Does being religious make you nicer?

[Jumi]

Certainly casts a shadow over religion, nonetheless.

Why? Starting with not all religions even claim to make people nicer. I think all things should be judged on their own merit or claims.

If I have a certain distrust of a profession doing their job right due to what I've seen of them, does that cast a shadow on them?

 

[Truthseeker]

I suspect that training is not the issue, but that setting an example (the parents doing so) is more likely to influence the behaviour of children - plus some natural characteristics of their personality too. My mother never explicitly seemed to influence us, apart from the usual ways to ensure children are not so selfish or badly behaved, and I don't think myself and my two older brothers were that anyway - we all seemed to get on well enough. I think it was just her nature in being a very nice, honest, cheerful person with the morals of a saint that tended to influence us all. No shouting matches or smacking in our household. And religion just didn't seem to figure either. Perhaps I was lucky. Many of the friends I made over the years were just naturally nice people it seems - and religion was rarely even mentioned.

Setting an example is important too as well as training.

 

[Kelly of the Phoenix]

I don't feel as religion changes everything. Nice people remain nice. Mean people remain mean. Those who wanted to change anyway will try. Those with no intention to won't.

 

[QuestioningMind]

Certainly, there is a spectrum. There is the "live and let live" type of religious person (my personal favorite), and then there is the absolute scary hellfire and brimstone fundamentalist who makes monsters under the bed seem tame in comparison.

If adhering to a religious belief is supposed to make one a pinnacle of society due to following a deity's laws, why is it then so many religious people find it difficult to actually be nice (I cannot be faulted for considering them on par with satan)?

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All that is required to be a nice or moral person is to have a well defined sense of empathy. If you can understand that if you wouldn't want a person to behave in a certain manner towards you, then you should not behave in that certain manner towards others. No religion is required.

 

[Buddha Dharma]

Certainly, there is a spectrum. There is the "live and let live" type of religious person (my personal favorite), and then there is the absolute scary hellfire and brimstone fundamentalist who makes monsters under the bed seem tame in comparison.

If adhering to a religious belief is supposed to make one a pinnacle of society due to following a deity's laws, why is it then so many religious people find it difficult to actually be nice (I cannot be faulted for considering them on par with satan)?

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I am of the opinion that if one has really thought out their religion, their motivations for practice, and the end ideal- most religions make people nicer.

I don't think unthinking religion does. I don't even know if that should be called a proper understanding of religion. Do we call understanding of anything else without thinking proper grip of the subject?

The criticisms of religion are more often than not against the uncritical in the ranks. That should be understood as a criticism of an uncritical person's conclusions, more rightly.

 

[Ponder This]

Certainly, there is a spectrum. There is the "live and let live" type of religious person (my personal favorite), and then there is the absolute scary hellfire and brimstone fundamentalist who makes monsters under the bed seem tame in comparison.

If adhering to a religious belief is supposed to make one a pinnacle of society due to following a deity's laws, why is it then so many religious people find it difficult to actually be nice (I cannot be faulted for considering them on par with satan)?

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My friends refer to it as 'nicism'. The belief that we should just be 'nice' to everyone. It seems to be actively practiced in many places and especially when people don't think they are 'nice'. Say, "You should just be nice. Just be nice." and smile mischievously.

 

[Truthseeker]

All that is required to be a nice or moral person is to have a well defined sense of empathy. If you can understand that if you wouldn't want a person to behave in a certain manner towards you, then you should not behave in that certain manner towards others. No religion is required.

The fear or love of God will motivate you when you don't have enough empathy to overcome temptation. Besides some morals don't directly concern the person in front of you.

 

[QuestioningMind]

The fear or love of God will motivate you when you don't have enough empathy to overcome temptation. Besides some morals don't directly concern the person in front of you.

The fear and love of God also seems to motivate people to do some truly awful things, like fly airplanes into buildings filled with people.

And a well defined sense of empathy enables people to be empathetic even towards those who are not directly in front of them.

 

[Truthseeker]

The fear and love of God also seems to motivate people to do some truly awful things, like fly airplanes into buildings filled with people.

And a well defined sense of empathy enables people to be empathetic even towards those who are not directly in front of them.

These are those that have perverted religion. I'm talking about someone who has not perverted religion. People can also pervert ideology without involving religion. How are you going to decide if different people want different things from you?

 

[QuestioningMind]

These are those that have perverted religion. I'm talking about someone who has not perverted religion. People can also pervert ideology without involving religion. How are you going to decide if different people want different things from you?

Yet another problem with religion... it's so easily perverted. It seems like people can decide that it means virtually anything they want it to mean. In fact, chances are good that the idiots on 9/11 would have claimed that it's you and other theists who have 'perverted' religion. Go figure.

It's really pretty easy to decide what different people would want from me. All I have to do is ask what would I want from them? I would want them to not steal from me or murder me or physically attack me. I would want them to not rape me or enslave me. I would want them to treat me with the same respect and dignity that all human beings deserve.

 

[Truthseeker]

Yet another problem with religion... it's so easily perverted. It seems like people can decide that it means virtually anything they want it to mean. In fact, chances are good that the idiots on 9/11 would have claimed that it's you and other theists who have 'perverted' religion. Go figure.

It's really pretty easy to decide what different people would want from me. All I have to do is ask what would I want from them? I would want them to not steal from me or murder me or physically attack me. I would want them to not rape me or enslave me. I would want them to treat me with the same respect and dignity that all human beings deserve.

