Penguin wrote:
Tad Fibonacci wrote:
Even though Christianity is important in the development of civilization, it is not without flaws.
It teaches people to be "good", act "good" and you'll go to heaven when you die. Act "bad" and you'll go to hell.
It downplays the importance of life with promises of a better afterlife.
Why make the best of what you have and strive, when you can just act good but live a boring and stagnant life with little to no meaning or achievements. You'll get to be in Heaven when you die anyways.
A lot of religious people I've spoken to and have seen talk tend to have the belief that people can't have morals without "god." I completely disagree. Secular morality is a very interesting subject to study that type of stuff.
Also, religious morality is completely subjective since there are numerous amounts or religions that all have contradicting moral beliefs. The same is true with cultures all around the world. Morals are extremely subjective, so why should one religion's morals out rule the others? From my experience, religious people tend to see the world and their "rules" as black and white, when it very well isn't.
I've had a belief for a while that religion can be good for the individual, but is very likely to become corrupt and toxic as a whole. Here in America religion and politics are so intertwined with each other, which has created a very toxic and unstable environment.
You are both very right, but something you have to keep in mind is that religion can be used, and has been used as means of applying rules and good morals. It is true that without religion the world could
perhaps be a better place, as religion is currently being used as a means of profiting instead of applying law and morals. Law would've of-course formed without the creation of religions, and people would've most likely found a way to profit off of laws.
The toxicity of religion stems from the selfishness of an individual, basically when someone wants to profit money from religion, they accept donations, and this can also be used to profit not only in currency but in anything else. In the past the pope used to crown the prince and choose who holds power and who doesn't, of-course the pope used to hold power to certain degree too. Slowly the power of religion declined as people stopped being ignorant and easily manipulated.
I say in the future the world will see a massive decline in church usage and religion as a whole will decrease in popularity. Though countries that people can still be manipulated in can still be found, the most popular Mafia/militia~ thing in my country is literally called The People of God (or the followers of God).
As long as people don't acquire all their needs, they will cling to someone or something to provide for them comfort. A coping mechanism, called religion.
