philyyy Posted November 14, 2015 Share Posted November 14, 2015 Some religions have committed fewer violent acts than others but none are immune. Read the article for an example of Buddhist activity. Like the article says, so they partially agree with you, Buddhism is probably the least violent religion. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22356306 I have no statistics but it is very rare you hear of atheists committing crimes purely in the basis that they don't like religion. Or for any other reason. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cyclone Posted November 14, 2015 Share Posted November 14, 2015 I'm sure that many atheists commit crime, but they don't do it because of their lack of religion, it's in no way related to religion and so their atheism isn't reported. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philyyy Posted November 14, 2015 Share Posted November 14, 2015 Maybe we wonder things differently (I probably did so badly) but I think we agree. People without religious beliefs don't commit crimes in the name of "no religious beliefs". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zamo Posted November 14, 2015 Author Share Posted November 14, 2015 These people were not "infants" in terms of their knowledge. Not by a long shot. You assume that when I call our distant ancestors 'infants' that I am somehow implying we are grown up and vastly superior. The reality is that I see neither them nor us as giants. On reflection it might have been a better analogy to refer to them as toddlers and ourselves as infants. Yes, we are infants standing on the shoulders of toddlers! Our species may be giants by our own puny standards but we remain ignorant about most things and crucially what happens after death. These knowledge gaps mean we are still scared and as such continue to make up gods to explain things and make it less scary. Religions exploit this weakness, which wouldn't be such a bad thing if only it wasn't so often a bad thing. If people turned to teddy bears for comfort instead of religion then the world would be a more friendly and peaceful place. No teddy bear ever induced someone to open fire with an AK47 and slaughter people at a rock concert. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonny5 Posted November 14, 2015 Share Posted November 14, 2015 No teddy bear ever induced someone to open fire with an AK47 and slaughter people at a rock concert.Whoah there! This thread is about 'religion' and by that everyone has politely inferred that it's about Christianity. There is absolutely no evidence that those people last night followed Islam and if they did they got it wrong. I think we all know that Islam is sacred and should not in any way be questioned or ridiculed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zamo Posted November 14, 2015 Author Share Posted November 14, 2015 Whoah there! This thread is about 'religion' and by that everyone has politely inferred that it's about Christianity. There is absolutely no evidence that those people last night followed Islam and if they did they got it wrong. I think we all know that Islam is sacred and should not in any way be questioned or ridiculed. Apologies. You are right. The meanness of those terrorists is unlikely to have been religiously induced. Even if it they were of a religious persuasion it doesn't mean their religion made them mean. They were probably mean already and, even without their religion, would have slaughtered innocents in name of some affiliation or other such as English Heritage or the National Train Spotter Society. Clearly, nothing to do with religion. Just as likely to be train spotters responsible for their meanness. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Waldo Posted November 14, 2015 Share Posted November 14, 2015 Buddhists aren't known for their judgemental nature. I wonder how children from buddhist households would score on the altruism scale. Nor has anyone (to my knowledge) ever crusaded or killed in the name of converting people to Buddhism. It's not unheard of, Bhuddist violence against Muslims for example, in Myanmar. Generally though, they do seem less judgemental, open and accepting of people with different perspectives. I occasionally listen to a Bhuddist podcast, and that particular group at least, are in no way preachy or proselytizing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonny5 Posted November 14, 2015 Share Posted November 14, 2015 Apologies. You are right. The meanness of those terrorists is unlikely to have been religiously induced. Even if it they were of a religious persuasion it doesn't mean their religion made them mean. They were probably mean already and, even without their religion, would have slaughtered innocents in name of some affiliation or other such as English Heritage or the National Train Spotter Society. Clearly, nothing to do with religion. Just as likely to be train spotters responsible for their meanness.We don't know enough yet. If it turns out that they were home grown then its a possibility that they could have in some way tainted by Christianity? Worth looking into. One thing I know for sure is that them being Muslims is not a factor because if there is one thing I have be taught by my learned friends on Sheffield forum its that correlation does not equal causation. I think we should build some more mosques and further encourage the propogation of Islam to prove this Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cyclone Posted November 14, 2015 Share Posted November 14, 2015 You assume that when I call our distant ancestors 'infants' that I am somehow implying we are grown up and vastly superior. The reality is that I see neither them nor us as giants. On reflection it might have been a better analogy to refer to them as toddlers and ourselves as infants. Yes, we are infants standing on the shoulders of toddlers! Our species may be giants by our own puny standards but we remain ignorant about most things and crucially what happens after death. These knowledge gaps mean we are still scared and as such continue to make up gods to explain things and make it less scary. Religions exploit this weakness, which wouldn't be such a bad thing if only it wasn't so often a bad thing. If people turned to teddy bears for comfort instead of religion then the world would be a more friendly and peaceful place. No teddy bear ever induced someone to open fire with an AK47 and slaughter people at a rock concert. We're "ignorant" of 'what' happens after death in what way? You're asking someone to prove a negative. The evidence we have suggests that nothing happens. It's the end, finito. No matter how advanced we become we're never going to discover "what" happens beyond, well, nothing as far as we can tell. ---------- Post added 14-11-2015 at 13:08 ---------- Whoah there! This thread is about 'religion' and by that everyone has politely inferred that it's about Christianity. There is absolutely no evidence that those people last night followed Islam and if they did they got it wrong. I think we all know that Islam is sacred and should not in any way be questioned or ridiculed. Nobody inferred this thread to be about Christianity, and yes, the people who kill in the name of a religion have generally got it wrong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RootsBooster Posted November 14, 2015 Share Posted November 14, 2015 No, I didn't equate anti religious types; with religious nutters who like to kill people. You misrepresented what I said (and my meaning of 'pretty screwed up') to come out with... It was you who introduced the murdering religious mob in to the argument; and then you try to claim to I'm equating the anti-religous with murderers. No, nice try, but I'm clearly not doing that. I wasn't equating anything with anything else; just calling it how I see it. The thing is though, you did assert that there are a lot of hateful and raging atheists on SF, could you show any proof of this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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