Has Religion Ever Done Any Harm?

[Campbell]

Most wars, the Crusades, the Inquisitions, 9/11, blowing up girl's schools, the suppression of women and homosexuals, arranged marriages to minors, ethnic cleansing, the systematic raping of children, human sacrifice, burning witches, suicide bombings, condoning slavery.....are you kidding?

 

[Delta4Embassy]

9/11 and most Islamic terrorism isn't because of the religion but US foreign policy in arab-Muslim countries. Among their complaints are always US support of repressive arab dictatorships like KSA, or supporting Israel, etc. It's never an 'infidel' thing. That's just the propaganda.

 

[Campbell]

9/11 and most Islamic terrorism isn't because of the religion but US foreign policy in arab-Muslim countries. Among their complaints are always US support of repressive arab dictatorships like KSA, or supporting Israel, etc. It's never an 'infidel' thing. That's just the propaganda.

Well...then why do the Muslim extremists yell out "Allahu Akbar" (god is great) every time they behead someone or bomb a building?

Surely you've read of the Crusades, the Catholic Inquisitions or the witch hunts. All religion is rank bullshit and I feel sorry for those who continue to believe they have an invisible friend in the sky. I don't believe in ghosts...holy or otherwise.

 

[Delta4Embassy]

9/11 and most Islamic terrorism isn't because of the religion but US foreign policy in arab-Muslim countries. Among their complaints are always US support of repressive arab dictatorships like KSA, or supporting Israel, etc. It's never an 'infidel' thing. That's just the propaganda.

Well...then why do the Muslim extremists yell out "Allahu Akbar" (god is great) every time they behead someone or bomb a building?

Surely you've read of the Crusades, the Catholic Inquisitions or the witch hunts. All religion is rank bullshit and I feel sorry for those who continue to believe they have an invisible friend in the sky. I don't believe in ghosts...holy or otherwise.

Because socially they have no other exclamations. Literally. Go to a Muslim country soccer match and that's all you'd hear. It's an oddity.

 

[Delta4Embassy]

Good article here about the expression's ubiquitos use.

Why do Muslims say, "God is great?"

"All the time. The phrase—which is called takbir—turns up again and again in religious contexts. For example, the call to prayer begins with four repetitions of "Allahu akbar." Once you arrive at the mosque, "Allahu akbar" appears in the prayers as well. Muslims also say it after slaughtering an animal, and some whisper it (along with the rest of the call to prayer) into the ear of a newborn baby.

Muslims can use Allahu akbar to express general approval, or even as an exclamation of surprise. Sometimes crowds will shout the phrase as a form of applause, the way people might yell "Bravo!" at the end of a performance. The takbir often stands in for applause after a Quranic reading, since it would be inappropriate to cheer for someone who has merely recited God's words. But the phrase might just as well be shouted out at a soccer match.

Allahu akbar isn't appropriate for all occasions. A pious person wouldn't say it in the bathroom, nor would he use it in an impure place like a garbage dump. He might also frown upon its use in jokes. (If you'd like to read a popular joke that includes "Allahu akbar," click here.)

Although newspapers often translate the phrase as "God is great," the proper translation is actually "God is greater." The phrase implies that no matter what you're doing, you should always remember that God is still greater. Muslims use the phrase "God is great"—substituting kabir (great) for akbar (greater)—in different situations. You might say it to console someone, for example, with the idea that God is great in his mercy or benevolence."

bit more at link

 

[AVG-JOE]

Religion doesn't kill Monkeys...

Monkeys USING religion kill Monkeys.
​

The stories are just stories until some Monkey uses them to con other Monkeys in to feeding their fears instead of their hopes.

 

[Campbell]

9/11 and most Islamic terrorism isn't because of the religion but US foreign policy in arab-Muslim countries. Among their complaints are always US support of repressive arab dictatorships like KSA, or supporting Israel, etc. It's never an 'infidel' thing. That's just the propaganda.

Well...then why do the Muslim extremists yell out "Allahu Akbar" (god is great) every time they behead someone or bomb a building?

Surely you've read of the Crusades, the Catholic Inquisitions or the witch hunts. All religion is rank bullshit and I feel sorry for those who continue to believe they have an invisible friend in the sky. I don't believe in ghosts...holy or otherwise.

Because socially they have no other exclamations. Literally. Go to a Muslim country soccer match and that's all you'd hear. It's an oddity.

Horse Shit!!

 

[Delta4Embassy]

Religion doesn't kill Monkeys...

Monkeys USING religion kill Monkeys.
​

The stories are just stories until some Monkey uses them to con other Monkeys in to feeding their fears instead of their hopes.

