Do we need religion today?

Is it necessary in this day and age even though with how we've progressed as a society?

In the parasitic personality-destroyer literature contradicting bible it was god who instructed mankind to carry out deeds that would help people. But look at what we've done. We've advanced technology and without some formless voice telling us what to do. If anything religion prevents growth of human beings and is reverting us as a species. When mankind first came into existence we were unable to explain the reasons for our appearances, animals, and surroundings looking the way they are.

No, we had to use the "bible" which gave us a vague messages and ambiguous tales of the servants of gods which we did not question. Now with the rise of science we are able to fully understand the Earth much better no thanks to an omniscient entity that tries to tell us how to govern our society.

Religion now is a crutch for the simple-minded and it makes no sense why we need it if we have become the intelligent life-forms that we are today. Although harsh criticism by atheist is somewhat hostile it does make a point since a large percentage of messages in religious text are unclear.

It's no more better than baby-talk people only ignore it because of how over fondly they regard it because commandments like "Thou shalt not kill" "Thou shalt not steal" "You should treat others how you want to be treated" which we share. But hello, what about respect for people's sexual orientation? You can call yourself a respectful person when you mistreat people in society by harassing, embarrassing, and emotionally abuse them because of their sexuality. It's quite clear that god are clearly hypocritical pricks. I don't care if it's only a few groups that do it religion is no longer a necessity today. It's a crutch and has warped people's minds.

Religion ended up opposite to what it started out to be. Social harmony, peace, higher purpose and enlightenment, hope and progress were the true intentions of any religion. But instead they fed blind rules, sins, violence, useless dogmas, corrupt powerhouses, chaos and confusion.

Acceptance of religion should be out of understanding of its unspoken principles and not by literal translation of its texts. Texts are written by people in a language that was supposed to be understood well in their times. Languages change, cultures change, habits change - in short, times change. Can anybody still use a five decade old chemistry periodic table even today when the last few decades has seen the discovery of more than 10 new elements? No.
Then why follow texts that have been written for the civilizations centuries earlier? One can live peacefully when he understands the true intentions of a religion. So is it time to revamp religions? No. In the day when religions have become strict dogmas, blind conventions and corrupt powerhouses, it isn't needed to restructure them. That becomes detrimental to one and all!

Its time to take up the principles of self progress in the view of collective living and live with understanding. I do not speak of a new religion here, there are no gods to be appeased or wronged! I speak of a way of living, living with understanding and an open minded approach. No need to pooh pooh gods and miracles. No need feel guilty of sins. Just live with an understanding of self and striving to bring the understanding to a fulfillment. That would see lives to their fulfillment without blind rules to impose or useless words to misinterpret.

Put god aside, put religion aside, just pause before every act or speech to think if that would give you peace or disturbance in the end. Act accordingly, do not bother yourself with religion, guilt, sin, rules, social stigmas, etc.

What do you think?

It's not necessary, but old habits die hard.

Religion has many benefits, those who are religious tend to live longer and have a wider social circle. What's more is that the spiritual side of the mind shouldn't be neglected, or rejected, it's very much important to living a healthy life. However there is definitely no need for religion to be used as a justification for political actions.

We need to get rid of religion in the context of politics, war, conflict and hatred, but focus more so on the spiritual side of it as individuals.

On a side note, spirituality may not have a direct link to religion, it's possible to be in touch with your spiritual side and be agnostic or an atheist; however religion as a whole helps push people towards a greater understanding of their spiritual self.

Personally I'd be happy to see organized religion disappear from the face of the Earth.

Spirituality is all well and good, we all have a spiritual side but I fail to see the need for organized religion. All organized religion does is let people lay claim to power under the cover of the divine which renders their power beyond contestation.

I acknowledge that many of the evils of religion will likely find other outlets if it were to disappear, but I think it would be much harder for some of them to exist and spread without a divine being to hold over people. It would be significantly harder for example to recruit suicide bombers if they didn't believe they were heading to an eternal paradise after they blew themselves up.

Could somebody please explain to me what the hell ORGANIZED religion is supposed to be? I've heard that all my life but never got it.

