Is Religion the root of all Evil?

Kassie said:

I agree with this to an extent. I do believe people, children especially, absorb the things they see and hear incredibly and are built around that. The way we talk about people, portray them, and market them is detrimental to society as a whole and a lot of the time we do this and are exposed to it without even realizing. That being said, I still believe it is in our nature to put ourselves before others and to constantly grapple for an upper-hand.

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This as well. I think many religions have a lot of good ideas and generous lessons to teach to people. You don't necessarily have to believe in something entirely, to find something believable within it. I've found something likable in every religion I've studied.

And for the most part, religious people don't all believe the same things. Even two Christians, attending the same church, have likely developed their own interpretations. Faith is a personal matter. The impact of religion is determined by the individual practicing it. Some religious people have very negatively impacted the world, while others have been nothing but inspirational.

As for politics, it's all so nauseating, I wish democrats and republicans alike would disappear altogether.

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The evil caused by religion is important, yet what religion does to the human brain is just as important.

I will say it again.

"Religion is a plague to society. It seeks to contain and control humans whilst stifling our intellect. That is a sort of deep and disgusting evil."

Leader said:

The evil caused by religion is important, yet what religion does to the human brain is just as important.

I will say it again.

"Religion is a plague to society. It seeks to contain and control humans whilst stifling our intellect. That is a sort of deep and disgusting evil."

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Religion doesn't seek anything. People "seek to contain and control humans whilst stifling our intellect." Religion is merely the vehicle individuals choose in some instances.

Don't be mistaken. There are plenty of individuals who are religious and also very open-minded, intellectual beings. As I stated, religion is different to each and every individual. You cannot define how every person is connected to their beliefs. Some beliefs are very simple. There are plenty of people who believe in a God and their believing stops there. Don't discredit the intellect of a human mind simply because it's variety of abstraction is different than yours. Religion can be used to stop exploration and learning, but such is not always the case. Let's not forget about the non-religious who can't be bothered to learn anything about their world, or settle for taking everything they've learned in a high school biology class as absolute truth. All beliefs, not just religious ones, can be and are used to control and limit people.

Kassie said:

Religion doesn't seek anything. People "seek to contain and control humans whilst stifling our intellect." Religion is merely the vehicle individuals choose in some instances.

Don't be mistaken. There are plenty of individuals who are religious and also very open-minded, intellectual beings. As I stated, religion is different to each and every individual. You cannot define how every person is connected to their beliefs. Some beliefs are very simple. There are plenty of people who believe in a God and their believing stops there. Don't discredit the intellect of a human mind simply because it's variety of abstraction is different than yours. Religion can be used to stop exploration and learning, but such is not always the case. Let's not forget about the non-religious who can't be bothered to learn anything about their world, or settle for taking everything they've learned in a high school biology class as absolute truth. All beliefs, not just religious ones, can be and are used to control and limit people.

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I fail to see the point. All religion does the same thing. It tells you exactly what the universe is like and why it is that way. This is an insult to human dignity. Religion is a product of humans, so that argument doesn't hold ground.

Science is not absolute truth. Also, any atheist bases his or her beliefs upon evidence, rather than faith. Religion tells people that things are absolute fact when they're not. Science does the opposite. Science has always been based upon evidence. It constantly changes based upon the current amount of understanding and evidence we have. If something has evidence against it, it is rejected. Simple.

Leader said:

I fail to see the point. All religion does the same thing. It tells you exactly what the universe is like and why it is that way. This is an insult to human dignity. Religion is a product of humans, so that argument doesn't hold ground.

Science is not absolute truth. Also, any atheist bases his or her beliefs upon evidence, rather than faith. Religion tells people that things are absolute fact when they're not. Science does the opposite. Science has always been based upon evidence. It constantly changes based upon the current amount of understanding and evidence we have. If something has evidence against it, it is rejected. Simple.

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Okay, so religion was created for a purpose, which you assert is to control and limit people, which I've agreed with. I've stated that religion is used for this purpose, so actually, I'm failing to see your point. People use religion to have their way. There was a motive to create religion, which is why I have said that human nature is the root of evil. Who we are, what we desire, and our tendencies to put ourselves above the greater good of our kind is the root of all evil. As you said, religion is a product of humans, so to say that it is the root and the starting place of evil is foolish. Evil existed before religion, because the existence of religion came after the existence of us. Evil desires pushed people to create a religion with the purpose of manipulating and controlling.

I haven't claimed that religion cannot be evil. I am answering the question. Is religion the root of all evil? Obviously not; We are.

There is also an assortment of religions that don't even touch the topic of the existence of the universe and simply focuses on harboring an individual's spirituality with the world they live in, so to say that every religion does the exact same thing is blatantly incorrect.

Kassie said:

Okay, so religion was created for a purpose, which you assert is to control and limit people, which I've agreed with. I've stated that religion is used for this purpose, so actually, I'm failing to see your point. People use religion to have their way. There was a motive to create religion, which is why I have said that human nature is the root of evil. Who we are, what we desire, and our tendencies to put ourselves above the greater good of our kind is the root of all evil. As you said, religion is a product of humans, so to say that it is the root and the starting place of evil is foolish. Evil existed before religion, because the existence of religion came after the existence of us. Evil desires pushed people to create a religion with the purpose of manipulating and controlling.

