What do you as a person gain from it?

[Clara Tea]

In my understanding religion is the teaching how to get closer to God. so if something does go wrong, it is on the human side, not from God.

Time to toss another virgin in the volcano? I suspect that some religions might have bad practices.

If we look at the Christian religion, it seems fine. However, each Christian must be ever-vigilant that they don't stray from the path set out by God (or Jesus). Nazis started out just fine....they wanted to improve the economy of Germany. But then they abandoned their Christian faith and followed a bigoted monster who tortured Jews by the millions and made wars against peaceful nations. Unless we learn from those mistakes, we are doomed to repeat them.

The torture camps (plural) of President W. Bush, which included Camp X-ray, Camp Delta (both in Guantanamo Cuba, where they thought they could evade US treaties that prohibited torture and hide it from Congress, and the torture camp in Iraq (reported by the International Red Cross before US military forces killed all of the Red Cross workers....perhaps accidentally....dead men don't talk), and the torture camp on a ship in the Indian Ocean, (and other torture camps, as well), were very similar to the torture camps of Adolf Hitler.

We have to be ever-vigilant

But so many are just arrogant as to such - and one thing I generally can't stand.

Arrogant people shouldn't talk to arrogant people? Sometimes the ones who need help are the ones who reject it.

Hitler was arrogant (superior to all?). I would imagine that his allies (Japanese, Italians, and Russians) would have been Hitler's next victims. So, it made little sense to help a bigot warmonger.

W. Bush bragged that he was humble (he had to...it was a requirement of his Christian faith). But was he really humble, or did he just say that he was? How humble is a man who runs for the presidency? How humble is a man who takes over a country by accusing them (falsely) of cooperating with terrorists? Humility is the opposite of arrogance, and you can see that arrogance is likely the root of all wars.

Many are arrogant about their religion...they are so lucky that their parents chose the "right religion." They are so lucky that all other religions are Pagan, evil, Satanic, demonic, etc. (I'm being sarcastic). When an arrogant person gets a chance to "fight evil" (as President W. Bush put it), they go crazy. They feel that they are fighting a battle with their God on their side.

Jews believed that they could summon a Golum (big monster) to fight their battles. Having that in their hearts, war was the answer. God hates war. God sees the good or bad in one's heart. So, whether or not the Golum was real is immaterial. It is the thought that counts.

The world needs help. That help starts with a ripple (one small word from one small person), and it reaches distant ears, and they ripple, and more ripple. Eventually, the whole world is on board, and one can overcome torture camps and wars with enough support. We are each important, and we each should have a voice.

Sadly, the thing that lives on after Hitler is his evil. It grows in those who feel superior.

 

[Clara Tea]

In that atheists represent maybe 3% (and that is recent, even less before)... shouldn't theists, by the nature of the percentages, automatically represent "most wars"?

However, didn't the 3% represent the most killed during wars?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_the_United_States

When quoting statistics, it is better to include a source. The source above shows that roughly 26% of the US has no particular religion (which includes atheism).

Your point (more theists mean more wars created by theists) has some validity. Another point is that in a democratically elected society, the majority is usually elected. Thus, a slight majority of Christians might result in huge Christian victories in every election. But we see that minorities are sometimes elected. JFK (Kennedy) was elected though he was a Catholic, and, at the time, he was considered a great underdog. Obama was half Black (again, an underdog). By ignoring race and religion, the nation showed that it was not bigoted (a very good thing).

Since Christians are against killing (thou shalt not kill), you'd think that they would not fight wars at all.

Israel is a sad example. It is a nation of people who believe in God, and worship peace above all. Yet, they are constantly in a battle to survive and that means that they have to have a military. They even achieved the reputation of having the most skillful soldiers in the world.

Think of how far the world could go if there were no wars, no crimes, no judges, no courts, no jails. All that extra money would make the world a truly wondrous place. There would be no homeless, and all of the sick would be seeking a cure with a doctor. We would all live better.

Alas, humans are imperfect, and the world that we have carved out is like us...imperfect. The best we can achieve is justice, compassion, and equality.

These are the goals of most religions...yet no one seems to adhere to those tenets of their religions.

 

[Clara Tea]

I feel it is very important to separate this into two different things:

1) Criticism intended to ridicule and demean others.

2) Criticism to show the flaws in ideas and reasoning.

They are two completely different things.
I try to stay far as much as possible from #1, while on the other hand I love doing #2.

My reason is simple: I feel one of the biggest things we should seek on this life is to move away from ignorance. So whenever I am criticizing something I am either making someone else wiser by pointing out the flaws they hadn't seen before, and/or I am making myself wiser by being able to hear others criticizing my views. Both ways works for me.

I feel one of the worst things that humans could do with their lives is to stay inside a room only listening to the echo of their own voices.

To have your views confronted might be painful at first, but that's how we grow up. Don't be afraid to grow up.

I sought to make a big guy with a baseball bat wiser. He hit me with the bat....I'm wiser.

 

[Kenny]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_the_United_States

When quoting statistics, it is better to include a source. The source above shows that roughly 26% of the US has no particular religion (which includes atheism).

I think you didn't understand what I said.

You are talking about today. What I said was that wars (all) and percentages (not of recent times).

Additionally, in ref to what you said, "no particular religion" doesn't mean they don't believe in a god or gods. Just that they aren't affiliated in a particular religion.

So my statements still hold true.

 

[Koldo]

I sought to make a big guy with a baseball bat wiser. He hit me with the bat....I'm wiser.

Indeed you are.