Americans and Religion

[kandrathe]

Maybe a single christian does this, because of the way his society around him is. In most religious countries, be they christian, muslim, hindu or whatever normal people never even meet atheists, they never even meet people that don't agree with them. For them it is simply unbelievable to think that there is no God, just because everybody else thinks the same. When the government (like Iran, but also the US) starts to get involved as well, even for a person that is always questioning everything it becomes very very hard not to believe in a God.

Yeah, people are easier to understand when you discriminate against them as a whole group. A single Christian can be like Mother Teresa, but as a whole they form scarey groups like "Focus on the Family" that fight against ideas like gay marriage. I think you are over generalizing the influence and power of fundamentalism in Iran. Most of it is a populist extremist nationalism represented through theocracy in response to bungled interference by the US in their sovereignty. If we focused on healing that rift the propensity for the people to support the extremists would wane (I hope). Again, though, you are assuming the masses of people are ignorantly following like a herd of cows. What percentage of religious people are well informed of their beliefs?

Your comments about atheists believing in a big bang, which they didn't witness themselves firsthand, and so calling this a believe as well, is a bit a too simple way of looking at this.

Sure, it's simple. But so is pointing at a "Fundie" that believes in the literal interpretation of the bible as representative of 2000 years of Christian theology. There is junk science, and there is junk theology. For both, discernment of what is untrue is the challenge.

Some other things why I (personally) don't believe in God is that many things that in the ages were said by the church as being true, have been proven to be wrong, and this is a continuing process. And of course one can say that what the church says has nothing to do with there being a God. True, but then why go to church, why prohibit gay marriages, why offer animals, why say women should wear burqas etc. etc.

Just as in science when someone publishes known false research for personal gain, fraud happens in any human endeavor. Although, conclusions based upon scientific observation can be disproved, but disproving someone that says "God told me to destroy the infidels." is nearly impossible. Science is easier in that regard. Although, it's not like it's one or the other. There are plenty of people who are informed by both.

I stick with the science part, that only on the part of the proof that there is or is not a God has not given an answer yet, but for the rest it is what helps us advance. Religion keeps pulling us back.

And, nuclear weapons have propelled us forward. It's not a matter of labelling an entire branch of philosophy as "backward" and others as "forward". Each of us needs to endeavor every day to make wise and intelligent decisions, in our science, in our morality, and in how we treat each other. How about we just start each day deciding not to blow up our fellow humans?

It has in this thread already been remarked by someone that morals are anyway a human invention, so there goes the second to last reason that religion would have a purpose. The last one is the comfort people get in believing that their deceased loves ones are waiting for them in a better place.

This last part is merely opinions, whether informed or not would require lengthy debate.