I haven't claimed that religion cannot be evil. I am answering the question. Is religion the root of all evil? Obviously not; We are.

There is also an assortment of religions that don't even touch the topic of the existence of the universe and simply focuses on harboring an individual's spirituality with the world they live in, so to say that every religion does the exact same thing is blatantly incorrect.

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I would have to disagree with you here. Religion is inherently evil, but it's not the root of all evil. However, it is what can turn good people into horrible, immoral, and purely evil people. Religion is what causes people to do evil. It gives them an excuse to not take responsibility for their own actions. It allows them to pretend that they're doing the right thing, simply because they're doing it in the name of god. Without religion, there would be less evil in the world.

People channel their evil into religion.

What religion are you referring to? Buddhism isn't a religion.

All I gotta say is Smoke meth & Hail Satan

I'm in class so all I could do was skim over the OP, but in a sense, yes... Evil stems from religion. There's God, whom represents all things good, and then there's the Devil, whom reflects evil.

Leader said:

I would have to disagree with you here. Religion is inherently evil, but it's not the root of all evil. However, it is what can turn good people into horrible, immoral, and purely evil people. Religion is what causes people to do evil. It gives them an excuse to not take responsibility for their own actions. It allows them to pretend that they're doing the right thing, simply because they're doing it in the name of god. Without religion, there would be less evil in the world.

People channel their evil into religion.

What religion are you referring to? Buddhism isn't a religion.

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Many things can turn good people into horrible, immoral, and purely evil people, including religion, but not just religion.

Yeah, people do use the name of God as an excuse to harm other people. I think most people could agree on that.

Perhaps religion is the wrong word. Let's use philosophies, or vaguely, spirituality. There are many philosophies and rituals practiced for the sake of spirituality that are clearly differentiated from science. I am suggesting: There are individuals who seek to connect with the world on a spiritual level and they do so without being told where the world originated from and without being told who to be, what to be, and how to be.

Kassie said:

Many things can turn good people into horrible, immoral, and purely evil people, including religion, but not just religion.

Yeah, people do use the name of God as an excuse to harm other people. I think most people could agree on that.

Perhaps religion is the wrong word. Let's use philosophies, or vaguely, spirituality. There are many philosophies and rituals practiced for the sake of spirituality that are clearly differentiated from science. I am suggesting: There are individuals who seek to connect with the world on a spiritual level and they do so without being told where the world originated from and without being told who to be, what to be, and how to be.

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Yes. However, I'm purely speaking on organized religion; not philosophies or spirituality.

Leader said:

Yes. However, I'm purely speaking on organized religion; not philosophies or spirituality.

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Then, for the most part, I agree with you. Religion is something under human control, so it is corrupted and filthy for the most part. In my opinion, everything humans touch tends to end up this way in some instance or another.

Religion can indeed start conflict, however it is not "the root of all evil". The religious extremists would be the people pushing this towards "the root of all evil". I myself am an athiest, and I cannot stand people who attempt to force their religion onto others. This is similar to the saying "Guns don't kill people, people kill people".

illegal said:

Religion can indeed start conflict, however it is not "the root of all evil". The religious extremists would be the people pushing this towards "the root of all evil". I myself am an athiest, and I cannot stand people who attempt to force their religion onto others. This is similar to the saying "Guns don't kill people, people kill people".

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There are no such thing as religious extremists. The people you are referring to are the most religious people of all. They are the truest followers and have the strongest faith.

As I said in my previous post, the human mind is the root of all evil. Religion is a product of the human mind.

Religion and Rebellion come from the same root. The global deception of aeons is that those are your only 2 choices. Yin or Yang ... pick one ... or just try to balance them.
Which would then be a religion or rebellion of it's own.

Reactionism and relativitism are both unthinking traps of the same root.

Hegelian dialectics works on the same principle. It has herded sheeple since fear. http://www.infowars.com/the-hegelian-dialectic-and-its-use-in-controlling-modern-society/

The problem is that people judge their way into one camp or another. Or they judge that it is wrong to judge any camp.

I went to a Lutheran Church when I was a kid. Knew God wasn't there.

Started Chakra Mediation when I was 11 years old and by the time I was 19 I could Lucid dream and had 'alert" deja vu's and could see auras around people.
(OK - so your driving down the road and someone is staring at you real hard (mean mugging you) --- that you can't see --- in the car next to you. --- You feel it ... yes?)

There is a ton more to the story including being the closest friend of the author who wrote "THE" resource book used planet wide on the Illuminati and the 13 illuminati families.
https://www.google.com/search?q=ill...F%2Frense.com%2Fgeneral95%2Fillum.htm;320;229

Curley said:

Ok, i am not hating on Religion i want honest opinions i myself am an Atheist but i do not condemn nor attack others for beliefs unless you push them on me by force then i get defensive, i was raised a Catholic forced into private school for 9 years of my life (worst years of my life) i became an Atheist about a year but i had not been public about it for many reasons.

