Popular Stupid Myths Number 1: Religion kills people!

[ComradeBadger]

I hear it all the time:

Religion is bad, becuase people fight wars for it..

Put simply, you're talking bollocks

Ok, people have been killed in the name of religion. But how many people have been killed in the name of Politics? The number skyrockets into the multimillions.

Face it, people find excuses for wars etc, religion has nothing to do with it.

Flame me.

 

[moppe]

This is why I'm an ateist.

 

[Farrowlesparrow]

Well...This was out of the blue :O
I agree...Would you like us to post other popular myths?

Oh...and since you commanded it...You're a tit

Moppe, you are are an atheist because people find any excuse to fight?

edit: Crazy has said it below me, but I like to say "Religion is an excuse for war, not a reason"

 

[CrazyHarij]

Religion is the excuse for wars, not the cause.

 

[moppe]

Moppe, you are are an atheist because people find any excuse to fight?

Heck, wrong spelling from me.
The reason that I'm an atheist is that people always seem to get stuck in this endless cycle of arguments, attacks and praise over their religions.

That, and I don't belive in God.

 

[CptStern]

/me sets flamerthrower to "crispy"

it's all about spin ...there are many people on both sides of the fence that believe the war on terrorism is actually a war between christianity and Islam ..it's the best way to to get recruits: just say they are trying to destroy their religion and you'd have thousands of zealots lining up to throw themselves into the fray. How many people are willing to die for their country? Far more are willing to die for their religion


I say bollocks to the lot of them (I want to be a honorary brit so I'm practicing my slang :E ) ...NOTHING is worth dying for ...except your family of course

 

[Sprafa]

Badger you just totally anihilated yourself. So, because politics is more often "today" used as an excuse for wars than religion, then religion is ilibateed?

Crusades, anyone?

 

[himself]

oh come on, you cant be serious on that one. of course politics are one of many reasons for wars, but you should keep in mind that wars rarely are about one reason.

what about the muslim terrorists? fighting for their religion/beliefs. what about all the wars in jesus' name?, etc. many people died for religion.

i surely dont want to say that religion is bad, without religion and beliefs the human race probably couldnt exist at all. everything is a question of your own point of view.

 

[Farrowlesparrow]

religion is simply an excuse...I always say that if noone were religious, it would be something else that we would fight over. Most of the time, people say "Oh its because they are islamic"(Or whatever) when in actual fact its just because they are somehow different, and coincidentally happen to live on that nice patch of grassland I've been keeping a keen eye on"

 

[Dedalus]

religion causing deaths, and politics causing deaths are both equally valid statements. neither is more of a fallacy or more of a truism than the other.

that's not to say that religion is bad and politics is bad, but that they're responsible for a lot of divisions in humanity. which is definitely a bad thing. granted that isn't the case 100% of the time, but a lot of pain in this world can be attributed to either a strong political view, or a strong religious view.

some people take religion too literally, and as such their lives actually suffer as a result, as do the lives of people around them. same with politics.

my view is: humans are bad because they fight eachother. and i stand by it. so if you want to bash anything, bash humans. it's our own fault for anything that happens, not some wishy-washy ideology.

but don't get too riled up about someone thinking religion is bad. they probably don't know any better because no-one has explained it to them.

NB: i am not religious.

 

[ComradeBadger]

Badger you just totally anihilated yourself. So, because politics is more often "today" used as an excuse for wars than religion, then religion is ilibateed?

Crusades, anyone?

I happen to know a little about the Crusades, it's one of my areas of research. On closer examination of the evidence, not as many people died as first thought.

And hell, nothing matches the holocaust in terms of death toll.

 

[DiSTuRbEd]

This is why I keep my mouth shut when people talk about religion, usually

 

[Farrowlesparrow]

Maybe you are religious Dedalus...Just not in the widely viewed sense Since religion is automatically associated with Chuches and Mosques, when its just another word.

(That could be a stupid myth right? :O)

Thats something I don't like, words get associated with things and they lose their real meaning. For instance...queer. I like that word, it sounds good but whenever I use it, people assume I'm being homophobic, and laucnh into a torrent of how that makes me a bad person. In reality I just think something is odd...Odd, being the loose meaning of queer :|

 

[asdasd]

What about the Inquisition?

Stupid Myths Number 2: Guns kill people! (?)

:naughty:

 

[Dedalus]

I happen to know a little about the Crusades, it's one of my areas of research. On closer examination of the evidence, not as many people died as first thought.

