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What’s the worst thing in religion?

joedad said:
It glorifies ignorance, thereby causing great harm. In short it is a license to commit crime.
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This is true. Any atrocity can be justified if "god" told someone to do it. I can't help thinking of Hebrews 11 in the christian bible. The writer praises all these people who did things "through faith." Among these things was Abraham preparing to kill his son as a blood sacrifice because god told him to do it.
 
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Atheos said:
joedad said:
It glorifies ignorance, thereby causing great harm. In short it is a license to commit crime.
Click to expand...

This is true. Any atrocity can be justified if "god" told someone to do it. I can't help thinking of Hebrews 11 in the christian bible. The writer praises all these people who did things "through faith." Among these things was Abraham preparing to kill his son as a blood sacrifice because god told him to do it.
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My vote goes with this.

I saw a vid a few years back, some journalist in the mideast interviewing 3 Muslim militants. She asked “what about family, what about your lives back home?” The response was that family and their lives back home don’t matter, only submission to the will of Gawd does.

I thought “Damn that is the most stupid and horrible thing to believe." Submission, and insisting others submit too. And it's worse than that. The “neoplatonic” or “gnostic stain” gone even more crazy than it just inherently is. Other-world-ism. If the body’s scorned for being material instead of spirit, so is everyone and everything that exists.
 
Worst as in detrimental to others: Violence, war, torture
Worst as in brain-numbing: Dumb-ass right wing politicians like Walker and Huckabee speechifying about god wanting them to run
Worst as in irritating: Primitive, superstitious thinking that people blurt out every day from their religious upbringing
Worst as in dull, dull, dull: religious-themed holidays (except Halloween, tho'. Halloween's OK.)
 
abaddon said:
Some would say religion is a big problem among other big problems in the world. Some would say religion is the world’s biggest problem because it causes so many of the other problems. Some would say religion has problems in it, but those can be addressed without arguing for or hoping for the end of religion itself.

I was thinking of making a poll but then I realized the difficulty of breaking a rather nebulous topic, religion, into categories without raising questions about overlapping categories and what options I left out of the poll. So generally I'm hoping people will find a label or two to describe what is/are the major problem(s) with religion. Is it supernaturalism, authoritarianism, faith-based beliefs, indoctrination, it's anti-scientific, the shaming of people with "sin", or what else?

How would you label the one or two worst things in religion? And, if you want, add why the one or two worst things are the worst.
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I would say that childhood indoctrination (of the particular religion's religious dogma) is the "worst" aspect of religion. Most (all?) religions promote this, along with peer pressure maintenance as the child grows older. Human social conditions allow the indoctrination to occur and human social makeup is vulnerable to the peer pressures. Human children are practically defenseless from incessant suggestions, pronouncements and fanciful claims from trusted adults (who, guess what, were in turn indoctrinated when they were children).

Yes, childhood indoctrination is the worst thing about religion. Perhaps society will someday deem it child abuse.
 
sdelsolray said:
abaddon said:
Some would say religion is a big problem among other big problems in the world. Some would say religion is the world’s biggest problem because it causes so many of the other problems. Some would say religion has problems in it, but those can be addressed without arguing for or hoping for the end of religion itself.

I was thinking of making a poll but then I realized the difficulty of breaking a rather nebulous topic, religion, into categories without raising questions about overlapping categories and what options I left out of the poll. So generally I'm hoping people will find a label or two to describe what is/are the major problem(s) with religion. Is it supernaturalism, authoritarianism, faith-based beliefs, indoctrination, it's anti-scientific, the shaming of people with "sin", or what else?

How would you label the one or two worst things in religion? And, if you want, add why the one or two worst things are the worst.
Click to expand...

I would say that childhood indoctrination (of the particular religion's religious dogma) is the "worst" aspect of religion. Most (all?) religions promote this, along with peer pressure maintenance as the child grows older. Human social conditions allow the indoctrination to occur and human social makeup is vulnerable to the peer pressures. Human children are practically defenseless from incessant suggestions, pronouncements and fanciful claims from trusted adults (who, guess what, were in turn indoctrinated when they were children).

Yes, childhood indoctrination is the worst thing about religion. Perhaps society will someday deem it child abuse.
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I am also of the opinion that indoctrination of minors is child abuse.
 
One of the worst things about it is the amount of people's time it wastes. Our lives our pretty short and yet there are so many people that spend countless hours in worship of allah/god/yaweh etc. They force their kids into the same pattern. We atheists spend time on it too, we are constantly on our guard as we have to monitor them trying to sneak some bullshit into schools, into government and into our daily lives.
 
TSwizzle said:
One of the worst things about it is the amount of people's time it wastes. Our lives our pretty short and yet there are so many people that spend countless hours in worship of allah/god/yaweh etc. They force their kids into the same pattern. We atheists spend time on it too, we are constantly on our guard as we have to monitor them trying to sneak some bullshit into schools, into government and into our daily lives.
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A religious couple is wasting thousands, tens of thousands of dollars to put up anti-gay marriage billboards. Money that could have been put to good use, put food in some kids belly.

The worst part of religion is when religious idiots don't see the big picture (hungry kids) because of the small picture (some gay couple now can get health insurance coverage if they are married). And then they push on forward in a massive effort (Mormon Church, looking at you) in order to stop those sorts of things. How many millions, tens of millions were spent to try and defeat gay marriage? How much of that money could have made a positive difference?

