why try to disprove religon?

Question

this is aimed at "strong atheists".

why do you try to disprove the existence of god?

why do you think that religon is harmful when it clearly isn't?

please don't bring up the roman catholics trying to stop stem-cell research. that was the fault of the pope, not the fault of religous people everywhere.

and don't bring up the middle-eastern war. that was just a few middle-eastern politicians using religion as an excuse to start a couple of wars. it was politics, not religion.

Dr. atheist:
no, it hasn't. what are you talking about?

sorry for being so general, I'm mostly talking about Christianity, islam, judaeism, and hinduism. not cults.

i'm talking about things in mordern times, not things that happened 100's of years ago.

and, btw, the examples from 100's of years ago are just examples of people using religon as an excuse to kill people. no truly religous person would do things like that. well, not anyone that has any knowledge about religon.

what i'm really trying to get at is that almost all modern, well-known religions are based on this phrase:

love one another.

i'm not catholic. in fact, i dislike the vatican quite a bit for many of their choices.

Answer 1

i am not athiest but i think they try to disprove religion for the same reason we try to prove it. they think they are right.

Answer 2

Why would I try to disprove the existence of god? Since there's no evidence that god exists, it's up to the believer to come up with some supporting evidence. I don't have to do anything - I'm already on the correct side.

Religion is clearly harmful, though it obviously also has its upside. We'd all be better off if we as a culture were willing to be honest about the harmful aspects of religion, for example as demonstrated in the creationist propaganda, the anti-abortion and anti-homosexual terrorism, the attacks on Americans in the Terry Schaivo situation and 9/11, the theocrats, the misuse of the American military to attack Islam, etc., and yes, the stem-cell research problem.

Saying that religion "clearly isn't" harmful is simply dishonest.

Answer 3

As long as there is religion there will be fundamentalists. As long as there are fundamentalists there will be people who hinder progress. Could you imagine how much more advanced we would be by now if we weren't always haggling over these silly superstitions that have no evidence to support them?

Example. Fundamentalist Christians fight against stem cell research because they say that it will be 30 years of research before we ever get anything useful from it. So what?! We've been looking for cures for cancer and aids for much longer than 30 years, why don't they have a problem with that? It's because they have this belief that there is this thing called a "soul" and it is present in a ball of cells that has the potential to become a human being. So, ok, you have this argument, let's find some evidence to show that this "soul" actually exists and then you might have a case. Until then, i say we take what we can prove scientifically, that what religious people think is a "soul" is consciousness and in order for that to exist one needs a brain that is capable of creating that consciousness... which doesn't develop until late in the 2nd trimester. A ball of 200 cells does not have a soul.

Why protect something that isn't even alive yet (in the human sense of the word) at the expense of people who already have lives, contribute to society, and are suffering? It makes no sense at all.

This is only one example... and not even the best one... look at what Islamic fundamentalists are doing, but i won't go there.

Answer 4

You are very defencive !
I do not fit into your atheist category nor do I call myself an agnostic. I have studied various belief systems and from them I have formed my own beliefs.I believe in my own concept of God and my belief serves me well.
However I neither condemn those that believe or those who disbelieve in thier own concepts.
I cannot understand how you can say religion, and I am guessing you are referring to recognised churches etc,are not harmful.
Have you not read history ancient medieval or modern?
A country CAN go above the recommendations of the Pope.Laws that he makes in this modern era are not universally recognised.
In Australia the government has just passed the ruling that stem cell research can and will proceed.]
We have a large majority of Roman Catholic people among our diverse culture.
I think you also need to study a bit of history regarding the origins of the Middle East crisis. On that I will say no more.
Many wars have been fought in the name of God.
Sadly this will continue while people choose to remain dogmatically naive ,regarding many things, including religion.
It appears to me after reading Q&As on this site for a month, that there is far more effort (mostly consisting of carefully edited bible quotations) by Christians to proove that thier God exists and is the only God viable, than by others, to disprove.
Not eveyone likes cats or believe they make the best pets either.
Maybe next time do a bit of reseach ,and don't just rely on what you are told.
Some say Shalom and some say Salaam ,what is the difference.
Is one more rightous than the other?

Answer 5

No harm done huh?

