• Welcome to Religious Forums, a friendly forum to discuss all religions in a friendly surrounding.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Our modern chat room. No add-ons or extensions required, just login and start chatting!
    • Access to private conversations with other members.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!

Not as Good as They Claim

Skwim

Veteran Member
Not every religion or denomination is doing the right thing in everyone's eyes. In fact, some religions and denominations are considered to be doing wrong; hurting or disrupting the good of individuals, the community in which they are a member, be it a small town or the country as a whole, or all of mankind.

If you have any candidates please share, and exactly what you think they're doing wrong.

.
 

ADigitalArtist

Veteran Member
Staff member
Premium Member
Not that I think atheism is a religion or religious denomination (though I think atheistic religions do exist) I see groups like atheism+ and antitheists as making religion an easy polarizing hot topic us vs them which destroys healthy conversaions about religions and replaces it with 'more logical than thou' 'more moral than thou' stand ins, which I believe are ultimately unproductive. This kind of environment is especially unique to the US. Other countries predominantly more Christian with less separation still managed the more secular humanist policies earlier than we did without barking on about separation of church and state. Which makes me think the barking isn't helping.

I'd like to see more atheist groups, such as they are, focus more on humanitarianism than being the informal ACLU of church policing.
 

suncowiam

Well-Known Member
Not that I think atheism is a religion or religious denomination (though I think atheistic religions do exist) I see groups like atheism+ and antitheists as making religion an easy polarizing hot topic us vs them which destroys healthy conversaions about religions and replaces it with 'more logical than thou' 'more moral than thou' stand ins, which I believe are ultimately unproductive. This kind of environment is especially unique to the US. Other countries predominantly more Christian with less separation still managed the more secular humanist policies earlier than we did without barking on about separation of church and state. Which makes me think the barking isn't helping.

I'd like to see more atheist groups, such as they are, focus more on humanitarianism than being the informal ACLU of church policing.


What's wrong with "more logical than thou?" Is there a situation where we should not use logic? Not suggesting anything in comparison between atheists and theists. Just focusing on that statement.

The other stuff I can agree with.
 

ADigitalArtist

Veteran Member
Staff member
Premium Member
What's wrong with "more logical than thou?" Is there a situation where we should not use logic? Not suggesting anything in comparison between atheists and theists. Just focusing on that statement.

The other stuff I can agree with.
Imo the problem isn't with trying to be logical, it's the labeling of positions as default illogical as an attempt to demean people. 'Theists are illogical' is a resounding cry coming up from my camp and it's worrisome, not because talking about logic isn't a worthy goal, but because the way it's phrased guarantees no productive conversations are going to actually happen.
 

idav

Being
Premium Member
One place I see a claim that religion is doing wrong is really for those specific types that reject science without a second thought. That isn't really specific religions, those individuals exists in every religion and denomination. However Buddhism and Judaism tend to have the highest percentages, about 90 percent believers in evolution so I gather those religions must be doing something right.
 

Jeremiah Ames

Well-Known Member
Not every religion or denomination is doing the right thing in everyone's eyes. In fact, some religions and denominations are considered to be doing wrong; hurting or disrupting the good of individuals, the community in which they are a member, be it a small town or the country as a whole, or all of mankind.

If you have any candidates please share, and exactly what you think they're doing wrong.

.
Pretty easy one for me.
If it’s a religion, it becomes a candidate. They all oppress people in one way or another.
At least you don’t have as many openly murdering others today.
However, they make good social clubs. If they stuck to that they would be OK.
 

sayak83

Veteran Member
Staff member
Premium Member
Not every religion or denomination is doing the right thing in everyone's eyes. In fact, some religions and denominations are considered to be doing wrong; hurting or disrupting the good of individuals, the community in which they are a member, be it a small town or the country as a whole, or all of mankind.

If you have any candidates please share, and exactly what you think they're doing wrong.

.
In India, politicians of all hues are hell bent on using religion and caste based identity politics to polarize people and to divert from their own corrupt incompetence. The tie up of religion with narrow nationalism and identity politics is the major problem I see with religion in India. Also the increasing tendency of some Hindu gurus to develop personality cults around themselves.
 

sun rise

The world is on fire
Premium Member
There are some obvious ones: Westboro Baptist Church which preaches hatred. Wahhabi Muslims are another because they want to force people backwards toward a dead ideal. There are many others of that ilk in the major religions.
 

Jeremiah Ames

Well-Known Member
There are some obvious ones: Westboro Baptist Church which preaches hatred. Wahhabi Muslims are another because they want to force people backwards toward a dead ideal. There are many others of that ilk in the major religions.
Whoa.
I just looked up Westboro.
How can that exist?
 

