Fellow atheists, which of these statements would you agree with, and why?

Question

A.) Religion is a really good idea, gone horribly wrong.

B.) Religion was a horrible idea from Day One.

C.) Other (please explain).

Answer 1

A) I'm sure it served its purpose at one point. Maybe to teach complex lessons or to ensure good behavior before laws were invented.
But at this point, we have developed the scientific method to gain actual insight into reality, and hopefully, humans understand that there are reasons to be "good" aside from avoiding punishment.

Answer 2

C) I think that religion is neither "a horrible idea" nor something that has "gone horribly wrong". I think some ideas of certain religions are bad, but not religion as such. One idea that I think is horrible is the one that people would go to hell for not believing in the "right" religion, but not all religions teach this, in fact only Christianity and Islam do.
Religion also doesn't always have bad consequences, although it can have, if you think about Christian or Muslim religious violence, but that is not a necessary consequence of religion, not even of these two religions. Many people are happy with their religions, are peaceful and live a normal life, where are the horrible consequences then?

The reason that I'm an atheist is not that I hate religions but just that I think they aren't true. This does not mean that I think they were bad or that others should not believe in them.

Answer 3

Other.

Religion was used, initially, in lieu of scientific knowledge. For example, some Greeks thought the sun was actually dragged across the sky by a guy riding a flaming chariot.

However, many ancient religions were not used for intolerance, nor to oppress free thinking. The Greeks generally acknowledged that a bunch of gods were out there screwing with them, got on with it, and made major science, technological, philosophical and mathematical discoveries.

The Romans were similar....to the extent that when they conquered foreign lands, they would actually sacrifice to the local gods since they felt those gods had power in those foreign lands.

Hell, Constantine himself prayed to multiple gods, and only added Christianity because he thought they had a powerful war god.....he was still unbaptized when he ran the show at Nicea.


I don't ever think it was a "really good idea"; but it was a substitute for scientific knowledge. The big problem is that somewhere along the way, it was twisted to become intolerance; this happened in Europe around the Reformation, but had been building since Christianity had become the "only" acceptable religion in Europe.

In today's world, it is acceptable for science to say "I don't know, but here's what we think it might be", and many non-believers are charitable..... so religion has generally outlived its purpose.

Answer 4

A) and i'm talking about the theistic beliefs which have the hell-heaven concepts

they served their purpose when men needed refinement....but now PEOPLE are corrupting the religions....they're using relgion as an excuse to do horrendous things....

that being said,i do not agree with the religious idea(christian) which says that homosexuality is evil etc etc because i have seen so many cruelties done to people because of these beliefs which is more harmful than ever...

Answer 5

C) Religion probably help provide tribal cohesion for early humans. Moreover it also help to ease anxiety and stress in early humans as they tried to make sense of their existence. Today I think many people find religion to be beneficial in their creative lives.

Where it goes horribly wrong is when people think they have a vise-grip lock on the truth.

Answer 6

C.) Religion was a really useful way of passing along society's knowledge to the masses before the discovery of the scientific method. Now it has outlived it's usefulness.

Answer 7

B. I almost said A. but then I corrected myself.

I almost said A. because I don't mind people who take comfort in their beliefs, don't really push them on others and aren't harming the world, but then I realized there is a different between beliefs and religion. Religion is can easily be corrupt, and very bad. Beliefs are good, but religion bad.

Answer 8

A. It was a good idea, something to try to get people not to hurt each other. But there are nutso people in this world that have taken wayyyyy too far. Hurting others has become a religious past time.

Answer 9

I suppose at one time it had it's place,both to satisfy man's natural curiosity as to why and how events happen,and it probably had it's place in government also. Those were brutal times and maybe a god and hell were necessary to keep people pacified. I think it has outlived it's usefullness now however,and any benefits(people who have needed it to get off drugs or whatever) is far surpassed by the damage done to education

Answer 10

religion was a horrible idea from day 1! Definitely. Em, it does not allow for an individual to make its own decisions, it informs us what we can an cannot do, and how to think, not to accept difference list goes on an on...............