With the fall of the Roman Empire, the librarian of Alexandria was pulled off her carriage and skinned alive. Literacy dropped. Even the Pope had to have the Bible read to him. In the first crusade, Christians killed tens of thousands of people they called "infidels". The Children's Crusade (1212) caused the deaths of nearly 50,000 children. Preachers sentenced to death and executed thousands during the Inquisition (1233-1834) for heresy and witchcraft. There were the Salem witch trials (1692) in America. The 17th Century Thirty Years War (Catholics v. protestants) wiped out tens of millions in Europe. In the Taiping Rebellion in China in the 1850's a Christian cult started a war that resulted in the slaughter of twenty million people. In the Holocaust six million Jews were murdered. Muslims and Christians in Bosnia reached a death toll of over 250,000.

I guess this is ok since killing is good when it comes to religion.
_

The holocaust isn't modern enough? What about 9/11? I guess the Muslims just blew up our buildings for the hell of it huh?

"Be optomistic, happy, and calm. Show no fear or anxiety. Smile at the face of God and your reward will be eternity. Holy warriors, your patience will be justified. Everything is for Him. You must not confront the enemy before you kill it. Strike as champions at the heart of the non-believers. Strike above the neck and at all extremities. For this is a point of no return for Almighty God. God will give bahishti to his faithful servants. When you reach ground zero you will have killed the enemy, the Great Satan!" - Letter found in Mohammed Atta's luggage, which didn't make it in the plane in time.

Answer 6

Why try to prove it? So what you are saying is that some politicians using religion to start a war has nothing to do with religion? I disagree. Without religion, that war might not have started. So it is religion that started the war.
Religion is harmful. Most major wars have been started because of someone or another religious beliefs. How about the Spanish Inquisition? Not Harmful? Hitlers "final solution"? Not Harmful? Muslim extremists? Not Harmful?

Answer 7

And what about the efforts to prevent gays from having equal rights? That's a christian initiative. And teaching creationism in schools? That's christian. And trying to ban abortion? That's christian. Stem cell research? That's christian (in the USA, Bush and his followers have limited research, not the Pope). So yes, it is harmful.

Secondly, atheists don't try to disprove god (though some are kind enough to point out the blatent fallacies in the bible). I don't bother to disprove something I don't believe exists; not unicorns, not leprechauns, not gods. If any of those exist, it's up to the believers to prove they exist.

Believers don't do that. They make assertions and everyone should believe them. Sorry. I don't buy a car that way and I won't build my life that way either.

Answer 8

Well, since I'm not allowed to bring up stem cell research, even though it's really ONLY religious people who oppose it, why don't I bring up Dr. Reginald Finger, who President Bush appointed to the CDC's Ethical Advisory Committee. He opposes the distribution of a hypothetical HIV vaccine because it would encourage "pre-marital sex".

If, hypothetically, theists didn't involve their faith in public policy, in wars, in commerce, etc. I wouldn't have a problem with faith. But you and I both know that theists bring their theism into public policy, and when they do that, they're bringing belief without evidence into what should be a field of reason.

Even if you're a liberal Christian, who doesn't attack science, who doesn't start wars, who doesn't condemn homosexuality, you STILL defend religious faith as a virtue, and the extremists use that SHELTER of ideology to avoid having to defend their dangerous beliefs.

You're wrong to be a Catholic. You give money to the Vatican, and they use that money to discourage condom distribution in Africa. That costs lives. Face it.

Answer 9

I'm no atheist, I strongly believe in God...but...please...religion is not harmful? Whatever.

Religion has been the most divisive instrument to the human race that has ever been conceived. Even within the same religions, they are divided among their various chapters. It is disgusting. It is the cause of most wars in history.

It is not God who has done the dividing, it is the human perversion of what they think God wants.

Answer 10

The point isn't to disprove religions so much as to point to the fallacies that lie at the very foundation of their doctrine. People who build crystal cathedrals on land fill really need to get out of the building before the earthquakes come.

Answer 11

**** religion.
I disprove it because of what it causes:
perfectly normal people become psychotic evangelicals
it is in the root of all conflict
and it causes pretty much everything to go wrong.
and most of all, bush is christian
what kind of moron would believe that a fatass sitting on a cloud made the earth? evolution is the cause