Fenton Lum
Gold Member
- May 7, 2016
- 22,735
- 1,442
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- Banned
- #101
That's because you don't believe any good has come from religion, right? Would you abolish religion if you had the power to do so?So then you tell me what good you believe has come from religion. Fair enough?You made an unbalanced argument which shows your lack of objectivity. Now you are trying to divide and conquer those that believe in God by implying they should keep their beliefs to themselves.What you're "nit" doing is making any sense. I point out some objective facts in your religion's history and you leap to "zero good has come from religion". Once religiosos have come to "believe", there is no thinking going on anymore, they just believe, and are uncomfortable with any who question. What ever works for you, it's your's, as each human being's spiritual path should be; their own.
Religion in general and Christianity in specific has overwhelmingly been a force for good.
1) Religion promotes the virtues of thankfulness, forgiveness, humility, chastity, temperance, charity, diligence, patience and kindness
a) Religion creates wonderful charities and organizations
b) Religious persons and institutions are usually the first source of literacy, education, and healthcare in the poorer regions
c) Religion has been the source of abundant human services from hospitals, orphanages, nursing homes, and schools, to advocacy on behalf of those with no voice, to supporting cultural outreaches, and seeking always to find ways in which to protect and promote human life and its authentic flourishing
d) Religion gave us the concept of subsidiarity
e) Religion has done what no government can ever do, namely teach morality and civility
f) Religion teaches accountability and responsibility
g) Religion teaches that we have a choice in how we behave
h) Religion teaches that actions have consequences
i) Religion inspires a sense of wonder in nature and the universe
j) Religion helps us feel connected to one another and to nature
k) Religion helps us feel less alone in the world
l) Religion serves to ennoble the human spirit
m) Religion serves to bind the community together
n) Religion inspires love, peace and happiness
o) Religion serves to create traditions
p) Religion brings order to our lives
q) Religion brings comfort to the terminally ill
r) Religion can act as a source of hope for the oppressed
s) Religion teaches that we can transform ourselves
2) Christian values were the foundation which Western Civilization was built upon.
a) No other institution played a greater role in shaping Western Civilization than the Catholic Church
i) Modern science was born in the Catholic Church
ii) Catholic priests developed the idea of free-market
iii) The Catholic Church invented the university
iv) Western law grew out of Church canon law
v) the Church humanized the West by insisting on the sacredness of all human life
(1) The Church constantly sought to alleviate the evils of slavery and repeatedly denounced the mass enslavement of conquered populations and the infamous slave trade, thereby undermining slavery at its sources.
b) Religion gave us great thinkers, leaders and humanitarians
c) Religion gave us America
d) Religion gave us incredible artwork
e) Religion gave us incredible music
f) Religion gave us incredible architecture
g) Christianity has spread democracy
h) Christians fought other Christians in WWII to end their aggression.
i) Christians rebuilt Europe after WWII
j) Christians rebuilt Japan after WWII
k) Christians put a man on the moon.
l) Christians ended the cold war.
Thanks for your subjective list.
I don't recognize your authority to demand anything from anyone.
Me: "I don't recognize your authority to demand anything from anyone."
You: "That's because you don't believe any good has come from religion, right?"
No, those two things have no relationship to each other at all. If I believe any good has come from religion, then l would recognize your authority to demand anything from anyone? Silly.
You: "Would you abolish religion if you had the power to do so?"
Again, just silly. Religion is a totally personal decision and belief system, same with athiesm or any other perceptual reality as it relates to human connections to spirituality. And it is utterly subjective by definition, religion itself is subjective. I don't have or wish for that kind of power over another human being, and the only folks I've ever heard talk/think like that, "Would you abolish religion if you had the power to do so?", are always "religious" folk.
And this all goes back to these male dominator god religions. Once you accept the notion of the creator in human form, who has given mankind (just the proper followers of the particular religion of course, not the others), dominion over the natural world and everything on/in it, followers begin to see themselves as gods with power over others, and they need for their particular religion to prevail over the others.
What should be abolished is any and every religion's goal of inserting itself into the political arena and gaining control over any society wishing itself to be free.