The countries you mention basically replaced what we generally consider religion, with a religion of worshipping the state.
"Anti religion crap" will probably end if any of the religions out there can prove themselves to be true. As long as the religions fail to substantiate their assertions, it can be expected that the criticism will continue.
I keep going back to an episode of 60 Minutes where they look for the roots of good and evil in babies and young children. There was an example with a toddler who favored the cereal Cheerios. The kid is introduced to a woman who also likes Cheerios and they hit it off immediately, think they're dating now. Next he's presented to a kid who loves Fruity Pebbles, Cheerios kid pulls a Glock 42 from the waistband of his big boy pants and... Rigid beliefs, likes and opinions seem to be a huge factor in not trusting the other and making it alright to kill him or her.
A religion can't force a person to do anything. I am a religious man myself, a Christian. Throughout history you have people slaughtered in the name of religions of all sorts, even my own. The key word there however is people. Religion can be a terrible weapon in the hands of those with a bit of charisma, especially when "the masses" are uneducated, and thus easily controlled.
If a Christian Pastor I know and trust took me aside and sincerely told me that God had appeared to him and instructed that I was to kill a man, I would not do so. That proves all on its own that religion is not the problem. End of the day if religion was responsible for death, then I would assert we would all be dead by now.
I like the comments here. Let me use an illustration from Christianity. Crusaders have murdered/killed hundreds of thousands of people. For example, if Muslims or Jews didn't turn to Christianity, they were slaughtered. However, in the Bible, you see that Jesus teaches things such as "vengeance is mine, says the Lord, I will repay." -So a Christ-follower/Christian, is not to take revenge. Jesus teaches, "Love your enemies, do good to those who harm you." The exact opposite of the Crusaders. SO is the problem religion/Jesus, or is the problem people who claim to do things in the name of Jesus, although he teaches the opposite? I am also mindful that most of the Crusaders did NOT have their own Scripture, and were at the complete dependence of their leaders. If that leader had a godless agenda, or was a "wolf in sheep's clothing" than he could easily twist what was said & people were easily led astray. I am thankful that now we can have our own copy of the Scriptures, to read & study for ourselves, so we can be like "Bereans" and check out what a leader says to see if it aligns with what Jesus taught.
Bottom line, people crave to be worshiped. And that leads to all sorts of problems.
korny09, with all due respect, the crusades were not about killing people because they would not convert to Christianity. The crusades were a defense of Christians and Christian lands from invading Moslems. As to the crusaders did not have their own scripture, the Catholic Church has always had the scripture. It was the Catholic Church that canonized scripture and gave us the Bible.
I have linked three brief articles if you are interested..
PART of the Crusades were defensive, but not all of it. Eventually it was also offensive. *Keep in mind that I am NOT saying the Muslims were innocent. The whole religion was founded by a warlord.
The Catholic Church is the organization that fought against the Gutenberg copies. In fact, until recently only trained leaders could have them & the masses were even I Latin. I am glad that now Catholics can have their own copies of Scripture.
Anyhow, the original point of my post was to mention that sometimes fallen people do stupid things. BUT our focus should not be on the people. For example, the focus on Christianity is Jesus not on Christians. We should judge the faith by what He taught & did.
Okay, one more observation. Not a lot of people know the details about the Crusades. I have learned from history books, certain things about the Crusades. Clearly there is a lot of misinformation. Which is a good thing to remember when debating about things. So thank you for the honing, and resources.
What christianity does is bring a person to humility, the person has lots of wrongdoing, the punishment for them is flatly death not labor or flogging, God bears the punishment of the person saving the person the suffering of it, the person acknowleges what has happened can no longer live a prideful life with God like before, if he does it would be like nothing happened. you see its right here the thing begins can God who provided salvation for the man to humble him tell him to be prideful because he's got it, then pride would be guarrantee you're saved, this is not true. Just look at various religious incidents today its mankind meet false doctrine
19 comments
Login to comment →
Anthony.David 9 years, 9 months ago
No, mankind is responsible for violence.
Reply
korny09 9 years, 9 months ago
My thoughts exactly.
Reply
philwaygrand 9 years, 9 months ago
Religion lol.
Money and power way above religion for violence.
Reply
Chet_Manly 9 years, 9 months ago
yep!
Reply
skilletboy 9 years, 9 months ago
Secular tyrannical goverments alone have killed more people in just two countries, China and Russia, than religion ever did.
China has almost killed off their entire population three times in its history.
I grow tired of this anti religion crap.
Reply
egro 9 years, 9 months ago
The countries you mention basically replaced what we generally consider religion, with a religion of worshipping the state.
"Anti religion crap" will probably end if any of the religions out there can prove themselves to be true. As long as the religions fail to substantiate their assertions, it can be expected that the criticism will continue.
Reply
Anthony.David 9 years, 9 months ago
I agree
Reply
Anthony.David 9 years, 9 months ago
With "skilletboy"
Reply
egro 9 years, 9 months ago
The problem is that there are a number of ideologies (religions, fascism, etc.) that cloud people's minds and lead to an us vs them mentality.
