Religious linkage is troubling

Im not sure how to quote this but here is an article that I thought people should read.
Guess religion brings in more bad than good.

Link

Religious linkage is troubling
Why are the pious often destructive?

BY MEL WEST

Sunday, July 19, 2009

I write about a question that has troubled me for years and for which I have found no satisfactory answer. The question is this: Why is it that the more “Christian” people are, (in the ways we usually measure religiosity), the more destructive they are to their community and themselves?

For more than 30 years, I worked for the Church, gathering social data from across the land that was hopefully useful in planning its outreach mission. I and others gathered data concerning the percentage of people who say they believe in God, attend church, read the Bible and other such factors. We found that varied rather widely across the United States. Let me call such data Indicators of Religiosity, or IoR.

Mod Edit: Fixed and trimmed external quote. Please click link for full article.

[edit on 7/21/2009 by junglejake]

reply to post by Geolion1


Please don't take "religion" and apply it to only Christianity. Not to further plug my thread but I find it interesting all these "religious" threads all of a sudden.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Originally posted by Wookiep
reply to post by Geolion1

 

Please don't take "religion" and apply it to only Christianity. Not to further plug my thread but I find it interesting all these "religious" threads all of a sudden.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Im sorry but the reason is that Christianity is one or the biggest religion here in my area next to Catholic.

Edit: Another is is that I did not write this article and that was the title and what it was about.

[edit on 21-7-2009 by Geolion1]

reply to post by Geolion1

Im sorry but the reason is that Christianity is one or the biggest religion here in my area next to Catholic.

Good point- I've done my own research on that and yes, it does seem to be the dominant "religion"... of course if it was ever intended to even be just that.
Check out my other thread and you may find we don't disagree as much as you think.

[edit on 21-7-2009 by Wookiep]

Well, to be honest... I think it can be boiled down to one thing, at the core of it all.


When people believe that their life is not as important as their afterlife, they don't care much about their life.

That also can be equated with how they treat other's lives, as well.


Simplistic, I know, and it's much more complicated than can be said in those simple words, but I think you'll find that it's at the heart of it all.

reply to post by Geolion1


FYI
Catholic

Catholic is an adjective derived from the Greek adjective καθολικός (katholikos), meaning "universal".[1] In the context of Christian ecclesiology, it has a rich history and several usages. For some, the term "Catholic Church" refers to the Church in full communion with the Bishop of Rome, including both the Western particular Church and the Eastern Catholic Churches. Protestants sometimes use the term "catholic church" to refer to the entire body of believers in Jesus Christ across the world, and across the ages. Eastern Orthodox, Anglican, Lutheran, and some Methodist Christians hold that their churches are catholic in the sense that they are in continuity with the original catholic (universal) church founded by the apostles.

In "Catholic Christendom" (including the Anglican Communion), bishops are considered the highest order of ministers within the Christian Church, as shepherds of unity in communion with the whole church and one another.[2] Catholicity is considered one of Four Marks of the Church, the others being unity, sanctity, and apostolicity.[3] according to the Nicene Creed of 381: "I believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church."

It is possible to be a morally good person of faith
It is possible to be a morally good athiest
It is possible to be a morally bad person of faith
It is possible to be a morally bad athiest


There, that should cover all the bases.

I find the measure of a man is defined by his extremes. For each extreme you perceive in a person, understand that the potential for the opposite extreme also exists. The person either has struggled or is struggling to reconcile these opposites within themselves, or they are living double lives. That's just the way humanity rolls. Many troubled people turn to religion and are helped by it, although many fail to live up to their lofty aims, although they are quite sincere. And then there are the pure sociopathic scumbags who use the religious beliefs of others artfully to suck money and power from them. These are those that give religion a bad name, for they are truly evil within the sanctuary.

[edit on 7/21/09 by silent thunder]