The Abrahamic Religions make No Sense

[IIIIITHE1IIIII]

richardhutnik said:

IIIIITHE1IIIII said:

You make a good point.

The thing is though that when an atheist get the idea that everything is determined, then he won't really change a lot as a person. His opinions will pretty much stay the same. A religious person on the other hand would have to question his entire lifestyle and go: "Hmm... Maybe there is no reason to look down on homosexual people? Maybe circumcision should be up to the child to decide once it grows up, since it doesn't really matter to God anyway? Maybe I shouldn't look down on people who has sex before marriage? Maybe it's okay to file for divorce if the couple is unhappy?" (Those questions obviously differ from person to person.)

After all, the purpose of this thread is to stop unnecessary pain which is caused by unjustified religious rituals, which does not apply to atheists.

I am still pondering what pain I get after liturgy is over and I grab a few bites of cut up bread on the way out.  I did get some discomfort from going around and telling people in the congregation I was sorry for what wrongs I did, or rights I failed to do, and have them do the same.  Maybe there is some merit to eliminating getting a congregation to ponder how they have not lived up to ideals by having them meet everyone else in the congregation and ask how they fell short of loving fully.

A neat thing about religious rituals is that they tend to usually be fairly harmless, but end up having a person face deeper issues, and if they fall short of doing the ritual, the harm is less than if they managed to address the issues face on.  Use of prayer beads, candles and incense, and diatary restrictions (like eating fairly close to Vegan during Lent), all fit into this.  In short, they are life training exercises that serve some value.  Even holidays cause people to think about key points in their lives, and think of them, even down to Holloween, which is about fear.  Thanksgiving is about giving thanks and doing an inventory of good things in your life.  My pet holiday, Festivus, is about whatever you want it to be, with the basic form of: The giving of the unwanted gifts, airing of grievances and the feats of strentgh (pick and choose what you want and adopt accordingly).  The aluminum pole is also so much easier than a tree.

I do think you should own up and say it is REALLY about your support for gay marriage, and then link this elmination of unjustified religious rituals to the fact they hinder society from fully supporting gay marriage.  Maybe you could get something constructive out of writing here if you do that.

Or maybe you should look aside from my signature and realize that this thread was made before Obama's outspoken support for gay marriage. It's like you're not listening at all. Homophobia and discrimination of homosexuals are even worse than not letting them marry each other, and getting rid of those thing to even the slightest extend is just as important.

If I say that this thread stopped only one religious person from mocking a homosexual (I know I'm sticking to that topic a lot, which is due to how widespread it is), would you say that this thread was not worth making? Would you not praise the existence of this thread?

Try to look on the bright side for just one single second.