Critique of religion, my critique:

Originally posted by Great King Rat
I'm certainly not an expert on these matters, but I would say that a religion without a god is a philosophy or a cult.

How do you define 'cult'? And why do you see a god being central to a religion? Is it just that that is what the word means to you? Belief in a particular god? Then surely Islam and Christianity and Judaism are the same religion?

This is when a certain person (or maybe multiple, or maybe even something like an animal) gets revered to such an extent that this person is believed to be much "higher" and "better" and "more knowledgeble" than "ordinary" people and maybe in touch with forces "from beyond this universe". I'm thinking about Buddha for instance.
The various Chinese belief systems, for want of a better word, often include temples at which there are statues of famous people who are prayed to - but they pray to their ancestors too. They don't have much of a god concept. But they fit just about every other property of a religion: temples, doctrines, special books, famous figures, monks, nuns, religious practices etc. Why do you shy away from the 'religion' word in their case?

So basically, there is so far, no rebuttal to my critique. All you have to do is look at the RESULTS of religion to see there was no godly feedback or else the world would already be a much better place to live.

Originally posted by sonhouse
So basically, there is so far, no rebuttal to my critique. All you have to do is look at the RESULTS of religion to see there was no godly feedback or else the world would already be a much better place to live.

Now that you have it all figured out, are you any happier?

Originally posted by RJHinds
Now that you have it all figured out, are you any happier?

What an arrogant reply. So prove me wrong. Tell me all about the feedback the gods have provided over the last 3000 years. I suppose you would be telling me JC and the boys WAS feedback. So what about the NEXT 2000 years? Eh? You think your lord would have loved the inquisions or the crusades or the burning of witches? You think your lord would have let the brothers destroy Islam, splitting it into two warring factions?

Originally posted by sonhouse
What an arrogant reply. So prove me wrong. Tell me all about the feedback the gods have provided over the last 3000 years. I suppose you would be telling me JC and the boys WAS feedback. So what about the NEXT 2000 years? Eh? You think your lord would have loved the inquisions or the crusades or the burning of witches? You think your lord would have let the brothers destroy Islam, splitting it into two warring factions?

Why is it that I must prove you wrong and you don't have to prove me wrong?

Originally posted by RJHinds
Why is it that I must prove you wrong and you don't have to prove me wrong?

Because you make claims about supernatural events. Sonhouse does not.

Originally posted by wolfgang59
Because you make claims about supernatural events. Sonhouse does not.

Well I gave evidence for those supernatural events too.

Originally posted by RJHinds
Well I gave evidence for those supernatural events too.

You really mean you gave video's from creationists' opinions of what they thought were supernatural events.

The truth is there ARE no such events. Period.

Originally posted by sonhouse
You really mean you gave video's from creationists' opinions of what they thought were supernatural events.

The truth is there ARE no such events. Period.

I gave evidence these events did happen and you have failed to give any evidence they did not happen. So I win.

Originally posted by RJHinds
I gave evidence these events did happen and you have failed to give any evidence they did not happen. So I win.

You don't even believe your own bullshyte, you are having a good laugh about all this.

Originally posted by sonhouse
You don't even believe your own bullshyte, you are having a good laugh about all this.

I am having a good laugh, but it is not because of my own bullshyte, it is because of your bullshyte.

Originally posted by RJHinds
I am having a good laugh, but it is not because of my own bullshyte, it is because of your bullshyte.

Have a good life, troll. I am not going to further give you cause for laughter.

Originally posted by sonhouse
So basically, there is so far, no rebuttal to my critique. All you have to do is look at the RESULTS of religion to see there was no godly feedback or else the world would already be a much better place to live.

There's 'no God' to blaim then. To what or who do you attribute all the worlds ills? Certainly you won't attempt to lay it at the feet of religion alone. Perhaps those who contribute to the problem could shoulder the responsibility of their own actions.

Where do the problems of this world originate? In the Vatican? The white house? The Kremlin? Or maybe there are just too many poor and ignorant.

What is the cause of all this hate and discontent? Belief systems? None of the worlds major religions promote hate as far as I can tell. Could it be in our DNA? In that case all we need to do is test for the gene of hate and exterminate the infection.

Then we wouldn't even need God anymore in our consciences. We can solve all our own problems scientifically. Medically. It would be a mercy on the whole world to irradiate the bad genes from the population. It would be justified!

Then the world would be at peace. No one would be held accountable for negative behavior because the bad genes were expelled from our systems. No one would ever think of a God anymore.

Paradise!

Originally posted by josephw
There's 'no God' to blaim then. To what or who do you attribute all the worlds ills? Certainly you won't attempt to lay it at the feet of religion alone. Perhaps those who contribute to the problem could shoulder the responsibility of their own actions.

Where do the problems of this world originate? In the Vatican? The white house? The Kremlin? Or maybe ...[text shortened]... bad genes were expelled from our systems. No one would ever think of a God anymore.

Paradise!

Religion plays a part but religions like Buddhism which allows either a god or no god, it doesn't matter to them, but they are not all We shall overcome, Kumbya and Give peace a chance. They have their military wing also, so clearly religion is not the only maker of war. I guess the people who start wars will use whatever excuse they can find to start one.

Islam though, I think that one is in another group entirely, they ESPOUSE war in the Quran. As does the bible, so both religions can use that as an excuse to rationalize wars.

I would rather have a war with a Putin type, biggest thug on the planet, I will push my way around, don't need no stinking religion to start wars....

At least they don't mouth religious sentiments while they are chopping off your head.

With Putin, you KNOW he is a thug so you know in advance what you are up against.

Against the Taliban, ISIS, Boko Haram and all those, they spout Islam, killing boys who want a real education, kidnap the girl students, and ISIS has just declared an Islamic state.

I think pretty sure they are religious bound and will never change till they die.

So certainly SOME wars are strictly caused by religion. The Crusades come to mind and now we have the modern version of the Crusades in Iraq and Nigeria and Syria. 160,000 people killed in Syria alone in the past couple of years. Sounds like a religious war to me.

The bottom line, men LIKE warfare, I guess it keeps them feeling macho.

And will use any excuse to have one. Pretty damning attribute of humankind, eh.

I think all that just screams out there has been no feedback from a god even if you allow that some god started religions. Which I doubt but given the real god inspired religion, ALL of those startups have only the one alleged contact with a god. They throw the god dice and that's it.

Forget having any god come back and critique it all.

Like I was talking about in the formation of Islam, whether we think Mohammed was nuts or not, whether we think his original religion was spiritual or not, when he died the brothers decided they didn't like the original and they split into two factions who are killing each other as we speak.

Clearly the alleged god that inspired Mohammed never came back to tell the brothers, look, this is how it is, stop your frigging fighting and get it together....

Originally posted by sonhouse
Religion plays a part but religions like Buddhism which allows either a god or no god, it doesn't matter to them, but they are not all We shall overcome, Kumbya and Give peace a chance. They have their military wing also, so clearly religion is not the only maker of war. I guess the people who start wars will use whatever excuse they can find to start one. ...[text shortened]... tell the brothers, look, this is how it is, stop your frigging fighting and get it together....

Thing is sonhouse, the God of the Bible gave orders to a specific group of people to wage war against the heathen that occupied a specific region during a specified time, which only lasted till His own people fell into idolatry and were themselves destroyed by the Babylonians.

To assign blaim to the God of the Bible for any other wars is ludicrous.

People, humans start wars, kill people and commit all manner of crime even in the name of God, which is as arrogant as it gets.