Why it is wrong to NOT attack religion

[Mr. Clandestine]

You will find it in Mein Kampf: "Therefore, I am convinced that I am acting as the agent of our Creator. By fighting off the Jews, I am doing the Lord's Work."

Hitler said it again at a Nazi Christmas celebration in 1926: "Christ was the greatest early fighter in the battle against the world enemy, the Jews ... The work that Christ started but could not finish, I -- Adolf Hitler -- will conclude."

That, in itself, shows that Hitler either did not follow, or disregarded, the words of the Bible:

"I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you." (Genesis 12:1-3)

Sorry for having to bring scripture into the discussion, but it proves my point perfectly that Hitler was a far cry from doing the work of God. Unless he was stating that his carrying out persecution and murder of the Jews was fulfilling prophecy of the Creator. Which, in that case, he'd have been right. But the actual act of persecution is not the work of the Lord.

I also don't really understand this people are inherently bad stuff either. Christianity seems to love to say we are all bad until we accept god. What reasoning is there to assume man is inherently evil? I mean every person I know who is religious or not have the same feelings on not killing someone. I mean, are you just not killing people b/c the bible says so? If the bible were just erased from history, you'd be killing people because there was nothing that said you shouldn't?

I never said that people are inherently bad, I said that people have a natural inclination to become bad. It seems to be hardwired in the human psyche, where "survival of the fittest" leads us to extremes in hopes of bettering ourselves only, and through whatever means necessary. Whether they're religious people or not. Outside influences, be they perceived spiritually or the work of man, can corrupt the morals of anyone, and generally do. I'm also not basing the morals of everyone on the Commandments of the Bible. That's just what I base my morals on, but different people have different ideas of what's right and wrong. And from the time I learned right from wrong, I knew it was not right to take a human life. The Bible only reiterated this for me. So even if I did not have the Bible, I'd still know it would be wrong to kill, lie, steal, etc. You have to bear in mind, I was very agnostic for most of the years of my life. Even then, without having much knowledge of the Bible, I still acted the same as I do today and held the same morals.

I'm glad you recognize that most wars aren't in fact fought over religion, but rather fought for land-grabs and control over money/resources. The fact that some countries are perceived as religious often times has nothing to do with the reasons for going to war.

[BathingApes]

People attack religion and act like its the problem of the world. Well sorry to break it to you but its not. Go deep down to the history of every war and you will see that none of them were started for religion but for land, money etc. If there was even no such thing as religion all these wars would still be going on. Religion is something just to coat it to get more support.

And attacking someone elses beliefs is not the way to go. That is basically personally attacking someone and saying they are flat out wrong. You dont know %100 either so you just may be proving your own ignorance. I am all for an intelligent conversation to talk about your points but attacking is wrong and creates problems.

Money and greed are prime factors in wars, I'll agree with you. However, most of these wars were committed in the "name of Religion." What I mean by this is that politicians, who want to achieve a goal/gain resources, subscribe to the idea of religious defense/offense because fundamentalists are the easiest to manipulate. Granted, the rationalism of "devout" atheists is sometimes quite obtuse, but generally, they are much more cynical and questioning when it comes to Government reasonings for war. I'm not sure why this is, because in today's society, most of the far right, who are incidentally fundamentalist Christians, are pro-war and subconsciously racist. This, coming from a religion where Jesus preaches inner and outer peace, loving eachother and the discrimination of nobody, highlights just how easy it is to manipulate textual examples in the Bible to backup any subconscious prejudices one may have.

The concept of having such a large book as the "Word of God," means that if you want, you can justify murder, slavery, killing of homosexuals, and actually proclaim it as the voice of a higher deity. Now I realise that the people who do this are an extremely small minority, but it is actually quite common for other topics, such as drugs, rock music, video games etc. Extremism gets publicity, but throughout my life I have encountered people who have constantly been trying to preach the word of God, whilst ignoring what anyone else has to say because "God can't possibly be wrong." It is sad that this happens, and I know that it is a small minority of the religion, but that small minority happens to control most of Government.

Fundamentalists are the biggest danger that this planet faces. The concept of believing the Bible to be the Word of God, then ignoring all the sections where Jesus preaches peace and equaility, is extremely dangerous.

Incidentally, I think you'll find it is the religious-right who are the most against medical marijuana. Not saying they all are, but the majority are against mj recreationally as well as medically.