Speaking of monkies, seems religion isn't unique to humans.

Do animals have spiritual experiences? Yes they do

"What are they feeling when they perform funeral rituals?
...
For now, let's keep the door open to the idea that animals can be spiritual beings and let's consider the evidence for such a claim. Meager as it is, available evidence says "Yes, animals can have spiritual experiences" and we need to conduct further research and engage in interdisciplinary discussions before we say that animals cannot and do not experience spirituality. "

One of the first religious expressions of humans was burying the dead.

"By other animals[edit]

Humans are not always the only species to bury their dead. Chimpanzees and elephants are known to throw leaves and branches over fallen members of their family groups. In a particularly odd case, an elephant which trampled a human mother and child buried its victims under a pile of leaves before disappearing into the bushes."
Burial - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Delta4Embassy]

9/11 and most Islamic terrorism isn't because of the religion but US foreign policy in arab-Muslim countries. Among their complaints are always US support of repressive arab dictatorships like KSA, or supporting Israel, etc. It's never an 'infidel' thing. That's just the propaganda.

Well...then why do the Muslim extremists yell out "Allahu Akbar" (god is great) every time they behead someone or bomb a building?

Surely you've read of the Crusades, the Catholic Inquisitions or the witch hunts. All religion is rank bullshit and I feel sorry for those who continue to believe they have an invisible friend in the sky. I don't believe in ghosts...holy or otherwise.

Because socially they have no other exclamations. Literally. Go to a Muslim country soccer match and that's all you'd hear. It's an oddity.

Horse Shit!!

If you wanna piss people off with your bigotry, learn the truth and repeat it. Lies are easily uncovered. But an uncomfortable or embarassing truth will start wars.

 

[JakeStarkey]

Of course it has, does, and will. Consider Mormonism's attack on children this month for one example.

 

[AVG-JOE]

Conversely to the opening post... "Has Religion Ever Done Any Good?"


First and foremost, it was around shared religious beliefs that Monkeys first learned how to organize their efforts in achieving a common goal.

AVG-Opinion # 33: Bringing 21st Century technology to market over the last 10,000 years is almost worth the cost.

AVG-Opinion # 34: If Monkeys make it past religion and begin to explore the stars as a species, We will be worth the human toll required to create us.

 

[Delta4Embassy]

Conversely to the opening post... "Has Religion Ever Done Any Good?"


First and foremost, it was around shared religious beliefs that Monkeys first learned how to organize their efforts in achieving a common goal.

AVG-Opinion # 33: Bringing 21st Century technology to market over the last 10,000 years is almost worth the cost.

AVG-Opinion # 34: If Monkeys make it past religion and begin to explore the stars as a species, We will be worth the human toll needed to create us.

Would say first it was about cold hard practicality - dead bodies rot so you should bury them. And to reassure the rest of the tribe witnessing this end to one of their fellows, and comfort them about their own eventual ends, religion started as a means of comforting the living witnessing what happens to the dead.

 

[Delta4Embassy]

I could easily imagine how religion proper began: ditch diggers who dig the graves found an exhumed example (probably by weather erosion of recently dug soil) where the body had decompoased so as to "disappear." The ditch diggers took this mean the dead 'go somewhere.' Voila, supernatural realm is born along with one bad unscientific interpretation after another becomming the first religions.

 

[Campbell]

Conversely to the opening post... "Has Religion Ever Done Any Good?"


First and foremost, it was around shared religious beliefs that Monkeys first learned how to organize their efforts in achieving a common goal.

AVG-Opinion # 33: Bringing 21st Century technology to market over the last 10,000 years is almost worth the cost.

AVG-Opinion # 34: If Monkeys make it past religion and begin to explore the stars as a species, We will be worth the human toll needed to create us.

Would say first it was about cold hard practicality - dead bodies rot so you should bury them. And to reassure the rest of the tribe witnessing this end to one of their fellows, and comfort them about their own eventual ends, religion started as a means of comforting the living witnessing what happens to the dead.

I don't know how far you want to go back but religion started so those who came up with the idea could be in charge. Teaching people that the meek will inherit the earth and rich people can't go to heaven and that women are second class citizens coupled with a tithe to the top makes me awfully suspicious. That daily prayer to ask for forgiveness if you've failed to do that or offended somebody is a no brainer.

 

[Delta4Embassy]

Conversely to the opening post... "Has Religion Ever Done Any Good?"


First and foremost, it was around shared religious beliefs that Monkeys first learned how to organize their efforts in achieving a common goal.

