is religion ruining the world

yes it is ruining the world

No…

I think it is

Why is having blind faith in something a good thing?

It’s not.

If any of you were apart of any other social club that was linked to such violence like religion is, then you would leave that group. For some reason religion is different and ignores the rules of rational thought and facts that we apply to every other aspect of our lives except for the topic of God and a talking snake and a virgin birth.

Now that we have TV, cameras, etc…that biblical story bull doesn’t happen anymore. Coincidence?

Sheep.

First of all, there is a VAST difference between “religion” and “faith”. Religion is a bunch of man-made rules made to include people who think alike and to exclude people who don’t. “Religious zealots” are found in every organized belief system in the world, from Christianity to Muslim, from Hindu to Shinto.

Religion is designed to give power to some while creating followers who blindly obey because “the rules” say they have to. Take L Ron Hubbard and Scientology, for example. Scientologists live by what some would refer to as ‘weird’ standards, and treat as outcasts those among them who don’t follow the doctrines. L Ron Hubbard was a science fiction writer who created this bizarre following, and enjoyed a really great power trip until he died. That, in a nutshell, is religion.

Faith, by contrast, is simply believing in and following your belief systems because you enjoy a personal relationship with your Creator. Not because you have a set of rules you must follow to make yourself “good enough”, or to “reach enlightenment”. People who are truly living in their faith are good and peaceful people who live well and encourage others to do so. They invest their time in people’s lives and are willing to help out when it’s needed. They are non-judgmental but are open hearted and loving. (Those who follow the teachings of Christ, for example, will behave in this manner).

Please remember that “religious people” of every persuasion can act badly, and that one must NEVER judge the believers in any religion by the actions of a handful.

But anyway, while people can use religion as a power trip to exalt themselves and thereby make a bad situation worse, people of Faith will ultimately make their world a better place.

welll…not specifically. yes it has cuased a lot of problems and many many people have been killed in reliious wars and such but I dont think its so much religion as human being love to fight and religion is just another convenient excuse to do so.

I believe religion is part of of the problem but what it is, people that take and abuse the power making people brainwashed, then lead them into war. and people need more tolerence.

Yes im atheist

but I do love the past religious art.

religion is dangerous.faith is the answer to all these problems.eph 2:11-22. one Lord, one faith, one baptism. eph4:5. I’m out :0)

Well religion has had quite an experience during the years haha, but you do realize religion was made by people, and people are the ones that destroy things, so no religion is not at fault, it’s not ruining the world, we are.

Christianity is a religion that preaches peace… if the practitioners aren’t always apt to follow these instructions it speaks more to their shortcomings than to the shortcomings of Christianity.

…Yeah… we can look back in history and find examples of religious infighting and seemingly wars of religion… but wars tend to be fomented for someone’s or some group’s benefit… and then sold to the meaner sort as a war to defend ones culture… religion playing a major role in culture. It is tribalism… as it has been since time immemorial.

Religious residue… as is often denounced by critics of religion… constitutes more than those critics recognize on the surface. The slick propagandist understands the deep-seated human nature to belong… and can usher a society rebounding from religious institution into other institutions as control oriented. We are creatures who march behind flags and banners… recite slogans… identify ourselves under our profession or club associations. It is rooted in our insecurity.

Ironically… the lesson I took from Christianity was the dissociation from this type of identification. To pray in a closet. To leave worldly possessions and wants behind. To treat others as we wish to be treated… this infers an equality upon us all that transcends any other distinguishing characteristic. Churches have been moving from religious ceremony for this reason… it is felt to be the true intention of Christianity. This all based upon my subjective knowledge admittedly.

Is religion ruining the world?… no. Are people ruining the world?… I reckon this is a matter of perspective… those who have been the victims of mans violence and reckless nature have had their worlds ruined… but the world is a state of flux… we can do many things to make this world better for others… and ourselves… by treating others as we wish to be treated.

Or we can all blame one another… and go to war and settle it… mano a mano.

I think people are always looking for an excuse for the worlds problems and religion is a pretty convenient one. If it didnt exist, it would be something else.

As much as people like to claim religion promotes peace, in most cases it just isn’t true. Christianity came to dominate in the West through sheer force. Islam came to dominate the middle east through force. The histories of Hindu, and even Buddhism are the same.

But we can actually compare relative levels of religion in different parts of the world to crime rates, and what we see is that the most religious nations either have high violent crime rates, and/or high levels of institutionalized violence (corporal/capital punishment). New Zealand is perhaps the most secular nation on earth, and has extremely low rates of violent crime and low levels of institutionalized violence.

Even with out it the world would still have problems, how ever I do not think its religion its self, more intolerance towards other religions that cause a lot of problems.

Religion never ruined anything without political motivation. Take away religion, and manipulators can and do target other passions. Take away all passions, and what do you have left?

is religion ruining the world? what is your opinion?

I think PEOPLE are ruining religion…

My opinion is it’s not religion itself that is ruining the world, rather the idiots in the religions are ruining the world. The world will be better off without those idoits

Religion is easily corrupted. The main problem seems to be when a religion or religious group acquires political power. Once in a position of power they feel the need to maneuver to maintain or expand their power. Our founding fathers saw how government and religion had a corrupting influence on each other which is why they wanted a secular government that neither promotes nor restricts religion. I think it is interesting that the US which has a secular government has a higher percentage of Christians than any officially Christian nation.

As long as religion is a personal thing it is benign and sometimes even helpful; when it becomes policy or law that is what is ruinous to both the world and the ideals of religion.

Toadaly, New Zealand is quite a secular country but it doesnt mean we dont have religion, we are just relatively good keeping things seperate and not letting personal beliefs “ruin” our country. Our government is secular and we dont have any official religion but about 70% of our population identifies with a religion of some kind (about 85% of the 70 are Christian).

When are you people going to learn? It’s not about who’s right or wrong. No denomination’s nailed it yet, and they never will because they’re all too self-righteous to realize that it doesn’t matter what you have faith in, just that you have faith. Your hearts are in the right place, but your brains need to wake up. I think it’s better to have ideas. You can change an idea. Changing a belief is trickier. Life should malleable and progressive; working from idea to idea permits that. Beliefs anchor you to certain points and limit growth; new ideas can’t generate. Life becomes stagnant. I have issues with anyone who treats faith as a burden instead of a blessing. You people don’t celebrate your faith; you mourn it.

When are you people going to learn? It’s not about who’s right or wrong.

How do YOU know? Learning suitably involves KNOWLEDGE, not opinions.

The problem is, each religion has a hard time getting along with others. At various times, religion has been used as an excuse to commit horrible atrocities, and to deny indviduals their civil rights. If people truly accepted the concept of separation of church and state, and didn’t constantly infuse religious dogma into our lives, this question wouldn’t even come up. miscegenymiser has the right idea when he says he pray’s in a closet. If people would stop wearing their religion on their sleeve, and truly followed the tenets they preach, there would be far less friction. But there will always be those who will use anything, including religion, to advance their agenda. Bush said that god told him that he should invade Iraq. How perverse is that?