The next Pope will "not" be the last Pope, nevertheless, the demise of religious institutions has

reply to post by Xtrozero

Originally posted by Xtrozero

Hilter wanted to wipeout the Jews because of religion?

I have no idea what his motives were.

Originally posted by Xtrozero

Can you name some of these acts that are strictly religious?

[color=C3DBD4]On Saturday, November 18, 1978, the communal settlement of the Peoples Temple church in the jungle of Guyana, South America, became the paradigmatic "destructive cult." A total of 918 persons died on that day as a result of the activities of Peoples Temple members.

.....To commit suicide with their community in Jonestown, [color=C3DBD4]residents carried out a group suicide/murder that they had discussed and planned for years.

[color=C3DBD4]The Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God, Uganda (MRTC) were an apocalyptic Catholic offshoot established in the 1980s after an alleged vision of the Virgin Mary, ordering strict obedience to the Ten Commandments...

...As the supposed year of the apocalypse drew near, daily confession was encouraged, the sell-off of possessions was enforced, and work in the fields ceased.

However, when 'Judgment Day' failed to occur the followers began to question their leaders’ authenticity, and so a second doomsday was announced for March 17th, whereby all the 1000 followers, adults and children were invited to celebrate their imminent salvation. Little did they know this would culminate in self-immolation and poisoning.

10 Most Notorious Suicide Cults
www.murderpedia.org...

reply to post by sleeper

All religious institutions are on their way out; having peeked in the Twenty Century they now struggle to keep members against the increasing tide and onslaught of the information age...unleashed by the Internet. Knowledge does set minds and people free. It is a slow process and will take time but it has begun.

I have to agree with that statement. More people are realizing the hypocrisy and control religion has become. I also think since 9/11, people can't accept the idea that a religion would kill in the name of God. Other religions have also been guilty of the same type of killings in the past.

Originally posted by Xtrozero
The interesting part to religion is that humans are not very nice anyway you look at it, and even with religion no matter how pure it may seem in philosophy in practice it runs the full bar of good acts align with doctrine to extremely evil acts that are also aligned with doctrine.

Another part that I find interesting is that most religions do rest on a moral foundation and is basically Man working towards a common good, but when religion is removed Man has a tendency to really show just how bad we can get. I would say we are the most vicious animal on the planet and our intellect struggles with that.

This part that I fear is when the last remittance of religion is wiped out what will humans be like then? Given that we are an extremely vicious animal I don't see a very rosy picture.

Religion is a pacifier of the masses, no doubt about it. But the world faces a catch twenty-two situation. Christianity and Islam have competed and fought each other for hundreds of years and are the cause of hate and bloodshed in many parts of the world as we speak. The two religious behemoths are heading for a head-on-collision in the not too distant future. The only hope is that these loose cannons self-implode before they get a chance to annihilate themselves and the rest of mankind with them. My money is on the probability of them imploding, fragmenting, and becoming less of a threat and insignificant. When banks are too big to fail, they create problems; religious institutions have become so huge, so powerful, and so impossible to manage and are now the dinosaurs of the modern age...obsolete.

Originally posted by WhoKnows100
The "future" is being written about right here on AtS - and if you think that hundreds of religions across this planet have sickened you, why are you not applying the same discernment to the ultimate religion, "self", which is growing every day. It's self love, "I am divine", "I am creator" - by far and away the most brutal religion known to man. Do you have an inkling what happens to the poor, the innocent, the ugly, the disabled, the elderly, the moral, and the weak when men who think that they are "gods" come into power? Beauty, sex, intellect, youth and wealth become valued and exalted, but the opposite groups become burdens. They get reclassified as "useless eaters". The unborn innocents are slaughtered. Euthanasia gets brought in. The elderly are ostracised, the poor are all called lazy and thieves and it is always these groups which are sacrificed. See the rise of the pyramids? It's merely the rise of the "religion" which saw the ungodly destroyed in the flood.

Our God states that religion is taking care of the orphans and widows which are the helpless and oppressed. Why? Because wicked and evil men are hunters and their prey are them. You can see it now if only you look around. One day soon some will understand that all of those religions kept relative peace in the world.

All the things you point out in your post above have come to pass during the rule of religious institutions. Religious institutions are the rulers of the world now, and have ruled the world for hundreds of years, and will rule the world for sometime in the future, it's all in the history books.

We can try and blame whoever or whatever we want but the fact is the rulers and those who gave them the power to rule over us (we the people, secular and religious) are the culprits.

Perhaps religion has failed miserably when it comes to taming wicked mankind, as you point out in the above post.

It seems like aggressive behavior by humans was a useful survival tool during pre-history, and that fact may well be imprinted in our genes.

Religion claims to temper and tame the violent tendencies, but actually just channels it to their own ends.

reply to post by sleeper


Religion and its various keepers are not even close to on their way out. "Islam is rising, the Christians mobilizing", and the dorm porn everywhere smells strongly of those who secretly crave religion.

The U.S. is swinging back to old school. It will take a couple of years to hit the media in an undeniable way but out on the street the formerly silent majority are taking their places.

In the Arab world I don't think you would get very far talking about the end of religion.

And that is just two of the major world religions.

None of it is going anywhere.
How people feel about that is an entirely different thread.

reply to post by BrokenCircles


Your choice is obscured cults? How about Pol Pot, 3 million killed, he also used children to torture 1000s to death in a school. Now that is evil....and religion had nothing to do with it..

To the average westerner, it looks as if technology and education will diminish the churches hold on the peoples minds....
But to the Islamic countries the same pricipal doesnt always seem to apply.....
Only time and the proliferation of technolgy and knowledge world wide can change the reliance we seem to have on the supernatural.....
It seems to me that we actually must discover stronger spiritual connection to the universe around us.....
Find out where we fit into the scheme of things a bit better.
Thus we would be more able to define ourselves with in the framework of existance.
If that were possible, the traditional patterns would fall away, giving in to a new more all inclusive spirituality.

reply to post by Xtrozero

Hilter wanted to wipeout the Jews because of religion?