I'm not a big fan of religion, but let's face facts: religion has given many despaired people hope for a better day, and sometimes hope can help heal the body and soul.  It only becomes a problem when some people become so immersed in their religious indoctrination that they reject the reality of there being other ways of thinking, and that other people don't necessarily follow theirs.  I would never try and take someone's religion away from them, but I would damn someone for trying to force their spirituality on other people.  

Supernova wrote:Could somebody please explain to me what the hell ORGANIZED religion is supposed to be? I've heard that all my life but never got it.

Basically belonging to a Church I think. Unorganized religion would basically be believing in God in a way that's most convenient for you, not going to a church.

As for the original question, hell yeah we need it. Progressing as a society doesn't eliminate a need for it. That is such a ridiculous notion. And let's face facts, for all we've progressed as a society, the main problems of being human still remain and always will cause people are just plain sinful and selfish. All of the so-called problems with religion are amplified many times in everything else, yes, even sexual abuse. Religion is not now nor will it ever be obsolete. I think people just want to try and reason that we don't need it to make themselves not feel any guilt over the fact that they got what they consider to be better things to do than God, so they'll make him conform to their schedule and not the other way around. Of course, that doesn't work in the long run.

I don't think we necessarily "need" it. I'm fine with people who practice their religion by applying it to their own lives. Nothing wrong with that at all. If people find some kind of guidance or solace for themselves, that's wonderful. It's when that religious doctrine is forced on others that I have a problem. Countless people have been persecuted or died in the name of someone's god throughout history. If people could manage to not inflict their particular commandments/must do/must not do lists on everyone else the world would be better off for it.

^^^^And thousands of people have been persecuted/died when the most common mainstream religion ideals have been ignored. People will use whatever excuse they want to justify selfish crimes, even religion. Religion is no more a cause of violence than anything else. It's just the easiest target cause it's much harder to wage a war on emotion/passion/etc. than it is to wage a war on religion.

If you find solace in yours, good for you. Religion isn't necessarily a bad thing. There isn't one religion that teaches its followers that you have to be a bad person or be evil. The problem arises when most religious freaks don't know how to tow the line. They don't have any balance. It's like your shit is wrong and mine is right. And quite honestly, that air of superlativity comes mostly from the Western religions. The forefathers of this country were on to something when they decided to have a country and separate church and state but in this day and age, people still don't know how to do that. It's sad and astounding at the same time. Practice what you want to practice in your house and stay the hell out of mine.

Nystyle709 wrote:
This is all the more reason why people think it's bullshit. Nobody is waging a war on religion, lol. People have died because they don't believe the same things someone else does. Do you honestly think that's fair? There are six BILLION people living on this Earth, you really think every last one of them has to believe the same thing? Or believe what you believe? People innately know what's bad and what's good. They know right from wrong. Folks who kill and/do wrong things CHOOSE to do so. Or they're mentally unstable. Religion isn't going to help any of that. If you want to be a religious person and follow yours, fine. Don't condemn or try to make someone else do the same. That's REALLY what people fight against, they're not against religion itself.

No, few people really die cause they don't believe the same things as somebody else. People kill cause they are selfish, and usually religion is just the easiest scapegoat they use for their crimes. And if you think nobody is waging war on religion, you really must live in a box.

You're right, they kill because they CHOOSE to. Would Religion help that? If it was followed properly, yes.

And give it a rest: I never proposed forcing anybody to believe the same as me. I never proposed forcing anybody to join a religion. I was just noting the cause of crimes, which is basically the idea of people putting themselves first. And wrong, many people are against religion itself. They've outright said as much.

I think society is beyond "needing" religion and at this point it is merely a recreational activity.

That's one hell of a recreational activity. I could think of a few things that would be more 'recreational' and not as demanding or stressful or confusing, like shark wrestling.

Supernova wrote:That's one hell of a recreational activity. I could think of a few things that would be more 'recreational' and not as demanding or stressful or confusing, like shark wrestling.

Maybe for some people who "do Church differently," it's recreational. I think for some politicians it's recreational. I think people WANT to make religion recreational. But as a whole, it isn't.

You know, just because people aren't forced to take something doesn't mean they don't need it. You can not force somebody to eat healthy foods but that doesn't mean they don't still need em and that their body won't be shot to heck if they live on McDonald's burgers for 2/3 of their meals every day. Sure, it's their right to do it, but the facts of the consequences of those choices are clear.

