ATHEISTS: Is religion immoral?

Question

Many atheists believe that religion is responsible for many of the world's problems. In your opinion, is religion itself - not the adherants per se - immoral?

Answer 1

Not in itself, no. Religion doesn't kill people - religious people kill people. But what can you expect when you teach people that drowning, Plaguing, and slaughtering millions, and having one's own kid tortured and executed are 'good', 'moral', and 'loving'!?

Answer 2

No, I don't think religion in and of itself is immoral. If people become radical about their religious beliefs and start seeing the world as good guys vs. bad guys based on religion, then it can have disastrous consequences. This seems to go against the peaceful messages from the actual religions. The only part of Christianity that I see as immoral is the doctrine that only Christians go to heaven. This does cause us vs. them thinking. Otherwise, the messages of Jesus seem to promote gentleness and peace. The Buddhist religion makes people very peaceful and open minded, so it's not immoral. I am sorry but I do not have enough knowledge on other religions to give my opinion.

Answer 3

Religion - like culture - is merely what people believe and do together.

People will feedback onto the culture, the religion, in order to make their shared activities more palatable to themselves.

This, technically, is called a feedback loop and it is predictable. It is used in engineering and electronics all of the time.

Whether one religion is immoral by comparison to another isn't the root of the matter - it's the compulsion, the emotion which drives the interest to pursue it, this is the matter.

One of the most basic compulsions is to feel secure, loved, fed and warm. People will attach absurd ego-driven price tags to this basic compulsion. Look at Paris Hilton as an extreme example of this. Her security and love come at an absurd price.

And in the end, it's how we look at one another, the humility or the ego we cultivate and share which determines the depth of our compulsions and the levels of depravity or honour we seek to achieve.

Answer 4

Actually, I would have to say yes, with qualifications....

I very much believe that any system that is designed to control people through fear, guilt, shame, lack of self worth, lack of self responsibility, objectification and the like is a monster, that does not serve the individuals true self.

But, there are no victims here - and I cannot say what will best serve someone else's growth. I may not have eyes to see it-

so I avoid those structures like the plague myself, and only step out to call for action when there is a belief in place (there is no global warming, God said he'd never flood the planet again...)
that affect all of us negatively. Or when children are involved, and are being abused or damaged in the name of "god".

Answer 5

Morality and religion are human inventions to regulate the society. Religion can be moral or immoral depending of your personal believes.

Answer 6

Not in and of itself. Someone else's belief in a god doesn't harm me, doesn't directly affect me and doesn't bother me.

You want to pray for your dying grandmother's cure? Go right ahead. I don't believe it will work, but if it helps you, do it.

Its what people will do for their religion that's immoral...

Now you've gone from praying to blowing up my country because you think your god wants you to get rid of all of those evil non-Muslims? Now you're immoral.

You killed your child because you 'heard' god promise you a place in heaven if you did? Again, immoral and possibly slightly schizophrenic.

Answer 7

Religion is not inherently immoral. What is immoral is accepting and practicing dogma without questioning it, without examining WHY you believe what you believe. Following blindly leads to trouble.

Answer 8

I maximum probably do no longer evaluate human beings of different religions to be immoral. Morals can come from diverse supplies. non secular human beings many times get many, yet no longer unavoidably all, ethical values from their faith. in spite of the incontrovertible fact that, government rules additionally impart ethical values. whilst i might have diverse values, that doesn't make theirs much less. mostly nonetheless, human beings tend to agree. human beings selection on some subject concerns (which incorporate abortion), yet society many times accepts that homicide is immoral. to that end, we benefit our ethical values from greater effective than in basic terms religions. i do no longer think of God might deliver an harmless to hell.

Answer 9

Religion breeds ignorance.

Ignorance breeds hate.

Guess you could say, in a round about way that it is immoral. Sure.

Answer 10

No, religion itself isn't immoral. It's delusional

Answer 11

The men who used that religion to spread their agenda 1500 years ago are the real bad people here. Their fictional words of hate are still being spread today. That is tragic.