Question for everyone regarding politics and religion?

Question

It has been stated that if the Atheist is right and the theist is wrong that the theist will have spend an entire lifetime of believing and that this won't hurt anyone.

I totally believe in the first amendment which guarentees the right of Americans to believe and worship. I would never want to remove any church or burn any Bible, to do so would be wrong.

But in the interest of building a database of questions and answers, I was wondering if there could be some answers to the following question.

Are there any ill effects that society suffer from people's believe in God? Are there some actions that believers in God take which might cause an ill effect on the entire population of America and the world?

I think there are a lot of intelligent people who could articulate the harms to society if there are any from the actions of believers better than I can. So are there any harms to society from believers actions?

Answer 1

Westboro Baptist Church. That should answer it.

Answer 2

There would be many dangers if you took the radical view of some of the christian right (not all christians are like this some just want to believe in peace and that I respect.) Look at Pat Robertson. If those type of christians became the driving force behind society we would be taking a large social step backwards. Pat Robertson has made no bones about wanting to get rid of the first amendment.. he feels it would open the door to the US to becoming an official 'christian' nation.

That would lead to a country of bigotry. Independent, logical thinking women would be on the hit list, homosexuals, anyone from any belief system other than christianity and minorities would be discriminated against.

Science for the most part would be taken out of formal education as anything that does not support the theory of creation would not be left in. Basically you would not have science education; mathematics either since math is a field of logic.

It would totally reshape society and not for the better. If we thought our education system in this country was lacking now, see what it could become if the Christian Coalition ever had the power to enact the changes it wants.

Answer 3

The harm comes when people with only a limited grasp of religion take it upon themselves to try to decide what's best for everyone else. They say that there's no such thing as separation of church and state and that the government should be ruled by the church and according to their narrow-minded and bigoted interpretation of the Bible. What these people don't understand is that the clause regarding religion was put in the First Amendment primarily to protect the freedom of religion. Many of the founders of this country came here to escape religious persecution in the form of state religions being forced on them by monarchs. It would be bad for everyone, especially Christians, if our government enforced religion on us any more than it already has. For example, I'm a Protestant, and I would resent being forced to accept Catholic views with which I don't agree. I'm sure everyone of any denomination can think of other denominations with conflicting ideas. The whole point of freedom of religion is to be able to choose how to worship, and we can't do that if the government takes away that option to choose.

I don't see how anyone can read the first amendment and not see that freedom of religion is the same thing as separation of church and state. It says, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." In other words, when it comes to religion the government can't tell you what to believe or what not to believe. If we lose that separation and the government starts preaching religion, or worse yet legislating religion, the freedom is gone because you no longer have a choice. That's why religion must always be kept separate from the government.

Answer 4

This is a fact, and it has already happened. A few good examples of this are found in the Inquisition and the Crusades. People have been forcibly converted to Christianity and killed for not believing and not converting for a millenia. Since the first 300 years after Christianity began, when the new religion had a a hard time, it's followers (those who are extremists) have brutalized non believers. Mel Gibson's Passion play was no different, from those theatrical performances used ot incite hatred against the Jews in the middle ages.

Answer 5

I believe they create unnecessary stigma's on harmless activities. For example, gay marriage. Religion is the primary source of disagreement with gay marriage. Their lives are not harmed if one woman marries another or another man marries another man. It affects them in no way, yet they protest.

Also, I believe it contributes to an undeniable reduction in work done on Sundays between the hours of 6am and noon. Although, the peace and quiet is nice, our economy slows down for these hours which potentially causes a ripple effect throughout our spending habits.

Also, to elaborate on the economy, if you took ALL the money that went to churches and instead directed it towards housing the homeless, feeding the needy, and so on, it would go a long way towards ending the problems in the world. Now, this isn't technically a harm to society caused by believer actions. It's more of a conscious decision to not try a little harder to end some of the problems we currently face.

Answer 6

The belief in God really isn't the problem; but the total lack of compassion, respect and tolerance for the Other Names of God. There's a George Carlin sketch that actually reiterates this better than I can
" Q : Do you believe in God? A: No (sound of shot being fired.) Q: Do YOU believe in God? A: Yes. Q: Do you believe in MY God? A: No. (sound of shot being fired). One could take this further being Q: Do you believe in God? A: Yes. Q: Do You believe in my God? A: Yes. Q: Do you believe in my rituals surrounding our God? A: No (sound of shot being fired).
It is my thought that even if there wasn't a Divine Being (which I do believe there is) humans would still have to invent one if only to have someone to blame for things beyond their control. The Christians and Muslims do this with Satan...who didn't arrive on the scene until somewheres in the 3rd century CE (I might be off on the date) and who was just mentioned in Jewish literature before hand. Now instead of the "Evil One" Humankind (and unfortunately all the other living beings on this planet) now have each other to blame and to curse in the Name of the Divine.
Man, Jim, I've rambled on enough. You'll undoubtedly get more involved answers than mine, but there's my take. Toodles and have a good one.

Answer 7

I think this is a question that is impossible to answer. There are clearly violent people (harmful) who are religious. But is that a result of their belief in God? How does one prove such a thing? There are tons of people who are violent who are not religious and there are tons of people who are not violent who are religious. How can causation be proved in such a case? Are violent people just naturally attracted to those sets of beliefs that encourage what is already within them?

On the other hand, your question asks about the results of belief in God, which is separate from the question of religion. The problem with that is a definition of the term. My belief in God may be of an incredibly distinct nature from someone else's belief in God. Therefore various beliefs in God could have exactly opposite results on society depending on the nature of the belief or the subject of the belief.

I know that doesn't answer your question, but it's the best I could do.

Answer 8

The greatest harm done by religion is not any specific horrible crime or policy, although many of those have already been mentioned.

No, the greatest harm caused by religion is how it has inhibited scientific research and progress throughout all of human history. Any scientific idea or theory which contradicts the local prevalent mythology is violently opposed, and thus vital new discoveries are never made because people are afriad to ask the necessary questions. Who knows where our civilization could be, what diseases we could have cured, what new technologies we could have.

This has happened though all of human history, and it is still taking place today.

Answer 9

Well, extremeists demonstrate the ill effects of too much faith quite often, by preventing some of their cult members from seeing doctors and administering prayer instead. Also, a criminal person can enter a church with a superficial repentance, gain trust, then responsibility, then molest the church goers children. I'm sure that there are more examples, but do we really need them?

Answer 10

If a fundy bible-believer gets in the White House as Prez, he could press the new-cu-lear button to hasten the coming of De Lawd.

Answer 11

Some Christians and Christians organizations want to tell other Americans, no matter their religions, what they can and cannot do. Most of the people against gay marrage are Christians. Same with anti-abortionists. This is very wrong and could be very damaging to our country.