My fellow Atheists...(Enter at your own risk Christians, but pagans welcomed)?

Question

Why do you discredit other religions? Do they all deserve some credit for their beliefs and contributions to society? I am not saying I believe they are true, or there is a god or goddess, or even reincarnation, I am saying that they deserve more credit than some of us are giving them.

Well, let me clear it up...They've done a lot more to our society than we think, for the better too. Something had to fill in while technology was still developing to satisfy the human curiosity. It had to have been a religion, we couldn't have survived this long without something to satisfy our imagination.

I see your point, we don't religion anymore. But it has shaped the world (a lot of the time for the worst)

When did I say Atheism was a religion, I seriously don't remember it. But apparently I did, and I apologies.

Answer 1

I, for one have gotten into quite a few heated discussions because I was arguing that there are many paths to Deity with people who are very One-True-Way about their beliefs.

Lately, I've been trying to decide for myself the balance of influences of the Catholic Church. I would have preferred that the proto-orthodoxy had not taken over and that we might have had a chance for more diversity of thought--would that have shortened the middle ages?

Also, many of the ancient books were preserved by the Muslims. These were the books the Church Fathers of Rome did not deem worth, such as many of the early Hellenic texts.

The Church's part in the damage wrought in the New World also counts against it.

Answer 2

It is true that I "discredit" the Abrahamic faiths. I do that because all three faiths fell into the trap of supporting a Solipsistic worldview.

Just as it was easy for our ancestors to falsely believe that the Sun revolved around the Earth, so too was it easy for them to incorrectly believe that reality revolved around subjective human mental experiences. This profound error (Solipsism) undermined Western Civilization for nearly two thousand years, from about 350 BCE until after 1590 CE. The erroneous belief that subjective mental experiences were real caused the Dark Ages, because ancient people believed that their dreams and hallucinations were actually real. This led to a highly superstitious culture obsessed with spirits and imaginary gods. (This is also the origin of the persistent belief in "spirituality" in modern culture.) Solipsists also firmly believed that the physical realm was not real but, rather was the imaginary creation of the human mind. Because Solipsism led directly to superstitious irrational religions which taught that the physical realm was not real, it's very difficult to find any genuine cultural contributions made by any of the Abrahamic faiths. Mostly, early religions perpetuated ignorant superstitions regarding the nature of reality and blatant lies about the nature of the physical realm. It's very hard to find anything positive (and still truthful) to say about the superstitious beliefs of our ancestors. Even today, such beliefs work mainly to deceive people about how objective reality actually operates.

The proper time to forgive modern religion for the philosophical and scientific errors of our ancient ancestors is after modern Christians (Catholics) finally admit that the physical realm has always been objectively real and that our living brains are the source of our conscious awareness. Countless thousands were cruelly tortured and executed so the Church could maintain the dogmatic fiction of Solipsism and superstitious faith. It is the height of absurdity to imagine that religion has ever made any genuine positive contributions to human civilization. Should we ignore what the Nazi's did to the Jews, so we can celebrate the benefits of National Socialism within German culture? Neither should we ignore the horrors early organized Christianity perpetrated against free-thinkers so we might celebrate the imagined contributions Christianity has made to civilization.

Because the physical realm is the only known objective reality, science teaches us that any factual truth must always be consistent with physical reality. Any abstraction which is inconsistent with the physical realm is merely the result of humanity's over-active collective imagination and simply cannot be the truth. This includes all of religion and spirituality, which is inevitably the result of incorrectly assumming that human subjective mental experiences are objectively real.

Having stated the above, as a freedom loving American citizen I think cold hard reality is not necessarily for everybody. I think that each person should feel perfectly free to believe whichever religious superstition they happen to prefer -- even if they disagree with me, and even if their faith is a totally irrational fantasy. If organized religion has had a positive effect on Western Civilization, it has been to clearly demonstrate that individual personal freedoms are far more important than any religious doctrine or dogma can ever be.

Answer 3

No, I don't think they do deserve this credit. Religions do not contribute anything to society that cannot be contributed in other ways without the various wasteful and harmful aspects of religion involved. Yes, I know the theists would have you believe that their religion gives them hope and peace of mind. Maybe it does. But that doesn't mean it's the only place you can get these things. And in the end, some of the main reasons why they NEED more hope and peace of mind owe themselves to the damage religion caused in the first place. I think people really overestimate the psychological 'benefits' of religion...and really underestimate the amount of damage it can cause.

Answer 4

The Thirty Years' War. The Crusades. The Holocaust. The Inquisition. The Salem Witch Trials. Holding back stem cell research. Pushing for prayer and the teaching of Creationism in public schools. Inserting their imaginary friend into the Pledge of Allegiance and currency--then claiming that America was founded as a Christian nation (most of the founding fathers were Deists, not Christian). Suppressing the rights and acceptance of homosexuals.

Contributions to society that deserve respect? Did I somehow miss something here?

Answer 5

Purely on a personal level, I do discredit religion to some extent. That is the basis of how I make an informed assesment of the logical advantages of atheism versus religious belief. If I didn't discredit religion in some way, I would be a religious person.

But I don't criticize someone else for their religious beliefs. Except for Scientologists. They are just plain stupid.

Answer 6

I owe religion quite a lot for what I have done with my life. For twenty years I've studied ancient Latin texts of all sorts, dating from 700 AD to 1200 AD, and none of them would have survived had it not been for the Catholic Church. They would have been burned for warmth in the middle ages.

I hold the Catholic Church on a pedestal for the way it has preserved the history of the Romans, the dark ages, and the Crusades. Without the Catholic Church, I would have no work.

Still, it's dogma is equally as void to me as every other religion. Protestants? Fundamentalists? All they've done is piss me off. Muslims? Hindus? Well, I live in an area where I don't encounter many of them, though I'm sure that if my studies focused on the Middle East, I would have much more of an appreciation for Islam.

We owe the preservation of European History, after the fall of the Roman Empire, all the way up to the Renaissance, COMPLETELY on the Catholic Church.

Answer 7

IF religions deserve credit, it's minimal at best. From my point of view religion has done far more harm than good for society. The hatred of anyone who believes differently is the first biggest problem. Do you realize that humans are the only creature who kills because the other BELIEVES differently? Misogyny is the other huge problem - do you realize that in most of the world's religions women cannot be church leaders (ministers, priests, rabbis, imams, etc.)?

Answer 8

Yes religion is the main basis for the creation of civilization.

It really was never meant to be true or false it is simply a guide to live your lives without killing each other. The problem arises when every 10 thousand or so people have their own guides that conflict with everyone else's guides, this is where wars/genocide/and general hatred come from.

So the civilization that they all helped to create the will all eventually help to destroy.

Answer 9

I'm more of a small 'a' atheist so I'm waiting to hear what those 'Atheists' that you belong to say about this.
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"something had to fill in while technology was still developing to satisfy the human curiosity."

Nonsense.
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"When did I say Atheism was a religion, I seriously don't remember it. But apparently I did, and I apologies."

You strongly implied it when you said "Why do you discredit other religions?"

Answer 10

The whole topic is a waste of time. Both sides are locked in Plato's Cave.
Anyone who subscribes to this binary battle is deluding the people.
The way to defeat religion is to overcome the delusions that lead to it and to find another way to satisfy the need to transfer responsibility.