http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=170921713&blogid=407805574&page=613

take a good look at this. Im making a blog because the conversations get pretty heated and i want all the acitivity on MY BLOG!!

see: http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=75133

for references as well.

thanks for being smart tasteless

now GO!!

Ok, what i do not understand about religion is why it is needed. Why cant we just be good people for our own sake? We are naturally selfish anyway why not carry it on? could a religious person please enlighten me?

FragKrag

United States11562 Posts

July 20 2008 06:06 GMT

Because when we didn't know as much as we do now, Religion provided comfort, and most of all, an explanation.

DoctorHelvetica

United States15034 Posts

July 20 2008 06:18 GMT

Somehow I feel like this isn't going to get alot of replies.

MrRammstein

Poland339 Posts

July 20 2008 06:31 GMT

Ok, what i do not understand about religion is why it is needed. Why cant we just be good people for our own sake? We are naturally selfish anyway why not carry it on?

If you don't need it then don't think about it, let people who need it be

There should be always some alternative IMO - someone few ages ago (2-3?) said something like "religion is opium for masses" but I wouldn't go so far, even half as this.

micronesia

United States24768 Posts

July 20 2008 06:32 GMT

On July 20 2008 15:18 DoctorHelvetica wrote:
Somehow I feel like this isn't going to get alot of replies.

+ Show Spoiler +

powa

United States58 Posts

July 20 2008 06:55 GMT

ppl r weak

DrywMz

United States394 Posts

July 20 2008 07:35 GMT

Some people, such as my friend Robear, feel that religion and the "supernatural" are the things that are responsible for our free-will. He also claimed that if everything was rational/logical then people wouldn't really have free-will and that our actions are just results of our experiences. All I could say to that was the paradox of god being all-knowing and all-being that there would be no free choice because he already knows what you would choose meaning that it has been decided infinitely ahead of time. All he said was that god transcends logic, meaning that I can't argue with him because all my arguments are based on logic and nobody can't truly understand how it works....

Robear is a deist so his thoughts on that subject aren't from any specific church or organization. May not be directly on topic but I'll post anyway.

omfghi2u2

United States831 Posts

July 20 2008 08:02 GMT

gives us something to believe in. Puts our faith in something as well.

hymn

Bulgaria832 Posts

July 20 2008 08:35 GMT

Religious people can easily find comfort too.

Agavond

448 Posts

July 20 2008 10:57 GMT

#10

Discussing the complexities of religion here, especially in your "blog" is not the best area of for expertise. Your opening introduction and argument is weakly constructed and full of misinterpretations. An issue like religion is best discuss at a website dedicated to that field of study.

Mhugues

France112 Posts

July 20 2008 11:12 GMT

#11

On July 20 2008 15:06 FragKrag wrote:
Because when we didn't know as much as we do now, Religion provided comfort, and most of all, an explanation.

It still does

KaasZerg

Netherlands927 Posts

July 20 2008 12:52 GMT

#12

Fear of the unknown. Thus wanting a guardian to protect you from the unknown. Paranoia that evil is out to get you. Stupid people can regard evil as an entety.

Hypnosis

United States2061 Posts

July 20 2008 16:49 GMT

#13

On July 20 2008 19:57 Sins wrote:
Discussing the complexities of religion here, especially in your "blog" is not the best area of for expertise. Your opening introduction and argument is weakly constructed and full of misinterpretations. An issue like religion is best discuss at a website dedicated to that field of study.

that has nothing to do with it, its a blog it can be whatever it wants to be. I just wanted to ask that specific question. Do religious people see people that are not as idiots, or just "lost"?

BottleAbuser

Korea (South)1888 Posts

July 21 2008 03:03 GMT

#14

Not all nonreligious people feel the same way about religion, and I'm sure the religious population is also not homogenous, so it's misleading and misinformed to ask such questions as "Do religious people have some trait x?"

Now, if we substitute "Do followers of doctrine X believe in Y?" does have a real answer, if Y is addressed in that doctrine. For example, if we asked "Do Christians see non-Christians as idiots, or just 'lost?'" then we can look at the Old Testament and say "yeah they see us as idiots" or look at the New Testament and say "we're just lost." Oh well, at least I tried.

AngryGoliath

United States32 Posts

August 20 2008 07:18 GMT

#15

On July 20 2008 15:00 Hypnosis wrote: Why cant we just be good people for our own sake? We are naturally selfish anyway why not carry it on?

So because it's human nature to be selfish, that makes it excusable? Consider that our selfishness is the root of all cruelty and suffering in the world.

BanZu

United States3329 Posts

August 20 2008 07:36 GMT

#16

Why do you need religion?

That's like asking why we need food or water.

Deleted User 3420

24492 Posts

August 20 2008 08:08 GMT

#17

religion is here to help people from freaking out

religion centers you

Tinithor

United States1552 Posts

August 20 2008 08:14 GMT

#18

On August 20 2008 16:36 BanZu wrote:
Why do you need religion?

That's like asking why we need food or water.

This made me laugh to tell you the truth

BottleAbuser

Korea (South)1888 Posts

August 20 2008 08:26 GMT

#19

Woot.

I think the analogy would be a lot clearer if we asked why we need sacred cookies and kool-aid, rather than the blanket "food or water."

nA.Inky

United States794 Posts

August 20 2008 18:48 GMT

#20

Significantly edited----------------

If this blog is an attempt at being inflammatory, it is shameful. If it is an attempt to push rational scientific truth on anyone, it is shameful in the same way religious propaganda is shameful.

If your question is genuine, then my answer would be that religion can be a way of spinning beautiful meaning into life. Religion, of course, can be many things, and so can the absence of religion.

I don't know that we can be a judge of what people need or don't need in the way that you appear to be attempting. That atheism makes so much sense to you is great, but what makes you think everyone exists in a context where your perspective makes sense? Why should everyone want to share your point of view?

The issue I have with the OP is that it begins from the premise that religion is essentially useless and is in need of justifying itself. This is not a position from which one begins a meaningful dialogue. If you want to understand religion and religious experience, it might help if you genuinely appreciate it and respect it.

Let's put the question back to you: why should a religious person be an atheist? Why do you need atheism? Or betteR: why do you take the scientific stance so seriously as a way of being, and take science so seriously as a way knowing the world? Why do you need scientific "certainty" over faith?

I say all the above as an atheist.