's required of me in order to help my students. But introversion seems to be regarded as a weakness in society. That seems to stem from a great misunderstanding.

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@FBM,

You know what I like about being an introvert?

Everything.

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Everyone has a religion. Not everyone believes in God, but everyone has beliefs that can not be backed up or explained by science, and everyone has faith in these beliefs that informs us of who we are and our place in the world. We all have a mythology that we use to explain what our lives mean and to define what is good.

I believe that human life, and our experience as humans, have intrinsic value. Anyone who has such a belief is religious.

Can anyone back this belief up with mathematics or science?

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@FBM,

Quote:

As far as I can tell, in general the nicest religious people seem to be those who tend to keep religioius tenets at arm's length. Trouble seems to begin when they start tightly embracing those tenets, and particularly when they start insisting others do likewise.

Nicest has very little correlation to best in my opinion. Zen Masters for instance are notorious for not being nice, but they do tend to be helpful. Thomas Moore(care of the soul) has consistently maintained that soul based people tend to be rough to deal with because they are more concerned with truth and honesty than they are with applying social veneeers, and that nice can be more of a negative than a positive because it can became just one more layer of crap to get though before we can be real.

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@chai2,

chai2 wrote:

You know what I like about being an introvert?

Everything.

Ditto.

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@maxdancona,

I'm pretty sure you are mistaken about everyone having religious beliefs, but understandably so. It sure seems like they do, and the urge to make hasty generalizations is strong. But there appear to be a few exceptions.

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@FBM,

It depends on what how you define religious belief, doesn't it?

I am pretty sure that I am correct that each of us has a core set of beliefs that are not backed by science or math on which we base our understanding of the world and our sense of meaning.

Do you disagree with this statement? Or, do you agree with this statement but just with the use of the word "religious" to describe this?

Any search for meaning in life is the same thing as religion.

There is no scientific or logical reason to put any intrinsic value on human life, and yet I bet everyone here does just that. There is no difference between this and any other type of faith.

1 Reply

What good does religion offer the world today?

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