What do you think of this quote?

Question

"With or without religion, good people can behave well and bad people can do evil: but for good people to do evil -- that takes religion." Not saying I agree or disagree, but curious as to what you think...

Answer 1

That statement is very true. Religion, particularly Christianity, has been the motivating force for the most gruesome atrocities in human history- the Crusades, the Inquisition, the 30 Years' War, etc. The colonization of the Americas, the slaughtering of millions of natives over a period of about 4 centuries, and the African slave trade were done "in the name of God" and "manifest destiny!" (Listen to the song "The Last Resort," by the Eagles.) Both World Wars were fought almost entirely between Christian nations, with priests and reverands on both sides praying for and blessing the troops and weapons, telling them that victory was certain because "God was on their side," as they went off to kill members of the SAME RELIGION!! To this day, elderly German people will tell you that, when they were children, they remember their pastors telling them every Sunday to pray for the Fuhrer. Hitler signed a concordat (treaty) with the Vatican is 1933; there are photographs of him shaking hands with Pope Pius XII. Hitler was a practicing Catholic and TO THIS DAY has never been excommunicated!

However, that doesn't mean that ALL religion is a force for evil. Think about the founder of Christianity, Jesus. A man who preached love, peace, forgiveness, charity, healing. etc... Can you actually picture him holding a machine gun and blowing away another human simply because he was an "enemy," or didn't share his beliefs? When Judas Iscariot betrayed him to his enemies on the last night of his life, the apostle Peter tried to defend Jesus by attacking another man with a sword and chopping off his ear. But Jesus wouldn't allow it. He told Peter to "return his sword to it's place," and then healed the man's ear! Look at it this way: If an architect draws some designs for a house, but the contractor doesn't follow the instructions, and later on the house collapses and kills everyone inside, whose fault is it? The architect, the designs, or the contractor? So, if most people who claim to be Christians don't live the way Christ told us to, can you really blame Christ or the Bible? Mohatma Ghandi, who was a Hindu, once said, "I love Jesus and the Bible, but I hate Christians." Can you blame him? So if you want true religion, go directly to the Bible. It is the highest standard, by which faith must be judged.

Answer 2

I don't want to sound mean or against religious people, because they aren't all the same- but I kinda do agree with that. It's why I've never committed to one belief system, because organized religion tends to be on the judgmental, hateful, and hypocritical side- and I always find it hard to understand how so many people are tolerant of it.
But I also think good people can be evil without religion too.

Answer 3

i understood the "w/ or w/out religion good people can behave well and bad people can do evil" and i think it's true, because religion is not a factor in how people behave good or bad. and as for "good people to do evil that takes religion, that really needs to be analyzed a little bit more deeply

Answer 4

Hmmmh - well - if i pray whole day - i shall have no time to do evil... ( or whatever it is - even good )
If i spend my whole life praying - i wont have time to do evil ( or good )
and so on ..
Well - at the end my existing here shall be pointless - it woud be something like :
I was born , i have pray , i eat a toons of food , i drop a toons of shitz and i die - completely pointless ...
I just exists for some period of time ...

Well - after me - Good people can be no religion related , well bad people can be even a some high rank priest ...

If we still think that if we believe in something we shall become beter - we still live in 15 century ...

Wellcome in my world - where each one show if he is good or bad with his way of thinking and his deeds ... wellcome to 21 century .. ( well - maybe is too early to be saying .. maybe in 23th century - we will see ( some of us :P ) )

Answer 5

Bad people cannot do evil, as "evil" is what the bad (the weak) call the good (the strong). Weak people cannot be strong.

Ah, but religion can make them *believe* they are strong! It can unite them, so they can conquer the strong by sheer number!

In that way, "good" people can indeed do "evil" - weak people can indeed be strong. It takes religion and other lies for them to be strong.

Answer 6

“Never attempt to coach a pig to sing. It's a waste of it slow and it annoys the pig.” ? Robert A. Heinlein or rather, relying on my temper: "Hope is the item with feathers That perches within the soul, And sings the song--with out the phrases, And by no means stops in any respect" -- Emily Dickinson

Answer 7

Religion helps good people to justify there evil acts.

Answer 8

I think it's nonsense. Good people can do (and have done) evil without religion.

Answer 9

what I get from it is that for good people to do evil they would need laws and rules to break them, which would be religion, religion has rules, but for people to be evil there would also have to be rules in order to break them and become the evil that they are, so to be good or to be bad there would have to be some set of rules, norms, laws, whatever for them to gain that name. so this saying isn't true.

Answer 10

The more one thinks about it, the moreone realizes that that IS happening. However, religion also makes bad people do good deeds.