Religion has a practical role to play in a post-modern society.

I am more than slightly confused why it was necessary to use the phrase postmodern society if you are just going to give multiple definitions of it and basically apply them all to society now. Why wouldn’t you just say “Does organized religion have a place in a society today?” It’s essentially the same thing based on your definition. That being said, your arguments were weak… Just because a religion is inefficient with its money doesn’t mean that it is no longer necessary. I am an atheist, and as such I realize that I will never fully understand why religion effects people like it does and what those effects fully do for them for that matter. I can understand however, that without religion some of our greatest pieces of art and literature and poetry would never exist. Religion inspires people to do great things, at the same time it could be said that religion inspires people to do horrible things. But that is not the point here, you are asking if religion is necessary in society today… I respond with this… First I will go back to one of your main points of money, religion doesn’t need to profit, and religion gives the community something much better than profit. It gives them hope and faith, just because you and I do not understand it doesn’t mean we cannot see its effects. Go stand outside a church one day right before service ends and look at the people whom walk out… you could almost see the hope and faith radiating off of them. Besides, religion is not something we can just make disappear overnight… how exactly would you plan on doing this with so many believers still in this world? You can’t just tear down their churches to make room for social enterprises. I doubt that would go well, you would have them all claiming Armageddon and it would create a civil war. When this point is brought up the fact of “is it necessary” becomes honestly irrelevant. Not to mention who exactly will lead this witch hunt? It cannot be the government because of our first amendment rights. Religion is something that just needs to be spoken about and needs to be something we educate our children about properly so that eventually society can be truly secular. Eradication of religion is not the goal, religion is something we all still want in society simply because no one else but a believer could have ever done the Sistine Chapel, Last Supper, and COUNTLESS other pieces of art that would have never existed.[1] What if the next great religious artist is among us today? Do we want to rob him of his faith so that he may never create a beautiful painting, or write a beautiful poem, or write an amazing book or write another stunning symphony? I sure as heck don’t. http://www.youtube.com... http://www.youtube.com... Beethoven may or may not have been a Christian this is still up for debate amongst scholars, but if he was a Christian would you have wanted to rob the world of his 9th? Or 5th? Or 4th? Or ANY of his symphony’s? I wouldn’t…[2] Discrimination: The fact of religion discriminating is ridiculous, you provided no sources for these claims and even if you had I still would like to point this out. For every religion that discriminates against (Just an example don’t take this literally please) at white person for example, there is a religion that will not discriminate against that white person. Because there are so many different sects and religions that point is invalid. Name one race/class/person that is discriminated against in ALL religions equally. And the point that they do not help people of different religions is invalid as well, why exactly does someone from (example again don’t take it personally) the church of Jesus Christ want help from a Muslim anyways? He’s got his own church to turn to for help. If you’re talking about he crashed his car and who’s going to get out and help him and make sure he’s ok well that answer is simple. Human beings will help him… anyone with a heart and a brain will pull over to make sure that man is ok. Conclusion: I have made my point pretty clear, religion is necessary today because of the points and opinions I have stated above, I wish my opponent luck in the debate and in the next round and would like to apologize for the delayed response this round. Sources: [1]http://en.wikipedia.org... [2]http://en.wikipedia.org...