Should we ban organised religion?

Please note this is not a thread about the existence or non existence of a God or Gods, please use this thread for that http://www.sythe.org/showthread.php?t=1401056. (also yes a large part of this first post is a copypaste from one of my other posts, just the topic itself has been derailed from religion and god).

The main problem I have with organised religion is how much power and influence they are given, the same people calling down the rich for not paying enough tax, or complaining over government cuts would be outraged if we suggested revoking religious institutions tax free/charity status in order to pay for it, these religions drain so much from the economy and society yet people still willingly support, or at best just ignore them. It is not enough to describe religion as harmless and to be ignored, it is a parasite on society worse than any disability forger or benefit cheat, and organised religion should be treated as such, fine believe in what you want, but don't expect special status for your ideals over anything else.

One of the biggest evils of religion I feel is the religion charities that exist, these vile people may for example only provide water/aid if people accept a copy of their bible with them, or add bibles into those shoeboxes you fill with toys for children. They turn their supposedly charitable work to force their idiocy onto vulnerable people, and I almost hope there is a God(not a Christian God though, he sounds like a horrible person, have any of you believers actually read any of the old testament?) so he could judge the work they do himself. Worst of all is these people often truly think they are doing good in spreading their virus into other countries and cultures, destroying just as valid local religions for a big tick from the giant security camera in the sky on their name.

Religion is also one of the biggest causes of division and war than any other cause, you don't believe in the same magic man as I do, so you deserve to die. How much better would the world be without religion, Science was held back for generations because ignorant small minded people refused to accept the Earth was not the centre of the universe, or that a vacuum could not exist because God is everywhere. How much better would the world be without crusaders, without Islamic extremists, without cult suicides.

"Religion is what gives you morals, without religion and the 10 commandments we would all be completely lawless." First of all, which 10 commandments, the first set had a load of stuff about stealing sheep. Secondly is that the only reason you have any moral code, because of the fear of hell that your security camera in your head might pick up any 'bad' thoughts and punish you. What if your religion told you that you would go to hell if you didn't commit mass murder, would it be the right and moral thing to do then? Do you think all suicide bombers or killers think themselves evil? It is religion which has infected their minds and made them able to justify themselves.

More recently we have seen the innocence of Muslims case, now while I have sympathy for the insult to religion, you have to put it in perspective. The video was a stupid youtube video from a nobody, not a massive Hollywood film. It is religion organising itself again into an anti-American unthinking mass that causes so many people to be killed over something, that while insulting, is just a small radicalists groups opinion. It would be like starting a massive war over a small group of extremists taking advantage of slack security.

I am asking you to consider the horror and blight on society that religion is. You do not need to change your private worship, just accept that your beliefs are you own, and that you have no right to subjugate them on anyone else, including your family.

Overall if I think the world is ever going to end, or destroy itself in war, it will be religion which causes it, small minded men blowing each other up over their imaginary friend's honour.

 

Organized religion does a whole bunch of good in the world and if it were gone there would be a massive void that no one would fill.

 

The only reason to ban religion in modern times is control, like Russia did during the time of Stalin.

Free will of their beliefs is a part of modern society today, and should remain as such.

 

I'm torn to be honest, it's an incredibly difficult thing to make a call on. Some religious people are wonderful and totally dedicated to simply being good people and helping others without forcing their beliefs on them. I think that's a great way to live and should be encouraged. If your beliefs help you to be a better person than there's no problem there. On the other hand, if you use your religion as an excuse to be violent, intolerant and to cause problems for the rest of society then it's wholly unacceptable. This innocence of Muslims thing that we've got going on is a prime example. How utterly, utterly stupid that anyone can think that smashing up buildings, rioting and attacking other people is a reasonable response to someone mocking your idol. If I went and did that because someone made fun of my favourite football player I'd be called a hooligan, arrested and be placed in prison. I'm all for people believing in whatever they want to believe in but when it causes you to behave like that then it's not acceptable.

I agree with your point about religion taking advantage of naive, vulnerable people. I think it's very easy to get hooked on it and end up being dangerously out of touch with the rest of the world because you believe so strongly that your God will protect you. One of my mums friends has been extremely religious for her entire life. She's by no means stupid, she has a degree and a good job but she is one of the most gullible, naive people I've ever met. Over here in the UK theres a bit of a stereotype that car garages will always try and rip you off as much as you can, particularly if you're a middle-aged woman. Anyway, she took her car in to have something little fixed (it was 2 years old) and they convinced her that the car had all these problems that it clearly didn't. It ended up costing her thousands and she couldn't see that she'd been had over at all. I seriously think that her religion is responsible for putting her in this position. What makes it even worse is that she is a single mother of 3 kids - quite worrying to be honest.

In all honesty though I don't think that religion is neccesary to be a decent person. I'm not saying I'm perfect in any way but I always do my best to be as nice to people as I can and avoid upsetting people. I'm completely non-confrontational and I really don't think I've ever done anything particularly terrible. I'm not religious at all in any way.

 

As much as people love to down religion this is really true. Religious groups do so much good silently, and only those religious groups that are extreme or radical get press. People judge religions a lot by a small percentage of the followers.

Should we ban every political party but republicans and democrats? Are we going to force people to believe what we want them to? By banning someone's beliefs you aren't going to stop anything but on strengthen or make the problem worse.

 

You would not banning people from believing what they want to, religion should be a private thing, not someones job.
You would be banning undemocratic anarchic power bases from recruiting more followers, and eventually by stopping the recruitment you might even stop religion all together, as people are forced to actually think for themselves before making a decision on their life.

