Legitimate question: Do you Veeky Forumstory buffs happen to think religion (in general) has caused more conflict (and war, and death, etc) then it has prevented or resolved? Do you think religion has had, ultimately, a net positive or net negative effect on humanity?
I was just wondering, and while all anecdotes I can think of point one direction, I figured I might swing by and ask people who'd probably know better.
Jesus died for your sins.
That's difficult to answer because you have to be familiar with the history of the entire world for all time
>do you think religion has caused war
Yes.
>has it had a positive/ negative effect on humanity
debatable. Most western culture derives from Judeo Christian beliefs which has been a bench mark for western society in granting people rights and liberties, and as it progressed, and reformed so did the faith.
You can be a gay catholic in the west for example.
On the otherhand, if we're talking about religions like Islam, which has led to totalitarianism and Muslims advocating for its reformation, then it's certainly had a negative effect.
Christianity: Positive
Because Christiantiy is the truth.
Islam: Negative
Because Islam is a false religion.
/thread
For a completely and totally 100% accurate answer? Yes, undoubtedly.
But being more passingly familiar with history then I am can give an inherently more correct answer then just speaking out my ass. Knowing better, even if it's not knowing BEST, still sounds good to me.
The Abrahamic religions are an evolution of solar worship, invoking the sky god,
Hence their desert origins and insistence on maximum cruelty.
TIL: only two religions exist
Mm. Solid answer. Then, do you think the religions that lead to positive things for humanity outweigh the ones that lead to negative things? I did say net positive and net negative.
0/10 poor bait.
zeitgeist has been debunked you fucking retard
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if you consider humans to be everyone descending from the last common ancestor of all currently existing humans on earth, more humans have existed total after and directly because of the birth of agriculture and abrahamic religion, then obviously it has literally caused more conflict than it has prevented because it caused significantly more humans to exist in the first place to go and have conflicts and shit.
The imposition of exclusive monotheism destroyed the cultural and religious toleration of preceding centuries. Exclusive monotheism is toxic: it's a fantasy of racism projected on to a cosmic level.
Evolutionism is a myth. So your point is moot/irrelevant.
it's toxic in a subjective sense maybe but in an objective sense it's been a direct cause of modern civilization and resulted in a massive population boom, whether or not you see that as a good or bad thing is subjective as well. without an aggressively expansionist mindset where you think other people should behave the way you behave, agriculture and technological advancements would have spread a lot slower throughout the world. it's no coincidence that the most aggressively conversion-oriented religions is associated with modern globalized culture, it makes an effective partner in spreading technology.
we haven't really had irreligious societies like ever
I'm sure you can figure out what that does to empiricism
The scientific revolution came about because religion lost much of its control over the state, through secularism, not because religion became more tolerant of science
A lot of englightenment era ideas are basically just secular rehashings of christian ideas of egalitarianism
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No of actually study history you'll find out that all wars are started over resources
The Sumerian goddess Ishtar, was hung naked on a stake, and was subsequently resurrected and ascended from the underworld.
Dionysus was a divine child, resurrected by his grandmother. Dionysus also brought his mum, Cybele, back to life.
The Cybele cult flourished on today's Vatican Hill. Cybele's lover Attis, was born of a virgin, died and was reborn annually. This spring festival began as a day of blood on Black Friday, rising to a crescendo after three days, in rejoicing over the resurrection.
>Snap
Attis was not born of a virgin as that picture points out and since you couldn't get that right I not even going to bother investigating the rest of your claims. Regardless, even if they were true we shouldn't be surprised that demons attempt to imitate God; Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.
>Regardless, even if they were true we shouldn't be surprised that demons attempt to imitate God
WEW LAD
>But being more passingly familiar with history then I am can give an inherently more correct answer then just speaking out my ass.
No you can't. It makes you even more susceptible to bias when you have incomplete knowledge even if you do have the best of intentions.
>On the otherhand, if we're talking about religions like Islam
So why do you deny all the positive social things that Islam bought to the areas when it was bought to then? Why do you ignore the charitable and social progress made under Islamic empire? Why do you talk about derivations of judeo-christian beliefs then ignore the tremendous negative effects it also had?
A fucking disgraceful answer and prime example of You're just a dumbass.
>talking about "religion" as if it's all just one thing
Be more specific
Well...
Not disputing Muslims haven't done some good shit, but it kind of sucks when Islamists and jihadists and fundamentalists fucked over progressive liberal Muslim countries like Iran
They were never progressive. If they were the ayatollah wouldn't have taken over
Not religion, humans using religion as a way to void morality in their mass murders. Religion on its own does nothing, you just need violent psychotic animals(humans) to make religions destructive.
Jesus never existed
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Not even bait, bro, it's the truth
You are the equivalent of an young earther. Fyi
You can harrumph it all you like, bro, it's not going away
More than what? Religion is ultimately a human activity, as is conflict, and conflict can happen for million reasons.
This is just like asking whether economics has done more harm than good, it misses the real source of conflict, which is us humans
Impossible to answer. For each conflict genuinely caused by religion, there are probably a dozen more where the aggressors merely used religion as an excuse.
Look at Barbarism in Europe before the Barbars became Christian.
Vikings for example. It was a very gruesome world back then.
Look at pagan Rome and Pagan Greece, majority of people where slaves. Death games in the Colosuem, mass crucifications, conquered city were sometimes completly genocided.
Christianity was a blessing from a humanistic perspective but on the otherhand it's peacefulness was the weakness that allowed the Roman Empire to be conquered by Germanics and Muslims.
Islam is like overworked form of Christianity. The weakness of peacefullness was abondened and a more agressive and war commited ideology besides the social norms (that are nearly the same) was implemented.