AVG-Opinion # 33: Bringing 21st Century technology to market over the last 10,000 years is almost worth the cost.

AVG-Opinion # 34: If Monkeys make it past religion and begin to explore the stars as a species, We will be worth the human toll needed to create us.

Would say first it was about cold hard practicality - dead bodies rot so you should bury them. And to reassure the rest of the tribe witnessing this end to one of their fellows, and comfort them about their own eventual ends, religion started as a means of comforting the living witnessing what happens to the dead.

I don't know how far you want to go back but religion started so those who came up with the idea could be in charge. Teaching people that the meek will inherit the earth and rich people can't go to heaven and that women are second class citizens coupled with a tithe to the top makes me awfully suspicious. That daily prayer to ask for forgiveness if you've failed to do that or offended somebody is a no brainer.

Preying on people's fears isn't unique to religion. Since everyone dies, and no one can tell you what happens next, anyone who says you don't really die but go someplace really nice will be given all the power they want.

No one ever takes power, power is given eagerly by those who become its' victims.

 

[AVG-JOE]

Conversely to the opening post... "Has Religion Ever Done Any Good?"


First and foremost, it was around shared religious beliefs that Monkeys first learned how to organize their efforts in achieving a common goal.

AVG-Opinion # 33: Bringing 21st Century technology to market over the last 10,000 years is almost worth the cost.

AVG-Opinion # 34: If Monkeys make it past religion and begin to explore the stars as a species, We will be worth the human toll needed to create us.

Would say first it was about cold hard practicality - dead bodies rot so you should bury them. And to reassure the rest of the tribe witnessing this end to one of their fellows, and comfort them about their own eventual ends, religion started as a means of comforting the living witnessing what happens to the dead.

I don't know how far you want to go back but religion started so those who came up with the idea could be in charge. Teaching people that the meek will inherit the earth and rich people can't go to heaven and that women are second class citizens coupled with a tithe to the top makes me awfully suspicious. That daily prayer to ask for forgiveness if you've failed to do that or offended somebody is a no brainer.

No...

Religion started as a way to explain the unexplainable.

This is still it's base use. You will find no religion on earth, either modern or historic, that does not have answers to the unanswerable questions of origins and afterlife.

It's all speculation without hope of proof, so religion continues in spite of the scientific discoveries over the last 10,000 years - if ever there was proof origins and after-life, ALL religion would collapse in on itself.

 

[turzovka]

Most wars, the Crusades, the Inquisitions, 9/11, blowing up girl's schools, the suppression of women and homosexuals, arranged marriages to minors, ethnic cleansing, the systematic raping of children, human sacrifice, burning witches, suicide bombings, condoning slavery.....are you kidding?

There is no honest scholarship in your claims. Just bitterness. You so want to bring down Christianity you keep blaming it for what any other religions (especially Islam) have wrought.

And you find those select sins or battles to act as though this is all Christianity has brought forward to a sick and lost world. You demand we be perfect and holy or else we are devils. And apparently pagans are the ones who are the ones caring for the abandoned and the oppressed. I have one word for you – “pity.”

 

[Delta4Embassy]

Conversely to the opening post... "Has Religion Ever Done Any Good?"


First and foremost, it was around shared religious beliefs that Monkeys first learned how to organize their efforts in achieving a common goal.

AVG-Opinion # 33: Bringing 21st Century technology to market over the last 10,000 years is almost worth the cost.

AVG-Opinion # 34: If Monkeys make it past religion and begin to explore the stars as a species, We will be worth the human toll needed to create us.

Would say first it was about cold hard practicality - dead bodies rot so you should bury them. And to reassure the rest of the tribe witnessing this end to one of their fellows, and comfort them about their own eventual ends, religion started as a means of comforting the living witnessing what happens to the dead.

I don't know how far you want to go back but religion started so those who came up with the idea could be in charge. Teaching people that the meek will inherit the earth and rich people can't go to heaven and that women are second class citizens coupled with a tithe to the top makes me awfully suspicious. That daily prayer to ask for forgiveness if you've failed to do that or offended somebody is a no brainer.

No...

Religion started as a way to explain the unexplainable.

This is still it's base use. You will find no religion on earth, either modern or historic, that does not have answers to the unanswerable questions of origins and afterlife.

It's all speculation without hope of proof, so religion continues in spite of the scientific discoveries over the last 10,000 years - if ever there was proof origins and after-life, ALL religion would collapse in on itself.

Judaism doesn't. We don't get dick about the afterlife other than there is one. Nothing specific though. Consequently we have only 14 mil followers.

