Why is it wrong to be religious?

Question

What is bad about it. It dons't seem matter what religion you are ethier

Sorry I did not say it right why is it wrong to be perfectly normal person but once you say you believe in god they kind of give you dirty looks

Answer 1

It's not wrong. It's just not necessary.

I'd be ashamed of myself if I worshiped a sadistic, immoral, killer Jesus-God who drowned, plagued, and slaughtered millions (more than Hitler), conspired to have his own kid/self brutally beaten and killed, and repeatedly COMMANDED his followers to kidnap, rape, hurt, and kill others. I know that all of that is wrong, but others obviously haven't figured it out yet.

If someone told you they loved and worshiped Hitler, would YOU give THEM a dirty look?

Answer 2

Religion places everything in the hands of an outside power, thereby removing the essential responsibility of decision-making from the individual.

This doesn't mean that the way a religion tells you to live is wrong necessarily, the problem is the motivation for living that way. Religion takes away your personal power and undermines the importance of your existence.

Here's why this is bad:
First, the "outside power" that a religion is based upon *must* be the ultimate authority (otherwise, why should you do what it says?). Because of this, a religion cannot ultimately tolerate the existence of any other religion that follows different practices and holds different beliefs. This creates conflict between different sects.

Secondly, since real life has ups and downs, pain , suffering, and obvious evil that doesn't go away regardless of what religion you practice, the only answer has to be that there's an afterlife where everything works out and the good are rewarded while the evil are punished. This undermines the importance of your existence here today. It takes the focus off the life you actually get to experience (where you make all the important decisions and have all the power) and places it on some unknowable after-life that cannot even be proved to exist.

Finally, religions are power structures. They may be based on a concept of "God," but they are actually managed by individual people. When an individual claims authority that's granted from an all-powerful divine source, that individual is automatically caught in a power game with everyone else. The proof of your faithfulness to the divine becomes your faithfulness to the power structure and to that individual.

PLEASE NOTE: this stuff is only relevant to theistic religions. Non-theist religions, such as Buddhism and Taoism, avoid these issues by not laying claim to higher divine authority. Instead, they speak more about the ultimate nature of reality. The way you should act is then not based on "following the will of God," but upon living in rational accordance with the way things are.

Answer 3

If you believe something that is false, that cannot be a constructive thing to believe.

But most importantly, if you make decisions based on something that is false, that's when it becomes dangerous.

Mike Huckabee mentioned during the debates that he didn't understand why people cared whether he believed in evolution or not.

The reason people care is because if he doesn't believe that evolution is a proven fact, just because his religion said he shouldn't...

That frightens those of us who don't want him deciding anything else based on what his religion tells him to do.

Religion told people to fly airplanes into a couple buildings a few years back.

That concerns me.

Answer 4

You should know that I really am not upset by peoples religious beliefs until they start to infringe on my right and my families right to believe as we want. That means even not believing in religions at all.
Unfortunately there is a large number of people in North America who regard it as their duty to force me into believing what they do. They even conduct slanderous campaigns against people who do not agree with them.
You have the shining examples of Fred Phelps and Pat Robertson in front of you. You also have the Muslim versions of them in the Middle East and Turkey.

If religions did not spawn such hateful behaviours it might be tolerable. Unfortunately Religion encourages such extremist attitudes.

Answer 5

I don't believe it is wrong, but I don't like it when some devoted Christians force beliefs on someone or if someone does something wrong, they say "You're going to hell!" or anything of that nature. I have nothing against religion, but I feel that nobody's perfect and that it doesn't make them evil if they do something wrong once. That's how I feel anyway.

Answer 6

Well, it suppresses education and try to replace scientific phenomena with crack-pot beliefs. It keeps people from trying to achieve more in life. It also convinces some people to attempt terrible acts in their beliefs and endangers everyone that does not believe their belief. In short, the primitive part of humans takes over and does not allow anything else.

Answer 7

There is no problem with being religious.

You just have to understand that there is nothing wrong with others choosing to be a different religion or none at all.

Answer 8

It is often wrong because "religion" is only the husk of true faith. Performing only the rituals from various religions but not contemplating the meaning or symbolism behind them is actually pointless and does not at all add to your quality of life or the lives of others.

Answer 9

It's only bad because it always leads to someone getting killed for no good reason--at least the organized religions strike me that way! So far, the pagan ones seem to be based around individualism and a love for the environment--so I don't think they are bad at all!

Answer 10

I don't think it is wrong to be religious. I do think it is wrong to force your religious beliefs on those that don't want them. I say if your being religious make you happy then more power to you. I choose not to be religious or have a belief in a god or gods and that makes me happy.

Answer 11

It's not wrong dear, it's a mental disease called schizophrenia or schizoid delusional mental disorder.
Some of the symptoms are : believing that invisible things are around you or in the sky, watching you, talking to you, influencing your life. Irrational thoughts like thinking that if you talk silently in your head the invisible thing will listen to you.
Believing that after you are dead you can live again etc...