Oh... but the Old Testament says gay sex is wrong. It also says eating shellfish is wrong. That doesn't count!
 
I would second the vote for childhood indoctrination, but especially the indoctrination into believing that you are a corrupt, evil, sinful, shameful pitiful excuse for a being, and you areconstantly being watched by an all-powerful being that would burn you in a lake of fire forever.

Oh, and then add that killer of critical thinking abilities: "...but he loves you."
 
abaddon said:
Atheos said:
This is true. Any atrocity can be justified if "god" told someone to do it. I can't help thinking of Hebrews 11 in the Christian bible. The writer praises all these people who did things "through faith." Among these things was Abraham preparing to kill his son as a blood sacrifice because god told him to do it.
Click to expand...
My vote goes with this.

I saw a vid a few years back, some journalist in the Mideast interviewing 3 Muslim militants. She asked “what about family, what about your lives back home?” The response was that family and their lives back home don’t matter, only submission to the will of Gawd does.

I thought “Damn that is the most stupid and horrible thing to believe." Submission, and insisting others submit too. And it's worse than that. The “neoplatonic” or “gnostic stain” gone even more crazy than it just inherently is. Other-world-ism. If the body’s scorned for being material instead of spirit, so is everyone and everything that exists.
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Yes, exactly what I was talking about. Whether it's a father letting his daughter drown (the story is 20 years old, but it still makes a point), or a Christian choosing God over their non-believing spouse or over their gay daughter or son. Some say taking away religion would just take away one more excuse to behave badly, but I think that misses the point. There's a deference given to religion that is given under no other circumstances. We see this time and again. What would otherwise be completely unacceptable will be tolerated if religion is the excuse for the behavior.
 
I think it's fear.

The vast majority of us are afraid of death. I know I am. I don't want to die; I will.

But when you couple that natural fear with eternal damnation, people can be convinced to do anything.

God sees everything you do: fear
God knows your every thought: fear
If you don't please God you go to Hell forever: fear
If you don't pray the right way, you're going to Hell: fear
If you don't pray often enough, you're going to Hell: fear
If you doubt, hell awaits: fear
And so on.

There is always the element of not just a slap on the hand, but total damnation for your thoughts and actions. There is Heaven or there is Hell. And only a relative few get into Heaven.

It allows people to worship a fucking monster (Abrahamic god). It terrifies children into believing and locks that belief in for life in most cases. It gives the clergy power over vast numbers of people.

Of course not all Christians believe in Hell; but they should. It's in their book. I tend to think they don't really believe, but that's a different topic.
 
braces_for_impact said:
abaddon said:
My vote goes with this.

I saw a vid a few years back, some journalist in the Mideast interviewing 3 Muslim militants. She asked “what about family, what about your lives back home?” The response was that family and their lives back home don’t matter, only submission to the will of Gawd does.

I thought “Damn that is the most stupid and horrible thing to believe." Submission, and insisting others submit too. And it's worse than that. The “neoplatonic” or “gnostic stain” gone even more crazy than it just inherently is. Other-world-ism. If the body’s scorned for being material instead of spirit, so is everyone and everything that exists.
Click to expand...

Yes, exactly what I was talking about. Whether it's a father letting his daughter drown (the story is 20 years old, but it still makes a point), or a Christian choosing God over their non-believing spouse or over their gay daughter or son. Some say taking away religion would just take away one more excuse to behave badly, but I think that misses the point. There's a deference given to religion that is given under no other circumstances. We see this time and again. What would otherwise be completely unacceptable will be tolerated if religion is the excuse for the behavior.
Click to expand...

Yes. This is what I was writing about too, when I said the mistaking of obedience for morality. Obedience to god, no matter what god is said to demand becomes what these people see as good and right. The person's actual sense of empathy and right and wrong gets buried under the dogma until they are capable of doing some truly hateful and horrible things, with great pride, thinking it is the greatest good.
 
Underseer said:
Thanks to evangelical missionaries, Africans are killing children for "witchcraft."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witchcraft_accusations_against_children_in_Africa

An estimated thousand children have died, many by being burned alive.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/18/african-children-denounce_n_324943.html

Oh look, you can watch video of it!
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=cfd_1367882372

Seriously. I can't think of a single thing going on in the world of religion more disgusting, more savage, more inhuman than this.

Good job, Christianity!

Ugh. Sorry for my attitude, but this is so tragic and upsetting. Of course the people who are burning those children are not evil, nor are they choosing evil. They genuinely believe they are making the world a better place by doing what they are doing. The problem is that they believe something that is not true: that witchcraft is real. Once you accept that bad conclusion, it is not hard to imagine a whole slew of other bad conclusions based on that one. How do you identify a witch? How do you defend yourself from witchcraft? Once you accept that one bad conclusion, it is terrifyingly easy to imagine yourself making a bunch more bad decisions.

This is my biggest problem with religion. Faith is accepting conclusions with insufficient evidence. Once faith convinces you something is true, how can evidence or reason convince you that it is not true?
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According to your own link witch hunts in Africa are an ancient thing. While adding Christianity into the mix certainly adds fuel to the fire, I think it's safe to say that Africans would be denouncing people as witches an performing mob executions even in the absence of evangelical missionaries.
 
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