azza1625/createdebate-arguments huggingface dataset:
Debate: Would the world be a better place if religion didn't exist?
Side: Yes because...

How on earth does that follow? Of course there is a reason to maintain order and peace - both are beneficial to the well-being of humans as individuals and the survival of the species. If anything, peace and order would be more readily attainable without the divisiveness of faith.
Debate: Would the world be a better place if religion didn't exist?
Side: No because...

If we wanted the best for our species we'd kill off the weak and les able and ensue natural selection so only the best of the best of each generation passed on their genes.
Debate: Would the world be a better place if religion didn't exist?
Side: Yes because...

Again, how is this a response to what I said? My argument was not that we should select for better attributes but that religion is more violent as a consequence of its fundamentalism. At any rate, eugenics is inherently flawed because it is a consequence of human vanity and ego. Evolution is extraordinarily complicated and the nuances of genetics and epigentics not yet mastered (if it ever can be), and it is entirely illogical to think that humans could do a better job than natural selection does on its own. The species evolves at the pace which most ensures its survival; too rapid and extreme of a change in too short a period of time would be destabilizing and could threaten the survival of the species.
Debate: Would the world be a better place if religion didn't exist?
Side: No because...

If you are going to say that we are not naturally aggressive creatures then you underestimate the force of chaos and irreligiousness.
Debate: Would the world be a better place if religion didn't exist?
Side: Yes because...

When did I ever even imply that I thought human nature was not aggressive? I absolutely recognize that aggression and conflict are in our nature. My observation is that religion is more prone to bring out and validate these dispositions than is secularism. I also do not underestimate the force of irreligiousness - I think it is can be a very powerful positive force.
Debate: Would the world be a better place if religion didn't exist?
Side: No because...

The reason religion has appeared chaotic and violent is because there are different ones.If everyone was the same religion, this wouldn't be the case.On the other hand, if everyone was atheist, it would be a very callous and cold-hearted world indeed where everyone only looks out for 'numero uno' as they say.
Debate: Would the world be a better place if religion didn't exist?
Side: Yes because...

The reality is that diversity is inherent to the human species and always will be. There will never be a universal human perspective. Within the theocratic era, religion has been a manifestation of our diversity but it has manifested in such a way that is wholly intolerant of that diversity. Religion is inherently dogmatic and slow to change, whereas social progress has always driven at a far faster rate.It is a complete fallacy to conclude that atheists are callous, cold-hearted, and self-centered. We are not, certainly not to any greater extent than the religious. The capacity for compassion is not the sole purview of religion, and I would actually argue that religion is worse at compassion and love for the express reasons stated above.
Debate: Would the world be a better place if religion didn't exist?
Side: Yes because...

A world without religion would be complete and utter chaos.Give me more reasons for this, if religion where not to be real it would be more likely to have peace as there would be less fighting for who's right and wrong on beliefs. Not to mention you'd be more open to whats actually real and makes sense.
Debate: Would the world be a better place if religion didn't exist?
Side: No because...

I am sorry but the theory of atheism makes next to zero sense to me. If it is a logical explanation of the universe and how it came to be, Buddhism has all the answers.
Debate: Would the world be a better place if religion didn't exist?
Side: Yes because...

Buddhism has no creation theory. They say that you must strive for enlightenment, and that thought about such things is futile ("Questions about the eternity or infinity of the universe at large are counted among the 14 unanswerable questions which the Buddha maintained were counterproductive areas of speculation")Atheism is simply the disbelief in deities, that is all.
Debate: Would the world be a better place if religion didn't exist?
Side: No because...

That is the Mahayana form of Buddhism (also known as the emotional form), I follow the Theravada one (the scholarly one).
Debate: Would the world be a better place if religion didn't exist?
Side: Yes because...

What are the origin/other beliefs associated with Theravada? I can't find any.
Debate: Would the world be a better place if religion didn't exist?
Side: Yes because...

We believe that there was no original consciousness but rather an almighty one that eventually made a consciousness that went back to the beginning of time and reality ad made the almighty power than made it, this occurs eternally, as a cycle beyond human comprehension. We can merely appreciate what it is, not ever hope to understand how it works.
Debate: Would the world be a better place if religion didn't exist?
Side: Yes because...

Effectively, then, you are arguing that atheism is wrong because you possess an unfounded religious belief that says otherwise. In a rational discussion you cannot just claim that you or your religion have the answers. You need to be able to give a reason and/or proof. There is not a single reason why your creation myth should be true. Not one.
Debate: Would the world be a better place if religion didn't exist?
Side: Yes because...

