Is religion still relevant in modern society?

[GameOver22]

padib said:

Jexy said:

Andrespetmonkey said:

padib said:

Jexy said:
Religion should be a personal thing, between you and whoever/whatever you believe in. And if you want to build a temple to that and be with others like you, that is also great. Just don't force others into your belief system. Religion was an early form of government, a way to keep the peace, and a way to explain everything that happened because science hadn't evolved that far yet. It is useful now as it provides hope when there is little to many around the world, and a sense of being. Plus, many religious groups do a lot of good in the world. But yeah, if you could somehow wipe everyone's minds clean of religion on earth, every war, every ongoing genocide, would cease to be.

@ bold. Very wishful thinking. Did you come up with that or is that what other people told you?

Assuming it's your thought, how can you honestly believe that? Barring religion, what about pride? greed? What of kids fighting as a natural human tendency? What about bloodlust (you know it exists)?

Then there is areligious justice. What happens when an offense is made, how do people react (barring religion)? Taking matters into your hands, if in the scale of a country, means war.

Wow, I'm really amazed at your faith in areligion. I don't buy it though.

We already know how a society will work without a religion. Look at Sweden, Norway, Finland. It can't possibly just be the 15% of christians in Sweden that are keeping the crime rates among the lowest in the world, the quality of life among the highest, keeping Sweden one of the most peaceful countries in the world and one of the biggest givers of aid per capita.

Infact, look at USA, it's very different over there. One of the least peaceful countries in the world, some of the highest crime rates, and quality of life is comparatively low in the developed world. And look, 75% christians. I'm not saying christianity causes those things, I'm saying religion doesn't guide morality, it can, but it's only one source, we have plenty of sources. 

He's not worth responding to.  He doesn't even think women are equals of men.  Not to mention he doesn't read.  I said every war going on NOW.  Not in the past, or the future, just NOW.  All the fighting in the middle east, all the genocide in Africa and terrorism in Asia... its all because of religion.  Also, he apparently equates kids fighting in school to the deaths of millions. 

"But yeah, if you could somehow wipe everyone's minds clean of religion on earth, every war, every ongoing genocide, would cease to be."

I didn't read "now", did you? It's maybe what you meant to say, but it's not my mistake for not reading it if it's not there. And even then, my point still stands. Okay, to be generous it is possible, but very quickly things will turn back to its old pattern. The fault is not religion, the fault is human nature. But you don't see it, there's not much I can do. I tried to give you examples. theprof00 and I already showd that whether a religious institution or the Twilight of Idols, what you have is the law of the greater man, not truth. The reason is because human nature transpires through all things.

This insight helps me alot in understanding this kind of thing, I'm just not sure if you see it too.

The fighting of kids, for instance, thought not equal to war in any way (I never said that buddy, good luck quoting me on it), it is a testament of a warring nature within human beings. Of course you can't hold them too it, they're kids! But it's a good indicator that humans have a tendency to fight, and for the most part people are aware that wars are often based off petty things that CAN be likened to "That's MY TOY!"

 

EDIT: But you see it though! I just read another post of you, and you acknowledge the weakness of human nature:

"Very true.  Jealousy and misunderstanding and fear are what drive wars.  Religion now, and in the past has contributed to much of those three things, but even without religion, man's desire for control will always cause wars.  What we need is a great unifier, and the only thing that can do that now is space travel, but we haven't really done much as far as technological advancement with space travel since the moon missions.  We still can't put a man on Mars yet, and the moons of the gas giants are out of reach for us outside of little probes.  It won't be in our lifetime that mankind comes together."

So why in the world are you blaming religion?

 

The Iraq War actually has little, if anything at all, to do with religion. Remove religion from the equation and the US would still have invaded Iraq. The big issue was WMDs and the nature of Hussein's regime. It was not a religious war but a defensive one, at least in justification.

Also, removing religion from the picture is hardly a reasonable position. The same could be said of many other things- we could just as well eliminate free will, human nature, national boundaries, sovereignty and achieve the same goal. If you could remove religion and eliminate war, this hardly means that religion causes war. It just means that religion is necessary for war. This is hardly true (Iraq example), but my point is that religion is no more a cause of war than the other things I mentioned.