Well what I meant is that I don’t go around forcing others to join a cause/a set of belief via fear mongering thus interfering with the freedom of others to pick their own “religion”.

Religion is a set of beliefs and not necessarily including dieties. Example: Buddhism

nah there are no gods, if anyone said so, they’re trying to scam money off of you like those damn temples that screwed over so many people in Taiwan. I mean wtf, a monk driving a Jaguar??? There’s the rebirth cycle, I don’t think thats a god…

In China they worship Chairman Mao Log in to see images!

Though religion gives people hope in times of need, I honestly think we’d be MUCH better off without it. Too many people use it as a crutch when they’re in bad times, but when they get over it they just keep leaning on that crutch to bull**** with it. Then they honestly start thinking they’re really in need of that crutch, so it goes from using a strong leg to keep you up when you need it, to using it all the time as an excuse.

It does good sometimes, but that’s far out-weighed by the bad. Too many people use it as a title of superiority, such as christians when they pull holier than thou bull**** and try to talk down to you and stuff of that sort. Then there’s the people that use it for some sense of entitlement like some jews, that think that the reason they own Israel and should never give it up is because they’re “gods chosen people” so they’re entitled to take anything in that area that they see fit.

Just in the end it causes more problems than it helps or fixes, good people can become total bumheads, and sometimes outright fanatical zealots thanks to what some religions try to do or hammer into their followers which in-turn makes the followers hammer into their kids.

xoid Posted:

Children are indoctrinated before they’ve got the prerequisite mental faculties to decide for themselves. This practice makes what would otherwise be mostly harmless superstition into something far worse; a self-perpetuating cycle of ignorance. There’s also something to be said about the nature of faith itself — that there are people with faith enough in something that they’ll ignore all evidence to the contrary is frightening.

That’s when it really does get scary, hell, you can find a few places in the bible that totally contradict each other, on top of some things that can be historically disproved, even with some things that can be proven to be outright lies and stolen from other older faiths, such as the ten commandments which actually came from an egyptian tomb.

It’s sad when you see kids that have been brainwshed with crap like that. Looking at **** like the Westboro Baptist church, dude, that honestly makes me sad, seeing those little kids holding up signs and saying the kind of things they’re made to say, that’s just pathetic and sickening.

I hate that parents make so many huge, sometimes irreversable, choices for their kids. I mean yes it’s good to pbum on morals and such (sometimes), but to indoctrinate children and make them ignorant for possibly the rest of their life, or having kids cirgreat timescised when they’re babies, or working with doctors now that even decide how you’re kids are gonna look (hair color, eye color, etc) is just a bit out there and really should be left to the persons choice, not the parents.

Techno Phoebe Posted:

I think religion should be a mandatory clbum when you are young! In addition, all religions should be taught so everyone can learn about them in a hate free environment! Then everyone can make their own decision on what to believe and stop figting. All people have to do is make a mandatory cbum in 1st grade! What do you think?

It already exists in Canada, or at least in Montreal.

However, it’s jumbled together in an ethics clbum, which is the wrong name to give it.

In addition, it will never be implemented widespread because of all the crazed biblethumpers in the United States and in parts of Europe.

For ****s sake, it’s against the law to criticize Christianity in England, and John McCain doesn’t believe in the separation of church and state. In conditions like these, with the political bias from high up, giving children an unbiased view is impossible. In addition, you’re born into a religion, and both Islam and Christianity have a death penalty against leaving the religion. The only difference is that the latter has long since stopped applying it in government. I mean, apostasy is illegal in Iran, as voted by the people.

Techno Phoebe Posted:

But a lot of people are tolerant here! If people just did this properly for one gneration everyone would be happy! You say we are obsessive about the bible but people really care now, and John Mccain is not the president and doesn’t really believe that anyway! Why does he matter at all?

John McCain was elected by the people to be the republican representative, by a landslide.

Regardless, the people must elect people to government who are not then religiously biased. Last year during the Jesus license plate controversy in Florida, people were against having Jesus on a license plate because then other religious groups will put their respective religious symbols on it.

Everything you’re asking for can be handled politically, just get the right people in power.