Christianity went into specifics and won 2 billion frightened people. Islam went into even more detail and in less than half the time of Christianity got 1.7 billion.

A lesson in that. Tell people what they want to hear and their your's. Tell them you don't know and you might as well be Jewish.

 

[Freewill]

Most wars, the Crusades, the Inquisitions, 9/11, blowing up girl's schools, the suppression of women and homosexuals, arranged marriages to minors, ethnic cleansing, the systematic raping of children, human sacrifice, burning witches, suicide bombings, condoning slavery.....are you kidding?

Let us dissect your observation.

Most wars,

Not really true at all. Going back to the civil war, was that because of religion? Maybe it could be argued that the abolitionists were the fundamental reason for the war. Does that mean the end result, freeing of the black man, was bad or good?

WW1? WW2? What exactly was the religous intent of Japan bombing Pearl Harbor?

Korea? What religious group was behind the US going into Korea?

Vietnam? Did JFK escalate the war because he was Catholic? Certainly LBJ was no choir boy.

72 days of terror bombing Serbia? I don't think there is a person who makes the claim that Clinton was religious.

Iraq? Please don't tell me that had one thing to do with religion.

The bombing of Libya and the arming of Syrian rebels? On what religious basis did Obama make those calls?

the Crusades,

OK, this was because of religious edicts. But the good that came out of it was that trade routes were established which benefited a lot of folks.

the Inquisitions,

A brief period in history that effected mostly those of one religion. The good? Let's learn and not do that again.

9/11,

Do you have some evidence this was done because of religion and not just done by those of a certain religion? Can you differentiate the difference?


blowing up girl's schools,

WTF are you even talking about? If you are talking about 16th Baptist Church bombing? Really? Do you think that was over religion, which if anything the two groups shared, or over race?

the suppression of women

So how are women suppressed? Women can have the baby ripped from their womb today. Are you saying there are NO people who hold to NO religion that are anti-abortion? Really? I don't see women suppressed, sorry just don't see it.

and homosexuals,

Again, you have to prove that homosexuality is for the greater good of society. It not only goes against evolution society can not advance with a purely homosexual community. That said, again, a difference of opinion is not suppression, nor is it a strictly religious subject.


arranged marriages to minors,

Holy crap you are really throwing the kitchen sink at this.

ethnic cleansing,

All I will provide is the definition of ethnic: An ethnic group or ethnicity is a category of people who identify with each other based on common ancestral, social, cultural or national experience.

the systematic raping of children,

How in the hell do you blame that on religion? Systematic rape? WTF?

human sacrifice,

Gosh you just can't help yourself.

burning witches, suicide bombings, condoning slavery.....are you kidding?

Now what I would like you to do is go and open a phone book and look up charities. I do believe you will find the vast majority are based on religion.

Religion has always been the cement that bonded society together. Without religion there would not be the world we live in today. Has there been things done in the name of a religion that I don't think should have been done, absolutely. But the same could be said for relativism and secular humanism.

The good religion has done far exceeds the bad.

 

[Campbell]

Conversely to the opening post... "Has Religion Ever Done Any Good?"


First and foremost, it was around shared religious beliefs that Monkeys first learned how to organize their efforts in achieving a common goal.

AVG-Opinion # 33: Bringing 21st Century technology to market over the last 10,000 years is almost worth the cost.

AVG-Opinion # 34: If Monkeys make it past religion and begin to explore the stars as a species, We will be worth the human toll needed to create us.

Would say first it was about cold hard practicality - dead bodies rot so you should bury them. And to reassure the rest of the tribe witnessing this end to one of their fellows, and comfort them about their own eventual ends, religion started as a means of comforting the living witnessing what happens to the dead.

I don't know how far you want to go back but religion started so those who came up with the idea could be in charge. Teaching people that the meek will inherit the earth and rich people can't go to heaven and that women are second class citizens coupled with a tithe to the top makes me awfully suspicious. That daily prayer to ask for forgiveness if you've failed to do that or offended somebody is a no brainer.

No...

Religion started as a way to explain the unexplainable.

This is still it's base use. You will find no religion on earth, either modern or historic, that does not have answers to the unanswerable questions of origins and afterlife.

It's all speculation without hope of proof, so religion continues in spite of the scientific discoveries over the last 10,000 years - if ever there was proof origins and after-life, ALL religion would collapse in on itself.

It's strange the guys who wrote it let themselves be in charge of the money. Like I've always heard all my life "follow the money." I feel sorry for folks who have to have to have an invisible man in the sky to give them a hand with any difficulties. What a load of unadulterated bullshit!!