Religion (in general)

<> First of all, those persecuted choose to be of that religion, while a child does not choose to exist. Also, the benefits of having children exist outnumber the benefits of having religion. Do not forget however, that religious people are persecuted by religious people. The Romans persecuted Christians because they believed strongly in their own pagan religion. Had none of them had a religion, there would not be so many millions of deaths. < > So they feed the hungry, and heal the sick... Great! However, priests rape our children today. There have been far more deaths caused by Christianity than poor that have been fed because of Christianity. Think about the Crusades, and think about Hitler, who was influenced by Martin Luther to kill millions of Jews. People are hostile to the fact that their religion has blood on their hands so they deny it. But the fact remains so. < > That is a lot of death... I don't think the word "only" is appropriate. < > Still a lot of death. But remember this is about religion, not YOUR religion. < > Really? So Christianity, Islam and so forth... Those aren't major? I have a hard time imagining Christianity being older than Christ himself. Or Islam older than Muhammad. On your point about the dangers of science: 1) Here's where it gets interesting... Religion influences people to think a certain way. However, in science, it is the people that influence science. Therefore, the fault is in the individual that uses science to do bad things. 2) Science has helped us much much much more than religion! You can't deny it. Today if you're sick you have a hospital. On the contrary of religion, science actually helps the sick. Read some of the writings of Hippocrates. He was the first to discover that blessings don't help the sick, and that sicknesses are not cured or inflicted by the gods (Greeks were polytheistic). Everything we use to save people's lives we owe to science. Before science was around, the survival rate was very low. And hospitals are nothing compared with all the other benefits we get from science. 3) It's funny you mention overpopulation. Because although science created that problem, religion isn't of much help either. Many religions prohibit gay marriage. Homosexuals could fix the problem of overpopulation if they could all just come out the closet and not be forced to be married to women (and procreate). To be continued if anybody wishes to discuss gay marriage. < > As I said, where do you get these hospitals? How do you keep orphans in clean clothes? Do you wash them with buckets of water you get from a river? No. Plumbing. Without science, those institutions couldn't be 10% as effective as they are. And as I said before, there are the pros and cons. You gave me some pros, but they are still greatly outweighed by the cons. < 1. It is the religion that is responsible and not the person of the religion. 2. The net sum of bad must outweigh the net sum of good 3. That all religions should be held responsible for the actions of another religion.>> 1. Yes it is religion. Religion influences the person. If it wasn't for religion, a terrorist in the Middle East wouldn't blow himself up in the marketplace. He would know that after death he won't have 72 virgin brides and won't go to paradise. It's not the he's evil, It's that religion makes him think that blowing himself up is the right thing to do. 2. Millions and millions of deaths were caused by religion. I take death seriously. There is no way i can measure the pros and cons, because there is no unit of measurement. That is up to every individual to decide. 3. They don't, but they all did their share of destruction except for maybe Hinduism. Including self-destruction. Thank you for this debate. I will be looking forward to your response.