YourMajestyKen : Did you even read all the posts, it is by far not enough for religions just to give you beliefs and faiths in "somethings" to justify religions being good. For example let´s look at my father, I´ve already mentioned that he believes with all his heart that because he is a devout believer that he will live longer than his atheist sons (he has 4 sons, 3 are atheists and the last one is too young to understand the issue). Now he has the belief and hope that we will die early and this is bread/breed/howeveryouspellit from his faith in Christianity, I don´t really see this as being a positive thing.

Belief is not a good thing by itself, despite what people tend to claim. And you can always have hope and faith and you can always "believe" in a better future even without religion, religion does promote faith in a better future in most of the cases, however also in most of the cases religion promotes bad things as well, so I personally think it would be better if there was no religion in the world at all, after all I´m atheist and I´ve got my own hopes for the future and so can others.

It really depends.
Extremists are capable to get out of control just to try to get the world to join their religion.
But normal religionists will just follow their religion and not shun upon anyone of a different religion.

Most of the religious people I've met are extremists and I can't have a conversation with them about anything without God being part of it, or them telling me to become christian or I'm going to hell. I personally have no need for religion, but I know that sometimes it's all people have that they can hold onto, maybe from a dramatic experience in life or something. Religion tells us to be nice and friendly to all peple, and that God will judge them, but it's religious leaders that have the most say in the world, and have always been the ones to pull the punches in society, so I say it wouldn't make my life any better by falling into another category like religion.

SilverMaestro : "Most of the religious people I've met are extremists and I can't have a conversation with them about anything without God being part of it, or them telling me to become christian or I'm going to hell."

First off, what is religion without God?

Second, "but it's religious leaders that have the most say in the world, and have always been the ones to pull the punches in society, so I say it wouldn't make my life any better by falling into another category like religion."

What if I told you that I disagree with "religious leaders", and instead I have a personal faith without regard to what someone tells me.

now now... organized religion isn't all bad. I'm not saying people should blindly believe whatever some guy at a pulpit is teaching them.... but those people have generally studied religion a LOT more than you have and likely have many more insights than you do.

I do agree that religious leaders wield a lot of power for good or evil. Like with any position of power.... it generally corrupts if it isn't held within certain bounds. People who have power begin to act like God.... no easier way to put it. They begin to self aggrandize.

But not all do. There are some religious leaders out there who are genuinely good people and who use their positions to do good. Find one of those and religion will be a benefit for you.

geeogree : "but those people have generally studied religion a LOT more than you have and likely have many more insights than you do."

This statement is not factual because it's not knowledgeable...

way to back it up with even less than I did!

it was also a generalization and not a statement of fact....

geeogree : I took it as more than a generalization for the caps of "LOT", it's really not a big deal... My point is that "religious leaders" may not have the amount of knowledge as others.

tRIUNE : My post when I said I can't talk to them without ending up talking about God, I meant when talking about "anything", we could be talking about pop..."GOD"! We could be talking about our math test the following week..."GOD"! We don't have to be on the topic of religion to get there, and it is unnecessary.

geeogree : I know that there are people who do know alot more about it that me, like religious leaders, and they can make something out of all of this, but I personally have trouble understanding what the "Big Picture" is in religion, but I do know that not all people take advantage of their position and are good people.

I think religions is on both good and bad. Because of religion we became who we are today, but the bad part... trying to know why religion comes from like what SilverMaestro is saying.

I would say religion is inherently neither good nor bad. Like anything else mankind has created, it is neutral until someone uses it. It can be used for good purposes or bad ones. When it causes people to give their time to help those less fortunate than themselves, it's being used for good. When someone uses it to incite hatred against another group of people, it's being used for evil.

More than anything, I would say religion is a crutch. A crutch we as a species outgrew centuries ago and have been dragging around like a security blanket ever since. We're too attached to our past to let it go, but we'll never be able to walk on our own until we do..

Most religious people are a**h***s, so are atheists. But I'm religious and I'm not an a**h***.

Religion is neutral. Some people use it as a scapegoat or justification to commit evil. Others use it to promote good and peace. Like anything, humans will manipulate what they have to serve their own purposes. it's all in the hands of the user.

Religion is a tricky thing. To some it gives a purpose and inner peace, to others it makes them feel guilty and lowly. To others, its a pointless thing where people act like crazy hipocrites.

So its neither good or bad- It gives peolps a reason/purpose in life while it makes non-religious people think its pointless.

My own thoughts? Think what you wanna think, we'll all die anyway.