Why is this so?

Question

I am a rationalist and by training and temperament, I am allergic to any set of religious dictates being imposed on my mind. Being so, I have always felt that people who follow some faiths are completely enslaved by their religious elders who are for the most part totally ignorant of logic and reason. I wonder why in the name of religion, to take recent examples, the people who profess to embrace Islam commit dastardly acts of cruelty and violence in the hope that that they will attain to martyrdom and receive pleasures in heaven, that are denied to them in actual living. Do they not realise after some reflection that there is nothing to life after we are dead, whatever the religious people might say? Do they ever stop to think that they are misguided and that they heap nothing but misery and distress on all concerned? When are theses people going to think about these matters? Please comment with reason. Thank you.

Answer 1

I think religious people are almost identical to you and I, the alleged rationalists ( i have never heard that term before but i love it). The difference is that we are objectively right, and they're unequivocally wrong.

It takes a certain breed--a morally and intellectually lesser one with a strong disinclination towards reality and logic--to be religious. Similarly, it takes an intelligent, pessimistic, skeptical, critical, educated breed to be a rationalist.

The reason for the chosen path of religious and rationalists is implicit in their DNA. Therefore, to try to convince them to deviate from their chose paths, to question the contradictions in them, would be asking for the naturally impossible. Just like you can't imagine how people can be so idiotic to submit to religion, they can't imagine how people can live without Jesus or Mohammad as their religious dictator.


I may be tooting our collective horn but it is true. I do disagree with you on the "nothing in life after death" part. I don't think any of us knows what happens after death. I think you've undermined your own position as a rationalist by making this claim. It is highly irrational to claim such grandiose statements without offering any evidence or reasonable insight.

Answer 2

I would say that all wars and acts of terrorism have not been about religion but have been about territory. You think about it. What war has there ever been that has not invovled the question of who rules a particular territory, region or city? Even today, with the current wave of so-called Islamic terrorism, the seeds of such acts of violence were sown when western powers, principally the U.S., set foot on the Islamic holy soil near Mecca during the first Gulf war.

Of course, religion has a powerful influence on people's actions and behavior (People will do almost anything for their religion if they think they will get a reward) and it provides a think cloak of respect for acts of war and terror. In this almost every religion is guilty of blessing and supporting war and terror.

This is getting a bit off track, but historically, only one religion has not taken part in any type of war. First century christians were known for not joining the army or paying any kind of homage to the state or empire. In the centuries that followed, men took up positons of leadership and authority in the Christian congregation and changed the religion into something else, something more earthly and greedy in nature. In modern times, only Jehovah's Witnesses have also followed thia pattern. Check for further information on this web site.

Answer 3

It could be the simple dream that what happens after life is bound to be so much better than what happens during life. The idea that if we do what is expected of us then we will be rewarded with everything we've ever wanted because we won't have to work for it it will be given freely and without limitation. The Hierarchy of religions play on this idea it makes a believer easier to guide to what they want them to be. Some believers have no original thoughts and will listen with a fanatic mind to what they are told.

Answer 4

You masy have been listening to too many priest/pastors/ministers who teach their own ideas.
Have a look for yourself at the Bible.
Example; what is the condition of the dead?
(Ecclesiastes 9:5-6) For the living are conscious that they will die; but as for the dead, they are conscious of nothing at all, neither do they anymore have wages, because the remembrance of them has been forgotten. 6 Also, their love and their hate and their jealousy have already perished, and they have no portion anymore to time indefinite in anything that has to be done under the sun.

Just what you said in your question.

Does everyone go to heaven when they die?

Revelation 7;4...14;1...20; 4-6

did Jesus change any of the laws of the Old Testament?
No. He just replaced them with only two.
Matthew 22; 37-40

Because not everyone goes to heaven, what is their future after being resurrected? Rev. 20; 12,13
answer...Psalms 37; 11,29

Read it up for yourself then go ask the priest/Rabbi/Pastor for their answer.

Answer 5

I agree with you, and thank you for not lumping all faiths into one. People are misguided by other people, corrupt religious leaders being at the top of the list, however, I have to say that the Bible and even the Quran are innocent. A lot of good has come from reading these books, but in the hands of corrupt individuals seeking power, these books are deadly weapons.

Answer 6

If there is nothing after death, then there is no God, if there is no God, then there is no Morality, the only kind that would exist would be social. A particular group would say this is what we like and don't like and nothing higher than that would sanction it. So if all we have is social morality then, the concept of cruelty and violence being bad, would disappear. Every man for himself would be the rule all is fair in nihilism. So violence is not bad nor anything else. It would all be arbitrary. If you have the worldview that there is no afterlife with justice then you might as well come to grips with the grim reality that nothing is "wrong"; not even oppression in the name of God.

Answer 7

They are certainly misguided if they are commiting acts of cruelty and violence, as you said. You ask if they realize there is nothing to life once we are dead, but the truth is that neither them, or you or I know that that's the case for sure. We can believe what we will, however we won't truly know until we die.

Answer 8

The whole point of religion is to terrify believers and then promise a better life after death. Do you think any religious leader would want to change this arrangement?
It might be interesting to inquire of those who are no longer believers about the conditions that contributed to their change from religion to rationalism.

Answer 9

I agree with you completely almost. Crazy beliefs they have about martydom etc. Very immature and stupid. But I think you cannot say definitely there is nothing after death etc. You cannot say anything really. I follow no religion either but do feel all beliefs are nonsense but also believing in no life after death etc. Its another belief.

Answer 10

I get your point but you too are deluded. You do not know what happens when people die yet you have a very firm opinion. That is little different tohaving a blind faith in God without physical proof that it exists.