Quote (Scaly @ Jan 22 2015 10:37am)
Careful what you wish for. I have family in Wisconsin.
I'm sure the intent, for a lot of people, is to do good things. I'm sure religion does in fact have a lot of positive aspects to it. I just think that the harm it does outweighs the good.
There is no good reason to believe in a god or gods. Why can't we have the nice things like community, love, respect etc... without the need for the threat of eternal damnation, the idea that morality is objective and unchanging and the promotion of ignorance? Owait we do - it's called being a decent person and it doesn't need a god.
Once again you project your perception (perhaps based on personal experience) of Christian teachings onto all Christians. Where does it say all Christians believe and are taught that sin is the direct path to eternal damnation without regards to extent? I dont know of any pastors that preach stealing a candy bar being equal to slaughtering 10 babies.
Your opinionated statement that there is no NEED for a god to be a good person is true, however its misleading. If someone were to state that being a good person and being religious are mutually exclusive they would be incorrect. So essentially your opinion that god is not needed is just that, an opinion. It does not offer any objective fact because it is entirely situational.
I have never felt the love or respect from my housing community that i have felt from my church community. Ill be the first to admit that a kind community atmosphere is attainable without religion but from my experience it isnt common. Ive also been to churches largely devoid of a community feel, again its entirely subjective.
My personal question is if there was a church that didnt preach against gays, didnt teach people shame for their sins, and didnt preach anything but love and self responsibility devoid of judgement by the church or fellow churchgoers would you be against it still based on the fact that the congregation cannot prove the existence of god scientifically? It seems to me you assert that religion is inherently damaging, however im here to tell you that such a church as i have described above does exist, i know this because i am there from 8:45-10:00 each sunday.