You don't have any answers about origin of universe. You have a dogma that you have to follow to be budhist but that does not makes it any more real.
Debate: Would the world be a better place if religion didn't exist?
Side: No because...

I have answers, feel free to ask.
Debate: Would the world be a better place if religion didn't exist?
Side: Yes because...

What should anyone trust your answers? I have no clue where universe came from but what I know is that you don't know either.
Debate: Would the world be a better place if religion didn't exist?
Side: No because...

I do know but it is alright that you do not.This is similar to a child screaming to Einstein: I don't know whether anything can truly travel faster than the speed of light within constricted dimensions but I know that you don't either (despite him having done years of work to come up with the formula).
Debate: Would the world be a better place if religion didn't exist?
Side: Yes because...

Except that Einstein could prove his theory with reason and mathematical logic. You have no rational structure to your beliefs nor any proof. Your belief is wholly arbitrary and there is no legitimate reason to believe it.
Debate: Would the world be a better place if religion didn't exist?
Side: Yes because...

You know obviously shit about physics, lets try something else.
Debate: Would the world be a better place if religion didn't exist?
Side: Yes because...

I have a question, how did life start? That is an interesting one.
Debate: Would the world be a better place if religion didn't exist?
Side: Yes because...

Your answers are barely coherent. Quit using Buddhism to hide behind. Buddhism isn't strict in some rule set. In Buddhism you are supposed to be under the impression all things are one, and the goal is to reach enlightenment, not praise a god of some sort. You are pathetic.
Debate: Would the world be a better place if religion didn't exist?
Side: Yes because...

The God is in all of us. The praise is to others and self. I am humbled by your insults.
Debate: Would the world be a better place if religion didn't exist?
Side: Yes because...

Tell me what answers does Buddhism have?..................................
Debate: Would the world be a better place if religion didn't exist?
Side: Yes because...

To everything in life and beyond. :)
Debate: Would the world be a better place if religion didn't exist?
Side: Yes because...

Do you have evidence of this?..................................................
Debate: Would the world be a better place if religion didn't exist?
Side: No because...

Years of experience and millennia of philosophy.
Debate: Would the world be a better place if religion didn't exist?
Side: Yes because...

Ok that's your experience though can you give me any proof at all that Buddhism has the answers? Fair enough if you've had experience I haven't.
Debate: Would the world be a better place if religion didn't exist?
Side: No because...

The proof comes through practising it.
Debate: Would the world be a better place if religion didn't exist?
Side: Yes because...

Ok then give me an example of what you practised and what it achieved.
Debate: Would the world be a better place if religion didn't exist?
Side: No because...

I practised meditation, I achieved enlightenment.
Debate: Would the world be a better place without religions
Side: Yes of course

More suffering has been caused by religion and religion based "crusades" than any other calamity in history. Religion is "Big Brother" with the sole purpose of controlling people and limiting free thought. If religion were eradicated more people would strive toward true understanding of science and reason.
Debate: Would the world be a better place without religions
Side: No

Religion has also taught people to aspire to be charitable, to love thy neighbour, and to give to the poor. While it can be a force for evil and it can be abused, so can governments, and so can science. Ideas like eugenics and trying to cure sexual deviance with electroshock therapy came from scientists, so enlightenment isn't limited to either science or religion.
Debate: Would the world be a better place without religions
Side: Yes of course

No, it hasn't. You cannot build a strong pyramid of morals and ethics on a faith, it's baseless! You can make a stronger argument for why you should love your neighbors with reason than with faith. You build your pyramid with reason at the base, and then take that leap of faith at the top, where you wonder if your reasoning was correct.Use the mind that "god" has given you.
Debate: Would the world be a better place without religions
Side: Yes of course

You can do that if you're educated and thoughtful, and able to believe in your own intelligence. I'm not religious, and I'll defend my right to choose what my own moral convictions should be, but there are a lot of people for whom that is not true. A lot of people would rather put their trust in establishments based on thousands of years of philosophy than in their own thoughts, and that's their choice.
Debate: Would the world be a better place without religions
Side: Yes of course

