Banned? Certainly not. Freedom of religion is part of what makes this country great.
Banned from the workings of government, sure, but to try and stamp it out entirely, for the populace, is clearly unconstitutional.
Rational people have been turning their backs on dogma for awhile now, I think it will continue until organized religion as we know it is simply a facet of history. Religious icons preaching intolerance and the "do as I say not as I do" schtick will only accelerate this.
There are better things to worry about.
But that's what government is for!!!1!I don't need to go to Saudia Arabia to see the effects of religion. There's a public park just outside my office building, and every evening a van full of nuns pulls up to hand out food to the homeless. They don't make 'em say a prayer first or grow a beard or anything - they just give some hungry people some free food. So hateful! You're an idiot.
I don't think religion should be banned but rather people who uses religion to hurt others should be.
Thankfully, secular societies have always been peaceful, fun-loving, and decent to everyone. They certainly don't fight others because of ethnicity, lines on a map, or any other arbitrary criteria, and it certainly isn't a flaw of humanity that we are territorial warriors - only religion brings that sort of thing out.Do I need to start quoting scriptures and verses? Do I need to chronolog fourteen hundred years history of warfare between Islam and Christian as example? Do I need to highlight the suffering, torture and murder of those "not quite muslim enough" or "Not quite christian enough" throughout history within their borders? Or are you really that stupid.
Religion is not a bad thing. It is a tool. In essence religion is a tool to find inner peace and unite people. This is the strength of religion. But at the same time this is also the weakness of religion. Religion can be used for good and bad. As has been shown many times. A good use of religion would be to educate people and give them hope which was it's original intention. Without hope or a drive most people turn into savages.
I will give some of my idea's of history :
Feel free to check.
My idea on religions extremely summed up :
Many christian believers talk of the start of humanity 6000 years ago.
The fun part is that the fundamentals of the bible for example can be traced back to the time of Sumer. This society by some called "Cradle of civilization" also started around 6000 years ago around the position on the earth where most tribal religions (also multiple jewish religions)where formed and later on fused together or have been eradicated. It is fun to know that many of the (pre islamic)arabic gods at those times have much similarity with the jewish gods/angels and the cristian god/angels and even the egyptian gods.
For a more recent example in europe, look at what happened to the gnostici who where eradicated by the catholic church.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumer
However :
The roman catholic church was at the beginning someones ideal to teach people not only about god but also give them a basic education of values. This was more the real christian way. Later on in the timeframe what is for us history the catholic church got perverted and abused as a powerbase. The all known middle ages and dark ages.
The islam :
It is hard to imagine for most people in the west, that the islam actually is pro education and freedom. The madrasahs or mosque schools where a good example. The first one seemed to have originated in Fes, Morocco. But iam not 100% sure about this. This early form of university was to educate people. Originally Muhammed and his wife Khadijah did this. Compare that to al quada for example. Or how the people live in Afghanistan. In a tribal way of life without rights or education for the girls/women.
After the death of Khadijah and Muhammed of course, some people wanted to stay in power and the islam was continued. (Here much similarities can be found in the formation of the idea's of Jesus and the later formation of the catholic church.)
The fun part is what the christian / catholic church set out to do, is the same as what the islam was set out to do. To educate people. As always these religions are occasionally abused for personal gains by powerhungry people who live as parasitic lifeforms upon other people who life in pain and despair. Feeding their hate, confusing those poor people more while using them for their own twisted gain of power. In my opinion these bishops/priests/imans who preach hate and murder should be taken for psychological research and be confined in prison dungeons for the rest of their remaining lives.
Now i have not even started about many other religions with their own flaws.
I am a non believer by the way, who thinks education is the path to freedom and inner peace. I will keep learning though, since i am human...
Because when i know all there is to know i will not have to make mistakes and live those mistakes and then start over again. As so many people do...
Oh well, At least it keeps the brain fresh
EDIT:
Of course today we have schools and universities and separation of church and government.
But when looking more closely on the politics level, life is not that simple. How to keep everybody happy ?
This immediately brought to mind a particular scene from The Life of Brian, the one where the Jews discuss how the Romans (a completely secular nation at the time) didn't do anything good, except for roads, medicine, education, running water... Slaughtering thousands so that a victory would qualify as a "triumph," feeding people to lions, crucifying thousands at a time, and that sort of thing can surely be neglected in light of these niceties.A lot of glossing over in this post although I appreciate your thoughts. Didn't Mohammed personally general genocides? How about the Bible people leveling whole cities? You can't ignore violent the founders, basic tenants, and atmospherics for nuns giving out food and education. Even Hitler did some good things. Likewise, Hamas builds hospitals.
Yes, I want you to do every last one of these.
