Personally, I think the world would have been better off without it. But some, sadly, need religion. They need "truth" fabricated, instead of thinking for themself. I take the evidence presented to me, and come to a conclusion based on facts. "Faith" is a word to keep the illution of truth at place. I KNOW most disagree, since many are religious. Religion has done some good, but in my opinion, it has done far more evil.
//Third, you don't need to unite people at all, you can't. Heck, not even people in one country can unite under a "banner" or "religion."//
I never said you did. I was explaining why such a thing wouldn't work, to the poster before me.
//Second, if everyone only believed in science, there wouldn't be an agreed upon religion, there would be no religion.//
But what if there IS a god or gods, and what if there IS a spirit/spirits? There's no way to disprove any religion, so there's always a possibility a religion could be right.
While religion may be the root of many calamities we face today, it was also a contributing factor to the events that made these calamities possible in the first place. Without it (in some form), bands of humans in the stone age would've been much more likely to break up, as there would have been no doctrine of any sort that prohibited them from killing each other. I believe that religion is a product of evolution, and this is supported by some of the similarities in religion that developed entirely separately.
Shinigami: Awww, c'mon. Religion didn't keep early humanoids from killing one another. That's just common sense - it's not beneficial to kill those who help you. Besides those early humans who were close, they killed each other all the time. I think it's also a misconception (albeit a convincing one) that religion evolved in some way. These types of things are not traceable in their origins, but it is really inconceivable how something like that came about.
Snowball: I think if everyone had a scientific outlook, there wouldn't be any religion because there is no proof for religion and since science can explain everything that ordinary humans need to know, I'm not sure there would be a religion is this kind of society. It's a good point that you bring up, what if there is a god - but I just really really know there isn't.
What made the world possible. Look at it. In the beggining, there was nothing. Then came energy. Then came matter. Then came organic matter. Then came microorganisms. This response is interplanetary.
Look. In order for there to be ebergy something needed to create it. If it is infinite, then it can actually be argued that God is energy. (Same concept)
This might change the current discussion, but: What would happen without religeon: There would be no morals. Without a set of morals people would kill, destroy, steal, etc.
More on topic: God is existance. You need existance to have anything else. If that existance is in fact energy, then so be it. God is not in any way a human like figure, or animal like. He is a concept of life, and an incarnation of love. Without this God, life would not be possible. While God may have only set things in motion and sat back giving only a guiding hand here or there, (S/He)/(It) is the starter and guide. If existnce dissapears, we can't exist...
It is fallacious to think that that without religion there would be no set of morality. Your statement would be as follows: If there is a set of morals, then religion is the cause. The statement reflects religion being a necessary condition for morality (a set of morals). While it is true that some laws also coincide with biblical teachings, there are many many laws that do not such as importation/exportation laws, legal precedence, heck even one of our most important rights, habeas corpus, is not religiously based at all. People have used "religion" for an excuse to murder and enslave people - where's the morality there? As far as god goes, god cannot be existence. That doesn't even make sense - how can anything actually be existence? That is just a term we use for something that exists and it is an intrinsic value of the thing. Existence cannot disappear or appear - it's just a word used to describe the intrinsic state of objects.
I guess you are right about the first part. Some of the bible's morals are warped. If you are wearing a cotton-wool blend, it is my duty to publicly execute you. If it exists, then it has to exist in something. That something is God.
What you're saying about existence is a little confusing to me. It almost sounds like Descartes, but I'm not sure. I think it's the "has to exist in something" part about which I'm confused.
Maybe he is just saying that when god made the universe and everything in it, he was actually making breakfast. So he ate the universe. Currently, we are still in his stomach. The day of reckoning will happen when we pass out of his lower intestine, thus no longer feeling his grace.
I call that the "Breakfast Theory." I am going to call the religion Breakfastarianiasm. Followers? Breakfastarians.
Glad to hear. We meet every Thursday in Denny's at 3 AM, have a four hour service and finish it with a Grand Slam breakfast(to re-enact god eating the universe).
