Religion serves many purposes.
1) it gives believers a sense of comfort that there is something beyond life, that our loved ones may somehow go to a better place if they play by certain rules.
2) it gives some people moral compasses.
3) it gives others a sense of identity, just like a football club supporter. I'm not trivialising religion. All I'm saying is that in certain societies, belonging to a certain tribe, certain race, or supporting a certain football club gives them an identity. E.g. supporters of Man United believe in a certain set of values.
Religion causes a lot of problems as well:
1) When you start to believe without questioning. E.g. Allah / God says so in the scripture, so it must be true. If a certain verse commands you to kill a certain group of people, it must be right.
2) believers fail to use their common sense, or internal set of moral values to decide when to obey and when to question.
3) when it oppresses certain groups of people, e.g. genital mutilation of women, women not allowed to receive education, to drive, or non believers are excluded from certain rights, e.g. non Jews are not allowed housing in Israel.
4) Killing in the name of religion. The Crusades, Al Qaeda, ISIS, Israel vs Palestine.... I was shocked by the Syrian government using chemical weapons on the children. I was equally, if not more shocked to see ISIS beheading Christian children, and the Muslim world largely silent on this issue. For the record I also do not support the Israelis bombing civilian buildings. There has to be a peaceful two-state solution...
5) I see a lot of hatred on the internet, whereby people of certain religions judge others harshly, making sweeping, racist statements.... e.g. Americans have a problem with abortion, the Chinese are immoral and leave their parents in old folks home.
People who see the world as black and white are the most dangerous lot. Studies have shown that those who are fervent followers of certain religions tend to have lower IQ... It's as if there is no room for grey area, only a Holy Book or Teachings, where things are either BLACK or WHITE.
We already have a lot of threats to contend with: global warming that threatens a quarter of the world's population, machines replacing humans in the job market, racism, gender equality, to have to contend with the problems created by religion.
1) it gives believers a sense of comfort that there is something beyond life, that our loved ones may somehow go to a better place if they play by certain rules.
2) it gives some people moral compasses.
3) it gives others a sense of identity, just like a football club supporter. I'm not trivialising religion. All I'm saying is that in certain societies, belonging to a certain tribe, certain race, or supporting a certain football club gives them an identity. E.g. supporters of Man United believe in a certain set of values.
Religion causes a lot of problems as well:
1) When you start to believe without questioning. E.g. Allah / God says so in the scripture, so it must be true. If a certain verse commands you to kill a certain group of people, it must be right.
2) believers fail to use their common sense, or internal set of moral values to decide when to obey and when to question.
3) when it oppresses certain groups of people, e.g. genital mutilation of women, women not allowed to receive education, to drive, or non believers are excluded from certain rights, e.g. non Jews are not allowed housing in Israel.
4) Killing in the name of religion. The Crusades, Al Qaeda, ISIS, Israel vs Palestine.... I was shocked by the Syrian government using chemical weapons on the children. I was equally, if not more shocked to see ISIS beheading Christian children, and the Muslim world largely silent on this issue. For the record I also do not support the Israelis bombing civilian buildings. There has to be a peaceful two-state solution...
5) I see a lot of hatred on the internet, whereby people of certain religions judge others harshly, making sweeping, racist statements.... e.g. Americans have a problem with abortion, the Chinese are immoral and leave their parents in old folks home.
People who see the world as black and white are the most dangerous lot. Studies have shown that those who are fervent followers of certain religions tend to have lower IQ... It's as if there is no room for grey area, only a Holy Book or Teachings, where things are either BLACK or WHITE.
We already have a lot of threats to contend with: global warming that threatens a quarter of the world's population, machines replacing humans in the job market, racism, gender equality, to have to contend with the problems created by religion.
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