Normchacho said:
MegaManX said:
RolStoppable said:
MegaManX said:
I could say the same thing about governments, dictators, socialism/communism, any militant with access to gun or a silver tongue. All these institutions are involved in executions, assassinations, genocides, murder of thousands for land, 6 million jews in Germany with Nazis, pick a country in the middle east, Assad or whoever the flavor of the month is, yeah let's elect a dictator, know who dictators hate and silence? Religion. So when you have Castro doing all that good in Cuba, you can pick a genocide over the years and relate it back to someone elected. All these all happened recently, when we are more "civilizied' and less religious, and yet these continue happening to this day in places with no Christanity. Don't worry about the Crusades 1000+ years ago and just ignore the causes of it.
And if the world is getting less religious (hilarious that you pick Catholics who do the most charity and help the poor regardless of race) than we should be seeing less crime and death and hatred right? Let me go check the news and see how much better things are...whoops guess not, crime is up, rapes, mass murders, how's the great progressive Obama doing these past 7 years, oh that bad. Maybe the further we get from religion the worse things will get as people abandon basic morals and values that Christianity teaches.
How do you feel about Islam, which seems to be the religion most associated with violence these days?
|
Not familiar with their teachings, but it seems obvious that it is commonly used to push people to perform disturbing crimes against other humans. Likewise, it seems obvious that if the belief in Islam on the whole weakens, crimes and intolerance would go down. You know, just like nowadays Christianity is neutered to the point that it doesn't have the same pull as in centuries of the past.
Religion isn't bad per se, but it's prone to be abused and has been repeatedly abused.
|
So if religion is prone to being abused as you just said, than you are saying that man is contorting the message and manipulating it to cause harm, then it's not religion that is the devil's work, but those men who use religion to their own evil intentions, right? And if those people using the religion are not following the doctrines of the religion, then they don't represent the religion, and the beliefs aren't the problem. Really it sounds like it's not the religion that's at fault by your own admission, but those explotiating it. As you say, religion isn't bad.
Because really I could say that dictators and governements are the devil's work because I would say more people die in wars between countries, pick a war or conflict in the last 1000 years. More than likely the cause of it was, territory or some power hungry elected leader, some government using real or faked reason to invade or slavery. Nothing to do with religion, God was not the reason or cause for these conflicts. The only deaths associated with religion that I can think of in the last 500 plus years are from those using Islam between warring factions and those that want to spread Islam at the cost of those who refuse. And even those aren't representative of Islam. So really unless you can point to where Judiasm, Islam, Christanity or any other religion directly supports the horrors of the world, it sounds to me like you are scapegoating religion for the wrongs of the world.
|
First off, the world is much, much, much safer than it has ever been.
And you want to know why people aren't killing in the name of Christ anymore? Because religion is much weaker than it used to be. There was a time when the Pope could command Kings to wage wars or could have people killed for saying or believing the wrong thing. Religion ruled peoples lives. At it's peak, Christianity was to Europe what Islam is to the Middle East today, it permeated everything. Now? If the Pope says something that doesn't line up with a Christians political beliefs they denounce the Pope. Christanity is having trouble getting people to take an hour out of their Sunday to go to church, forget conducting a crusaide.
|
The world being safe has to do with police, military, developed cities, not having to hunt for dinner and having cured basic diseases and understanding sanitation. Still people are dying everyday, murder, rape, mass shootings, prisons are overcrowded, we are not some Bill and Ted utopia or something. The world is still a cruel and uncaring place. I don't see how if religion is on the decline the world isn't getting better as some here are saying. If religion teaches peace, and to help your fellow man, 10 commandments, etc, and people follow those basic common sense ideals, than what is the harm in that. If we elect a leader who launches a nuclear warhead, that is a 1000 times worse. Plus it's government and not religion that is responsible for the death penalty and aborting babies, not religion.
And I don't believe or care about heresay from something that happened a 1000 years ago. The crusades are for another time, no pope following the religion would do those sort of things. I don't know what the past has to do with the OP's message of today, the ills of the world are not caused by religion but in spite of it. Are laws are largely based on Christanity anyway. I am not going to generalize a religion based on the actions of a few, but I know a lot of younger people on here like to lump everything together. It's like all the people that lump all of a political party together cause Trump says this or Hilary said that. Christanity is only in decline in America where the media tries to bury and mock it, it's still respected in other parts of the world, its not as if there are only 30 people in the world who believe in it and Islam is on the surge, so religion is still the majority so I'm not to worried.
But also understand that being religious does not mean you let someone murder you because it's wrong to kill. There are times, war or self defense where it is accepted. Of course I don't doubt that men of power could distort a message, it is not reflective of thousands of years of believers. But if you think that the world is becoming better as religion declines, I think you are in for a lot of disappointment. War and death is in man's nature, I'm more afraid of the general in charge of the army than the lady helping out at the soup kitchen, but that's just me.
