Religion- the root of all evil?

It seems to me that the world would be a much more peaceful place without religion.

Wherever you look, religion seems to be the cause of conflict; Sunni and Shia Moslems fighting each other in the Middle East, Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland, Hindus and Moslems in India, Orthodox, Catholics and Moslems in the former Yugoslavia, Jews and Moslems in Israel/Palestine, I could continue ad nauseam.

If only we all pulled together and worked for the benefit of everyone, life would be so much easier all round.

We could easily feed the world several times over if agricultural policies were managed for the benefit of humankind and medical research could advance significantly if money were diverted from arms budgets and religious collection plates.

Considering how ALL of the above mentioned religions claim to promote peace, harmony and brotherly love, it is amazing how religious leaders tolerate murder in the name of their own religion.

I expect an onslaught now from religious zealots, but before you decide to attack me, please answer this one question;

what does YOUR religion do to make this world a better place for EVERYONE, not just its own followers?

Peace be with you.

[edit on 1-12-2004 by Englishman_in_Spain]

I would not go so far as to say root of all evil that title has been taken by money. However it is the first from of mind/population control, as has been use for evil ever since.
The threat of an uncomfortable afterlife is a very pursuasive argument, and generally get people doing exacly as you say. This is what most religions are based on... the fear (or promise of goodies after) of death.

No proof is possible.. you just have to "trust" me when i say heaven/hell exists. Brilliant little scam, no?

[edit on 1/12/2004 by Corinthas]

Originally posted by Englishman_in_Spain
It seems to me that the world would be a much more peaceful place without religion.

How do you figure?

Originally posted by Englishman_in_Spain
Wherever you look, religion seems to be the cause of conflict.

This is not true. Money, greed, corruption, power, land expansion, selfish desire are the reasons. What God is responsible for the genocide of the Native Americans in the U.S.? I could go on with examples if you like.

Originally posted by Englishman_in_Spain
; Sunni and Shia Moslems fighting each other in the Middle East,

You're blaming the entire religion because of this? Religion is the excuse.

Originally posted by Englishman_in_Spain
Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland.

You're blaming religion here too? Do you think political power, the English vs. Irish, expansion of the British Empire have anything to do with this? I think somebody has been tampering with your history books.

Originally posted by Englishman_in_Spain
, Hindus and Moslems in India, Orthodox, Catholics and Moslems in the former Yugoslavia, Jews and Moslems in Israel/Palestine, I could continue ad nauseam.

To be fair, how about including countries that have multiple religions that include the ones listed above like the U.S., Russia, India, etc...

Originally posted by Englishman_in_Spain
If only we all pulled together and worked for the benefit of everyone, life would be so much easier all round.

Agreed.

Originally posted by Englishman_in_Spain
We could easily feed the world several times over if agricultural policies were managed for the benefit of humankind and medical research could advance significantly if money were diverted from arms budgets

Agreed, what's your plan?

Originally posted by Englishman_in_Spain
and religious collection plates.

Oh yeah, those religious collection plates are taking money away from people . How about shutting down all charities while you're at it and other community non-profit orgainizations?

Originally posted by Englishman_in_Spain
Considering how ALL of the above mentioned religions claim to promote peace, harmony and brotherly love, it is amazing how religious leaders tolerate murder in the name of their own religion.

Then uh, they're not true representatives of the religion are they? Read the doctrine, it's in print how a religion is to behave. Are you telling me that all teachers are evil because a few in this country have slept with their students?

Originally posted by Englishman_in_Spain
I expect an onslaught now from religious zealots, but before you decide to attack me, please answer this one question;

Fair enough. I'll consider myself a zealot for the purposes of this discussion.

Originally posted by Englishman_in_Spain
what does YOUR religion do to make this world a better place for EVERYONE, not just its own followers?

Love your neighbor as yourself. Love your enemy. It's in print. It is what Christians are told to follow. Anyone who does not obviously cannot represent the faith.

Originally posted by Englishman_in_Spain
Peace be with you.

And with you. You've brought up a lot of points of hypocrisy and agree they should be dissolved. Hypocrisy is everywhere, pick a topic - politicians, scientists, bankers, lawyers, judges, retailers, charities, the U.N., yadda yadda. This doesn't mean the whole lot of them should be put into a rocket and sent to the sun. Who then is left?

Not that I believe in the concept of some sort of absolute evil, but for the sake of argument I would have to say that Greed is the root of all evil. Greed of power, money, etc. That is what it really all comes down too. Religion just happens to fit into it, but is not the root.

As much as I dislike organized religion, it in itself is not the problem. The problem is the desires of man.

Sorry, I know it had nothing to do with the topic, but it needed to be said.

That is if you spell the word backward. Then take a look at the text as it is the living word of god. What do you get backwards the evil word of the dog/satan. Unfortunately this is actually very true. The sun in the void is shining bright as the text in the book is black and white. Can you see the differnce between what is good and evil in the immitators form. Don't sign that contract by placing your life in someone else's word. God speaks to us all and the bible causes ones fall. Revelations/revolutions lies upon lies only compound more lies and only fools can be interested in studing the bible and not studing from GOD.

Yes I once saw that to but look at the evil again and see the sins listed as blashphamy. Punishment is eternal damnation for this sin and if one word is wrong in the book then the whole thing is bad. God made things perfect we can understand him perfectly so why should hereicy against him be okay just because people live short pointles unfofilled lives when they can do so much better with the truth about 666 being God's holy temple that for generations people have misued this concept for bad as does christianity.

[edit on 22-2-2005 by Canopene]

Not neccesarily.

Religion does lot of things you would have never attributed to religion normally.

For instance, it is well known that people who have a meaningfull faith, generally lead happier lives. Is that Evil?

Not only that, I believe that religion gives them hope to live the next day and the day after that without killing themselves today. Of course there are exceptions, but generally religion gives hope. Which is why people pray the most when they are in trouble, they think that someone is in control over their things, and that he/she/it will take care of their mess. And that gives them a lot of hope.

Of course lot of evil tend to arise from religion, but so does good. It all depends on the person and what they see their religion/God as.

I think we are in a far better place with religion, that without. But then again we tend to concentrate more on bad things than good, so time and time we might think religion is bad, but the average mean, according to me, is very good.

Surf

Nothing is the root of evil. It's all relative. Without religion, we'd always have some kind of idealogy to fight over. And evil isnt absolute, so whats evil anyways? Are you talking about war? It's all just different views of perspective, opinions. There will always be problems; we are a social species.

Religion is instrumental in perpetuating evil, and as was stated above, Evil abides by no universality and can only be spoken in relative terms, however, religion is only a tool and not Evil incarnate. As capitalism brings forth a greater means to perpetuate ones economic status, if an anology is needed.

Deep