Trogdor!
Posts:294
 | | 07/16/2007 4:44 PM |
 Alert | What if we woke up tomorrow and there was no religion? I'm talking about all kinds. No Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Pagan, Wiccan, etc.
Reply with 1 positive and 1 negative. Both theists and non-theists will need to keep an open mind for this one! | |
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EEE
Posts:374
| | 07/16/2007 5:29 PM |
Alert | Positive: I could live how I wanted without any consequence.
Negative: There really is no true meaning for life on earth. | |
Yeah, it's true- He allowed the fall of man/
But He used it now to exalt the Lamb/
The Lord, who's wise, permits existence of sin/
to be glorified in His forgiveness to men/ | |
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JillyBean
Posts:375
| | 07/16/2007 5:36 PM |
Alert | Positive: There would be no wars in the Middle East.
Negative: There would be more individual wrong doing by people who are only stopped by the fear of their god. | |
Tens of THOUSANDS of pure-bred dogs are killed in shelters in the Us EVERY YEAR!
Do your part
~Spay or Neuter your pets
~DON'T buy animals from irresponsible breeders..
~There is an adoption group for every breed of dog.. | |
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Ratboy
Posts:0
| | 07/16/2007 6:20 PM |
Alert | Positive-I could have make my own religion where I would have 50 wifes
Negative- Could you imagine the nagging that I would recieve. LOL | | | |
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vinny
Posts:668
| | 07/16/2007 7:33 PM |
Alert | positive: no more bickering about who has a cooler invisible friend. no more chld molesters being shuffled around city to city, less war, more personal accountability.
cons: uh...being athiest this is a tuffy.... the kids on the bikes won't offer to help wash the car as they ride by, and the weak minded won't have some one to blame or thank for their own actions | |
Follow your bliss. Happiness is a conscious decision | |
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LadyAmalthea
Posts:86
| | 07/16/2007 7:59 PM |
Alert | Positive: As others have noted, no more wars over it - no more dying over it.
Negative: There's already enough lost "souls" in the world. This would make more of them. More depression, more suicide, less care about what we do to "strangers" because we don't fear what could happen to us in the afterlife as a consequence. | |
"Ain't nothin' but a barn dance, sugar. Ain't nothin' but a round de round" - Sara Tidwell and the High Tops | |
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Jason
Posts:3378
| | 07/17/2007 9:43 AM |
Alert | Positive: No more wars over religion.
Negative: Still just as many wars. People will just come up with another reason (hint: religion doesn't start most wars). | |
Joined: Jul 2005 | |
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JillyBean
Posts:375
| | 07/17/2007 10:34 AM |
Alert | | Many wars are fought over religious differences. The people fighting may live in two different countries or not. Some wars America has fought in have been about religions as well. Didn't one of the World Wars start with Hitler exterminating the Jews? Then there's everything that has ever gone on in the Middle East including the current debacle we're in. It didn't start out that way but it surely has tuned into a Holy War for the Muslims over there. | |
Tens of THOUSANDS of pure-bred dogs are killed in shelters in the Us EVERY YEAR!
Do your part
~Spay or Neuter your pets
~DON'T buy animals from irresponsible breeders..
~There is an adoption group for every breed of dog.. | |
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Jason
Posts:3378
| | 07/17/2007 10:46 AM |
Alert | Posted By JillyBean on 07/17/2007 10:34 AM
Many wars are fought over religious differences. The people fighting may live in two different countries or not. Some wars America has fought in have been about religions as well. Didn't one of the World Wars start with Hitler exterminating the Jews? Then there's everything that has ever gone on in the Middle East including the current debacle we're in. It didn't start out that way but it surely has tuned into a Holy War for the Muslims over there.
In all of those items you mentioned, religion has been a scape goat reason. These people would come up with another excuse to start a war if religion wasn't available. Absent religion, people are still going to have values that they are willing to go to war over. They are still going to hate other races (Hitler, example). They are still going to possess land that others want. Religion is not the primary cause. | |
Joined: Jul 2005 | |
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NEZ
Posts:515
| | 07/17/2007 11:25 AM |
Alert | I was under the assumption that money is why all wars are fought. Silly me, and my thinking outside the box.
Go back to your little slap fights. | |
AmyG steals lil' nick nacks from your home.
Don't let AmyG in your house. | |
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Trogdor!
Posts:294
| | 07/17/2007 4:35 PM |
Alert | “With or without religion, you’d have good people doing good things, and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, it takes religion.” – Steven Weinberg Nobel Laureate
“Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction” - Blaise Pascal
Positive: No more religious fundamentalists.
Negative: Initially, many people will think their lives are meaningless. | |
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06woman
Posts:356
| | 07/17/2007 8:21 PM |
Alert | | Yugoslavia, Middle East. Nothing further. | |
"Happiness is a journey...not a destination."
