Philosopher: Why we should ditch religion

Guys, I realize some of you won't agree with this. I DO NOT want to start a flame war like I unintentionally did yesterday

I just came across this article this morning on digg, and I wanted to share it with those who find philosophy and alternative ideas and morals interesting.

Again, please do not start flaming me about atheism and God. I do not want that, I simply want to present the opportunity for those who are interested to read a very insightful article.

Peace be with you



(us.cnn.com...)

"We should be talking about real problems, like nuclear proliferation and genocide and poverty and the crisis in education," Harris said in a recent interview at the TED Conference in Long Beach, California. TED is a nonprofit group dedicated to "ideas worth spreading."

"These are issues which tremendous swings in human well-being depend on. And it's not at the center of our moral concern."

Religion causes people to fixate on issues of less moral importance, said Harris, a well-known secularist, philosopher and neuroscientist who is the author of the books "The End of Faith" and "Letter to a Christian Nation."

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[edit on 1-4-2010 by GAOTU789]

You can only replace religion with sex. Thats what the society is doing today. People need to be spiritual, and the ptb exploit this, as your sexuality and spiritual sides are linked.

This is why they are letting islam come to the west, to try to get islam to soften as a religion.

Everyone has a labido no matter how small or big that may be. If the ptb can tap into that, they can destroy religions. this is what they are doing.

Sex is the only way to destroy religions, as you feed on the basic instincts.

Crude but it works.

But of course all people do not have a sex drive drive, but there labido can be opened up, and this is what the ptb try to do, to keep you busy.

Its the only way to get rid of religion. Fact

reply to post by andy1033


I'd be willing to bet sex scandals were present before the ptb even came to be.

but that's an interesting take on it. Cool.

Who is this "we" who should be doing the ditching?
People acting as individuals, making their own choices? Fine, people who want to make that choice are already doing it.
Society at large? Society at large can only "ditch" religion by suppressing religious belief, or at least suppressing the outward expression of it. That way persecution lies.

reply to post by MIMRblazin


So says the rabid anti-religionist and very forward about shoving scientism down our throats and who blames a great deal of mankind's problems not on mankind himself, but mankind's belief in something he *Harris* doesn't agree with.
He seems amost like he is trying to building himself a little church against churches. Blame it on religion indeed.

[edit on 1-4-2010 by Watcher-In-The-Shadows]

reply to post by Watcher-In-The-Shadows


I see where you're coming from man

...I just like philosophy. I like to think about the different ways of life we're NOT living, and what it would be like. Using your imagination is fun.

Also, Toy Story 3 comes out soon.

Ditch religion?

One can change the emphasis to something else (non-religious), but you could not ditch religion any more than you can stop breathing.

What you may really be talking about doing away with religion is doing away with what they call evolutionary religion - that is religion of the churches - culturally based and admixed with old human ideas about spirit, right or wrong.

Real religion is inborn in us. We behave according to our values. Essentially, values are an expression of spiritual thinking cloaked in our everyday life reactions to our environment. Even when we call something beautiful or good - whatever the yardstick - that is an exercise of our spiritual nature. Such a nature is inborn just like having an opinion of what has just been experienced can not be stopped.

Spirit and religion are not always the same thing either. Spirit is unerring, but religion can be full of errors about spirit. Religion as we experience it on this planet has two components:

1) What we really believe deep within ourselves about the subject;
2) What organized religion (the churches) teaches.

You can do away with number 2, but self-instructed religion based on our feelings and experiences in number 1, is very human and part of our nature. It can not be erased or cut out.

Thanks
Ron

reply to post by Aronolac


If I was going to revert back to my Christian beliefs I held during childhood and adolescence, I would definitely choose to do so in the privacy of my own home, without people telling me what I'm going to Hell for.

If you choose to have a Christian faith and want to honor and praise God, I don't think you should be required to go to a church to do so. I'm pretty sure God is powerful enough to make influences whether you're in church when you pray or not.

Star for you, Aronolac. I like the way you think.

[edit on 1-4-2010 by MIMRblazin]

LOL

some of you guys are so blind that its sick for me to read

to say that the government wants people to not be religious is ABSURD

if you believe in a religion, they can use that to attack other religion, like they did in 911, they created an attack and racism at the same time;

I am not going to extend my argument, search my posts if you want to read more, I posted a lot in some threads like this;

reply to post by MIMRblazin


Wasn`t this already posted here on ATS ..... 27-3-2010 @ 04:56 PM

Thread title : Why we should ditch religion [TED video]
www.abovetopsecret.com...



===========================
Sam Harris makes some excellent points .
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edit to add title.




[edit on 1-4-2010 by UmbraSumus]

[edit on 1-4-2010 by UmbraSumus]

reply to post by andy1033


That is certainly not the only way to destroy religions. [color=]Education and research works BEST to destroy religion. Especially when one studies the origins of religion.

As pointed out above, please add any comments t the existing thread found here.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Thread closed.

For future reference.


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