The position of religion in society and within our lives

[Paul1]

So recently there's been quite a few topics about God, quite random questions asked. From a wider point of view...

1. What does your (non) belief mean to you and how much does (non) faith affect your life?

2. How much influence should religion have on society? Should states have an official religion? Should religions be eligible to receive funding or tax cuts?

3. What happens after death and what happens to others who don't share your view?

4. How tolerant should we be towards other ideals? Where is the line between acceptable and unacceptable? How do we express our idea of that line?

5. Can homosexuality and religion be compatible?

[Cardiganwearer]

Might as well have a go...

Effect of my non-belief? None really, I don't behave much different to the religious people I know (I don't know any fundies just ordinary churchgoers). Perhaps I have a bit more spare time on a Sunday.
I have to admire a believer acqaintance of mine who told me that because of various activities with the kids that happened on Sundays her family had decided to give up going to church for lent.

Influence in society? As much or as little as they can manage. Society will grant them no privilages to this end; no bishops in the house of lords, no tax breaks, no mandatory religious broadcasting. They can keep Thought for the Day, that segment of platitudinous waffling does them more harm than good.

After death? Don't know, probably nothing. I don't think my views on what happens post mortem have any effect on people who don't share my view.

Tolerant to other ideals? Probably, but I've gone on long enough and this is by no means simple.

Religion and homosexuality compatible? My homosexuality is silent on the matter of religion, when religion takes the same view of my homosexuality compatibility will ensue. So, no.

[rakmatis]

Ive always found it difficult to believe there is a man up in the sky watching every little thing we do and judging us for it. Honestly I've been looking for a religion for almost 3 years now. I was into satanism for a while, but its too self centered, Wicca places too much emphasis on gods or goddesses... might have finally found something good though

I think that religion as a belief system should have no power in lawmaking or any such position of power. However religion as a guideline works. Not killing or stealing are good ideas. not working on a day because somebody elses imaginary friend says I cant, thats just silly. Tax cuts??? BS, its just another business trying to make money.

I cannot claim to know what happens after death. I barely know what happens during life. Best to do the best I can in this life and worry about whatever life comes next when I get there.

You should be allowed to believe whatever you want as long as it does not harm or hinder anyone else. Touchy subjects like abortion... I think abortion is wrong unless it will kill the mother or if it was rape. If you wanted to get laid, you should have known the repercussions. killing someone for not following your religious laws is wrong. etc.

I think religion should be viewed more as a set of guidelines than a rulebook. basically religion should be about doing good by yourself, others, and the world. That being said yes, there is definitely a place for homosexuality in religion.

[marshlander]

Haven't we covered all this before ...? Oh well

1. What does your (non) belief mean to you and how much does (non) faith affect your life?
My recovery from faith has helped save my life although my attempts to believe have left many scars.

2. How much influence should religion have on society? Should states have an official religion? Should religions be eligible to receive funding or tax cuts?
None. No. No. Removing all religious interference in schools and make the state fund education honestly wouldn't be a bad start. I'll pay more tax if that's what is needed once we have redirected the money we currently use meddling and maiming in other countries.

3. What happens after death and what happens to others who don't share your view?
Having till now seen no evidence to the contrary I expect the physical body to become spare parts, worm food, fertiliser or sit in a jar on a mantelpiece. Anything else can only ever live on as progeny, an artefact or a memory. As for those who don't share my view, I'm an equal opportunity existential nihilist.

4. How tolerant should we be towards other ideals? Where is the line between acceptable and unacceptable? How do we express our idea of that line?
My tolerance probably extends a little further than my patience, but stops right at the point at which someone else's belief impinges on my freedom to think and act. I also place limitations on my own behaviour just this side of that line. Acceptable - people believing whatever they like. Unacceptable - people expecting me to accommodate their unsubstantiated and irrational beliefs.

5. Can homosexuality and religion be compatible?
I can't do better than refer you to Cardiganwearer's answer.

[sweetlad2010]

religion makes war not love!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[azulai]

1. What does your (non) belief mean to you and how much does (non) faith affect your life?
[COLOR="DarkSlateBlue"]The day I threw off all religion from my back, was the most freeing and happiest I'd ever been up to that point. :biggrin: It still feels so good! I now follow a philosophy of honorable living. I strive to live a life of simplicity, compassion and gratitude.

