Question for Atheists regarding the Holy Bible & Qur'an?

Question

The world has problems whose root cause is religion. Is this something you would agree with?
I look at war in the middle east and the terrorist attacks on America and England and Spain, and I feel like the catalyst for these is religion.

I also see in America a Culture War, where the "ultra-conservative" positions are being based on the Bible. As an example of this is the literal interpretation of Genesis 1:26-27 and Genesis 2:7 used to justify intelligent design; and the attack on gay rights using such Bible passages as Leviticus 18:22 and Romans 1:24-27.

So here is my question, what is the real problem in your estimation?

1. The holy books themselves . . . Holy Bible or Qur'an?

2. The religious leaders . . who are interpreting these books and using what they see to play on the bigotry of the followers.

I tend to believe its more 2, I hope its 2, because if its 2 there is hope that we could use 1 in a more positive interpretation.

What are your thoughts.

Answer 1

Jim.
First point; agreed. Religion has been the driving force behind more conflict, death and misery than any other force combined in history.
As for the culture war going on in america, also agreed. The fact that people are using mythology to deny others the civil right to marriage, is not only insulting, but an embarrasing blight on the civil rights movement in the US.

As for the problem itself. I believe that blame should be equally shared between the books themselves and the leaders. After all, if the authors of the books themselves did'nt have an axe to grind overtly sexist, mysoginistic and hateful passages would never have been written. (case in point, in the original Greek, the passage read "suffer not a disease to exist in your midst." and it was changed by King James to read "suffer not a witch to live" because he was a notorious mysoginist.
The bible and the quran are riddled with such examples.
Personally I find such hateful books difficult to look at in a positive light. You may as well ask that we put a positive spin on "mein kamph".

Thoughtful question as always Jim.

Answer 2

I agree with you that religion is the cause of so many problems in the world.

I think that the belief in a book so old is alarming and dangerous. How people can interpret it literally beggars belief. It really worries me that a country like the USA is going backwards and is almost becoming a regime based on religious fundamentalism.

I think the problem lies with those interpret the book. After all a book is just the writings of people from so may years ago. There is hope though. Look what happened in Pennsylvania when they tried to replace the theory of evolution with intelligent design.

Answer 3

Assuming that there is any reality to religions, I think that the difference in religions stem from people's reactions to their surroundings. A method of dress in the desert would be different than the dress from a cold climate. After time they may get incorporated into the religion. This goes for food and food preparations. The religion evolves to incorporate local heroes and suddenly they no longer resemble each other. All religions are rooted in tolerance and caring and soon are viewed as wrong religions. If Buddha, Mohammad or Jesus were born in North America then the religions would resemble that.

Remember also that Modern English is only about 500 years old and each translation of whatever book would reflect the era, the wishes of the people in power, as well as mis-translations with the evolution of the language.

Answer 4

Absolutely without a doubt #2. Books are just books - a book can't kill you. It's what you do with that book that has the potential to make the world a better place or a much, much worse place...

You should look into (the original) Christian Socialism - at first it just seemed like a crazy paradox to me, but it's a European political movement that uses the Bible to justify extremely progressive and helpful policies. Interesting how both these people and the neocons can be using the very same book to justify completely different things...

Answer 5

Books are books. They are words on pages. I've read Karl Marx but that doesn't mean I'm a communist; unless I decided to buy into what I read and started using it to change society around me. That is what happens with the 'holy texts'.... the people take them and they use them to their own means to justify their own agendas.

Since we know the bible is contradictory, people pick and choose what will best support their cause. If the person doing the choosing is powerful enough and persuasive enough then many will not question the persons wisdom of how they interpret the book.

Answer 6

I agree, the leaders and interpreters of the books are the problems. Look at the radical preachers in America, who take the bible as truth and end up effecting the government in thignsl ike abortion laws, foreign policy etc

Answer 7

The "unique bible and the Torah" are actual sixty six disjoint books written with the aid of many distinctive human beings and one million/2 of them became into writing down folklore, thoughts, thoughts passing down from human beings to human beings. Muhammad wrote his Qur'an interior a similar way Joseph Smith wrote the e book of Mormon and for a similar motives - as long as there are human beings gullible sufficient to exploit with the aid of making them have self belief you're despatched with the aid of gods and angels, there will be crooks who take great ingredient approximately it. and don't supply me this ******** approximately Muhammad's illiteracy. He became right into a provider provider, so literate with the aid of definition, and he finally have been given prosperous sufficient to have sufficient money any volume of scribes. He ought to talk, could no longer he?

Answer 8

Poor leadership, people who are too lazy/stupid/immoral to actually provide moral leadership, instead providing rationalizations of popular prejudices for purposes of self promotion or personal gain.

It'd be nice if scriptures didn't contain excuses for wicked behavior in the name of religious piety, but such religions just don't survive in the marketplace of ideas. Many people want excuses to be cruel and hateful without feeling guilty about it after the blood has cooled on the floor.

And yes, I'm an atheist. :)

Answer 9

Knock me down and call me Betty.I agree with you( on the statement that religion is bad but not about everything else).Religion is mans attempt to get close to God through his own ability.True believers/Christians are to worship in spirit and truth.More like a relationship then going through traditions

Answer 10

There's a third probability that you didn't list - the followers.
The problem is that the followers of these religious leaders are not strong enough, or perhaps intelligent enough, to think for themselves.