Reply
MarkBlemish 9 years, 9 months ago
I keep going back to an episode of 60 Minutes where they look for the roots of good and evil in babies and young children. There was an example with a toddler who favored the cereal Cheerios. The kid is introduced to a woman who also likes Cheerios and they hit it off immediately, think they're dating now. Next he's presented to a kid who loves Fruity Pebbles, Cheerios kid pulls a Glock 42 from the waistband of his big boy pants and... Rigid beliefs, likes and opinions seem to be a huge factor in not trusting the other and making it alright to kill him or her.
Reply
Titanheart 9 years, 9 months ago
A religion can't force a person to do anything. I am a religious man myself, a Christian. Throughout history you have people slaughtered in the name of religions of all sorts, even my own. The key word there however is people. Religion can be a terrible weapon in the hands of those with a bit of charisma, especially when "the masses" are uneducated, and thus easily controlled.
If a Christian Pastor I know and trust took me aside and sincerely told me that God had appeared to him and instructed that I was to kill a man, I would not do so. That proves all on its own that religion is not the problem. End of the day if religion was responsible for death, then I would assert we would all be dead by now.
Reply
korny09 9 years, 9 months ago
I like the comments here.
Let me use an illustration from Christianity.
Crusaders have murdered/killed hundreds of thousands of people. For example, if Muslims or Jews didn't turn to Christianity, they were slaughtered.
However, in the Bible, you see that Jesus teaches things such as "vengeance is mine, says the Lord, I will repay." -So a Christ-follower/Christian, is not to take revenge. Jesus teaches, "Love your enemies, do good to those who harm you." The exact opposite of the Crusaders. SO is the problem religion/Jesus, or is the problem people who claim to do things in the name of Jesus, although he teaches the opposite?
I am also mindful that most of the Crusaders did NOT have their own Scripture, and were at the complete dependence of their leaders. If that leader had a godless agenda, or was a "wolf in sheep's clothing" than he could easily twist what was said & people were easily led astray.
I am thankful that now we can have our own copy of the Scriptures, to read & study for ourselves, so we can be like "Bereans" and check out what a leader says to see if it aligns with what Jesus taught.
Bottom line, people crave to be worshiped. And that leads to all sorts of problems.
Reply
kmill 9 years, 9 months ago
korny09, with all due respect, the crusades were not about killing people because they would not convert to Christianity. The crusades were a defense of Christians and Christian lands from invading Moslems.
As to the crusaders did not have their own scripture, the Catholic Church has always had the scripture. It was the Catholic Church that canonized scripture and gave us the Bible.
I have linked three brief articles if you are interested..
http://blog.adw.org/2015/02/considering-the-crusades-in-the-context-of-the-current-conflict-with-radical-islamists/">http://blog.adw.org/2015/02/considering-the-crusades-in-the-context-of-the-current-conflict-with-radical-islamists/
http://www.crisismagazine.com/2012/crash-course-on-the-crusades">http://www.crisismagazine.com/2012/crash-course-on-the-crusades
http://catholicdefense.blogspot.com/2009/10/protestantism-and-early-church-fathers.html">http://catholicdefense.blogspot.com/2009/10/protestantism-and-early-church-fathers.html
Reply
Nickolas 9 years, 9 months ago
First look at how Stalin took a Non-Religious country like the Soviet Union and murdered tens of millions. There was no religion involved. Second to keep your facts straight try catching up on the Muslim Crusades while you are at it. http://www.answering-islam.org/Authors/Arlandson/crusades_timeline.htm">http://www.answering-islam.org/Authors/Arlandson/crusades_timeline.htm
Reply
korny09 9 years, 9 months ago
PART of the Crusades were defensive, but not all of it. Eventually it was also offensive.
*Keep in mind that I am NOT saying the Muslims were innocent. The whole religion was founded by a warlord.
The Catholic Church is the organization that fought against the Gutenberg copies. In fact, until recently only trained leaders could have them & the masses were even I Latin. I am glad that now Catholics can have their own copies of Scripture.
Anyhow, the original point of my post was to mention that sometimes fallen people do stupid things. BUT our focus should not be on the people. For example, the focus on Christianity is Jesus not on Christians. We should judge the faith by what He taught & did.
Reply
korny09 9 years, 9 months ago
*Around 1095 is when the "Christians" mobilized to defend against the Muslims. So this is the point they became aggressive.
Reply
korny09 9 years, 9 months ago
Anyhow, good discussion. Thanks for the back and forth. Cheerio!
Reply
korny09 9 years, 9 months ago
Okay, one more observation.
Not a lot of people know the details about the Crusades. I have learned from history books, certain things about the Crusades. Clearly there is a lot of misinformation.
Which is a good thing to remember when debating about things. So thank you for the honing, and resources.
Reply
chieffo 9 years, 7 months ago
What christianity does is bring a person to humility, the person has lots of wrongdoing, the punishment for them is flatly death not labor or flogging, God bears the punishment of the person saving the person the suffering of it, the person acknowleges what has happened can no longer live a prideful life with God like before, if he does it would be like nothing happened. you see its right here the thing begins can God who provided salvation for the man to humble him tell him to be prideful because he's got it, then pride would be guarrantee you're saved, this is not true. Just look at various religious incidents today its mankind meet false doctrine
Reply