My question is this: is there any good to religion? Why does Bill Maher attack it with his new movie, saying it has “harmed the human race”?
Bill Maher is an idiot.
That’s all I have to say at this time.
Some people take it so seriously that they want to force their religion upon others by different means. Some by laws that reflect the odd taboos of the religion (blue laws). Some by state religions. Some by the gun.
None if it would happen if they all had the idea that each person’s beliefs are his or her own and so long as they’re not forcing it upon you, it’s ok.
First, I’m not a fan of Bill Maher. I don’t know how to reply to his comment other than to offer him food in the hopes that it will shut the hole beneath his nose and cease his headache-inducing babble.
Is there any good to religion? Yes. Religion used to be a means of creating connections within a community. It would provide financial assistance to those in need by petitioning the parishoners to giving to help their fellow community members. It was a means of spreading news. It created a sense of belonging without infringing upon the individual as a governing authority has a tendency to do.
Unfortunately, religion was affected by the axiom: power corrupts. It went from being a mechanism of creating society to a mechanism of governing society. It began to tax its parishoners with the tithe–10% of one’s yearly salary–instead of asking for people to give voluntarily. (Yes, it’s still ‘voluntary’ in the fact that you do not have to give of your salary; but if you do not give, you can be removed from the rolls of the parishoner.)
Catholic school girls. that’s all I can think of
Because he has a personal agenda?
I don’t find anything good about religion for me… so, meh.
Religion can serve a lot of good purposes…as charity…much better than having the government do it by means of theft. At least religion is voluntary. Religion only seems to do harm when it is paired with state power. In the minds of some faith will start to replace reason as a mode of thinking and I believe this to be very dangerous. I don’t really care however, people can think how they want, as long as they leave me alone. Oh yeah…I used to watch Maher but I don’t think I can anymore because his ridiculous rants and idiotic ideas make my blood pressure boil. On a somewhat recent episode the crowd was cheering the idea of nationalizing the oil industry.
Sure.
Libertarianism is concerned with how we treat others, but it does not say how to treat ourselves with dignity.
Thomas E. Woods has said that he converted to Catholicism(from Lutheranism) because, the Catholic Church shows you “how to live the good life.”
As has been pointed out by Byzantine, Western Society is coasting on hundreds of years of Christian culture that is quickly diminishing and when its gone its gone. Societies advance at different rates for a reason. The progress of the West is a testament to its institutions, the most prominent one being the Catholic Church.
For example, Church laws regarding marriage were the basis of modern contract law. The idea that marriages entered into due to violence or deceit were not valid was something new, you may remember that this was not the case in the old testament.
Bill Maher is an idiot, and not a libertarian.
(Edited: I make the strangest type-o’s.)
This is called proving so much that you prove nothing.
True, forcing your beliefs on others is bad. But you failed to explain why religion should be looked down upon as compared to atheism, which has been forced on many as well.
Bill Maher is for the war on terror because he is, quite literally, militantly atheist. Whether or not Muslims see this “global struggle” as a holy war, Bill Maher definitely does.
According to a book I got from a relative, capitalism emerged directly from Protestant Christianity. One sociologist by the name of Max Weber noted that Protestant (particularly Calvinist) areas outperformed Catholic areas economically. A Harvard study confirmed the “Weber Thesis,” suggesting that the prevalence of Christianity improves the economy. Calvinists also have a long and proud history of increasing personal liberty and political dissent: rebels against the Church, legalized “usury” (interest on loans), introduced the doctrine of “limited war” which stood in stark contrat to the bloody Crusades, and executed King Charles I. If I have my history correct, Calvinists influenced later religious movements which settled in the New World, and helped found the U.S.A.
Says Adam Smith
“In the state in which things were, through the greater part of Europe, during the tenth, eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries, and for some time both before and after that period, the constitution of the church of Rome may be considered as the most formidable combination that ever was formed against the authority and security of civil government, as well as against the liberty, reason, and happiness of mankind, which can flourish only where civil government is able to protect them. In that constitution, the grossest delusions of superstition were supported in such a manner by the private interests of so great a number of people, as put them out of all danger from any assault of human reason; because, though human reason might, perhaps, have been able to unveil, even to the eyes of the common people, some of the delusions of superstition, it could never have dissolved the ties of private interest. Had this constitution been attacked by no other enemies but the feeble efforts of human reason, it must have endured for ever. But that immense and well-built fabric, which all the wisdom and virtue of man could never have shaken, much less have overturned, was, by the natural course of things, first weakened, and afterwards in part destroyed; and is now likely, in the course of a few centuries more, perhaps, to crumble into ruins altogether.”
