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3/31/2013 10:57:02 PM
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I'm real late to the party here, but here's my take on religion. It was absolutely necessary to have in the past for the same reasons you said. It kept order, brought people together. Without religion it would be difficult to argue that morals would be developed. Why would one person care for another, especially when survival was something which came down to a dog-eat-dog mentality. Religion taught people values, and gave them a god who enforces these values. Every religion, at it's core, is filled with both peaceful and co-operative messages. Without religion, and the unison it brought, civilizations may very well have never reached the level they did. We might not even be where we are now without religion tying people together. Religion in the modern world ironically serves the exact opposite function that it did in the past. It tears people apart more than it brings us together. In my personal opinion it was through the growth of communications and the human race that it became a problem. Rather than unify people it gave them a reason to feel separate. The promise of a good afterlife, and the fear of God wasn't enough incentive to keep people on track once we came close to one another. In fact it gave people an excuse to fight one another. The gains they would get from going to war could be justified through their 'righteous' means. I think today, religion has very little positives to offer. We've come so far as a race that many of the rules and values they teach are irrelevant. Now, I still do believe that each religion has certain aspects which every person should know and follow. What I don't believe is that a religion as a whole should be followed the way we do now. Many lessons are important, but it no longer serves the function of bringing us together. It only tears us as a race apart. Religion is a function which is thousands of years old. It, as a function, is becoming obsolete. The values and morals are important, but it only holds us back. The functions of religion should be dropped, allowing us all to become unified as one. And rather than being unified by a set of beliefs, unified by a set of truths and realisms. The sciences and hard facts should be the only things that we follow as strongly as we follow religion today.
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  • Edited by Pride: 4/1/2013 2:33:03 AM
    Getting rid of religion or any other controversial topic wouldn't cause worldwide peace. It doesn't matter if you set down some base rules for everyone to follow, people will break those rules. People are always going to find something to disagree on. Peace is never 100% possible. Someone will always hate someone else. That's the truth right there. Following the path of Science, Mathematics, education in general is a really good idea, but it'll never work. Someone'll be too lazy to do any work, or something's going to pop up that people disagree on. "No you moron! Sending a probe to Jupiter isn't a good idea! We'll lose money for something that'll barely bring back any information!" "You stupid dickhead. The money's worth the potential scientific gain that we can gather from Jupiter, whether it's there or not is debatable!" Or maybe; "Democracy is the way we should rule our people, it's the only way!" "Democracy? Democracy is nothing but a cover name for oppression!" Humanity will never be united as one. My take on religion? Who gives a damn? As long as nobody is getting hurt through people's different beliefs, it should be allowed. It's people's choice on how they want to live. It's not appropriate to say, "We shouldn't be teaching our kids religion, we should be teaching them quantum physics instead!" It doesn't matter what people are taught when they're born. Any potentially useful human (to society that is) will learn his/her own beliefs as they grow up through exposure to the real world.

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  • Good points. I agree that to say humans could agree on anything 100% would be a near impossible task. I also agree that even with mathematics, science, etc. decisions will still be met with argument, and therefore conflict. What I was arguing was less focused on how to make the 'perfect world' but more of, in my opinion, the flaws that religion brings today. I'm also speaking from a more hypothetical standpoint to entertain the question. As with you I find the people who cause a major fuss about "We should teach this" or "We shouldn't teach that" somewhat ridiculous. So I guess I've just majorly contradicted myself here. I do think the world would be better off without religion. However the problems caused by getting rid of religion, even attempting to shrink it in the slightest would make it completely ridiculous to consider. I really don't care enough about the situation to even want it to be any different. Even if I did, I don't think it would be right to say what people can and can't do. [quote] It doesn't matter what people are taught when they're born. Any potentially useful human (to society that is) will learn his/her own beliefs as they grow up through exposure to the real world.[/quote] I really like this though. Really hits home for me.

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  • If only there was a way to get rid of extremists. Honestly, religion does bring about a hell of a lot of conflict. Oh well, that's the way the world is. Thanks for arguing in a nice manner though. I really appreciate it!

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  • I wouldnt say that every man would have a dog eat dog mentality without religion in the past. Sure, there would be less unification, less order and some nations might not exist without but humans are naturally social creatures. It wouldnt be as bad as you say. Someone would at least try to conquer lands and enforce peace and order throughout if it was like that.

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  • I agree, there are good people out there. However I think that these are the men who applied religion. Whoever did conquer the lands were the ones enforcing peace, and through that, religion. I guess it was more the leader at the time who decided whether or not they were going to use religion for good or for bad.

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  • I mean men like that wouldnt use religion to do so. You can still instill peace without religion and teach good morals. Remember the people who started religions had morals they instilled into what they started. Humans are naturally social creatures. Thats why we have morals because it benefits us social creatures.

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