And hell, nothing matches the holocaust in terms of death toll.

well, craploads died during the crusades (from both sides). there was pillaging, looting, raping, killing etc from both sides. death tolls were extremely high in islamic fortress cities, where the crusaders would encircle the city and try to starve them out.

the crusades were brutal. most of the time it wasn't even full on war. it was just a war of attrition. starving people to death, causing suffering etc.

more bystanders died during the crusades than soldiers.

source: my old history teacher

Maybe you are religious Dedalus...Just not in the widely viewed sense Since religion is automatically associated with Chuches and Mosques, when its just another word.

(That could be a stupid myth right? :O)

Thats something I don't like, words get associated with things and they lose their real meaning. For instance...queer. I like that word, it sounds good but whenever I use it, people assume I'm being homophobic, and laucnh into a torrent of how that makes me a bad person. In reality I just think something is odd...Odd, being the loose meaning of queer :|

i'd never call myself religious, because i don't follow any specific ideology. i left the religion i was born into a long time ago. i stopped 'jumping through hoops' to satisfy a god that exists somewhere.

also there's a great stigmatism attached to the word 'religion'. declaring yourself as being religious is often an excuse to be called various bad names and being patronised about real world affairs.

i guess you could say people who aren't religious, but aren't quite atheist are probably spiritual. but even that has a negative connotation, especially if you want to be taken seriously.

 

[CptStern]

I happen to know a little about the Crusades, it's one of my areas of research. On closer examination of the evidence, not as many people died as first thought.

And hell, nothing matches the holocaust in terms of death toll.

well, stalin killed far more of his own people, but neither event can be taken as slaughter in the name of religion

 

[Farrowlesparrow]

Well...according to my history, during the crusades, hundreds of thousands died, and England took over Europe and parts of the middle east and Africa setting up a great Empire. Then again, my history of that period comes from the school of Medieval: Total War

 

[The Monkey]

Oh Lord. Bless this thy handgranade as with thee might use to smash thy enemies into tiny pieces.

 

[The Monkey]

Well...according to my history, during the crusades, hundreds of thousands died, and England took over Europe and parts of the middle east and Africa setting up a great Empire. Then again, my history of that period comes from the school of Medieval: Total War

And India and Pakistan and Australia and New Zeeland and Canada. You just have to have, don't you?

 

[CptStern]

Oh Lord. Bless this thy handgranade as with thee might use to smash thy enemies into tiny pieces.

Brother: (reading from Book of Armaments): 'O Lord, bless this Thy hand grenade that, with it, Thou mayest blow Thine enemies to tiny bits in Thy mercy.' And the Lord did grin, and the people did feast upon the lambs and sloths and carp and anchovies and orangutans and breakfast cereals and fruit bats and large chu--

Brother Maynard: Skip a bit, Brother...

Brother: And the Lord spake, saying, "First shalt thou take out the Holy Pin, then shalt thou count to three, no more, no less. Three shalt be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shalt be three. Four shalt thou not count, neither count thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to three. Five is right out. Once the number three, being the third number, be reached, then lobbest thou thy Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch towards thou foe, who being naughty in My sight, shall snuff it.

Brother Maynard: Amen



heheheh

"Three shalt be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shalt be three."

 

[Rupertvdb]

hmmm... religion is probably one of the biggest killers ever, but that's just my thoughts on the topic.

Evidence...well...there are thousands of examples, stuff like, the crusades, the holocaust, the current war on terror, the Spanish inquisition, Northern Ireland, the list goes on.

 

[DoctorGordon]

The biggest problem with religion is the dang religious ppl wont let us do experiments and develop more advanced technologies.

"oww oww thats unethical"

...Most retarded thing in existense

 

[Pi Mu Rho]

And hell, nothing matches the holocaust in terms of death toll.

And what was the reason for the holocaust?

 

[CrazyHarij]

And what was the reason for the holocaust?

It was not as much a religion as it was a belief that was followed with religious fanaticism.

 

[Letters]

The biggest problem with religion is the dang religious ppl wont let us do experiments and develop more advanced technologies.

"oww oww thats unethical"

...Most retarded thing in existense

Don't know about most, but, yeah, it's defnitely up thar.

 

[Pi Mu Rho]

I was referring more to the victims. The nazis persecuted the Jews. It was a massacre that was entirely motivated by religion.

