What good does religion offer the world today?

Just a bump so I can see page 59. Bug in the a2k code?

For moral character lessons, I look at people like Gandhi and Mother Teresa. I have no need for fictitious characters to live my life.

Tbh? I need neither Ghandi, nor Mother Theresa to guide me in good or bad. I know what bad is. Without religion dictating it.
Bad is hating gays.
Bad is hating religions other then your ancestors' religion.
Bad is screwing the poor over to enrich yourself.
Bad is hating people based on their skin color.
Bad is dictationg your "concept of proper life" onto others that were not born into your world.
Bad is not being compassionate to the needs of others deserving of compassion.
Bad is prejudging others.
That doesnt even include the typical anti social behaviors that are a given based on normal human society like murder or theft.

I respect religious views about God, if they help a person through their own trials and tribulations. But where I come to full stop is when religious views villify another person only to boost the convictions of the person doing the villifying. I feel the same about atheists. If you want religious people to respect your views, you must also respect theirs. A common ground can always be found, if we are willing to look for it.

Who said Gandhi and Mother Theresa guided me? Respecting them is different from being guided by them. I respect Obama. Get the picture?

Sorry cicerone, it was meant for post above mine

I was only playing with him as he seemed to enjoy the words game, but I do apologise if I have offended anyone.
I see Lilkanyon has some very humanistic and inspiring views. I too think Gandhi and Mother Teresa are very inspiring personalities with some very humanistic attributes, but I am most inspired by the moral character of Lord Jesus. If other people think he is a fictious character, then that is their problem not mine. The morality of Lord Jesus works for me...

I actually appreciate the ACTUAL teachings of Jesus. He taught love and tolerance. I can get behind that. He was angered by greed. His message was corrupted tho, by Paul...the Nicene Creed, history...the Catholic church. Get back to the love and Im all on that. I think Jesus would have appreciated Muhammad too. Muhammed appreciated him. Yes, muslims believe in Jesus too.

ps, no, I am not a muslim...I am atheist, but I respect religion because I feel I can look at it from an unbiast analytical view, yet still respect it.

Yes, I have met some Muslim people and they are beautiful decent human beings, and not the negative people that the media tells us they are.
But I think all religions or groups have their good and bad apples, no group is different in that way...

True that. I know little muslim folks cept one from Jordan. She was of the opinion all gays should be executed. Yeah, I cant jump on that bandwagon, but she was anti ISIS. For her that is a "moderate muslim?" Its ok to kill those people but not those people. Hmm...im not saying I blame Muslims. We have evangelical Christians that want to execute gays too. Only our laws prevent that. What makes us better then them? Our laws? When did Jesus advocate killing anyone?

I have also met atheists who are beautiful decent people as well, I mean I don't segregate people because we all strive for a better world.
But speaking about Muslims I do have my reservations because Mohammad has a reputation for killing people who do not want to follow him. I don't think that is humanistic or realistic.
Speaking about the morality of Lord Jesus, I can't find anyone who can match or better his reputation, awesome teacher so humanistic and compassionate like a loving Father of humanity. I do shake my head towards other so-called Christians that want to hurt other people unnecessarily, and its not for defensive reasons either which I would condone.
I don't know which Lord Jesus they are inspired by, very strange indeed...

Muhammed was a warrior prophet. He had to be. But also compassinate. He was compassionate towards Jews and Christians. They paid higher taxes if they didnt want to convert. Jesus was a pacifist. He came to history in a time of deep upheaval...the Roman empire was oppressive, or you could even blame the Jews, they were unyielding...both understandable.
You dont understand where Jesus' message got corrupted? Well after his death, during the reign of Constantine when His message became politicized. The catholic church gave him sainthood for making catholism the state religion, but the downside of that was political and economic gain. It was a corrupt institution from the start, and suppression of other sects was the name of the game to keep control by the state sanctioned political elite.

I think the corruption of Christianity comes from mixing the Old Testament with his testament which was loving and respecting people without social pedjudices like it was in the Old Testament.
As a Christian I only focus his words and nothing else in the bible.
Other Christians seem really strange to me, even the historic ones, really bizzare I would say...

I respect that, I also worry about taking the word of the bible too literally.
For example Job. I do not believe he was a true victim of God but a moral test of perseverance. Jacob, not a true victim of decision of human sacrifice but a moral lesson. Jesus corrected such issues through parable. Yet we still take the word as literal. To me? I see the bible more as Aesop's fables then literal truth. It teaches a moral code. If you want to see anger and retaliation, Im sure you can find it. If you want to see suppression, Im sure you can find that too. But if you approach the books with love and forgiveness and acceptance, you can find that most of all.

Yes I agree, I'm not a bible literalist, only a bible moralist. The bible is filled with allegorical and metaphorical literature that I don't take scientifically or lterally, only for moral spiritual guidance. I'm glad my allegiance belomgs to God the Father of all creation and Lord Jesus. He's good and humanistic, rather than giving my allegiance to something crazy and un-humanistic...

Hat to put mud in your eyes, but planet earth was created some 4.5 billions years ago. Not by your god.

I don't care a less if you believe that, no skin off my nose. I am very happy with my Christian perception and I don't discriminate science.
You're dreaming about someone else...

I believe, if we want to, science and religion can be married. Islam did it at one point...until they were run over by mongols and retreated into internal reliance.
Jews have never feared science. They were the best doctors during the height of the dark ages. I do not want to be angry at evolution deniers. It serves no purpose. I prefer to try to understand millions of years of evolution and God's 6 days of creation. Maybe I dont believe it personally, but it is how I tried to understand it as a child.
We consider a day as 24 hours. To an omnipotent being like God, that is a blink of an eye. So maybe a day to God is millions of years. Idk. Im trying to help people of faith accept evolution on their ground...something that makes sense to them.
To be honest? I dont care how people believe the world exists or how it was made, I do care how it is to be preserved. And believe in God or not, we all need to care about that too.

You are more level headed as an atheist Lilkanyon. Cicerone seems to put his religious hang ups on religious people that don't have his religious hang up views. I don't discriminate people because of their beliefs or perceptions. I don't discriminate science either. I'm a realist, I think he is the one who is dreaming...

I think atheists have been attacked as badly as religious folks have, and have a tendency to be "defensive." And both attack back just as harshly. And atheists have been just as unmovable as religious folk. Thats just fact. I respect cicerones thoughts in all of his posts, but I detect a passion about religion with him now. I can say nothing more. Idk.