in order for me to start this off, I'll have to tell you a story.
one night, I was watching tv with my brother, and he was going on another one of his atheist rants on how organized religion. he said, "Organized religion is like a slippery floor that mankind chooses to walk on. it impedes their progress and prevents the truth from taking hold."
I, being a christian, opposed him by telling him how organized religion is necessary in terms that an atheist could understand. I said "religion is more like padding that is under mankinds' feet. though we may trip every once in a while, we still remain unharmed." when I said this I meant how even though organized religion has its flaws, it's still helpful because some people are idiots and would follow no morals without something to tell them what morals are.
now for the question, do you think my brother's opinion was right, or was mine right, and could you explain your reason as to why?
"Organized religion is like a slippery floor that mankind chooses to walk on. it impedes their progress and prevents the truth from taking hold."
Well, that's not true, you can slide on a slippery floor.
it's still helpful because some people are idiots and would follow no morals without something to tell them what morals are.
Most people have morals, and even those who don't would hopefully follow the law even without a God looking over them, and those who don't give a **** about the law probably don't care about what the church tells them they can or can't do either.
Besides, even some people without morals use religion to justify violence against people of different religions, or lifestyles that aren't supported by their religion, and can then use the religion to gain the support of other stupid people with or without morals.
And aside from morals, Religion has a history of hindering science and punishing scientists for their discoveries. Galileo Galilei, for example, was sentenced to house arrest for the rest of his life because he claimed the Earth orbits around the sun, and not the other way around.
My opinion: Religion was useful when the government did not have the technology to enforce all the laws. Now the government is advanced and organized enough for religion to no longer be required. The worst part about religion is that it was originally not created for our modern society, and some of what it says is really counter-productive, such as it's anti-homosexuality statements.
now for the question, do you think my brother's opinion was right, or was mine right, and could you explain your reason as to why?
Given the standard of culture of today, yours is a temporary and valid solution but it can be solved through other means - in the situation the world is now and in any world of better standards religion is probably false and definitely unrequired.
Organized religion is a padding for those who will fall, not those who wish to either prevent it or get up themselves.
If we don't have religion we don't have morals and there would be murder, **** and stealing on an even larger scale than we do now.
Religion does not beget morals, man begets morals and religion takes these and claims them for their own. What, do you think before we had the catholic church everyone just was randomly killing others?
Some atheists have morals. Others do not. We do not have to worry about the majority of people that have good morals. We have to worry about the few that do not. If we say they will be saved for doing good deeds then they would probably be more willing to be good. In the atheist approach we would be saying that you could do what ever you wanted and it would not matter because when you died you would just be dead.
when you die you would just be dead. what els inmaginationland?
morals come from the place you live. mostly your parents and the people you hang around whit as a child and in your teenage years. in that time of life you learn what is good and what is wrong. and how you need to behave towards other people.
We have to worry about the few that do not. If we say they will be saved for doing good deeds then they would probably be more willing to be good.
Problem is that these people are just as likely to misinterpret the crap out of the religion and use it as justification for violence against others.
There's at least as many violent crimes caused by religion as there are prevented by it.
Anyways, even a person without morals will likely fear death. The survival instinct is strong for any living creature.
Anyways, humans are kind of pack animals, and it's in their, and our, nature to do what is best for the pack, because the well-being often affects the well-being of the individual. That's where humanity's need for laws and morals come from, not from religions.
A good example of this is Sweden, it is currently one of the least religious countries in the world, and it also has one of the highest standards of living, and the crime here is no worse than the average. If religion makes people behave, surely the situation in one of the least religion countries would be out of control?
Well, if you want to believe, that's your choice, but if people start saying that humanity wouldn't be able to behave properly without religion, that's just ignorant.
from what I have read, you can get morals from positive influences. that's true, but have you considered that the only place a person can get these morals from is from some organized religion? don't say that isn't the case because some people have nothing but negative influences around them, and only find their morals from the people in their church.
JI you're going to have clarify on the difference there.
I don't have a problem with religion in itself, but it seems to me that organized religion causes a problem simply because of the conflict it creates with other organized religion.
As for the morals argument, I'm quite sure that even without believing God, I wouldn't go out and randomly mug someone or go rob a bank.
man begets morals
Perhaps this should be society? As the morals we hold today may not be the same in 50 years.
have you considered that the only place a person can get these morals from is from some organized religion? don't say that isn't the case because some people have nothing but negative influences around them, and only find their morals from the people in their church.
I'm going to say that isn't always the case. I'm a great example. While my parents were raised religious, both started questioning religion at a young age. They raised me and my brother just fine as atheists with good morals. It doesn't require any religion at all, just decent people.
