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Originally Posted by Phoenix
....religion is the bane of humanity though
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I agree with this, Brad.
When religion is propagated via books, formalities and rituals, it is no different from any other IDEOLOGY -- like Capitalism, Communism, Objectivism, etc.
Ideologies are on the list of things people use to separate themselves from other people, like Race, Nationality, etc.
And when people separate themselves into groups (which is ALL our history indicates we've EVER done) we hate, we dehumanize, we kill. At the bottom of it is FEAR OF DIFFERENCE.
This tendency is probably what makes me saddest about our species.
The potential HORROR of religion is that, for it's claim to Divine (and, therefore ABSOLUTE) validation, it sometimes let's people do terrible, terrible things in the name of God -- without any guilt or moral introspection.
Basically, the degree to which religion fosters a feeling of absolute entitlement and righteousness (overriding the basic humanity of others) is the degree to which religion is evil -- history is also full of tragic examples of this.
j-