March 25 good news: 84 percent of the world population has faith........

[HopeAgain]

155. So to sum it all up

Let’s face it, to say there would be more or less violence historically with or without religion is mere conjecture on either side.

One can say ISIS is motivated by religion, that's what they claim, but I believe ISIS is the result of disenfranchisement caused by a century plus of western colonization, western subjugation, and illegal invasion by western forces. It is likely that they would just have a different justification for their actions if there were no Islam. Tribalism predates religion and it can follow religious, ethnic, geographical, political, historical lines and I believe it’s easy to blame religion because bad people frequently used it to as cover for other motivations.

Maybe we can agree to disagree as follows:

1. You have pointed out that there are archaic commands in the Bible that you believe have caused followers to oppress, murder and torture people; I believe people’s motives are complex and often religion is misused to justify actions more deeply caused by bigotry, economic struggles, territorial disputes and the like.

1. You have argued religion has been used as a force for evil and I have said that science and technology can be misused for other purposes as well (think atom bomb and all the civilians killed in Japan, Dresden, Dachau etc.). I believe the blind pursuit of technology and progress is in itself very religion-like; you do not.

I believe religion can play an important role to still provide ethics and morals; you seem to believe that religious ethics are dominated by the fundamentalists, to which I don’t agree –there’s no real way quantify and to know who is right. For every violent act, I could point to a shelter or meal provided by a religious institution.

You have agreed there are good things in the Bible; I believe that such good may in fact have caused more mercy and goodwill than death and destruction; apparently you not so much. There’s no way to know who would be right, because again, there is no way to quantify it.

Finally, I don't care what atheists think and I would prefer it if they felt the same way about how we think and not talk about our "babble" so I don't have to point out their "arrogance." But I have learned through my spirituality that we just need to live and let live.