Is religious belief the greatest threat to modern civilization?

Question

How many of the world's problems are caused by religious thinking? What would the world be like if humanity wasn't squabbling about God all the time?

Examples? What about Israel/Palestine?

Answer 1

yes religous thinking is a cancer on this world and will be the demise of the human race

Answer 2

Here's an example, Mr. Eko: freaking Al Qaida!

Then somebody brings up Stalin...

Look, the problem with any "ism" or "pre-packaged ideology" is that it only represents a particular point of contact with reality, but it's sold as if it were the end-all-be-all of existence. That goes for ALL dogmatic religions, and of course we can include communism, etc in that as well.

The People want a shortcut to thinking; they want their religion and ethics ready-made; they don't care how ridiculous or shameful a given ideology is, they'd rather comply than scrutinize it. But it turns out that that's never enough; the illusion isn't complete until they've forced everybody else to think the same way. That's pretty much the history of civilization - the battle over ideas.

Answer 3

No the greatest threat is Godlessness it is Godlessness that is the cause of the vast majority of the world's problems.

The entire middle east has been warring for century's.

The problems in the Middle East and with Israel/Palestine are and have always been over the same thing....Land, Power,and Control.

Answer 4

Lol examples. Hmm you want examples. Here are the examples, my friend =)

Eastern Orthodox versus Muslims in Balkans.

Schism in the Roman Catholic Religion in Brazil.

Christian Orthodox versus Islam, Caucasus.

Government versus Religion, China.

Moslems versus Christians - Ethiopia, Egypt, Indonesia, Nigeria, Sudan,

Hindus Vs Muslims, India - Pakistan.

Persecution of the Bahais, Iran.

Shiite Moslems versus Sunni Moslems, Iraq.

Hindus versus Moslems versus Christians, Malaysia.

Judaism-Islam, The Middle East.

Roman Catholics versus Protestants, Ireland.

Moslems versus Roman Catholics, Philippines.

Hindus-Buddhists conflict in Sri Lanka.

Islam against Judaism/Christianity in the USA.

It is true, that at times I do wish there were no religions in this world, or the globe just unifies by following one single religion, though that seems by far just a dream, a glimpse at hope.

I would say, religions do help a lot of people although it does make too many lives miserable at the same time. People have fallen, because of religion. Cried because of it. Shed blood because of it. Lived in fear, because of it. It is not a pure or perfect thing. No, but on the other hand, it also gives a whole lot of the world's population guidance.

... the one thing I think modern civilization needs the most is love and acceptance. I don't mind religions. I can be tolerant as long as the world strives for peace and not get pulled back by such little things stretched into complexity.

... Life's too short to be miserable. :)

P.S World War I and WWII, the conflicts were NOT about religions, but it did INVOLVED religions. WW1 I am unsure about, but WWII, check your sources. Remember Hitler? The Jews? SIX MILLION. That's ONE example I could think of.

Answer 5

"Look at all the Nobel Prize winners there ever were and ask, how many are Muslims? It's like one, maybe two... Now, how many Nobel prizes were won by Jews? It's like a fourth of the Nobel prizes... some high fraction of the total. And then look how many Muslims are there? It's like a billion Muslims. How many Jews? 15 million tops. So you just ratio these numbers, had Islam not collapsed in its intellectual standing in the year 1100... they would have every single Nobel Prize today. So the fact that it's not only just a few, it's near zero, is deeply worrying. I'm concerned about what brilliance may have expressed itself and did not in that community over the past thousand years."

~ Neil deGrasse Tyson

Answer 6

Religion has been around since civilization started. It isn't a threat to the idea of civilization. What is a threat is religious fundamentalism, ANY religious fundamentalism.

Christian fundamentalist want a world were their moral code is the guiding principle. Fundamentalist Muslims HAVE a world were their moral code is the guiding principle. Fundamentalism discourage freedom and free thought. When there are norms for behavior, and answers to every question, no one is encouraged to change society for the better.

Look at the Dark Ages and the Muslim world. That is what happens to cultures dominated by religious fundamentalism. They are oppressive, and primitive.

Answer 7

It doesn't have to be... but it is becoming that way.

Religious extremism is threatening to undermine the study of many aspects of science. We depend on science not only for our understanding of the world around us but also in our everyday lives - medicine, travel, communication to name but three.

Imagine a world where religion had taken over, where politicians were religious leaders and to state that every word in the bible was not the absolute truth would be heresy punishable by torture and death.

In such a world there would be no science because all you ever needed to know was in the bible. Disease would be punishment from god, knowledge would be controlled by religious leaders who would censor every published word that even hinted against the accepted religious way. The earth would be deemed to be a flat 6,000 year-old lump of rock around which orbited the sun. People would search out witches and those in league with the devil. Anyone with knowledge greater than or different to that described in the bible would be deemed a witch or a heretic.
In short we would return to the Dark Ages.

That is why religionists hate science and that is why religion threatens any civilisation like ours which is based on science.

Answer 8

Yes, religious beliefs are a threat to civilization, but not the greatest one. We will destroy civilization by overpopulation long before religion could do us in. In that some religions work against that too (catholics vs. condoms) it really does not help.

Answer 9

Religios belief is not threating the civilization. It is religious belief, spirituality and belief in God that will encourage harmonious civilization. What we need is an intellectual inter-faith dialogue conducted in professional manner. Anyway, everybody have something in common - no religion encourage hatred and cruelty right?

Answer 10

Christianity invented modern western civilisation. The abolition of slavery, equal rights across sex and race, the idea that education should be compulsory and for all no matter what sex or class, the santification of human life and the abolition of infanticide, child abandonment and human blood sport, the modern idea of charity, the respect for the deaf, dumb, blind and disabled who were previously thought of as sub-human. The laws of western nations were founded upon Christian teaching. This civilisation is only at threat from hostility to God. It's collapse will come as that increases.

Answer 11

Want to give some examples?

Anyone who triest to blame religions for all the worlds problems is an idiot. Look at world war 1 and 2, were they caused by religion.