Quote:
Originally Posted by Mnemosyne  My main questions are...
1. What is religion?
2. What is the purpose of religion?
3. Why is there so much conflict surrounding religion? (Assumes that the answer to question 2 is something positive)
4. What is the difference between religion, spirituality, and philosophy?
In addition, people have mentioned that religion is a way to explain phenomena such as floods and earthquakes, and to control society. These are aspects of religion that I hadn't really thought about (and I'm sure there are several other aspects I haven't thought about either).
I think part of my problem is that I had some misconceptions about what religion is and what it stands for.
If religion represents someone's belief system, maybe it doesn't matter what religion is or what it stands for. People in general don't like to be wrong, especially when it comes to their beliefs. So maybe they'll do whatever it takes to preserve their beliefs, and maybe that's why there's conflict. And maybe power. I think power is a big motivation for people, and that's somehow linked with religion. |
You might take a look at the response I made in the thread you created. You also might look at this:
Sententia // Perspective » About Sententia.net
When you get down to it, religion isn't actually responsible for anything Bad and Evil. But it doesn't help, either. It generally acts as a justification to make bad things worse and to make good things difficult. In other cases, such as my own, it facilitates a good thing: I got a lot of PD mileage out of Christianity, but it could only give me so much.
My personal belief is that it needs to be abolished, but not as a war. Religion has a place, yet that place can be filled by a solid system of government, or by Keith's Anarchy of Enlightened Individuals.