A Critique of Religion

[Mechtaur]

Can we please stop using "Religion" when we mean "Fundamentalist Abrahamic"? Let's be honest, pretty much everything being said is aimed down at fundie christians or douches in general.

[Osama bin Bambi]

Can we please stop using "Religion" when we mean "Fundamentalist Abrahamic"? Let's be honest, pretty much everything being said is aimed down at fundie christians or douches in general.

This. I don't think religion by itself is evil, it's what people do with it. I think that for any religion that is notorious for fundamentalism and intolerance, it also has the potential for being reinterpreted into a more modern message. For years, Judaism had been extremely conservative and quite ridiculous in its literalism, but over the years as society changed other interpretations and denominations have sprung up that have changed the landscape of the faith quite a bit. The fundies are still there and they can be distressing, but what matters is that it's no longer the only way people interpret its basic message. I think that religion is a part of culture and is reflective of a society's cultural values. As sexism, racism, homophobia, and other forms of bigotry slowly disappear from society, religion will eventually accommodate this change. In fact, it will probably have to, or else it will die out completely, and something else (probably another religion) will take its place.

[Captain Jack Harkness]

Can we please stop using "Religion" when we mean "Fundamentalist Abrahamic"? Let's be honest, pretty much everything being said is aimed down at fundie(s) christians or douches in general.

Hey dude, a religion doesn't have to be Abrahamic to be fundie.  There's a reason the site is named "Fundies Say The Darndest Things" instead of "Christians Say The Darndest Things."

On an unrelated note, we need tags to escape the parsing sequence in text if we don't have them already.

[Rime]

I'm going to agree with StarCluster.  It's not religion in and of itself.  Just like sulfuric acid, it can be very helpful and useful.  What tends to go wrong is when a group seeks control and influence over people and attempt to cover up/discredit any and all criticism.  I see this is a large part of my problem with the RCC.

And where are our antitheists?  Someone should be here to tell us that the sooner we do away with religion the better, so we should seek to get rid of it by any means possible.

[Smurfette Principle]

Can we please stop using "Religion" when we mean "Fundamentalist Abrahamic"? Let's be honest, pretty much everything being said is aimed down at fundie(s) christians or douches in general.

Hey dude, a religion doesn't have to be Abrahamic to be fundie.  There's a reason the site is named "Fundies Say The Darndest Things" instead of "Christians Say The Darndest Things."

"Abrahamic" means any of the religions descended from Abraham, which means Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, as well as anything branching off them (like Mormonism).

[Captain Jack Harkness]

Can we please stop using "Religion" when we mean "Fundamentalist Abrahamic"? Let's be honest, pretty much everything being said is aimed down at fundie(s) christians or douches in general.

Hey dude, a religion doesn't have to be Abrahamic to be fundie.  There's a reason the site is named "Fundies Say The Darndest Things" instead of "Christians Say The Darndest Things."

"Abrahamic" means any of the religions descended from Abraham, which means Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, as well as anything branching off them (like Mormonism).

Yep.  Still, you just have to be a general fundie to be an asshole.  No religion has a monopoly on such behavior.

[Witchyjoshy]

Religion itself doesn't have a monopoly on the behavior, either.

I've seen plenty of antitheist fundies.  Had one yell at me on, to no one's surprise, DeviantArt.

The antitheists here on the forums, however, are opinionated, but nowhere close to fundies.

[Mechtaur]

Can we please stop using "Religion" when we mean "Fundamentalist Abrahamic"? Let's be honest, pretty much everything being said is aimed down at fundie(s) christians or douches in general.

Hey dude, a religion doesn't have to be Abrahamic to be fundie.  There's a reason the site is named "Fundies Say The Darndest Things" instead of "Christians Say The Darndest Things."

On an unrelated note, we need tags to escape the parsing sequence in text if we don't have them already.

I'm well aware that other religions exist and can have fundies (Being a Daoist), but most of the criticisms are being aimed at primarily Abrahamic fundies while still using the broad term "Religion".

[Caitshidhe]

I'm anti-theist. Religion is bullshit. All of it. In every form. If you want to believe your life or the universe has meaning, fine--it has whatever meaning you personally ascribe to it. And tehre's nothing wrong with that. Your life is special because it's YOURS. Our world is special because it's OURS. The universe is special because we live in it. And that's a good enough 'meaning' to give it. And it doesn't require god to see things that way.

HOWEVER.

Religion isn't the root of all things wrong with the world. And doing away with it won't fix everything. It WILL, however, make people see things in a different way. Without faith to hide behind you suddenly get a very clear picture of people doing absolutely the wrong thing. Without god you have cult leaders simply commanding brainwashed followers, you have people oppressing women and homosexuals and transgender/transexual persons for absolutely no reason at all, you have creepy men marrying young teen girls, and you have people like the Pearls abusing children (and teaching other people to do it) because they are horrible people. You have abuses perpetrated for absolutely positively no reason AT ALL. Not all religion is inherently bad and not all bad people are religious, but if you take god and religion and faith away from them they suddenly lose one of the biggest crutches they have with which to defend their actions.

A world without gods won't be perfect. And if someone is inclined to want to do horrible things they will either do it with some other justification besides religion, or will do it anyway without any justification at all. Some religious people genuinely mean no harm to anyone. But again, those people would probably be nice people with or without god. The world is awesome, you're awesome, life is awesome, it's all wonderful and beautiful and special--so go out and enjoy it while you can, and make it a better place, and at the end of your life you can look back at what you did and know you were good for the sake of being good. I think that's much better than being good because your imaginary friend told you to.

[Captain Jack Harkness]

Maybe this would be a more accurate critique if I replaced religion with the third definition of dogma?

[Mechtaur]

Yes, that would be better.

[MadCatTLX]

It's not only the Abrahamic religions that have bad aspects(to put it lightly). While I'm not an expert on Hinduism, my understanding of the caste system is that that it was just as oppressive to the lower castes as Abrahamic fundies are to women. I don't know much about Buddhism so I can't say anything about it. There are also plenty of "bad" religions outside of the main five.

[Witchyjoshy]

It's not only the Abrahamic religions that have bad aspects(to put it lightly). While I'm not an expert on Hinduism, my understanding of the caste system is that that it was just as oppressive to the lower castes as Abrahamic fundies are to women. I don't know much about Buddhism so I can't say anything about it. There are also plenty of "bad" religions outside of the main five.

Actually, the caste system is more or less independent of Hinduism.  It's more of a cultural thing than an actual religious thing, from what I understand.

[Mechtaur]

It's not only the Abrahamic religions that have bad aspects(to put it lightly). While I'm not an expert on Hinduism, my understanding of the caste system is that that it was just as oppressive to the lower castes as Abrahamic fundies are to women. I don't know much about Buddhism so I can't say anything about it. There are also plenty of "bad" religions outside of the main five.

Buddhism is much more... Open. Calling it a religion isn't really right, it is closer to a philosophy and doesn't really have any form of dogma. Each sect might create new rules and such, but that can happen with any philosophy or group.

Plus, you have to remember that at the time of their creation, each religion's philosophy might have been radically liberal at the time. So, I don't think it would be correct to call an entire religion "bad", so much as "Parts of its philosophy is out dated".