Would the world be a better place without religions...I said yes, you oppose by saying that uneducated people who are not thoughtful would rather trust an establishment based on thousands of years of "philosophy" (which, unlike true philosophy, is regarded as TRUTH, rather than KNOWLEDGE). And to end it, it's up to them... Well for one, who is holding education from them? I know plenty of religious people that are educated, and very thoughtful, in fact one of them is a teacher, and a JW. Secondly, you're assuming that people trust in their faith... when in reality, we are seeing a huge boom right now of people switching faiths, and a lesser amount that are leaving religion all together (In the U.S.).Would the world be a better place if everyone were educated? Would the world be a better place if everyone had faith in their education? Would the world be a better place if people would strive to reach their own conclusions or answers or beliefs based on logic and more importantly, reason.  You know, humans excel in reason. I mean, that's just how the mind operates, reasonably. The more we know, the more we have to reason with. Education is key, and also, freedom from RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS. Spirituality is fine, to me. In all actuality, I would argue that spirituality is great for the mind... having something to believe in and all... On the other hand, when you begin brainwashing people, and start trapping people in micro-cultures, where everyone is tied to everyone, and religion is the bond, then it gets ugly for everyone. The only people that survive church like organizations are people that A) Hide their fallacies or B) Don't question the church. In either scenario the individual involved is basically enslaved by the church, out of sociological fear. There's no way around it. Religion is NOT a good thing. Hell, even Jesus fought organized religion because IT IS CORRUPT!
Debate: Would the world be a better place without religions
Side: Yes of course

You drive a hard point there. But yeah you are right. The Church during the Jesus era was really corrupt and even used bribery of Jesus' own disciples to get at him. (Judas) Ill have to agree on you on this one. However, organisations are made to manage a large group of people. To manage, you need power. And power tends to corrupt. For now, Ill just pray and hope that our Vatican isn't keeping anything from us.
Debate: Would the world be a better place without religions
Side: Yes of course

"However, organisations are made to manage a large group of people"Why does or why should anyone under one faith feel the need to manage other people? So that evil doesn't spread? Really, where does the need for management come from? Why does believing in a common god require power to certain people?I think, perhaps, this may be the first corruption, requiring management of other people.
Debate: Would the world be a better place without religions
Side: Yes of course

You can't have good science without faith either. Science, just like religion, starts with an irrefutable assumption. For science to have any use at all, it needs this assumption to be true. If we posit that an assumption is true (especially an irrefutable one) then we believe in that assumption.The irrefutable assumption, or strong assumption, that underlies both science and religion has a very unique character namely that these assumptions cannot be tested.Religion starts with "there is a higher being that influences our lives". How do we test that? If the being is higher than ourselves, how can we possibly have the ability to test whether it actually exists or not? Without this assumption religion would have no use.Science starts with the assumption "it is humanly possibly to objectively explain nature through analysis and deduction". It is? How can we test that? We have been trying for as long as science existed as a separate discipline after all, and so far we have only been able to subjectively interpret our findings into (sometimes) useful tools for our survival. But without this assumption science will have difficulty surviving.Strong assumptions like these elicit interlinked webs of value-saturated concepts that builds towards a belief system, or faith. Thus, everything we know is built on faith.
Debate: Would the world be a better place without religions
Side: Yes of course

Religion starts with "There is a being higher than us, that has created everything in existence, and perhaps even it's self". There's a lot more to religion than just believing that we've all come about by a being's will.Religion, actually is not the same as spirituality, or believing. Religion is organized and has definable beliefs which are all basically based on nothing more than scripture, and then verified by the empirical.Science, on the other hand, believes that the universe is just a universe, assuming nothing more than the obviously empirical data that we all can grasp via our senses. It's not a belief until you get so far into it that there's no way to know for sure, there's no more reliance on the sense. Atoms, sub-atomic particles like quarks and so on, are things that are theory as of now, because there's no way to know for sure what happens on that scale. We don't know what the matter consists of, so they leave it with a name that doesn't justify it's truth, a sort of algebraic name, a variable meaning, like a question mark.  Science relies on the human mind to organize and understand our world. Religion relies on faith first, where they believe in scripture, and then seek to justify it with science. If it cannot be justified, the scripture is not incorrect, and the science is not incorrect, just the interpretation of the scripture. Science = Strong foundation (empirical facts) before faith.Religion = Strong faith before foundation (empirical facts).
Debate: Would the world be a better place without religions
Side: Yes of course

You assume religion and science are two completely different worlds. While it's true science has shed light on so many mysteries that used to be explained by faith, that fact that religion doesn't consider science and is "baseless" is very ignorant. Especially since the definition of "science" can be fairly safely agreed upon, whereas the definition of "religion" is a something more abstract. I'm not even implying semantics, but the ideology and logic behind each religion. When people fail to consider opposing viewpoints and simply start debating so they can hear themselves "sound smart" or make fun of people, then you lose a very important part about discussion... listening. If anyone is really interested, here are some articles written by Einstein on the subject. http://www.sacred-texts.com/aor/einstein/einsci.htm I believe in God. I also believe the universe is a system, since this isn't the discussion topic I will stop here, but I think you get what I'm saying.
Debate: Would the world be a better place without religions
Side: Yes of course

