Am I the only one who sees that organized religion is responsible for 90% of the world's ills?

Question

Sunnis disagree with Shites - Catholics disagree with Jews - Buhdists just want to be left alone - and Mormons disagree with just about everybody.

All this energy WASTED on our silly beliefs in invisible people in the sky.

Think about how throughout history we have KILLED scholars, Burned books and WAGED WARS against one another, in the name of whatever BOOK we happen to read.

Darwin was only half right - evolution is fact - WE just haven't evolved yet.

Qualification here for all: My question is about ORGANIZED religion. "Spirituality" is a seperate issue alltogether.

It is one thing to "believe" in something - it is quite another to KILL people in the name of that belief en mass.

By the way - by and large - each and every one of you have proveded valid and thoughtful answers.

This watered down veresion of the message boards makes it impossible to have a dialogue with each of you.

Feel free to contact Neil Budde at Yahoo.com if you want the message boards back.

I'll let 'best answer' be chosen by the answerers in this case since most of you were so thoughtful and assertive in your answers.

Answer 1

You're not the only one who feels this way, but I don't think you can really back this up.

Are you sure people act any better without religion than with? What extraordinary Atheist nation can you point to where people did not exploit the weak, or pick fights with people who were different?

And by the way, it was probably religion that taught us that it's wrong to kill.

*************

Oops, I forgot, if Religion is responsible fore 90% of Humanity's ills, then that's still ok, because true Atheists are probably only about 10% of the world's population.

So it's cool, huh?

Answer 2

I'm not going to argue the numbers, but I agree with your basic position.

Catholic-Jewish relations did improve during the papacy of John Paul II, however.

Edit:
Historically -

Nine major crusades were waged because the Roman Catholic Church was upset at another religious group's occupation of Jerusalem and Israel. Not only did they attack Muslims, they killed Jews and Orthodox Christians on the way to Israel.

Hindus and Muslims murder each other today at the Indian-Pakistani border. Today, Catholics and Protestants slaughter each other in the streets of Northern Ireland. English and French settlers killed Native Americans because of their general refusal to accept Christianity. Islamic radicals carry out terrorist attacks against the "secular infidel Westerners". Religion, from a historical perspective, has been a detriment to human well-being.

Answer 3

So far, I see only men and women in all your examples.

I do not see one religion against another; I see followers not following what they profess to believe.

There are many religions, and none have tried to eliminate the others. You seem to confuse political agenda for religious ones. Even terrorists justify their actions as religious, even though their their actions kill innocents. So are the terrorist are following their religion or following a political goal.

Evolution is a scientific theory that accounts for the facts. It is a religious statement, but a theory that explain fact first into introduced by Darwin. Your evolution is a political objective that misuses a scientific theory to justifies man inhumanity to man. Do you really think we are better than the 17000 year old farming village?

Religion (organized or not) is not responsible for the world ills, man is.

Answer 4

You are so right. In my opinion animals are more advanced then the human race. We kill and rape, commit genocide, sell other humans into slavery..... We have a long way to go before we are anywhere near done with our evolution. I only hope the planet and the other species can survive us.Organized religion is responsible for most of the atrocities waged on the Earth.

Answer 5

As an Atheist, I would not go so far as to blame the religions. I have studied most of the religious doctrine that exists today, and with few exceptions I can not call the following of those doctrines bad. The men who use those doctrines to their own ends are bad. Therefore, man is the issue, and even if religion does prove to be the cause, given that it is an man made enterprise, it is to be man's responsibility once again.

Answer 6

I agree that organized religion creates many of the world's conflicts. But, part of what sets humans apart from other species is the idea that we don't live merely by instincts. We have faith and beliefs. "Religion" isn't the problem...humanity is the problem. It's not in our nature to join hands, unite and sing songs. Humans are selfish creatures and if we didn't wage wars in the name of religion we would have other reasons.

On the flip side, spirituality can be a beautiful thing. Our spirituality is what makes us wonderful. It makes us (individuals not organized masses of people) strive to be better and it's that hope that can help us overcome adversity. I'm 25 and I'm in my third cancer relapse. I'm not religious but if I didn't have positive spirit, I wouldn't be pressing on trying to get that cure.

Humanity can be just as beautiful as it is ugly. But without it, what would we truly be?

Answer 7

It is obvious to me that you are an intellectual. Organized religions serve no good other than for bloodshed and population control. Here is a little known fact. The Vatican Empire is the richest entity in the world. Now why does a religion that preaches good for humanity and feed the children, shelter the homeless and other crap like that need so much damn money. Hmm...Let us see they are preaching and not practicing, maybe they are hoping to buy the key to a door of a supposed heaven, or maybe they just like da green.

Answer 8

According to digitalfreethought:

- Religious beliefs were the cause of and/or the justification for:

* The Spanish Inquisition
* The Crusades
* The Divine Rights of Kings
* Witch Trials in Europe and America
* The perpetuation of Slavery
* The Dehumanization of other religion's believers (and non-believers)
* The Subjugation of Women
* The Refusal of some parents to give medical treatment to their children, relying instead on payers and faith-healers
* The decades of violence between Jews and Moslems in the Middle East
* The decades of violence between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland
* Capital Crimes against Women's Health Centers
* The 9-11 tragedy (a true faith-based act) and the subsequent War on Terror
* The Suppression of Science, and indeed the suppression of reason itself. -

Theistic religion should be banished.

Answer 9

I think you described the behavior of Man....Not Religion. Religion doesnt teach hatred. Just because a small percentage of Man uses it for their own twisted desires doesnt mean that the other 99.99% of Religious people are the same.

By the way...there is very little that is factual about Darwin's "Theory" of Evolution. You have to believe in miracles to believe that Evolution is real.

Answer 10

I just think that is scapegoat reasoning. People get uppity and cruel about anything. You could remove all religion and there would still be the same problems. Conservatives vs liberals, men vs women, blacks vs whites, educated vs uneducated. Wherever you have differences, you have strife. Athiests who thumb their nose at the religious just add to the strife and continue the misery.