I think people who don't believe in life after death dont care what they do to others as they feel they don't suffer consequences like killing someone or raping them. But generally when people have religion they tend to try and lead a life doing good to others. Obviously some are not like that and take things to another level. But if there was no religion people would not care what they do because they're is no greater force than human watching over them whilst doing these terrible things.

I would have to disagree. People who don't believe in life after death don't have a "higher power" to answer to... they have their fellow humans to answer to, right here and now, not at some ambiguous point in the future. If you want to take your point of view to the opposite extreme, one could easily say that people who believe they will be rewarded with an afterlife if they believe in God, can go ahead and do whatever they want because they can get away with it and will be "forgiven" as long as they have "faith".

 

This may be a generalization, but overall I'd say people who who don't believe in the afterlife live life knowing this is the only chance they get. Some/many people who believe in the afterlife take a nonchalant "oh well I still have heaven to look forward to" attitude and hence don't live life to their fullest (whether they realize it or not).

Well it's pretty famous, for a start. I'm surprised you hadn't heard of it.

 

I just heard that sentence in the campest voice.

Israel v Iran is centrally most definitely not a religious matter. And I don't think it's fair generalizing Christians, Islamists etc into a group that think they can do whatever they want knowing the after life will be kind to them and as though all religious people are deniers of reality and are intellectually challenged for that reason (I know that's not what you're saying but you do seem to suggest that being atheist would bring about freer mind). Some of the world's most greatest figures in history conformed to religion and it didn't do them any harm.

 

Fair enough. I could see Israel/Iran as largely a geographical/boundary and fairness of the Jewish state usurpation of Arab lands as motives. And but can't they essentially? I know several people who are devoutly religious. And according to them the only thing you can't do is not believe in God. So it seems as though it's not really promoting any good because it's saying you can commit crimes or do other non-virtuous things but as long as you believe what a book 2,000 or more years old tells you you'll be fine.

 

There's a negative incentive for people who don't believe what they say. That doesn't make the world a better place. It just creates division inside and out of people who have their own ideals but are too afraid of going to "Hell" to be who they really are. It makes a liar out of many who wish to profess their true ideological self but can't because they're threatened by not only condemnation but social alienation. How does that make the world better?

 

I know as someone who isn't very religious I get looked down upon all the time by people who are set in conservative ways, can't really think for themselves, and automatically assume I'm a bad person. You support gay rights? You think women should be able to have abortions if they were raped? Well, the Bible says... no free thinking mind in there when it comes to social issues. Just "what does religion tell me to think" rather than "what are the socioeconomic and political effects of each side regardless of what 'morals' say."

 

Many figures who were evil were also religious as well. Perfect example? Hitler. Creation of Nazi Germany and the superposition of church and state. They used religious propaganda to control the masses and brainwash them into believing ethnic cleansing wasn't as evil as it truly was. And let's not forget it was SPECIFICALLY the Judaic people who were persecuted. Even if you weren't Jewish but your parents or grandparents were you were doomed. Religious genocide? Certainly. SEVEN MILLION people or more died in the name of this religious persecution. Burned. Gased. Electrocuted. Shot. Tortured. Beaten. Starved. Try explaining to them how religion made the world a better place while their innocent bodies lay piled under six feet of gravel.

I just heard that sentence in the campest voice.

 

Julian Clary's?:rolleyes:

:laugh3: :wtf: Is Mark doing his coming out?

 

Quite possibly!

Fair enough. I could see Israel/Iran as largely a geographical/boundary and fairness of the Jewish state usurpation of Arab lands as motives. And but can't they essentially? I know several people who are devoutly religious. And according to them the only thing you can't do is not believe in God. So it seems as though it's not really promoting any good because it's saying you can commit crimes or do other non-virtuous things but as long as you believe what a book 2,000 or more years old tells you you'll be fine.

 

There's a negative incentive for people who don't believe what they say. That doesn't make the world a better place. It just creates division inside and out of people who have their own ideals but are too afraid of going to "Hell" to be who they really are. It makes a liar out of many who wish to profess their true ideological self but can't because they're threatened by not only condemnation but social alienation. How does that make the world better?

 

I know as someone who isn't very religious I get looked down upon all the time by people who are set in conservative ways, can't really think for themselves, and automatically assume I'm a bad person. You support gay rights? You think women should be able to have abortions if they were raped? Well, the Bible says... no free thinking mind in there when it comes to social issues. Just "what does religion tell me to think" rather than "what are the socioeconomic and political effects of each side regardless of what 'morals' say."

 

Many figures who were evil were also religious as well. Perfect example? Hitler. Creation of Nazi Germany and the superposition of church and state. They used religious propaganda to control the masses and brainwash them into believing ethnic cleansing wasn't as evil as it truly was. And let's not forget it was SPECIFICALLY the Judaic people who were persecuted. Even if you weren't Jewish but your parents or grandparents were you were doomed. Religious genocide? Certainly. SEVEN MILLION people or more died in the name of this religious persecution. Burned. Gased. Electrocuted. Shot. Tortured. Beaten. Starved. Try explaining to them how religion made the world a better place while their innocent bodies lay piled under six feet of gravel.

 

The Nazi's were many things but an extremist Christian supressing group THEY WERE NOT! The Nazi's attitude to the church and state was not as simple as you make out it was. It was a whole lot more complicated. Hitler's upbringing was Christian to an extent and there may be evidence of using the church to brainwash people with their views. But various transcripts reveal evidence that Hitler's overall position to Christianity was negative which he listed it alongside bolshevism as creations of the Jews.

 

The Nazi's in history have never and will never be referred as a surpressing religious movement so I don't know where you got that idea from. The only thing religious about the Holocaust was just that - they were Jews. You make it sound as though it was the Jews fault for being what they were and that if they weren't believers then it wouldn't have happened. Well what about people with different beliefs in political ideology? The millions killed for holding leftist or rightist values? We live in a different world where we all hold our different views and beliefs. And I say this as someone who does not conform to any religion whatsoever. It's globalisation and political ideology that are the dominating features of global matters and to say that it's religion that makes the world a more violent place is a complete disregard of far more influential factors. You take out religion/belief in this world then it will just be replaced by something else which people will take advantage of to set out their violent pursuits.

Arguing with people is worthless.

"We Never Change."

Done wasting my time trying to explain this.

why are there so many religion related threads recently?