He probably had an axe to grind, but still…
Also, you can check out what Thomas Paine had to say about revealed religion :
So overwhelming was the victory won by liberalism in this conflict that the church had to give up, once and for all, claims that it had vigorously maintained for thousands of years. The burning of heretics, inquisitorial persecutions, religious wars these today belong to history. No one can understand any longer how quiet people, who practiced their devotions as they believed right within the four walls of their own home, could have been dragged before courts, incarcerated, martyred, and burned. But even if no more stakes are kindled ad majorem Dei gloriam, a great deal of intolerance still persists."
I suppose there are some other libertarian critics of religion out there.
Really ?
http://www.sntp.net/education/school_state_3.htm
"The first modem public schools were founded in the German state of Gotha in 1524; three years later, Thuringa set up public schools. In 1559, compulsory attendance was inaugurated in Wurttemberg. Luther himself drew up a plan for Saxony. The purpose of all those school systems was to impose Lutheranism. Similarly, in the mid-16th century, John Calvin set up mandatory schools in Geneva, which were used to stamp out dissent. Under Calvin’s influence, Holland followed suit in the beginning of the 17th century. It is important to understand that the purpose of the schools was to indoctrinate the citizens in the official religious outlook, for, as Luther put it, "no secular prince can permit his subjects to be divided by the preaching of opposite doctrines… Heretics are not to be disputed with, but to be condemned unheard. " Unsurprisingly, it was in Calvinist New England that compulsory schooling first arrived in America. "
This almost makes me cynical enough to posit the idea of wrapping libertarian and/or anarchistic ideals in religious flavor & packaging.
But then again, I was never a fan getting up early on Sundays… :\
I’m not a Christian (in case you couldn’t tell from the avatar) but I think that religion, particularly in the Christian style, is actually rather anarchist in its essence. Jesus said “You cannot serve two masters”. At the time he was referring to money versus God, but surely the State could be inserted there quite comfortably. The authority of God, in the mind of a true believer, ought always trump the authority of men, as in the state.
Christianity has been warped many times, in combining with the state (divine right et al), such that, as in many ancient pagan religions, the power of kings derives somehow from divine authority (Pharoh being a living god comes to mind). However, if you look at the life of Jesus as recorded in the Bible, we see clear defiance towards authority, and indeed, extensive associations with actual revolutionaries. Even in the Old Testament, warnings against the state are given.
Religion, like any belief system which can be (mis)interpreted by men, can be good or bad.
How is this an axiom?
Religion was never a good idea. Ignoring the evidence of your senses is the bane of this world. Just mere instruments of control, like proto governments, passed on by the coercive power adults have over the young.
I find religion in general to undermine one’s will by placing or being placed under some authority. Religion(not plain belief in god) is authoritarian in nature and creates rules for everything. Maybe if man would focus on creating himself and not letting the primitive desire of loneliness overcome logic, he would not be so inclined to repeating mistakes over again, even if they “seem or feel right”, like the state.
I see religion as the scapegoat for personal responsibility. Being a voluntary slave is still slavery, because it is very hard to make one’s own life a life of free will and creation, not of being a master or of a slave.
And religion becomes so violent and brings so much destruction because these mentalities are exploited by each other. Not being a creator deems that you must follow someone’s creation or destroy the creation. Yet the creation is dead when the artist dies. To follow and continue to create additions to a dead substance brings imbalance(in addition to general imbalance that life brings). This imbalance corrupts the mind and leads to complete destruction of itself, hence religion finds glory in death, because in death one goes to a place where the free creator is permanently annihilated. All there is left is black and white, the master and the slave.
Abrahamic religions in particular try to control a world that they hate, which is why they are the causes of great wars and death. Bill Maher hates that he has to put up with this and lampoons God and the reasons he sees that cause violence in the world. Yet he lives with the state and supports it, a profound hypocrisy.
Short answer: it destroys civilizations and people based on the irrational, and he does not like that it is irrational. Rational destruction is better, i.e. the state.
Religilous was funny as hell though.
Yes, because we obviously don’t believe anything exists we can’t directly perceive. As a matter of fact, I’m convinced that only those people who I can see right now are actually there, and pop into and out of existence as they enter and leave my perception. Because I’m an infant. Yes, you sure showed religion.
Which religion is that, which has a rule for everything? Because, as I recall, quotes attributed to Jesus were highly critical of the religious establishment of his day for creating law after law after law, whereas he thought the single, golden rule was enough.
Insanity and inanity. The phrase “voluntary slavery” is as ridiculous as “voluntary rape”; if it’s voluntary, it can’t be slavery or rape. The essence of why those things are evil is because they are imposed on their victims. It is part of their definition.
Have you been huffing mercury? This paragraph is virtually Palin-esque in its senselessness.
Except not.
I wasn’t saying anything about that. However, I think a lot of us “look down upon” racists and flat-earthers, for example.