"The highest form of ignorance is to reject something you know nothing about." -
Dr. Wayne W. Dyer
This is my son and a Lake Erie sunset. July 8,2007
Senior Member
Posts: 2268
Joined: May 2006 | |
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rattle2
Posts:132
| | 07/18/2007 8:39 AM |
Alert | Pro's - People would not die for religion.
Con's - They would die for other ideals instead.
Religion does not make the human race better.......it give the human race something to believe in...... | |
Sometimes we just make life to difficult.
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Trogdor!
Posts:294
| | 07/18/2007 2:52 PM |
Alert | "Religion does not make the human race better.......it give the human race something to believe in......"
Why can't the human race just believe in the human race? | |
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Tjtellez9
Posts:228
| | 07/18/2007 3:40 PM |
Alert | I believe organized religion is for the bird.
That would be a POSITIVE | | | |
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Michelle
Posts:102
| | 07/18/2007 4:02 PM |
Alert | Why can't the human race just believe in the human race?
Exactly!
"I have something to say to the religionist who feels atheists never say anything positive: You are an intelligent human being. Your life is valuable for its own sake. You are not second-class in the universe, deriving meaning and purpose from some other mind. You are not inherently evil -- you are inherently human, possessing the positive rational potential to help make this a world of morality, peace and joy. Trust yourself." - Dan Barker (Co-President, Freedom From Religion Foundation)
Closer to the topic at hand ...
Pro: In the absence of conservative religious values infringing upon government, a greater tolerance for diversity and increased emphasis on personal freedom, including the right of the individual to self-determination (within the context of secular law).
Con: As others have pointed out, the same people who equate being without God to being without morals (in their condemnation of atheists, for example) would find themselves suddenly bereft of both. | |
I used to be Chelle.
"Well-behaved women seldom make history." - Laurel Thatcher Ulrich | |
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Jason
Posts:3378
| | 07/18/2007 4:37 PM |
Alert | Posted By Trogdor! on 07/18/2007 2:52 PM
"Religion does not make the human race better.......it give the human race something to believe in......"
Why can't the human race just believe in the human race?
How can you believe in something that regularly commits atrocities against its own kind? How can you believe in something that has no proof for how it began, much less the universe it lives in? | |
Joined: Jul 2005 | |
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Trogdor!
Posts:294
| | 07/18/2007 5:31 PM |
Alert | "How can you believe in something that regularly commits atrocities against its own kind?"
- Religion just happens to be the catalyst in many of those atrocities. Fear, bigotry, ignorance, sexism, homophobia... all have roots in religion. How many times has "God" committed genocide (Sodom & Gomorrah, Noah's flood)? I would consider those to be atrocities, yet you believe in "God".
"How can you believe in something that has no proof for how it began, much less the universe it lives in?"
- I much less concerned with where we came from than where we are going. We are here, and that's all that matters. You don't have proof of where we came from either. You have "faith", which is completely different. | |
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Jason
Posts:3378
| | 07/18/2007 8:29 PM |
Alert | Correct me if I'm wrong but you believe that religion is simply a man-made construction, right? So how is it that you can come to the conclusion that those things wouldn't exist without religion? As for the "atrocities" committed in the Bible, people always forget that the people who were wiped out were given ample warning to correct their ways. It would be like you or I complaining about a murderer being locked up in prison.
I much less concerned with where we came from than where we are going. We are here, and that's all that matters. You don't have proof of where we came from either. You have "faith", which is completely different.
It would explain a lot of things if we knew how and why we got here. People could then be more sure in accepting or rejecting what they believe. It is extremely foolish to overlook where we came from. | |
Joined: Jul 2005 | |
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Trogdor!
Posts:294
| | 07/19/2007 8:17 AM |
Alert | Correct me if I'm wrong but you believe that religion is simply a man-made construction, right? So how is it that you can come to the conclusion that those things wouldn't exist without religion?
This argument doesn't make any sense. Yes, I believe religion is man-made, but that has no bearing on the outcome of eliminating it. Religion is a cause, get rid of the cause and you get rid of the effect.
As for the "atrocities" committed in the Bible, people always forget that the people who were wiped out were given ample warning to correct their ways. It would be like you or I complaining about a murderer being locked up in prison.
Ample warning or not, I would still consider it genocide. What if Hitler gave "ample warning" to the Jews. Would you consider that to be okay too, or is it just "God" that gets a free pass?
It would explain a lot of things if we knew how and why we got here. People could then be more sure in accepting or rejecting what they believe. It is extremely foolish to overlook where we came from.
So now you're calling me a fool? I agree that it would be nice if we knew how and why we got here, but I'm willing to admit that we may never know. Human history, on the other hand, would be foolish to overlook. Studying the past, after all, gives us further insight on the human condition. | |
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