Which Is A Bigger Threat To Humanity? Science Or Religion?

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superchunk said:

Superman4 said:

I disagree completely with this statement. Anywhere you have religion you have issues. Why is the middle east in an endless war? Religion. Why does the US have insane laws regarding abortion, gay marriage etc.  Religion. Lack of religion allows you to focus on being a person first and not waiting for some mythical figure to guide you through life. It also eliminates the justification for your violence towards others or acceptance of others. Over time religion has caused more deaths and massacres than any war over land,or Plague.

Name one country where there is no religion? That's like saying air is the leading cause of death because nearly everyone who has ever died was breathing air at the time of death.

You are highlighting true issues with how people use their religious power. However, you are ignoring the countless others who are happy in that same extreme living space or in the much larger world where extremism is not law. Its called cherry picking.

The OP was not requesting opinions on cherry picked scenarios. When you break down plausibility for humanity impacting crisis', an event rising from AI, genetic manipulations, or otherwise have a far higher possibility than tyrannical religion. Fact is, we already have and have had extremist religions powers. Humanity hasn't been threatened.

Hell, what has threatened humanity? WW1 and 2. The Cuban Missile Crisis. Those had nothing to do with religion but power and that power utilized weapons and scientific studies to kill millions. Especially during WW2. 

It's far more likely that we're going to see a plague caused by genetic manipulation.

It's far more likely that we're going to have issues from AI.

It's far more likely that we're going to become to reliant on science / tech and when it collapses from some war action, we'll all be screwed. (read the one second after book, good stuff)

Now, don't get me wrong. I love tech and science. I can't wait to see implementations of self driving cars (I'm buying a Telsa later this year). I will be among the first to sign up for nano-tech injected into my body as a better immune system. I am un-trustworthy of GMO food in general (another topic I see as a big risk to humanity) but I'm not against further study on producing better food genetically. (difference is in injecting poisons vs increasing size/nutrients)

The argument isn't which one is better than the other as both have merits and risks. This isn't an emotional discussion. But which has the most plausibility to be a threat to humanity. Organized belief in a god is actually on the decline WW. This is why there is so much backlash in America as Christians are now becoming more and more extremist. Its a defense mechanism. (btw, I'm not atheist or Christian) But, mistakes in several scientific fields simply have a higher plausibility of happening than a large-scale religious based conflict or a religions based terror group attempting to kill us all off with nukes/virus/etc.

Organised belief in god is on the decline worldwide, but it's been replaced with other belief systems, that people take as religions. 

Even if the number of religous people would be going down in numbers, the extremism is on the rise and spreading worldwide. If the people are happy under the extremist conditions, I'd suggest them staying there where they are happy. But they don't, which leads us to two possible conclusions: 1. They aren't happy there, 2. These extremists are a threat to mankind.

Religions, like any other ideology, tries to force you to accept their sets of beliefs, if you don't, you don't deserve to live or you deserve to live only as slaves for the righterous.

I see your religious mindset gives you faith in science. Science doesn't work that way. It's only about if the benefits of science outweight the harm. Why would the nanomachines benefit your immune system? Is there something wrong with it, that it can't make it by itself? Why would you let a car to drive by itself, how it is better than you driving the car yourself?