Myth of Religion

[peterinmalaga]

You hit the nail on the head there, Marsh. Could not have put it any better myself. The question then arises “How much respect should we have for religions?” Personally I have none at all but I do respect people whether they agree with my view of the world or not. The problem is that some people think that their ideology justifies all sorts of really frightening stuff – killing jews, kweers, anyone who doesn't agree with them etc. Now that is really primitive thinking: I think that cavemen had advanced that far if not further. So I think it is important for atheists to give expression to their disrespect for these primitive ideologies. I tried reading Dawkins and agreed with all the stuff I read, which was perhaps why I found it just a touch boring and finally gave up reading the book.

PS I know how to spell kweers and find this censorship really out of place on this forum.

[fredv3b]

If you believe in God creating us and the universe, does this mean that God came from another space?

If God was always there, what was he doing before the creation of our world?

If God created humans in his image, is he a human being or another live form which evolved from Man?

Who created God, Man?

If God does not beleive in a god, is he an atheist?

Being agnostic, I don't necessarily believe the following.

God is Eternal, he needs no creator. We as flawed mortals cannot know the true nature of God, all we know is that we were created in his image. (Interestingly, Hindus believe that Man creates gods in his image, in the sense that man uses his image of himself to create an images of the gods, not literally creating gods.) St Thomas Aquinas said that time was a property of the universe that God created when he created the world, therefore there was no before in the sense that we could/would understand it. God knows himself to be God, therefore by definition cannot be an atheist, but on a more general point, faith and religion, as we know and understand them, are for us flawed mortals, not for the almighty himself.

The question then arises “How much respect should we have for religions?” Personally I have none at all but I do respect people whether they agree with my view of the world or not.

Peter, How much do you respect their religious beliefs? Everyone is able to hold religious beliefs in their heads, my question is, to what extent should they be allowed to discuss and observe their religious beliefs, particularly when their religious beliefs dictate how they should interact with non-believers?

[peterinmalaga]

Hi Fred, I think that people should be able to believe and say what they want, which is why I would defend the right of the BNP to do just that. Clearly, however, it is not ok to DO what you want whenever you want. It is also not ok to justify your actions by reference to your ideology, so, if observing your religious beliefs has the consequence that other people are oppressed, for example, that is definitely out of order. Democracy is only defensible in a society which does not oppress minorities.

If there is a God, why does s/he need us to worship him/her? I think that worshiping another being is not a healthy thing either for the worshiper or the worshiped. And what reason have we to believe that s/he is benevolent? His/her churches have not been very benevolent.

We should also not love another being simply because it is superior. It is, I think, more important to love beings which are inferior to us, e.g. animals, which is why I am vegetarian.

[fredv3b]

It is also not ok to justify your actions by reference to your ideology, so, if observing your religious beliefs has the consequence that other people are oppressed, for example, that is definitely out of order. Democracy is only defensible in a society which does not oppress minorities.

What do you mean by oppression?

If there is a God, why does s/he need us to worship him/her? I think that worshiping another being is not a healthy thing either for the worshiper or the worshiped.

How on earth (or should that be heaven) could we know whether it was healthy or not for God to be worshipped? Religious people in the west appear, according to some studies, to be slightly healthier than non-religious people.