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Ban Religion?

clarsct said:
Elton John claims that we ough to ban religion altogether. Good idea or bad?
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I'm an atheist and I think it's a bad idea to ban religion.

First of all, it's simply impractical. How would you go about banning it? Would you have to get agreement from all the world's governments and/or citizens? It'd never happen.

But questions of practicality aside, religion is something that some people derive comfort from. It really can help them cope with loss, or trouble, or insecurity, and I would not want to take that coping mechanism away from them.

And, incidentally, do you think it contributes to making people hateful?
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Probably. But just about everything else does too, for at least one person.
 
clarsct said:
http://www.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/Music/11/13/britain.eltonjohn.ap/index.html
Elton John claims that we ough to ban religion altogether. Good idea or bad?
Click to expand...
Pretty bad.. I'm an atheist but ive grown up in a catholic family, gone to a catholic school and so forth. Although religion definately isn't my sorta thing, banning religion is almost like banning santa, the easter bunny and imaginary friends. If it gives people hope (especially hope that they will again be with relatives that have passed on) it's probably not a great idea to ban it.

clarsct said:
And, incidentally, do you think it contributes to making people hateful?
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Yes, but having people of different nationalities/cultures causes hatred, different styles of music cause hatred. For as long as humans dont look/think/act the same, people will always find something to hate anyway. It may as well be religion
 
Of course banning religion would never work. The Romans tried to ban Christianity and ended up embracing it. But from a UK perspective, there is a lot that could be done. We have a state religion, the Church of England, whose head is the reigning monarch. We have schools affiliated to the church, and also Catholic, Jewish and Muslim schools. The government is pushing for more faith based schools. None of this makes the slightest sense. People should be free to pursue whatever irrational beliefs they like, but should not be indoctrinated in them from an early age. I know, it happened to me and and I wasted a fair bit of my life as a result.
 
clarsct said:
http://www.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/Music/11/13/britain.eltonjohn.ap/index.html


Elton John claims that we ough to ban religion altogether. Good idea or bad?

And, incidentally, do you think it contributes to making people hateful?
Click to expand...

It would be nice if we could erase religion. Totally remove it's existence from human consciousness, and remove all traces of it. But even if we had the magic wand to do that, I suspect new religions would spring up.

Should we ban it? First, it wouldn't work. And second, I think the attempt would cause as many if not more problems than religion itself causes. There would be riots and who knows what.

Does it contribute to people being hateful? It certainly adds to intolerance, and I think intolerance leads to hate. So, yes I think it does.
 
clarsct said:
Elton John claims that we ought to ban religion altogether. Good idea or bad??
Click to expand...

Banning is not the answer - education is. Educate people and then let them realize themselves that there is nothing there to ban.

And, incidentally, do you think it contributes to making people hateful?
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It's not exactly "hateful" - it's more like "clueless spiritual arrogance". "Knowing" non-Christians are going to writhe with pain in a lake of fire - and then as a Christians - feeling sorry for them - is ignorant arrogance.
 
Meadmaker said:
I think Elton John's call for a ban on religion is evidence that people, such as Elton John, are already hateful.
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He expressed displeasure towards religion. Did he call for religious people to, for example, spend eternity roasting in a firey puit of ceaseles torment?

I agree banning religion is bad, and pointless anyway.
 
I don't visit the Politics Section of the Forum very often, but one would certainly get the impression from a visit that Politics generates "hateful lemmings."

I wonder how many different areas of human being we'd have to bludgeon with the ban stick before we could exterminate the "hateful lemmings?"
 
clarsct said:
http://www.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/Music/11/13/britain.eltonjohn.ap/index.html


Elton John claims that we ough to ban religion altogether. Good idea or bad?

And, incidentally, do you think it contributes to making people hateful?
Click to expand...

Ask us again once you are in a position to affect the said change. :) I say it is a bad idea since religious freedom appears to be an important ingredient for a stable peaceful society. It is a good thing to allow people to think whatever they want since you can't stop them from thinking it anyway and it makes people feel good about their government and their community and themselves. I don't think religion is the cause of hate but maybe oppression is the cause of much hate.
 
I was reminded, upon reading that article, of Communist Russia banning religion. As soon as the Soviet Union fell, the Orthodox Russian Church sprang right back into existence. (It never really left, just went underground, If I Recall Correctly.)

I wonder if it would have any effect on sex crimes if you could get rid of religion.

I would imagine that banning religion would have about the same effect as banning illegal drugs did.

I do find it interesting that most people responded that religons increase hatefullness, as most of them preach peace....


Do you think that religions will need to change their dogma to allow for gay rights? Imagine a religion where black people are considered inferior. Their base would be pretty small. (Bigger than we'd like to think, but in this day and age, it would be smaller for that piece of doctrine.)
 
Imagine a religion where black people are considered inferior
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I think you can say that of Mormons.

eta not sure but recall that blacks were considered inferior by some mormons
 
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Bad idea! I, and most of the atheists I've encountered value reason. I'd rather logically persuade a handful of people of the delusion of religion than unjustly force a great many people to abandon it against their will. If people were forced to abandon religion then reason would not be involved.
 
Foster Zygote said:
Bad idea! I, and most of the atheists I've encountered value reason. I'd rather logically persuade a handful of people of the delusion of religion than unjustly force a great many people to abandon it against their will. If people were forced to abandon religion then reason would not be involved.
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Hmmmmm. You make a good point.


Mormons:

Really?! Wow. I had no idea. Next mormon I see, I'll have to tell them 'No thanks, I hate Illinois Nazis."


Just Wow.
 
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