What is this libnut idiocy? Preach acceptance for everything under the sun, as long as you conform only to the "politically correct" ideas.
What secular entity allows and protects pedophilia? Has there ever been a secular equivalent of a religious war?
What secular entity allows and protects pedophilia? Has there ever been a secular equivalent of a religious war?
Start with this book. Most eye opening to real history of God's minions.
http://www.amazon.com/God-Not-Great-.../dp/0446579807
What is this libnut idiocy?
Cold War.
Dogma can certainly exist in a Secular Society.
Ultimately it is Dogma that is what's wrong with Religion as it can be for other things, like Political Parties.
Communism/nazism which are generally secular do prey on people and have committed genocide..
You know, it really says a lot that you need to attribute unappetizing ideas to the "libs" you seem to hate so much. I'm guessing you probably don't spew the same kind of crap to cons who profess to follow a church of love and acceptance, but in action support discrimination and intolerance.
A lot of glossing over in this post although I appreciate your thoughts. Didn't Mohammed personally general genocides? How about the Bible people leveling whole cities? You can't ignore violent the founders, basic tenants, and atmospherics for nuns giving out food and education. Even Hitler did some good things. Likewise, Hamas builds hospitals.
How so?
Hmmm, not sure I agree with the secular part. Stalin was the deity in classical communism, and even then he let the Orthodox church come back when times were tough. Nazism was almost it's own category with it's pseudo christian beliefs pared with occult fascination, divinely approved racism and a bit of medieval retro thrown in. Neither really qualify for the secular title IMO, but you will get no argument from me concerning their crimes against humanity.
How so?
Sure it can, and does. That doesn't answer my question though, unless I'm missing something.
Agreed, so maybe I should have phrased it as "religious dogma"... be that as it may, I'm hesitant to put simple earthly politics in the same category as imagined supernatural consent and direction. There's a reason for the phrase reading "God is on our side," and not "JFK/Reagan/etc is on our side." The distinction is profound if you're the one expected to do the fighting. Don't take this mean I disagree on the existence of political dogma though, the last 10 years have proven it in spades.
Hmmm, not sure I agree with the secular part. Stalin was the deity in classical communism, and even then he let the Orthodox church come back when times were tough. Nazism was almost it's own category with it's pseudo christian beliefs pared with occult fascination, divinely approved racism and a bit of medieval retro thrown in. Neither really qualify for the secular title IMO, but you will get no argument from me concerning their crimes against humanity.
You are very right, but as always it is a point of perspective. Part of the problem is psychological , a group of humans is a dynamic entity. Constantly changing. For every action there is a reaction. When you can erase the memory of people you can erase hate. The real problem is that some people especially in the middle east believe they are better then others. This is what is being preached ever since the beginning. This separation between people is an endless feeding ground for hate. Look at the usa, with all the diverse cultures. What is happening ?
The real solution is a rather harsh one but history has proven it works. A dictator that says to 2 different ethnic people unwilling to accept eachother : Do you want to live together or die together ?
Their always has to be a third bad one for 2 people to like and accept each other. Why ? because their hatred for the third man binds them together forgetting their issues with each other. And when you read this, you know why religion exists. Poor Satan. He has to be the third man because people prefer to hate then rather love each other. Did you know that Satan is also know as Lucifer in the bible ? Funny, is that Lucifer is in ancient middle east known as a sun god. But we also have the egyptian sun god Ra ? And according to some, Ra = Lucifer = Jahweh = god. And lilith is the moon god and the earth god. Some of the pre islam arabians actually believed in a female god. How about that...
I will give you my personal opinion :
Religion has done it's job that is making people think that they can actually be unified, but now it is out dated. The problem as always is education. Take it away and people get dumb. We see it in our western societies where we cut back on school and university funds. We strip the people from money and thus their offspring will not go to school because it is to expensive. This will feed the negative spiral and in as less as 2 generations serious issues arise. If their is no education, where do you think people turn to to keep their sanity ? Yes , good old religion. It is not for a reason some corrupt religious institutions want to keep people dumb, you know.
Here is something interesting :
According to some legends, Lilith was the actual first lady besides Adam and not Eve. According to other legends lilith was evil. But then again Pazuzu, used in the exorcist as the evil, was a protector of children against lilith in ancient middle east. Confusing is it not ? That's what you get.
Now on some of the monuments of ancient hegra you will find something that looks like a sphinx but actually looks more like Lilith and i believe is Lilith. What has this all to do with religion ? Everything, because these are all part of the puzzle.
LIB sometimes maybe....I don't really attach myself to any grouping I mean I generally take all the facts in I can see which makes most sense. I have a tendency to waver a lot like with immigration reform, or taxes and lots of other things. A guy who has no religion does that. Nothing is black and white, that's too easy, too simpleton, too religious.