Deleted User said 9 years, 4 months ago:

Religion is such an emotive topic with people that I would rarely bring it up in real life.
Personally I see the good and bad side in religion.

The good side as I see it is that it can bring people hope. Some people need to believe that their is a higher being looking out for them and when there is nothing else they can do on this earth to help a situation it is comforting to be able to pray to a higher being and ask for the help of their deity. I have seen the peace it can bring to people to be able to hand over all their problems to a higher being and trust whatever happens,it is all part of a bigger plan(I’m actually slightly jealous of people who can truly believe this as it must be such a carefree feeling). And in religions such as Catholicism where absolution from all sin is given once confession is made, can ease the burden of a person who is laden down with guilt. It can also teach a good value system and instil a good moral compass in some cases and in some religions. Also the sense of community and belonging can be very strong if you are part of a religious group.

For all those reasons I try to respect peoples beliefs as long as it is not harming anyone (including themselves).

Personally I could never be part of any religious group as to me the bad sides of it greatly outweigh the good. The bad sides are nearly too numerous to mention but for me a lot religions seem to be nothing more than money grabbing business’s, a lot of the time preying on the weak and vulnerable. Also a lot of the good points I mentioned I can also argue against those too. It can foster ignorance because people in a religion often just follow the flock never questioning certain belief systems their religious order is preaching just accepting it as truth which is a very dangerous thing in itself.
Also the handing over all of your problems to a higher being takes away onus on the person to deal with their own problems, which in itself can cause more problem. It can also provide false hope when really acceptance would be the most appropriate stage-for example people believing god will save them even though the medical professionals have told them otherwise.
The hate organised religion can foster is probably the most thing I would have against religions in general.

The reason I have posted here is because I don’t believe I am a true atheist either, although I do not believe in any deity as such, I am not saying I will never foster some spiritual beliefs in the future but what I am saying is I will never be part of any religious sect. I am not an expert in religion and don’t claim to be, because in reality I don’t have that much interest in it.

The biggest reason for this post was to vent I just hate how emotive people get around the topic of religion both the believers and the non-believers.

Deleted User said 9 years, 4 months ago:

I agree to absolutely everything. I hate that I can’t bring up religion as an argument because of people so fiercely defending their beliefs. Like questioning it will lose them their faith, as if true faith could be that weak. For me belief is something to be questioned. To be broken down into little parts and then built back up from there. Being from a very religious community I can see the ignorance and the blind faith people put in it, even though our religion purely emphasizes knowledge and learning. Building concepts instead of just numbly following rituals. I’m not sure if I have found my faith yet, but I’m searching for it, praying for it even, maybe i’ll pick it up somewhere on the way. :)

Anybody said 9 years, 4 months ago:

The way I see it, religion is good for community building. It has a defined set of rules, offers people a chance to be a part of something bigger, and gives people hope.

Have to say, you can’t judge a group by its most extreme members, though. I don’t think you can say that religion fosters ignorance any more than science fosters immorality. It’s more that a lot of ignorant people cite religion as the source of their misguided opinions.

That being said, I’m an atheist. While the idea of religion seems pretty great in theory, I personally don’t want any part in it.

Y Z N said 9 years, 4 months ago:

I would have to disagree with some points you made.
I am a Muslim, and Islam in no way does it ever ask for money from the weak or the poor, infact, it is obligatory for a person who has money (that isn’t used for a whole year) to give 2.5% of it to charity and the poor. Also, I say the people who don’t question only harm them selves, no where in Islam does it say you can’t question things, in fact we are told it is a good thing, because we are also taught to look for education and learn wherever we go. Finally, I would like to point out, that in Islam, you don’t just throw your problems at God and hope for the best, we are told to work our hardest and put in all the effort we possibly could, and have faith in God at the same time, for he will choose what’s best for us, even if it seems bad in the short term. :)

Deleted User said 9 years, 4 months ago:

@sameen sounds like you have a healthy atitude and I couldn’t agree more with you when you say “For me belief is something to be questioned. To be broken down into little parts and then built back up from there” I wish you the best in your search for your faith.

@Anybody I tried to be careful in how I worded the post as I wasn’t trying to say that all religions fostered ignorance-but I was acknowledging that some religious groups can, and when I said that the main examples that were foremost in my mind was how some religions are homophobic and preach these beliefs to there followers-or as in the catholic church the very idea that they are still anti-contraception just drives me mad and there are alot more examples of this in alot of other religions too but I wasn’t trying to say it was the case in all of them.

@Yazan thanks for your reply, I really wasn’t trying to say all religions were the same-I was making a sweeping generalisation but I did try to be careful as to not to say words like “every” or “all” religions.
“it is obligatory for a person who has money (that isn’t used for a whole year) to give 2.5% of it to charity and the poor.”-I never new that, sounds like a good system :)