Twilight Hue

Twilight, not bright nor dark, good nor bad.
In India, politicians of all hues are hell bent on using religion and caste based identity politics to polarize people and to divert from their own corrupt incompetence. The tie up of religion with narrow nationalism and identity politics is the major problem I see with religion in India. Also the increasing tendency of some Hindu gurus to develop personality cults around themselves.
It was a real eye-opener when the day came that I suddenly realized that India isn't the worldwide spiritual superpower I thought it once was. A real shame yet
sobering.
 

sayak83

Veteran Member
Staff member
Premium Member
It was a real eye-opener when the day came that I suddenly realized that India isn't the worldwide spiritual superpower I thought it once was. A real shame yet
sobering.
Well, when I came to US, I was also kind of hoping that every town and city would be dotted with agora-s where educated citizens will be having lively Socratic discussions on philosophy, ethics, economics and science - quoting and analyzing the works of James, Dewey, Rawls, Aurelius, Descartes, Cantor, Einstein and Feynman. I could not quite believe that 700 years after the Renaissance and 300 years after enlightenment, and with the immense material wealth and libraries and worldwide communication facilities that has been available since the industrial revolution... the Western society as a whole has not been able to advance the general level of thought to the point of its leading thinkers of many centuries ago.

To say I have been disappointed would be an understatement. Oh well.
 

Brickjectivity

Turned to Stone. Now I stretch daily.
Staff member
Premium Member
Open Source. Sadly its a poor stand in for Free Software, but it gets the limelight. Sure its not officially a religion and doesn't provide an entire way of life, but its religious.
 

savagewind

Veteran Member
Premium Member
Not every religion or denomination is doing the right thing in everyone's eyes. In fact, some religions and denominations are considered to be doing wrong; hurting or disrupting the good of individuals, the community in which they are a member, be it a small town or the country as a whole, or all of mankind.

If you have any candidates please share, and exactly what you think they're doing wrong.

.
The Jehovah's Witnesses. They are supposedly coming after everyone who is wrong and showing truth seekers what is right. They are wrong in that they are just like everyone else. Everyone else clings to tradition and so do they.
 

Skwim

Veteran Member
In India, politicians of all hues are hell bent on using religion and caste based identity politics to polarize people and to divert from their own corrupt incompetence. The tie up of religion with narrow nationalism and identity politics is the major problem I see with religion in India. Also the increasing tendency of some Hindu gurus to develop personality cults around themselves.
Is this a subversion of the religion by its followers, or the appropriation of the religion's structure by politicians?

.
 

Skwim

Veteran Member
Not that I think atheism is a religion or religious denomination (though I think atheistic religions do exist) I see groups like atheism+ and antitheists as making religion an easy polarizing hot topic us vs them which destroys healthy conversaions about religions and replaces it with 'more logical than thou' 'more moral than thou' stand ins, which I believe are ultimately unproductive.
And I'm sure that the atheist may well feel that theists,Christians for the most part, are making non-belief an easy polarizing topic by the continued public display of their faith: hundreds of thousands of churches, Christian TV shows, Christian holidays, etc.

This kind of environment is especially unique to the US. Other countries predominantly more Christian with less separation still managed the more secular humanist policies earlier than we did without barking on about separation of church and state. Which makes me think the barking isn't helping.
Should we assume you have a problem with the enforcement of the First Amendment? That when an asserted violation pops up it's better to ignore it?

.
 

Skwim

Veteran Member
One place I see a claim that religion is doing wrong is really for those specific types that reject science without a second thought. That isn't really specific religions, those individuals exists in every religion and denomination. However Buddhism and Judaism tend to have the highest percentages, about 90 percent believers in evolution so I gather those religions must be doing something right.
The rejection of some science by some Christians is indeed troubling, especially where it involves the education of children.

.
.
 

sayak83

Veteran Member
Staff member
Premium Member
Is this a subversion of the religion by its followers, or the appropriation of the religion's structure by politicians?

.
It's primarily an exploitation of religious illiteracy by hypocritical people for power and influence. Nothing new there.
 

ADigitalArtist

Veteran Member
Staff member
Premium Member
And I'm sure that the atheist may well feel that theists,Christians for the most part, are making non-belief an easy polarizing topic by the continued public display of their faith: hundreds of thousands of churches, Christian TV shows, Christian holidays, etc

Should we assume you have a problem with the enforcement of the First Amendment? That when an asserted violation pops up it's better to ignore it?
Your first statement seems at odds with the second. If there is many times more Christians than there are atheists, then of course there's going to be many churches and other places of gathering and media for Christians. This should come as no surprise to the atheist nor should they chafe at it. The UK and Scandanavia has thousands of churches, religious books, religious schools, religious media, religious public displays on public land no less, yet they still mange to work together with atheists and make a more secular environment than we have anyway. How has quibbling over that cross display helped us?
Certainly going on about how Christians are anti-intellectual or anti-science hasn't. And that is a significant chunk if not the majority of threads I come across by atheist about Christians.
 
Top