Interesting....

Agree with this statement

it could be Aliens O_O

A common opinion in our secular society is that religious influence hinders progression. It is said that humanity is held back by superstitions and unfounded values, resulting in delayed scientific advancements while paving the way for discrimination and bigotry.

On first glance this may seem like a perfectly reasonable argument to make. After all, excerpts from the Old Testament clearly condemn homosexual acts and have been used through the ages to justify discrimination of homosexual individuals while there has been numerous cases of religious groups and societies destroying scientific works, deeming it blasphemous. At this point, however, there are two things that need to be considered:

The old testament also advocates slavery, infanticide if ordered by god, looting, rape of the women in invaded lands, and infanticide by god.  The new one is only slightly more moral. 


1. These are isolated occurrences. The only thing that has been proven is that religion can be detrimental to societal progression.

1.  Define isolated please.  There are many many examples of small scale and large scale attrocities of religion.  There is a statistically significant negative correlation between societal health and religiosity.  http://www.skeptic.com/reading_room/religious-belief-and-societal-health/

2. The alternative to religion is even worse.

2.  What is this bs based on?  By religion do you mean organized religion or theism?  If you mean theism, atheism is by definition the alternative.

So what is this alternative? Just plain atheism? No, this issue runs far deeper than that.

In spite of all the bad things that religion has caused, there is one thing that it did absolutely right: It kept the human population in check, preventing it from fully expressing itself the way it desired. Today, when religion is largely seen as something that you leave at home when going to work, the dire consequences of our recent liberation are becoming increasingly apparent:

Total BS.  There is no need for religion to limit people.  People like Confucius figured it out without religion.  Buddha as well, although whether that is a religion is more sticky.  There is NO evidence that more secular societies are more at risk for people to act "immorally".  Look at studies comparing religiosity to societal health.  Look at the fact that atheists make up .07% of the prison population.  Look at the history of the world to see what a swell job religion does of inhibiting dangerous impulses.

- People today are more entitled than ever before. They watch movies and listen to music for free, oftentimes illegally, then shamelessly go on to criticize its content on the internet. The youth has no problem asking their parents for new smarthphones and tablets every year, even if they are in a frail financial situation. Ungratefulness and poor manners spread like a disease as all responsibility is shifted towards someone else, oftentimes a politician or caretaker.

Seriously?  What does this have to do with anything?  Between 80 and 90% of Americans are religious.  Is it only the atheists who want new phones?  Are more religious societies less materialistic?  Why would legally watching movies and listening to music wrong?  Watching it illegally is simply a matter of technological opportunity?  Why is criticism wrong or bad, whether I paid for something or not?  Poor manners spread?  Where is your evidence for any of the BS you're typing?

- Popular culture is more intellectually toxic than ever before. People have no second thoughts about idolizing even the most dimwitted celebrities; claiming to reward their "open-mindedness". Repetitive, vulgar songs regularly reach the top in terms of revenue and recognition. Simple, cheap video games are favored by the masses over games with extensive lore and great thought behind its music and gameplay concept.  What was previously known as "art" is gradually replaced with uninspired, provocative works as interest in true art fades away. And the list goes on and on.

Vulgar by whose standards?  Yours?  Who defines what art is?  You?  Who decides what is uninspired?  You?  Celebrity is a matter of technology.  We have the means to express information and images more quickly.

And again how does this relate to religion at all?  The people buying this stuff in the US are by a vast vast majority religious.

- Critical thinking is overlooked. Instead, in a truly animalistic fashion, the loudest voice is the one that holds the most authority. Namely, the person who receives the most likes on youtube/facebook, the person with the most followers on twitter and the person whose reviews has the most readers. Popularity declares whether your word holds any value, rather than the word's content itself.

And what makes someone more popular?  Basically you're saying people are wrong for listening to who they listen to.  This argument is circular.  The person with the most influence has the most influence.  Well, no shit.

Religion, believing something based on faith, is by definition not critical thinking.  You want people to think critically, but simply accept right and wrong based on decree?  That is logically inconsistent.  And you haven't done anything to prove critical thinking is overlooked.

Needless to say, it has never been more apparent that freedom as we know it is severely overrated. When people have no god to look up to, they worship themselves and their own ideals in its place regardless of how destructive those ideals may be to the growth of our species.

Total total bullshit.  And, I'm not going to worry about getting modded at this point, because this is an arbitrary and baseless attack on my beliefs.  As an atheist I do not worship myself for anything else.  There is NO EVIDENCE that secularism is detrimental to society.  The eviedence available suggests otherwise.

As a non-believer myself I don't know how exactly this new religion should be formed or what beliefs it should entail. All I know is that the liberty that the people of today has obtained is unbridled and needs to be restrained as soon as possible if we are to solve this issue. Otherwise, the human population may never be humble again.