Question of the Day: Does religion make people irrational or does it help people enlighten themselves?.

This something I've have been wondering for a while ever since I have gotten older. I mean with stuff like the Crusades, The Salem Witch Trials, and 9/11 Terrorist Attacks, it begs the question, is religion good?

I think it all depends on how religion is used. There are some people who find a religion and follow it and never harm anyone or in any way use their religion to be offensive or harmful.

I think anything can be used in good ways and bad ways.

It all depends on the religion. If you're talking like Islam, than yeah, irrational and hate filled. If you're talking something like Christianity than the world would be a better place.

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bias much? I know some pretty horrible "Christians" and some extremely nice Muslims.

wow.... I mean, what else do you say to that?

I think religion can fuel alot of things. If you r irrational of thought and mind then religion can exasurbate this, such as if you possess qualities of enlightenment religion can further your progress.

Hoochman, wow, that wasn't extremely prejudice at all.

Religion does not make people irrational, people are already like that.

No, not prejudice. You shouldn't judge a belief by its followers because half of its followers don't live up to its standards. Examples include good Muslims and evil Christians.

so what you're really suggesting is that all "proper" followers of Islam are evil?

No, that isn't prejudiced at all....

What I'm suggesting is, is that in order for a person to be a devout follower of Islam, you have to submit not only to the parts of the koran that sound nice, but the parts that command Jihad against unbelievers. What I'm suggesting is, is that moderate Muslims are not fully Muslim.

Well by that logic your not a devout follower of Christianity. You're only moderate and not fully Christian. Their are parts of the bible that say you should stone people for certain acts. When was the last time you stoned someone hmmm? This is getting off topic though so if we want to continue this it should have it's own thread.

I wouldn't even know how to word the thread if I was the one making it. Anyway, the only reason why I am not 100% devout is because I am not sinless. The parts of the bible that command stoning is the Old Testament. It says in the Bible that the old laws and stories don't apply anymore (such as stoning) and that Jesus is the law, and the only reason that the old stories and laws are passed down to warn us. And it doesn't seem off topic because I'm explaining why some religions are good or bad.

"What I'm suggesting is, is that moderate Muslims are not fully Muslim."

Why is it your job to determine who is more or less Muslim than someone else? I'm really tired of hearing you and others telling other people who is and isn't a certain religion as if they are the decider of such things.

If you don't like my posts than quit looking at them instead of throwing a fit about it. You don't need to be concerned unless I'm saying something "Muslims are idiots" or some insult like that. And I'm not deciding who is or who isn't religious. I'm simply saying what the Bible or what the koran says.

"Muslims are idiots"

there is the proof.... Hoochman thinks Muslims are idiots.... or, was that part of your post that I'm not supposed to read cause it doesn't apply anymore. I guess I'll just pick and choose which parts of your post I want to read and which ones I don't.

Come now, I know what you're getting at, frankly you fail at it. If you're getting at my post about the old Testament than you're way off course on picking and choosing.

You probably could find some passages in the Koran condemning nonbelieves and whatnot. Whether or not that counts as "hate-filled" is another matter.

However, I don't see how Islam is irrational, or at least more irrational than any other religion.

It is like there can be families that are Christans and families that are Muslim, the lives of the two families could be nearly identical (different holidays and traditions observed). Tolerance is my new favorite word.

If it results in a relationship with God and love for others then it's good and enlightens you. Two ways it's bad are if it's self-seeking or a cover for hidden agendas.

My view is that while most religions have both good and bad points like a good point with Christianity is that it encourages people to be kind and giving to others and a bad point is that it for example portraits the skin tone of people as a sign of personal virtue, where the fairer the skin the better and the darker the skin the worse (white and black, good and evil, God and Satan... ect, the kind of stuff the KKK was born from) there, there still is one main factor most religion boils down to. Believing despite the lack of evidence.

Believing something without actually needing proofs leads people to accept things without bothering to think for themselves why they believe it, my parents are both devout Christians and if I ever dare to badmouth their religion when they try to stuff it down my throat they get angry and refuse to listen to whatever arguments I bring to the table, and the funniest part is, they have never read the bible, I´m the atheist here and I´ve read more of the bible than they have, my parents don´t need the bible to tell them that god exists, they just have blind faith. In the same manner they do not feel the need to know the personality of someone of another belief system as they just believe that they are evil, my mother does not need to know if her magic trinkets work or not since she just has to believe they do, my dad does not need to think of any reasons I may die an early death before he comes of age since he just believes that god will punish me for being atheist by making me have an early death.

Such blind belief breeds ignorance and leads to people having stupid views of things, I don´t think that is a good thing so in my opinion religions that demote critical thinking and open mindedness in favor of blind belief are bad, I´ve drawn wisdom from Christianity myself, as it for example teaches that you should treat others as you expect them to treat you, so I will not simply say "Religion is evil in all ways and nothing good can come from it." But I will say that anything good religion can teach can be taught without it, and with the removal of all religions the bad things it promotes would be diminished as well (there will always be people of every sort so I won´t say any specific human trait will be gone if religion went away) so I think it´s a positive thing if all religions die out.

Of course religion is good. It always helps to have faith and believe in something. Whether or not you believe in GOD or not.....