Let me ask you this. What if you were a cop and the police force is full of corruption. In this case, empathy alone would not work. Because you naturally feel more empathy for those closest to you you would not be a whistleblower and go along with the corruption. There must be a sense of right or wrong as well as empathy. I had an example like this in my mind from the beginning but I botched it to you.

 

[TransmutingSoul]

Yet another problem with religion... it's so easily perverted. It seems like people can decide that it means virtually anything they want it to mean.

Tell me how that is different to any aspect in life?

Look at the Gun Issue in America and how they try to tie the rights to guns back into a more ancient document, when the people that formulated that documnet had no idea about future gun ownership and what an over liberated gun law could lead to.

The issue is, is that man easily rejects and distorts what is actually from God. We do that in all aspects of life.

Regards Tony

 

[QuestioningMind]

Let me ask you this. What if you were a cop and the police force is full of corruption. In this case, empathy alone would not work. Because you naturally feel more empathy for those closest to you you would not be a whistleblower and go along with the corruption. There must be a sense of right or wrong as well as empathy. I had an example like this in my mind from the beginning but I botched it to you.

If I worked with a group of corrupted people who had no empathy for others, why would I have more empathy for a bunch of corrupt people with no empathy than the people they are supposed to serve? It's really simple. If I wouldn't want government officials to be corrupt then I shouldn't be a corrupt government official and I certainly wouldn't have greater empathy for corrupt government officials than those who are not corrupt. Would you, and if so why?

 

[QuestioningMind]

Tell me how that is different to any aspect in life?

Look at the Gun Issue in America and how they try to tie the rights to guns back into a more ancient document, when the people that formulated that documnet had no idea about future gun ownership and what an over liberated gun law could lead to.

The issue is, is that man easily rejects and distorts what is actually from God. We do that in all aspects of life.

Regards Tony

Sure, people can disagree about and distort virtually anything. However, when it comes to religion everyone's opinion holds equal weight. That's why you have a couple/few different positions on what the 2nd amendment means, whereas there are literally thousands of different Christian sects all with different opinions on what the Bible means. When there is no verifiable means of ascertaining exactly what is and what is not from God then virtually any ridiculous claim has merit.

 

[TransmutingSoul]

Sure, people can disagree about and distort virtually anything. However, when it comes to religion everyone's opinion holds equal weight. That's why you have a couple/few different positions on what the 2nd amendment means, whereas there are literally thousands of different Christian sects all with different opinions on what the Bible means. When there is no verifiable means of ascertaining exactly what is and what is not from God then virtually any ridiculous claim has merit.

I would say there is ample guidance on what has merit in the Word of God and it is not mans input that holds any merit, that is why there is division and we can not find our Unity in Gods Faiths.

Regards Tony

 

[QuestioningMind]

I would say there is ample guidance on what has merit in the Word of God and it is not mans input that holds any merit, that is why there is division and we can not find our Unity in Gods Faiths.

Regards Tony

If there was ample guidance on what has merit in the Word of God there wouldn't be so much disagreement on what the Word of God actually is. Are the Hindu Vedas the Word of God(s)? Is the Koran the Word of God? Or is it the Christian bible that's the Word of God? If so, which version of the Christian bible is the Word of God? Sounds to me as if there hasn't been any genuine guidance at all.

 

[TransmutingSoul]

If there was ample guidance on what has merit in the Word of God there wouldn't be so much disagreement on what the Word of God actually is. Are the Hindu Vedas the Word of God(s)? Is the Koran the Word of God? Or is it the Christian bible that's the Word of God? If so, which version of the Christian bible is the Word of God? Sounds to me as if there hasn't been any genuine guidance at all.

This is our free will. It is not that the guidance has not been provided, it is the urgency and motivation to search for that Truth, which gives us the world we now live in.

Abraham, Krishna, Moses, Zoroaster, Buddha, Jesus Christ,Muammad, the Bab and Baha'ullah are the Faiths that still have people that beleive in the Message they gave is from God.

As the Scriptures get older and the later they were recorded, the less sure we can be of their accuracy to the original Word.

The Koran is the first of the 100% authenticated scriptures which we can examine Word for Word. The Bible contains the Word of God, but we can not take it word for word.

Regards Tony

 

[QuestioningMind]

This is our free will. It is not that the guidance has not been provided, it is the urgency and motivation to search for that Truth, which gives us the world we now live in.

Abraham, Krishna, Moses, Zoroaster, Buddha, Jesus Christ,Muammad, the Bab and Baha'ullah are the Faiths that still have people that beleive in the Message they gave is from God.

As the Scriptures get older and the later they were recorded, the less sure we can be of their accuracy to the original Word.

The Koran is the first of the 100% authenticated scriptures which we can examine Word for Word. The Bible contains the Word of God, but we can not take it word for word.

Regards Tony

Sorry, but there is absolutely ZERO evidence that any religious text was inspired by any god(s). It's far more likely that they are nothing more than the words of fallible human beings, the Koran included.

 

[TransmutingSoul]

Sorry, but there is absolutely ZERO evidence that any religious text was inspired by any god(s). It's far more likely that they are nothing more than the words of fallible human beings, the Koran included.

Knowing they are all from God, allows me a mindset accepting of all Faiths and a great appreciation for the struggle that all have implementing the virtues in our lives.

To me it can only male you a better person.

Regards Tony

 

[QuestioningMind]

Knowing they are all from God, allows me a mindset accepting of all Faiths and a great appreciation for the struggle that all have implementing the virtues in our lives.

To me it can only male you a better person.

Regards Tony

Seems absurd that they can ALL be from God, since at times they completely contradict one another. It sounds far more likely to me that they were all just made up by fallible human beings and some of them just happen to contain occasional kernels of truth.