Organised religion does NOT do good in the world that could not be replaced by any number of charities that don't also spread their religion as they do their work. Look at the invisible children case, that is a religious charity, but I consider it to be fundamentally evil, they are taking away money that people had put aside from charity, and using it to spread their religious beliefs.

 

There are not going to be enough secular charities that will step up or be formed to fill the huge gap that banning religion will. Consider for a second all of these small towns, there are thousands throughout just the US - each usually have numerous churches, temples, mosques, or buildings otherwise religiously affiliated. Then you consider most of these do food banks, feed the community, give out clothing among other things. There is no secular charity that is going to go to each of these small towns and do that. It just isn't happening.

You are essentially doing what they are doing by forcing your beliefs on them, and are therefore no less evil than they are.

 

(Since "organized" wasn't clearly defined, I'm not going to say anything about it.)

While we're doing that, we should lock up all black people in jails.
While there ARE some good people who contributto society in a good way, there are also many who commit all sorts of crimes such as rape, drug abuse and robberies. It's better to just lock all of them up in jail, despite all the problems that can occur. Such include demonstrations or riots in the prisons due to racism and issues related to ethics and human rights.

Like I said, even though there are actually black people who do good, a lot of them cause a lot of damage. Thus, it's much better to just lock them all up.

You see, if we do ban "organized" religion for the reasons given, there are a whole lot of other things that should be banned as well.

 

I voted yes.

Im very anti-religion myself, yes it does do some good in the world but so does everything, i think its just a camouflage to draw people away from the bad things it inflicts, terrorism, hate-crime, genital mutilation without consent, manipulation of children, fear to non-believers and so on.

But I've noticed Islam is the worst, Christians are quite peaceful, its the Muslims in my opinion that need to go if any organised religion.

 

Nope. Not unless you want to cause a 5000 year war.

 

no, once governments start to limit freedom such as openly expressing your religion, your sexuality,or anything else important to the people; there is a revolt or worse war. there are many examples of this and if "we don't learn from the past we are doomed to repeat it". for example the U.S. war on drugs has caused more harm then good. In Uganda were I recently visited you can be executed for being a homosexual. in countries that limit religion particularly the middle east you can be seen as an outcast for not choosing the majority religion. In Uganda there are several laws that limit religion for example you must be muslim if you want to cut or distribute beef. I just think we should take everything in moderation and never completely rule something out. I worked with a missionary while in uganda and she had a unique way of helping she never forced people to christianity but instead helped them with a smile. she runs a small college that allows the local pop. to earn a degree in religious(plural) theology. It was very interesting to see that some of her muslim students were very understanding of other peoples beliefs and vice versa. sorry for the long answer just thought it should be known that religion can be tolerant but there are extremes to every situation

 

This is the stupidest comparison i've ever read, ever.

I voted no, however i'll still argue the fact against dumb statements such as the two above. They're religious, they're not going to start a revolt, murdering people and burning down buildings because of a law. They will prevail and most likely start private organizations in ones home.

Both of your comparisons are as logical as if a police man gets laid off from his job he's going to use his gun to go shoot everyone. Stray back in General Discussion.

 

Um, the whole reason religion became so contested was for its dogma and inability to let people opt out (especially when it was state endorsed). Now you want to do the same thing...

 

You're ignorant too. Islam is a very peaceful religion, crazy parishoners have made it seem much different. You clearly need to study more before forming an erronous opinion based on falsehoods.

 

I think it's strange to assume you wouldn't get extreme and violent backlash, especially in America.

 

This would work if we banned particular religions, but this would be completely flawed as it would cause more war. Religion gives us hope after life and helps us be model citizens, taking it away wouldn't make much sense..

 

Religion gives morals to civilization and should not by any standards be removed from it despite the atheist revolution. Knowing this, it can still end bad- as all things have the ability to do. In my opinion, there needs to be a fine line between what is slander, and assembly/freedom of religion. The KKK, for example is sheerly an interest group...By legal definition. We all know it's really bad. I'm running our of time to type and I don't want to forget what I was going to say- So I'll edit this later with my full opinion.

 

Should other organizations be banned just because you don't agree with them (even if they are wrong)?

 

And who among us do you deem fit to decide which particular religions should be 'banned?' It would be ridiculous to try regulate others set of beliefs or their ability to meet as a group.

Morals are very subjective and don't really need to spawn from religion. We should not base our standards of what we consider to be 'ethical' behavior from some invisible god in the sky. I'm going to ignore your comment about slander, as I believe that people should have the ability to speak their minds as they so desire. Again, it isn't really up to us to determine whether a group should be allowed to exist.

Of course not, unless an individual person is causing tangible harm to another then they should be left to think as they wish.

 

Have you read the Qur'an?
Have you studied any of the Islamic motivated social conflict in Britain? Norway? France?
What percentage of suicide bombers are religiously motivated?
What percentage of genital mutilations are religiously motivated?

It's not that religion itself is inherently evil but that it can be used to justify irrational, illogical, and hateful actions. This is why I find an unbiased philosophical view of the world far superior to conviction designed for the middle ages.

Astrology to Astronomy
Alchemy to Chemistry
Religion to Philosophy.

It's as simple as taking another step.

Edit:

OP, you can never stop someone from believing what they do. Banning religion would do nothing but cause problems and would still be practiced in secrecy. One must decide for themselves if they want to leave a religion.