Honestly, religions are the reason why there has been so many wars and massacres in the history of mankind.. And allso if we didnt have any religion we would probably had gone to the moon in the 1600:th century..

What do u guys think of religions?

Actually, if you want to get down to the root of the matter, you'd have to blame *politics within religion* as the cause of so many wars...

Check your history about the motivations of those in the Church Heirarchies that have sanctioned such wars.

One reason why we have seperation of church and state is because of what happened in the past with catholic church in power.

They in power, they kill millions, kill science, kill medicine, kill everything.

They lose power, we become strong, make airplane, car, electricity, find out we not center, so forth.

Heck, when airplane and car and all that first came out was called evil by church.

Question is, if they had still been in power, would we today not have cars? Airplanes?

Not all religons bad though, just the monotheist ones.

Islam, well, middle east. Judism(sp?), roman empire. Christianity? Roman empire after they take over, dark ages, Crusades,
Inquisitions, trials, so forth. Polytheist? Witches, uh, well, killed by christians, but most they did was maybe prescribed wrong medicine
to the person and then they died for didn't have right one. Druids? One to two sacrifices a year, it was an honor, and could say no.
Buddist? Well, Budda main, but have smaller ones, and not to many wars that they started, no slaughters popped up on dogpile.com.
Hindu? Well, in third world countries a woman can be burnt to death for burning dinner, but not common place like Islam.(guy was arrsted)

But good point Helix, if wasn't for religon(one in particular)the Alexandria Library would be around. A roman emperor had destroyed(yes damged other
times, but this was the main one said to have destroyed more than 70% of it)
And of course people like Galileo(sp?) would have been able to speak without being threatened with death. Heck, using herbs for medicine
was enough to get you killed then for only witches didn't pray to god to make themselves better.

During dark ages almost all major advances were made in China. They also bathed, which was probably a good thing. Also lived longer.

Yeah, and Arkimedes would be allowed to spread his knowledge.. He was born around year 0 and European mathematicians got up to his level of thinking in the 1600:th century..

Religion does not cause war, people cause wars. A religion is a sect of people. Religion can not physicaly cause a war, the people in it can.

Religion should and must stay. Without religion there is no way that you can be saved. I mean I may hate seperation of church and state, but that is enough.

Please explain "Without religion there is no way that you can be saved"..

You can't be saved without religion, because only religions believe you "have to be saved".

Now, it is an unfair assumption that religion held back technology. I believed this at a time too but then I realized something deeper.

In 80BC man had the workings of gears (not taken advantage of until the british in the 19th century.)

In 45 AD we had the steam engine. (Again not taken advantage of until by the british in the 19th century).

Why?

Mental evolution, in the times these devices were invented, we didn't have the minds to conceive practical uses for them. The Greeks had no reason for them, they made a star clock, and some prototypes and that was it, they faded into history.

It took thousands of years for our minds to evolve away from the situational thinking of paganist illiteracy, and to the literate scientific mind. Which happend between the 1500s and 1900s, after the 19th century, our minds were more or less free, not from religion, but from ourselves, we finally had an education system that taught you how to think rather than to feel.

This fundamental difference was little held back by the religion through malicious reasons, and more because the religion itself was still an "illiterate" society, and it would not be until the 1500s before people really started to read.

Not because the church didn't want people to read, but there was no real way to read, books were all hand written.

It simply was a process of evolution. Religion has not really tried to stop it.

Who says we need to be saved? The catholic church? Is that what they did to those boys? Is that what they do when they say give me money or going to hell? Is that what they did during the Inquisitions? The Crusades? Saved people?

And who are we being saved for? God? Allah? Budda? Who? No proof of any of these people, only blind faith. And we all know blind faith is bad. Heck anything blind is bad(I mean like hope, anger, not blind people)

So far no one has proven there is a god. They say my proof? There is a tree, I am done proving it. But tree is explained by science, almost everything is, and what isn't they are working on.

I still like the pebble people idea. Invisible beings that steal and eat socks and move the stones out in Death Valley. You can't prove they don't exist, and unlike your god, they don't need oney, only socks. But I can't prove they exist exceptby saying well, look at this, the sock is missing, two went in, one came out. Proof!

And technology was killed by religon, not all as 5POF tells you, but some. Medicines banned for they were witchcraft. Not center death worthy, not flat death worthy, heck, in some places it was death worthy to look at one another for you were a witch trying to steal the person's soul.

In other words, religon bad in some areas, but not all are and not in all places. Some churches send money and people to help third world countries, catholic church extorts and blackmails(you don't send money I send you to hell or I will heal this blind man SMACK! Ok, go around back for your money) people.

And with polytheist, most belived and followed do what one wilt as long as yee harm none. There are exceptions, like Norse who were out for land and money, or the Buddist who will fight if attacked, but mostly they belive in peace. Monotheist? Well, find me one that didn't kill someone from a different religon because they weren't their religon and I will send $100.00 dollars to you.(I am serious!)