I don't believe in heaven, hell or any man-made crap that tries to enslave my mind or body. To me, religion is the source of so much emotional (and physical) harm, I want nothing to do with it ever again.[/COLOR]

2. How much influence should religion have on society? Should states have an official religion? Should religions be eligible to receive funding or tax cuts?
USA: I believe religion has way too much to do with society. I want true separation of church and state. I don't think they should get ANY tax breaks or funding. They are a business. I want religion out of government completely.

3. What happens after death and what happens to others who don't share your view?
[COLOR="DarkSlateBlue"]To me, the notion of an afterlife is just a human construct by the ancients to try an ease the pain of grief. As far as what happens after death? I don't know. Do we return to a common energy-essence? I don't know that I care anymore. What I do know is that I have a life here and now to live, and I need to live it honorably.

I feel sorry for others who don't share my view. :tongue: j/k[/COLOR]

4. How tolerant should we be towards other ideals? Where is the line between acceptable and unacceptable? How do we express our idea of that line?
I had to edit. I think marshlander said exactly and perfectly what I wanted to say. So, see marshlander's #4!

5. Can homosexuality and religion be compatible?
[COLOR="DarkSlateBlue"]There are too many religions for me to give a blanket answer. It's more of what an individual wants, believes and his/her life experiences.

For me personally, I do NOT find it compatible. There is so much lack of just basic caring and kindness in religions that I've experienced, I want no part of any of it. There's also a lack of logic to many laws and rules that have ancient contexts and are irrelevant to today. I don't believe in blindly following anything or anyone. I view all religions as cults. So, religion is incompatible with MY homosexuality, it's up to others to decide for themselves.[/COLOR]

[Genersis]

1. What does your (non) belief mean to you and how much does (non) faith affect your life?

I've never believed.
As i remember saying in my Christian primary school. "You know, i don't think i believe in god" (I was only 6:redface
I think that may be one of the reasons i got picked on so much in primary school...

2. How much influence should religion have on society? Should states have an official religion? Should religions be eligible to receive funding or tax cuts?

None. No. HELL NO.
Belief in a creator, does NOT grant privileged status.

3. What happens after death and what happens to others who don't share your view?

Err, After death?
Well, a funeral normally.
Sometimes a cremation.
Historically, in times of plague or mass graves weren't unhe-...oh.

4. How tolerant should we be towards other ideals? Where is the line between acceptable and unacceptable? How do we express our idea of that line?

If an ideal has no negative repercussions on anyone else but the person or persons with the ideal. Then it is acceptable.


5. Can homosexuality and religion be compatible?

That depends on the religion.

[Wintereis]

1. It is hard to say exactly what my faith means to me or how is effects my life. I suppose, in its simplest manifestation, it constitutes understanding. It allows me to step back from the overwhelming presence of humanity with its petty squabbles and minute conceits . . . really humanities arrogance and egotism. It allows me some peace, some awe, and some perspective into the manifold sublimity of Being. I use Being in the ontological form. For me, the divine cannot be enshrined in some simple, compact entity looking down on us and playing with us like so many marionettes. As a whole, my belief in the divine is composed of feeling and experience, nature and science, and the overwhelming understanding that there is far more in time, space, and dimension than our little minds can possibly ever comprehend. So, fundamentally, what is divine for me is existence itself.

2. How much influence should religion have on society? All these questions are overwhelmingly complex and people are too often given over to simple answers based on their own bias as we can readily see. But, as to your question, society always has and always will dictate the influence religion has upon it, as society is the arbiter of religion. You cannot possibly separate the two, as religion is a social institution. As such, and as people tend to forget, religion tends to manifest both the destructive and constructive elements of society itself. People mention the crusades, the inquisition, and the subjugation of "witches" and Jews in ancient Europe as examples of the destructive power of religion. And, out of that failure of imagination, these same people cannot recognize this as a manifestation of the destructive elements of society as a whole. They tend to forget that , as much as these destructive powers can be associated with religion, they can be associated with other aspects of society. In addition, they neglect to recall the constructive elements of society that are manifested through faith. For instance, the work done by Mother Teresa, Desmond Tutu, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Abraham Lincoln, Mahatma Gandhi, even the Nobel Prize winner and former president, Jimmy Carter and millions of unnameable people around the world who do good work in society according to their faith.

