Religion

i didn't say that religion teaches war, i said that it causes it.

examples:

catholics -v- protestants
muslims -v- jews
hitler oppressing the jews
saddam oppressing people who had different muslim beliefs from his own.

if it wasn't for religion these people would have no veil to hide behind and would simply be nasty bastards, but becasue they do it in the name of religion they can justify it to themselves.

ahhh yes, 'father barnett'. i remember the day he told me... playing pool at the barley mow, about to hit a lovely double cannon into the bottom pocket, when he quips : "did u know i've found God?" i think the white ball landed in a locals pint of LCL...

no for most I'd sya its faith and hope.

However the viosonary radicals tend to be more extreme.

That's not about religion - it's about land, greed and power.

which bit should i b kidding about?

so your telling me that its all well & good to have to watch someone die through fading away cos they can't eat cos they have cancer of the asophagus (sp) - (the pipe your food goes down!!) she used to nearly cry when enver any one else was eating meals with her cos she so badly wanted to eat what u were but the only thing she cud manage was thinned out soup...

now to me if there was a god then ppl wudn't die in such cruel circumstances!!

so no i wasn't kidding....

With logic like that we should all be asexual to get rid of sexism, we should all be one race to do away with racism, all from one region, etc.

All the above are examples of men doing evil, religion does not teach any of the above... How can you just dismiss the hope that religion gives to a large proportion of the world... What else does some third world child slaving away for capitalst imperialism have to live for?

I think its extremely foolish to just dismiss religion like most of you are doing, as for blaming religion on mans errors thats retarded... Should we chop all blokes cocks off cos if they never had cocks we wouldn't have rapists.

If there actually is a God who rules the whole universe he must be a rather busy chap - would he really care? Would he have time to care?

my personnal views are that i find it impossible to believe - BUT i don't dismiss it - so many people across the world all believe in a core idea - that there is one creater that created us all. i'm not against the idea and i never know, when i'm older and wiser - my views might change.

religous beliefs are so old and part of their respective cultures, it's difficult to disprove what happend thousands of years ago but as the world as evolved and we have a greater understanding of how the world and universe works, it would be naieve to not to think that maybe certain event and ideas that happened then, could have a more logical and scientific explainations nowdays.

im christian but dont believe in any sort of religion at all...

rational explanations
common sense
scientific theories

all come way ahead in my book than blaming all of lifes problems on an old guy with a beard who lives in the sky.

thats true but my point was that if their was a god why wud he have such nasty illnesses to kill ppl...why not make it quicker?

i also said that if ppl ddin't die cos of these things then the world wud b over crowded!!

sorry it was'nt meant to read like that!!!

it seems to me, some people need to believe in a god, to give meaning to their existence - the old meaning of life - why are we here. Some people can't accept - we're here because we are. no great mystery. the simplest explaination is often the correct one.

eeeeee i love debates, me.

thats what i reckon too... you're now officially promoted to 'KidofScience'

Don't confuse the one higher being islam/christianity/judism theory as all religions... Every religion has its own unique theories- proving them all right/wrong would be impossible.

thanx but no thanx the board needs a crashergimp.. or 5.

i hated science at school and regularly had my walkman confiscated!

i'm the first to admit i know very little about the plethora of different religions out there, but they all seen to have a common element of either a spiritual maker or creator or someone with a set of rules to guide us. Again, it seems like people need to believe there's something or someone out there and that they are 'doing the right things' to make sure they achive a 'succesful life' - and it if makes people happy - fair dos.

spot on.

How is this religion?

This is corrupt men, greed, power and misunderstandings of their own literature.

I turn on the TV and see far more problems caused by capitalism yet every1 is all for that?

You say no good comes from religion.

Faith
Hope
Most peoples ethics stem from religion

In a rich western country it is easy to overlook hope and faith, but in countries riddled with poverty religion is rife.

I look @ religion like a double edged source, what teaches tolerance to one man may teach intolerance to another, it is all to do with how the indivual percieves it... Therefore blaming the problems on religion is insane as it is always human error.

Bush and Blair are great examples of people manipulating religion, be it their bible bashing stance to gain supportat home or their anti-islamic stance to conform to the capitalist system that placed them in power.... However you can't blame Christianity or Islam for the problems Bush and Blair cause.

i'd love to say i was religious but unfortunatley i just aint i've bin christened and me n ma best mate at the time even got confirmed but that was kind of just to please our mams n i used to go to good old sunday school too!! cos i used to go there i used to get it drummed into ma head about all that god stuff so i did believe in it then but now im older thats bin so much horrible stuff thats gone on both with people i've known n in the world that it reeli does make me wunder if there was such thing as god why would he let stuff ike this happen. in a complete and utter hypocritical sense i do mebbes say the odd prayer now n again like the week before last when i found out one of ma good mates form uni is in intensive care n mite not eva recover...aw i dunni it is reeli reeli confusing isnt it, i do truley believe that theres something or someone up there but i aint too sure of all the circumstances around it n if it is whats said in the bible or mebbes just sumfink else...god it batters ma head just thinking about it all!! xxxx