Thoughts on Religion i have: I actually like the philosophy of some eastern religions (Buddhism and Taoism mostly) but much of the violence is karmic retribution carried out by the most ideologically extreme people on either side of the spectrum. Keep in mind, all christians stood behind a "Holy war" in 1312 against the muslim nations. Most soldiers brought back priceless artifacts as the visible spoils of war, making me wonder what all we did not see. Objectively speaking, seeing that most muslim extremists barley have power let alone a system of state controlled information and education (aka workforce programming) they in all likelihood are still passing down war stories, essentially holding a grudge against a nation that A. Conquered and dominated much of the globe B. Spawned the modern enemy of islam, America.

I'm encouraging any sort of input what FK thinks thanks guys

- Curley

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Perhaps, poetically it is the root of all evil. However, philosophically, I wouldn't define religion as the root of all evil, though, I feel insinuated to define religion as evil for it is the justification of all things wrong. (i.e honor rape, slavery, indiscriminate murder, genocide, bridewealth, discrimination, and so much more injustice.)

8==================D said:

Also, it's a VERY different thing to have faith than to be labeled as religious. I don't go to church. I've never been forced or brainwashed into my beliefs and I detest atheists judging me based on that. Faith is the most powerful thing we human-beings have. It incites love, peace and good will. Yes, there are those that tarnish the name of Christianity, but you people that chastise 'all' Christians are blinded by your own stubbornness to realize that we're not all like that. In fact, most of today's modern Christians/believers live by a faith-based ideology, like myself.

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You were most definitely indoctrinated. You wouldn't believe in a God or be of a faith if you were never exposed to the concepts.

Faith is the surrender of the mind. It devalorizes the trustworthiness of our most valuable instruments of grasping reality; that being logic, reason and science. To be faithful is to dictate a proofless absolute and deny all evidence which denies otherwise. Faith is not a virtue. I refuse to believe that if there was a God capable of creating the universe and all its content, that he would be foolish enough to think faith is a reasonable system of determining who belongs in his paradise.

I believe you're missing the point. I am constantly reminded by theists that not all theists and religions are bad, whatever their imperfections, they leastly instill a somewhat reasonable sense of morality (despite contradicting their religion's unflexable doctrine and resembling more so to the character of an atheist than a theist in the process of doing so). I'm well aware of this, however, it doesn't matter if your religion instills prosperities for it still instills adversities, and by the masses it envenoms our world with superstition, illogic and ill-reason. Religion is not benign, it is a malignant plague strong enough to initiate the extinction of our species.

I'll just say that atheism is itself a religion. Labeling yourself as such is no different than labeling myself as a theist. I believe in a higher power and you believe in the power of science/humanity. We can co-exist. In the end, that's all that matters.

8==================D said:

I'll just say that atheism is itself a religion. Labeling yourself as such is no different than labeling myself as a theist. I believe in a higher power and you believe in the power of science/humanity. We can co-exist. In the end, that's all that matters.

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Atheism is not a religion. It dictates a singular claim, not a dogma. It is the rejection of a belief, the lack of a belief. Atheism is the contrapositive of a religion. We do not rely purely upon science and reason, because these are necessary rather than sufficient factors, but we distrust anything that contradicts science or devalorizes reason.

I'm for coexistence, however, you would see that's impossible if you knew and understood the malignant doctrine and dogma religion dictates.

Cann!bal said:

Atheism is not a religion. It dictates a singular claim, not a dogma. It is the rejection of a belief, the lack of a belief. Atheism is the contrapositive of a religion. We do not rely purely upon science and reason, because these are necessary rather than sufficient factors, but we distrust anything that contradicts science or devalorizes reason.

I'm for coexistence, however, you would see that's impossible if you knew and understood the malignant doctrine and dogma religion dictates.

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Anyone can co-exist if they stop stating opinions. It's why I have 1 rule in my parties. No sports, politics or religion talk. Trust me, it works.

WHY DOES EVERYONE USE BIG WORDS TO SOUND FANCY IN THIS SECTION I WOULD LIKE TO PITCH IT BUT I DON'T KNOW ALL THESE WORDS.

8==================D said:

Anyone can co-exist if they stop stating opinions. It's why I have 1 rule in my parties. No sports, politics or religion talk. Trust me, it works.

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You fail to grasp what I'm saying. Dogma prevents coexistence. For example: it is literally dictated in the Qur'an that infidels to the Islamic faith are to be slaughtered. There can be no coexistence if there's a single doctrine which denies the possibility of coexistence, and there's thousands of guidelines within religious legislation which deny the possibility of coexistence.

(It's a doctrine of essentially all theistic religions that you enforce your beliefs on others in attempt to convert them by the way.)

I don't think religion is as nearly a cause of evil as, say, envy and greed. Much of the violence in history attributed to religion is backed by deeper flaws, most usually a fear of those who have more riches or are different in some way.