Why or why not?
2007-12-18 17:24:20 · 20 answers · asked by Laptop Jesus 3.9 7 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
No. I think Good people do good and evil. I don't think there are many truly evil people - and the few that have existed are usually what we would call psychopaths - there's something not wired right. And I certainly don't believe that Good people only do good things, which is what your statement implies.
As far as the role of religion, it can be subverted for great good or great evil, which is why it is important to keep it separate from true political and military power.
Peace to you.
2007-12-18 17:31:07 · answer #1 · answered by Orpheus Rising 5 · 3⤊ 1⤋
I disagree. Evil people are as capable of doing good things as good people are of doing evil things. This kind of deductive logic starts depends on an all inclusive basis that is some what over stating the actual nature of people. Since good people are capable of doing evil, it does take examining what the reason is. I would say that regardless of the presence of religion, is the decisions of the individual on how to interpret the religion that causes people to do things that are evil. The religion itself is not an active participant in a person's decisions, the person making those decisions only uses it for justification.
And while religion has been used to do evil things, it has also been responsible for very good things. And wars and other evil things have been motivated outside of religion, so the premise fails on that respect.
In the end, blaming religion for evil actions seems to be an excuse to ignore the problems with society or the individual for an easy scapegoat. People make the interpretations, people make the choices, and people do the evil acts, not the religion. Even an atheist would agree that if religion is man-made, then men are making the standards to follow, which if the include actions such as 9-11, regardless of what religion they are framed in, it is the people who established the religion who are responsible for the message it sends out. People are the problem with religion, not religion the problem with people. People make the interpretations, people make the choices, and people do the evil acts, not the religion.
(And people have died for facts. Looking in the history of the development of the world and philosophy, people were killed for saying the earth was round and not the center of the universe)
2007-12-19 01:42:33 · answer #2 · answered by sweetbearsg2003 3 · 1⤊ 1⤋
In order for evil to exist, there must be good, and vice versa. If there is no "good," then what is the meaning of "evil?" One cannot exist without the other. If nothing we do is "right," then nothing we do is "wrong."
So I agree with the idea that for good people to do evil, it does, indeed, take religion, or at least a belief that there is a difference between the two opposites, and that the difference is important.
2007-12-19 01:51:48 · answer #3 · answered by mama mia 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Ah, cliche's. You gotta love em.
It takes religion to make an evil person to do good too. We forgot a leg of that equation. And it's not always religion that makes good people do bad things. People are fallible, so therefore, some may do evil things according to their own agenda in spite of their religious belief.
Of course, you could make the argument that without religion, there would be no definition of evil. Well, evil is relative. Without a definition of evil, there can be no good either.
2007-12-19 01:45:44 · answer #4 · answered by Princess Ninja 7 · 1⤊ 2⤋
Yes — because people's ideas and actions based on dogmas (religious or political) and blind faith (based on absence of evidence) are at the source of the most destructive and desastrous events in human history.
Doubt is the beginning of wisdom, and evidence-based science and ethics are the best ways to manage doubt in constructive ways.
> Evil people do evil. Good people do good, but for good people to do evil - that takes religion. Do you agree?
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2007-12-19 01:42:18 · answer #5 · answered by par1138 • FCD 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I wouldn't necessarily say that the *only* thing that can cause good people to do evil things is religion, but certainly religion, or more precisely the zeal of religion, can do that.
2007-12-19 01:41:49 · answer #6 · answered by STFU Dude 6 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Well, religion usually lacks facts.
Facts speak for themselves.
Nobody dies for a fact.
People die for things that which they least know.
So, yes, I agree - to a degree. After all, the 9/11 hijackers said "Allah is the greatest", not "Hydrogen is the lightest element known to man!!"
2007-12-19 01:35:44 · answer #7 · answered by mam2121 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Depending on the situation. Religion can make evil people do good as well.
2007-12-19 01:28:02 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 3⤋
Very true.
How many people have been killed by the rise of modern fundamentalist Islam?
How many school districts can't teach Biology class properly because of the legal intrusions of Conservative Christianity?
Neither of these groups things it is doing wrong.
2007-12-19 01:32:43 · answer #9 · answered by n3rday 2 · 1⤊ 1⤋
"The priests of the different religious sects... dread the advance of science as witches do the approach of daylight, and scowl on the fatal harbinger announcing the subdivision of the duperies on which they live" - Thomas Jefferson
as long as were quoting stuff lol.
Oh yeah and I do wholeheartedly agree with you.
2007-12-19 01:37:21 · answer #10 · answered by rich j 1 · 1⤊ 0⤋