Anyways, can't wait to get the money to pay phone bill, so won't have to use school computers during break.

The banning of herbal remedies could have been a result by anything, the fact that it WAS religion doesn't mean religion only, nor that that is what religion does. Some religions urge it.

My point is that religion is more or less a man made thing, and while some religions have set man back, it was usually unintentional and a neccisary evolution in our mind.

Originally posted by Helix
Honestly, religions are the reason why there has been so many wars and massacres in the history of mankind.. And allso if we didnt have any religion we would probably had gone to the moon in the 1600:th century..

What do u guys think of religions?

You cite a myth. As a matter of fact, had you read a couple threads before posting this one, you'd have seen that the notion that religion is at the root of all wars has been hashed and found to be untrue.

Had it not been for religions we probably would not have gotten to the point we are today. As a matter of fact, it could be argued that we would not have survived past the 1600's were it not for religions.

Now, instead of stating what has been stated several times, put a conspiratorial spin on a religion or religions.

Ugh... I never thought I would have to point out the something this simple to people here... But it isn't religion that is the result for wars if you want to stop all the violence then you have to get rid of the people...

It's ORGANIZED religions that need to be banned.... Individually, a person is smart....in groups, with arcane rituals and dogmas, people are stupid.

People get so caught up in the "my religion is right, your religion is wrong, so you will be damned" arguement, that they fail to see that underneath all of the differences between rituals, dogmas, rules, etc., EVERY religion really has similar ideals and goals. If people would concentrate on their similarities, instead of focusing on their differences (as encouraged by the leaders of their organized religions), then things would be much smoother in the world...

I still say if you want to get rid of war then you have to get rid of people... People will find somthing else to fight about...

No one forces anyone to go against their ""free will""

you have a free will to do as your conscience says..............

What people do in the name of ""religion" has nothing to do with God........

It's people that have thought themselves powerfull enough to place themselves above God and the results speak for themselves,yesterday,today and tommorrow.........

Putting the blame on ""Religion"'" is just another Man's way of saying that there is no God!

Free will is man's best friend .......... use it wisely!!!

Originally posted by helen670
No one forces anyone to go against their ""free will""

you have a free will to do as your conscience says..............

What people do in the name of ""religion" has nothing to do with God........

It's people that have thought themselves powerfull enough to place themselves above God and the results speak for themselves,yesterday,today and tommorrow.........

Putting the blame on ""Religion"'" is just another Man's way of saying that there is no God!

Free will is man's best friend .......... use it wisely!!!

Lol... Not everyone has there free will and people get forced to do things all the time... The natural state of people is at war....

We go to war with things when we are mad, need money, want something, or get bored... Lots of wars have been fought over owning land I don't see people wanting to ban the earth...

since the beginning of recorded times.

End them and wars will too.

If people actually followed Christ's teachings there wouldn't be war.

Not Understanding your religion causes war.
Not the religion's themselves.

People CAN make the choice to Not Fight.
Instead, they make the choice to Not Die.

Wouldn't a real Christian follow Jesus's example and Not Fight, even if it meant Death?
More important to protect? body or soul

A rule when choosing religions:
You should learn something new about God everyday. Every day should bring further understanding.
(I mean, if you 'go to God' when you die, then aren't you a little closer to God every day? Each day is one day closer to Death than the day before.




(sorry if I sometimes respond to nothing in particular and just add more related* thoughts.)

*related, in my view

Originally posted by quango
If people actually followed Christ's teachings there wouldn't be war.

Not Understanding your religion causes war.
Not the religion's themselves.

People CAN make the choice to Not Fight.
Instead, they make the choice to Not Die.

Wouldn't a real Christian follow Jesus's example and Not Fight, even if it meant Death?
More important to protect? body or soul

A rule when choosing religions:
You should learn something new about God everyday. Every day should bring further understanding.
(I mean, if you 'go to God' when you die, then aren't you a little closer to God every day? Each day is one day closer to Death than the day before.




(sorry if I sometimes respond to nothing in particular and just add more related* thoughts.)

*related, in my view

I very much agree with your comments ''quongo''
It is the people themselves,and not religion , that chose to either follow Christ or follow their human instinct ti ''live''
although there soul be lost!!!
(yeh, i sometimes dont make sense but ....)

This is what has been needed to set the stage for the antichrist: Weakening of Christianity (Look at how many divisions have happened to the church after the reformation. Churches divide over some of the stupidest things. The outcome is that we have many false teachers in the church today-Sin has brought the church to where it is today.) The second thing: Just look at some of these anti-God posts. There have always been people who deny Christ and the Father, but I can see a lot of these types of people being happy if someone(the antichrist) came and said all religion is neither right or wrong. HE is the true Messiah and YOU can become your own god! Lets all be one. No more differences! He will abolish all religion except his own. People will believe that he is the Messiah, for he will perform miraculous things. Doesn't that sound wonderful? That will be the lure and weak souls will be the bait. People, the end is near!