the churches stand above the law in germany, its not that strict, just a little here and there, but thats to much(specialy the catholic church)

 - Faith is defined as belief, confidence or trust in a person, object, religion, idea or view despite the absence of proof.

Everyone does this everyday and  society would not function if you didn't have faith in something...if you use money to purchase things then you have faith...our whole economy system is built on faith...so yeah our society is better off

So basically, religion is all about faith, but faith is not all about religion.

I don't mind religious people. I just cannot understand how they believe in much of the stuff. Heaven, hell, talking snakes, resurrections, walking on water, fitting two of each animal in the world onto a boat etc...

The Harry Potter books are more believable...

It seems to me that the media just creates this sort of anti-religious hysteria and the Authoritarian Left would just love it if religion disappeared altogether and people just worshipped their leaders and the state

Anyway, I have plenty of atheist and agnostic friends.  I am quite orthodox but I don't preach to them, I don't hide it either.  I appreciate it if they respect my beliefs though, I don't appreciate my faith being insulted but I won't get butt mad over it either.

Here's my thing in a nutshell: no one should force religion on another person, and I use the term loosely.  Religion could be your political beliefs that are based on faith and faith alone, it could be some sort of fringe agenda, or it could just be a regular old organized religion.  If people abided by that I think we could get along much better.

You know what screw it
all of us friken nerds cant handle this situation nicely
please lock

Which is why i am glad i live in Norway, Atheism is 100% Normal here, and we are neutral to religions, etc etc. We don't judge people by their belief, even though being attacked by fanatics can happen 1 or twice in about 5 year's time, no biggie. I don't know why US is so backward when it come to stuff like this, but this is what happens when a country tried to combine God and country, even though none of the father's of US wanted it to be religious, it just ended up as a massive christian country anyway, Where people don't trust you if you don't believe in God.

Just because faith is beneficial to society doesn't mean that religion is. Faith does not mean religion just because religion has faith. A human's natural instinct far outweighs faith. Yes faith can be applied to pretty much every decision we make as a race but our 'knowledge' of how something tastes or works is what is going to lead us to buy something that we have faith in. When I buy a donut, pizza, TV, computer, ANYTHING, I 'know' what I'm buying. Yes I have faith that they will deliver what I want but my knowledge far out-weighs my ptotential purchase or use.

But you are right that faith is beneficial to society, if it wasn't then what would be the point of advertising or relationships and such things? But faith is not religion, it even describes that in the definition you gave. Faith is a belief in a religion, not religion itself.

Well, I'm agnostic, only because I can't prove neither the existence nor the not-existence of God/Gods. I don't like people who uses religion as a means to an end (holy wars,the Christian institution...). And I also don't like people who treat religious people as if they were stupid for believing.

So if people knock on your door to convince you to become a Christianity they are "retarded fanatics." Isn't spreading the gospel the entire point of that religion? What kind of backwards Christianity are you practicing?