Nystyle709 wrote:
This is all the more reason why people think it's bullshit. Nobody is waging a war on religion, lol. People have died because they don't believe the same things someone else does. Do you honestly think that's fair? There are six BILLION people living on this Earth, you really think every last one of them has to believe the same thing? Or believe what you believe? People innately know what's bad and what's good. They know right from wrong. Folks who kill and/do wrong things CHOOSE to do so. Or they're mentally unstable. Religion isn't going to help any of that. If you want to be a religious person and follow yours, fine. Don't condemn or try to make someone else do the same. That's REALLY what people fight against, they're not against religion itself.

I absolutely agree. And I believe we know from a very early age the difference between right & wrong. I also believe religion plays no part in that. People do what they do good or bad because they made the decision to do so, aside from those as you said who are mentally unstable. Religion is not under attack. It just shouldn't be pushed onto other people who want no part of it. And under no circumstances should it ever play a role in government. If people feel they need it for their OWN personal lives, that's great. But it's that desire religious groups have of saying "This is the way. You must do/not do this. My particular religious book says..." Then it crosses the line.

And yet you have to wonder...is it really just so much of a coincidence that at the same time public schools quit teaching kids the 10 Commandments and such, that's when daily life in the schools started REALLY going to hell? Now, maybe I'm wrong but I think it's very interesting when today, schools have no place for God or Jesus or the 10 Commandments that we've got students taking guns and bombs to school hoping to blow everybody away and then kill themselves. Where did that all start?

But it isn't the school systems place to be teaching christian doctrine. That is why private religious schools exist. What has to be kept in mind is that there are many different religions, all of which claim to be the "right way". Can you imagine the outcry from the pro-christian side if their children came home chanting or repeating what "L Ron Hubbard says..."? The outcry of "indoctrination" would be deafening. Those things are the responsibility of the parents or guardians.

I know it's widely believed that the world used to be an almost idyllic place, but that isn't actually true. The internet & 24 hour newscasts that can zip info out in real time didn't exist then. So a lot of things happened that people just didn't hear about as much. Many of the problems now are related to the fact that both parents have to work. Sometimes 2 jobs. This certainly makes parenting difficult. Schools are overcrowded which makes educating a roomful of kids a little complicated because attending to individual needs isn't as easy. But these issues don't relate to religion or the lack of it in the public school system.

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CeCe wrote:But it isn't the school systems place to be teaching christian doctrine. That is why private religious schools exist. What has to be kept in mind is that there are many different religions, all of which claim to be the "right way". Can you imagine the outcry from the pro-christian side if their children came home chanting or repeating what "L Ron Hubbard says..."? The outcry of "indoctrination" would be deafening. Those things are the responsibility of the parents or guardians.

I know it's widely believed that the world used to be an almost idyllic place, but that isn't actually true. The internet & 24 hour newscasts that can zip info out in real time didn't exist then. So a lot of things happened that people just didn't hear about as much. Many of the problems now are related to the fact that both parents have to work. Sometimes 2 jobs. This certainly makes parenting difficult. Schools are overcrowded which makes educating a roomful of kids a little complicated because attending to individual needs isn't as easy. But these issues don't relate to religion or the lack of it in the public school system.

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Yet school got no problem teaching anti-religious doctrine. And what about prayer? If a kid wants to say a silent prayer during lunch, why is he not allowed? Why can't a kid where a religious medal but can come in with something much more obscene? Yes, there are cases where kids have been forbidden from doing this. Not promoting religion is one thing, trying to squash it is another.

I'd argue that it relates to lack of religion in life in general, and less specifically in the Public School system. Of course, it does give plenty of reason to distrust the Public School system, but that is a different topic.

World Religion belongs back in the middle ages and we should just separate ourselves from it now.
Actually it didn't even belong there. It amazes me that people need it so much that they can't see all the things that only point to the fallacy of religion, and that religion was sometimes something sincerely believed (in times of lack of real knowledge and science) or often just something to oppress and control the masses.

edit: I can see that religion has good sides but they don't weigh up to the downsides. Hell, even if it were entirely benevolent and never violent etc., we'd still have to get rid of it cause the truth is where it's at. Saying it's good because it offers comfort is exactly like saying Madara's moon eye plan is good, to make good use of naruto for once in a lifetime.

Exactly what downsides are you referring to?

I have no use for it at all.