Should states have an official religion. As governments are meant to be an institutional apparatus of the society, the state should reflect its own society. My society has established that the government "shall make no laws respecting the establishment of religion, or the free exercise there of" and that no institutional test of religious qualification shall be used to qualify its officers. The understanding and function of those articles have changed as the society it functions under has changed. This seems to have worked rather well in my society thus far.

As for funding and taxation, what I personally would like to see done in my country is a program in which government funding and tax exempt status of religious institutions not be based simply on the fact that the organizations are religious, but rather on the quality and quantity of work the organizations do for the betterment of society (e.g. the work the organization does to combat poverty, hunger, disease, ignorance, or the aid it provides to relieve victims of violent crimes or disaster).

3. What happens after death and what happens to those who do not share in my belief? Belief and how that belief is practiced has absolutely nothing to do with my understanding of what happens after "death". Being simply is. Neither matter nor energy can be created nor destroyed. The body is only matter and the psyche only energy. The state of matter and energy can only change. Will we exist after "death"? Most certainly! Will that existence be anything like what we had in "life"? How can we know?

4. How much should we tolerate other peoples beliefs? Far more than we actually do. There is far to much bigotry on both sides of the issue, to the extent that we can even see it here on gayspeak. Difference, inevitably, is an asset to the whole of society. I think the line of tolerance rests at the point where ones belief or lack of belief infringes upon another persons ability to practice or not practice the elements of faith.

5. Can religion and homosexuality be compatible? They have been in various systems of faith for millennia. I see no reason for that to change now.

[Paul1]

Firstly, I will share my opinions. I want to pick on marshlander's number 4...

1. What does your (non) belief mean to you and how much does (non) faith affect your life?
Becoming an Atheist has meant giving science a more important role in my life. I think this has impacted the way I see the world. No longer do things fit into categories of "good" and "bad", but into seeking understanding of a situation and seeking solutions. It's also meant understanding how much humans are affected by learnt behaviours. For me it philosophically meant facing the inevitability of death and learning to appreciate the subtle ways we interact with each other and the somewhat statistical nature of events.

2. How much influence should religion have on society? Should states have an official religion? Should religions be eligible to receive funding or tax cuts?
Monetary, none. Why should my tax money go towards religions when it can go towards the NHS? People's religions often go hand in hand with their sense of morality, so it's hard to separate religion from society. Usually they influence each other. I however do think that, whilst it is acceptable to use religion as a source of morality, any morals submitted for legislation must also have good reasoning behind them backed with scientific evidence. We must respect that we live in a country with many different opinions, it's not fair to put one opinion over another without first having a good justification for doing so.

3. What happens after death and what happens to others who don't share your view?
I don't know, however as there is no evidence of an afterlife, and as our consciousness seems closely related to the functioning of our brain, probably the consciousness dies with the body. If I'm correct, those who don't share my views also experience consciousness death.

4. How tolerant should we be towards other ideals? Where is the line between acceptable and unacceptable? How do we express our idea of that line?
Difficult to say. Initially I agree with marshlander. My morality surrounding this is that people have a right to live their lives as long as they like, so long as it does not harm others. However, that in itself is a moral, and unfortunately other people may not agree with that. How do I justify my moral to them other than pleading with their (lack of) sense of empathy? Moreover, who decides what counts as harm to others and does not? The issue is actually complex, and in the end theoretically the best way is for the majority to decide, as supposedly it dampens out the extremists.

5. Can homosexuality and religion be compatible?
As I was saying in step 4, supposedly the majority dampens out the extremists. That doesn't work in practice though, as we can see that gay people were prosecuted for centuries. Rationally, homosexuality causes no harm to others. However, when your source of morality is religion, you're freely admitting that rationality is not one of your priorities. How does the gay community argue against people with such a mind set? It pretty much comes down to our morality vs their morality.

In some cases religion is compatible. However most modern religions are not. In this instance, perhaps religion does cause harm as it neglects rationality.