 

[ComradeBadger]

They died becuase of an ideaology, it had very little to do with religion, it was racial and social.

 

[Rupertvdb]

^
Exactly the point I made, to think religion was not involved in the holocaust is like thinking that there are no trees in forests. It's illogical.

 

[Letters]

They died becuase of an ideaology, it had very little to do with religion, it was racial and social.

Social... as in... religion? :O And what distinguishes Jewish people as a race? Religion? :O

 

[DoctorGordon]

The reason the jews became the enemy is the Nazis wanted a 'common enemy'

 

[Rupertvdb]

There was a lot of anti-semetic thought in the whole of Europe, nay the world, at this time. True...however, a Jew is distinguished by their religion. Whatever you say religion is where it stemmed from.

 

[Maxi]

The jews died because Hitler hated jews... Why did he hate jews? Because his dad was one... He beat him up almost daily etc. Not a very pretty childhood. It was not cause of religion.

 

[Rupertvdb]

But the persecution of an entire group of people that only have one thing in common, their religion, cannot be seen as not involving religion. Their choice of religion and their continued faith in it meant that they were persecuted.

 

[Farrowlesparrow]

Social... as in... religion? :O And what distinguishes Jewish people as a race? Religion? :O

I think its probably got something to do with thousands of years of marrying jews.

The Jews were persecuted because they were a good scapegoat. They were seen as the cause of many of Germanys problems. It wasn't just the germans who felt this way towards the Jews though, but they were not discrimnated against because of religion. Rarely can it be shown that people hated the Jews, simply because they don't believe in Jesus. Most of the time it was about the fact that a lot of Jewish people get into well paid jobs, in particular the diamond business (I know its a stereotype, buts its based very much on fact)


I think most people are missing the point here entirely. People form groups. These groups, whether they realise it or not, like to have a goal. Enemies make good goals, but you can't have an enemy for no reason so these people groups make up excuses to fight. Religion was quite well suited as an excuse, because the distinction is easy to see. Quote all the deaths in the name of religion you like, but that is simply the excuse people use, and perhaps they see it as the reason but deep down its about the afore mentioned people wanting to fight.

 

[Rupertvdb]

I think its probably got something to do with thousands of years of marrying jews.

The Jews were persecuted because they were a good scapegoat. They were seen as the cause of many of Germanys problems. It wasn't just the germans who felt this way towards the Jews though, but they were not discrimnated against because of religion.


I think most people are missing the point here entirly. People form groups. These groups, whether they realise it or not, like to have a goal. Enemies make good goals, but you can't have an enemy for no reason so these people groups make up excuses to fight. Religion was quite well suited as an excuse, because the distinction is easy to see. Quote all the deaths in the name of religion you like, but that is simply the excuse people use, and perhaps they see it as the reason but deep down its about the afore mentioned people wanting to fight.

But they could have chosen anything, the fact remains that the common bond between all those persecuted was their faith!

 

[lePobz]

Power, Greed, Ignorance and Stupidity kills people - be it political or religous or whatever you want.

Unfortunately since no humans are perfect, or will ever be, you'll never change the fact people will be killed by people for them reasons. That's just life :S

Just another fact of why I think the earth would be better off if evolution stopped at monkeys.

 

[Farrowlesparrow]

Yes, but like the gypsies and the "mental defficients" they were just seen by the Nazis as something less anyway. Its not just about religion...Ok, so the common thing amon the Jews was being Jewish, but in this case they were not the only ones persecuted.

 

[hasan]

Athiems causes war too.
Communism is a form of Athiesm, or Athiest politics ... how many people did the Soviet Union kill?

What causes genocides is the intolerance of differences. It's just like racism, it's not the fault of "race".

 

[Razor]

Power, Greed, Ignorance and Stupidity kills people - be it political or religous or whatever you want.

Unfortunately since no humans are perfect, or will ever be, you'll never change the fact people will be killed by people for them reasons. That's just life :S

Just another fact of why I think the earth would be better off if evolution stopped at monkeys.

No matter how much evil any human could ever commit, it would never outweigh the good that humans are capable of.

And if you wipe out all the humans, there will still be animals fighting each other. Tribes of monkies fight other tribes of monkies, whether it be for food or territory, is that any different then countries fighting each other for food or territory or resources?

 

[lePobz]

Evil always wins, and even when monkeys are being evil, they're still cute.

I guess maybe in a few thousand years people will have worked out a way for everyone to be happy, until then i'm with the monkeys.