Yes, science and religion have both brought us good things. Science is the only one of the 2 things that continues to give us new good things. You need science for the computer your using right now. You don't need religion to be a charitable, loving person.
Debate: Would the world be a better place without religions
Side: No

Well, you are right in the sense that we can all be good people without religion, but having a religion can help us with that. Thats if we practice proper religion anyway. No use following a preacher who goes like "GASP You didnt come to church last sunday? YOU ARE GOING TO HELL MY FRIEND!" Theyre probably not very smart people anyway, so following them will get you no where. But there are people who have stuck to religion's true purpose, that is bettering us as people.
Debate: Would the world be a better place without religions
Side: Yes of course

Charity done by religion is not an excuse to be complaisant with it's existence when it is positively immoral (which I would argue in more detail some other time).Secular organizations have done a much better and more convincing job at assailing poverty and emancipating women, etc. etc. One cannot thing of a good deed religion can do that a secular person could not, however you can think of many evil things religion can do that a humanist can't before you blink.
Debate: Would the world be a better place without religions
Side: No

I don't see how you can argue a humanist is less capable to evil compared to a religious person. There's simply no basis for that. A humanist can be just as intolerant of Christianity as a Christian can be intolerant of a humanism, for example.
Debate: Would the world be a better place without religions
Side: Yes of course

Humans are naturally intolerant and will be no matter what ideology they accept. The difference is that religion elicits intolerance and bigotry that otherwise wouldn't exist, and amplifies what already has manifested. Humanism (a few tenets of which are rational inquiry, kindness, and tolerance) expressly stifles those aspects of people.
Debate: Would the world be a better place without religions
Side: Yes of course

It has also taught people to brainwash their kids into rejecting scientific theories, to be against homosexuals (i actually argued with a woman that honestly believed homosexuals were possessed by demons, and she learned all this from her church), and that you should believe a 2000 year old book which has no evidence for it (that creates stupidity)
Debate: Would the world be a better place without religions
Side: Yes of course

Religion is mind altering and dangerous, no matter which one has been used to indoctrinate or brainwash the human mind. Our brains are much more efficient and wise, when we are left to develop our own instincts, curiosity, and empathy for others. We learn from experiences that we encounter throughout our lives, and that includes learning lessons and feeling regret from our own wrong doings as well. We behave according to the way our families and communities react to our behaviour, and when we do wrong we realise it from how it affects others. It is a gradual process, and it is the best way and the natural way. Interfering in this learning, by teaching children the illogical, barbaric, nonsensical, ridiculous, and outrageous stories from fictitious (religious) books, and threatening them with horrific punishment by 'gods' ( imaginary beings) which are always scarily schizophrenic, and cruelly vindictive monsters, will damage the natural acquisition of real knowledge. If you get on the wrong side of one of these 'gods', (mythological beings), is he caring, sympathetic to your plight, or helpful in any way? NO! He will make sure you burn in hell fire for eternity if you don't do as you are told! No second chances with this lord and master! Religion is a man made tool of slavery, created by tyrannical power hungry leaders and built up using old tales from ancient beliefs. Religion is a controlling mind game that has now back fired and become insanely out of control.It is so sad, that so many human minds have been stunted, and closed to learning from nature and reality, by religious tampering. It seems their lives are very shallow and limited, and their vision is destroyed, as they will never see the world or indeed the whole universe, in the clear, enlightened, and overwhelmingly beautiful way that I see it. They are too busy fighting each other, and seem intent on utterly destroying it!........... It makes me cry. If you can actually believe in a 'god' you will be at risk of believing anything, and that's the danger.
Debate: Would the world be a better place without religions
Side: Yes of course

This is exactly what government is for. Are atheists any more terrible people than those who are religious? Not at all.
Debate: Would the world be a better place without religions
Side: No

How do you begin to quantify that first sentence? Do you have any sources to back up that claim? People do bad things, especially when power is concentrated in too few people. Those in power often times use any means to justify their evil deeds and many times the method of justification is religion. It is a convenient way of painting the world into the 'with us' and 'against us' camps. This red herring has been quite effective in getting people to do evil things. However, religion is not the only means of breaking the world into the 'with us' and 'against us' camps. Communism has been used as well as culture, ethnicity, and race. Maybe religion is the most effective means of doing this, I don't know. However, I believe that in the absence of religion then the other listed means will be used more often. I do not believe humans have reached a general state of knowledge and awareness to avoid falling for the red herring of the 'us vs. them' mentality. Maybe in the future humans will no longer fall for this trick.