Well. I wouldn't say yes or no to that. No doubt it was a complexity of motives and deranged thoughts....

However. Have you read Mein Kampf? Here is a pdf to it link

Do a ctrl+f and keywords search "god" and other relevant terms. You will find quite a bit of religious thought.

Originally posted by Lucid Lunacy

However. Have you read Mein Kampf? Here is a pdf to it link

I think we need to rule out total derangement. If I killed people in the name of Yoga doesn't make it yoga...

What everyone is talking about here is motivators, religion is a big one whether the people using the tool believes or not, Nationalism is bigger and by far has been the worst motivator to affect the human race, worst more than all the others put together. Another big one is politics and I think this is where the Catholic church evolves into at a certain level.

The Catholic church down the street most likely does a lot of good for its community, but when we climb the hierarchy it becomes just a political entity using, what as many of you have suggested, religion to motivate the masses, but once again, religion has little to do with it.

How else can one explain pedophiles in church. The fact that they prey on children and assume roles to do that like coach, priest, teacher doctor etc. is something we understand, but we don't understand how the Catholic church, or any other organization, protects them, hides them etc... If it was true faith driving their convictions then once discovered they would be banished from the church, school etc...but that nasty little thing called politics is the true driver...hiding in the back ground, but controlling it all.

Originally posted by redoubt
reply to post by sleeper

 

All religious institutions are on their way out; having peeked in the Twenty Century they now struggle to keep members against the increasing tide and onslaught of the information age...unleashed by the Internet. Knowledge does set minds and people free. It is a slow process and will take time but it has begun.

One doesn't need to look very far to see what this glorious age of information has wrought. Kids coming out of school today can barely use an ink pen, much less find their way on a map. Violence in schools is is still rising and our answer so far has been to pin the tail on an inanimate object.

People who do go to college can find themselves in debt for the first third of their lives, even if they land a rare, good job. Parenting skills have all but disappeared as children are raised like machines, babysitted either by strangers in cold, childcare day centers or in front of a video screen seeing how many cars they can steal or how much cyber blood they can spill.

Faith on god... any god at all is indeed being challenged but the trade off has not led to anything positive. As a culture, we have discarded our moral compass, choosing to avoid taking responsibilities for ourselves, our behaviors or that of our children. Right and wrong don't carry much weight any more. If it makes you feel good, you just do it and anyone hurt along the way can be damned.

I'll call your demise of faith and raise you a future that won't be worth living to see.

Best

Awesome reply redoubt! I could not have said it better myself! In my opinion the farther we go technologically the more we regress socially! I wonder if there is some kind of connection for this. Are we being punished for our ignorance of Gods laws or is it we have lost our connection with each other as well as ourselves? Whatever the case is, we, like any other addict, will have to hit rock bottom before seeing our way through to a unified humanity! I long to see us create a utopia devoid of the disconnected materialism which has divided us all!
We may have a long path to travel and much to learn before that day comes! God help us to see it through.

reply to post by boymonkey74

Originally posted by boymonkey74

Sorry but Goodness and morality is not just for the religious you know you do not have a monopoly on it.

....and vice versa, also.


Viciousness and depravity are not solely for the non-religious.

reply to post by Xtrozero

Originally posted by Xtrozero

Your choice is obscured cults?

No. Not exclusively.

Your choice is grasping at straws?





My chosen response to your question was examples of a couple horrendous events that have taken place throughout the past, wherein religion was a contributing factor for bringing the people together in the first place.


Their shared religious beliefs helped them to maintain their tight bond with each other, but they were also the same beliefs, that in one way or another, contributed to their ultimate demise(Mass Death).

Originally posted by Xtrozero

How about Pol Pot, 3 million killed, he also used children to torture 1000s to death in a school. Now that is evil....and religion had nothing to do with it..

So ~'snippin' What?!?!

That doesn't change the fact that religion has played a role in some other cases of brainwashing mass death, throughout history.

I never said that religion was the only thing that could bring about such an outcome.

You don't have to be a religious person in order to successfully brainwash, deceive, manipulate, kill, etc.... To accomplish those↑ you need only to be a slightly intelligent Human.

I hope they pick peter, this place will go nuts proving he's connected to rome in some obscure way

reply to post by Xtrozero

If I killed people in the name of Yoga doesn't make it yoga...

You mean it doesn't necessarily make it related to that belief system. I agree. That was my point. It's complex and we don't know with certainty what the motivators are. However, if you read Mein Kampf, it appears religious belief was a strong motivator.

Originally posted by Xtrozero

Originally posted by boymonkey74
reply to post by sleeper

 

“Civilization will not attain to its perfection until the last stone from the last church falls on the last priest.”


― Émile Zola


Darn wish I came up with that.

So...what are you going to replace it with?

Humans think in the abstract most of the time and to do away with religion is to also suggest we don't think in the abstract anymore...

I don't care what you call it, but it will always be there.... Seems today many put their new faith into aliens...

Many people make that claim.
To them I say "prove it."

Originally posted by Xtrozero
reply to post by BrokenCircles

 

Your choice is obscured cults? How about Pol Pot, 3 million killed, he also used children to torture 1000s to death in a school. Now that is evil....and religion had nothing to do with it..

No one ever said religion is the sole cause for strife in the world.
It is, however, a very large contributor.

reply to post by sleeper


If you help them maybe we can prevent that.

People can only separate and degrade if you allow them to. In the future connectivity will be ceaseless.

LOVE!