Does the world need religion?

I believe on God and the devil; I do not care for either. My question is "Does the world need religion anymore?". I think it is time we outlaw religion, because it does nothing but cause wars and heartache. The whole love everybody speech from all religions is just sickening. The world needs hate and all the other good stuff. We should leave all the hoodoo voodoo junk and move on...we call ourselves advanced and still continue to preach Books based on myth. I hate God and everything he stands for and believe the world would be better off without his/her (whatever you want) preachings, and also just because i hate God...it doesn't mean I am a satanist.

"The world needs hate and all the other good stuff"

Well, I wouldnt worry if I were you, then. There's plenty of that to go around.

This topic was just recently well covered here:

A future without religion?

As for outlawing religion, it has been tried before with certain religions, it never worked.

You are free to believe anything you want and I wouldn't want to change that, however, no law would change my beliefs. My faith accepts the findings of science, has never gone to war, and to the best of my knowledge, teaches nothing labeled hoodoo voodoo junk.

I understand the functionalist perspective that accepts as an axiom that hate does have a place in the world. Hate fails, though, as a family value or as an instrument of social integration.

Not all religions have a 'love everybody' speech. In fact not all religions teach that there is a God or Satan. Are you sure you aren't just bitter toward Christianity?

Edited for format

[edit on 2/27/07 by wellwhatnow]

Hate drives people to better themselves. Love creates weakness amongst people.

I see it the opposite way, so please show me some examples of this so I can see where you are coming from.

I think you could use either one for motivation, but since hate is something that that affects me very negatively, it would prove to be a poor motivator for me.

I better myself because I love my son and I owe it to him to be the very best. I take the best care of him I can because I love him. I work harder at my job when I love my work. My love of the planet, my family, my pets, myself - these have pushed me to do more than I ever thought I was capable of doing.

If I hated my son I would not take care of him. If I hated working, I wouldn't do it.

Show me some examples of hate being a positive motivator, because I can't see it working for me at this point.

Edit because I just can't seem to type right

[edit on 2/27/07 by wellwhatnow]

I am not to worried about ur grammar like some people out there...i figure if i can understand what you wrote it's good enough for me. I am not saying you have to hate all the time and certainly not your family...i mistype i meant negativity. Hate does belong in there but what i meant was that when people attempt to bring you down with negative comments it drives people to prove them wrong or to better themselves. have more to add but its getting late.
PS
when i mentioned your grammar i was only commenting on the fact u had to edit..not that your grammar was bad

[edit on 28-2-2007 by soulstealer2099]

BTW, outlawing anything that people like, never works. It only causes more problems, like the prohibition of alcohol, and the current prohibition of most drugs. an outlawing, would only cause more strife, and would do much more harm then good.

fascism =

Personally, I think religion is an amazing thing. The fear, the love that it inflicts on people, makes it well worth keeping.
The countless number of people who do charity work for their church or who do random acts of kindness because they love god and want to go to heaven is a wonderful thing.
Think of all the people who go to prison and then you hear this story about how they've found Jesus and are now motivational speakers or something of the like.
All the people who do good, or just as importantly, refrain from doing bad. Millions of them have that morality set in them because of their religion.
I do realize that many people do seemingly horrific things in the name of a religion, but, in my opinion, many more positive things happen in the name of religion. But good things rarely make headlines.

I know that I kept referencing Christianity in this post, but only because it's familiar to me.

I'd also like to note that I do not believe in any god or religion, but I still believe it's very powerful.

Its True. Hate can be good....if directed properly.


The Bible does teach us what to Hate.

(Amos 5:15) 15 Hate what is bad, and love what is good,. . .

The Scriptures also encourages us to Hate what God hates;

Proverbs 6:16-19 (New International Version)

16 There are six things the LORD hates,
seven that are detestable to him:

17 haughty eyes,
a lying tongue,
hands that shed innocent blood,

18 a heart that devises wicked schemes,
feet that are quick to rush into evil,

19 a false witness who pours out lies
and a man who stirs up dissension among brothers.

Alright, I'm climbing down from my soap box.

Personally, I dont see how anyone can find fault with that. Hate can be a powerful motivator if it is used properly. Hatred of injustice, bigotry, dishonesty, can induce a positive effect on society.

Loving what is good is not possible unless there is a coorasponding hatred or abhorence of what is bad.

Religion though has a long history of hate used incorrectly.
Jesus said to love your enemies. How many religions today do that? How many Army Chaplains convienently leave that out?

Today we have Muslims killing Muslims, Catholic killing Catholic, Protestant killing Protestant. I love God. But the practices of most religions sickens me

My 2cents.












[edit on 6-3-2007 by Sparky63]

The question should actually differentiate between true religion and false religion.

After all if someone claims to be Christian, Muslim, jew etc and runs arround massacering people then they obviously arn´t following their chosen religions way, and therefore are false believers.

Ok you have bad preachers who twist things about speak well and say such things as "go and kill the unbelievers" or whatever. But anyone with a bit of common sense knows this is wrong even without reading thier religious books, and after reading them it should become clearer.

Without the religions there wouldn´t be any laws but anarchy, its a shame thought that not all people are under the laws.

[edit on 9-3-2007 by Oblate Spheroid]

and also just because i hate God...it doesn't mean I am a satanist.

Well, that's too bad because God LOVES you and will even forgive you of your ignorant statement. Have a good day now.

As far as whether religion needs to be banned. Look, I am not a big fan of organized religion at all, but I would never support a move to be rid of religion. I think that people have a right to believe or worship as they wish. The problem comes in with fanaticism.Unfortunately, that is something we have to deal with no matter if religion existed or not. If there weren't religious fanatics, there'd always be the political extremists to deal with.

[edit on 9-3-2007 by SpeakerofTruth]

First off, people need religion or some type of experience where one can feel some sort of connection to an external, intangible entity. Since the dawn of time, people have attributed something to a higher being or a collective group of beings. Every civilization has a religion, past, present and future. Granted, in the ancient civilizations, Gods were the creators of things, they were used to explain things that, without science, man could not explain: Take the introduction of fire, the creation of horses, why evil exists in the world, why the sun rises and sets. In our modern day, there appears to be less of a practical use for religion because we have science to explain the sun setting and rising. In a way, our comprehension of natural phonmenon through science has superceeded our dependence on religion as a way to explain things.

Secondly, I think that all the religions that are currently in existance are all approaching the same idea or belief from different angles. It is a matter of perspective that governs the beliefs of humans.