The root of all evil...

[@tt!tud3]

I just finished watching both parts of this UK program (via bit torrent) Where evolutionist Dawkins examines the rise of fundementalist religion and the seeming retreat of reason. I read elsewhere that Dawkins didn't approve of the title. The network was aiming for more controversy than Dawkins alone generates.

LINK

Imagine, sang John Lennon, a world with no religion. Imagine no suicide bombers, no 9/11, no 7/7, no Crusades, no witch-hunts, no Gunpowder Plot, no Kashmir dispute, no Indian partition, no Israel/Palestine wars, no Serb/Croat/Muslim massacres, no Northern Ireland "troubles."

Imagine no Taliban to blow up ancient statues, no public beheadings of blasphemers, no flogging of female skin for the crime of showing an inch of it. Imagine no persecutions of the Jews - no Jews to persecute indeed, for, without religious taboos against marrying out, the Diaspora would long ago have merged into Europe.

Hitler invoked "My feelings as a Christian" to justify his anti-Semitism, and he wrote in Mein Kampf: "I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator: By defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord."

Edit: Found link to original program:LINK

[preacherman481]

Are the original programs available over the Internet? What you linked to seems to be a review of the programs.

[Evil Moo]

"Evil" will always exist. Religon is just the most convienient excuse our world has. If religion didn't exist, socio-economic class, ethnicity, nationality, partisanship, simple greed, etc would rise up in popularity to compensate the void.

People would still have morals, and concepts of right and wrong that would still be a strongly held as today. If anything, the only thing we can blame religon for in a negitive light is a) introducing and developing "good" and "evil" (different from right/wrong) and b) being a more convienient excuse than the others.

[@tt!tud3]

Originally posted here by preacherman481
Are the original programs available over the Internet? What you linked to seems to be a review of the programs.

Yes, search on mininova.org. You will need bit-torrent client to get it.

I watched the segment with Rev Michael Bray again. We don't get to see a middle eastern terror imam so clearly answer questions about why they think killing is righteous, but Michael is no frothing madman, he has charm and wit and believes he is doing gods work, believes Paul Hill is in heaven for murdering an abortion doctor.

This is the critical difference that religion provides, people think they are doing ultimate good while they murder. Most people who murder, know it is wrong, but religion provides an absolute certitude that the killer is right to kill. This is not someone doing wrong and using religion as justification. Religion has convinced them they are absolutely right to kill.

http://www.rickross.com/reference/a-...abortion7.html

But Hill has his passionate followers, chief among them the Rev. Michael Bray, pastor of a small Lutheran church in Bowie, Md., who has a "Free Paul Hill" bumper sticker on his Chevy Suburban, along with one that reads "Execute Murderers/Abortionists."

DeArmond, a Bellingham, Wash.-based expert on religious and right-wing extremism, said Hill is aligned with the Christian Identity movement that preaches violence in the service of "the one true God."

Last week, over the course of an hour in a prison interview room the size of an office cubicle, Hill, 45, a former Presbyterian minister, demonstrated why the battle over abortion rights may not ever be settled at the polls or in the courts.

Hill said that he would not rule out the use of chemical or biological weapons by antiabortion activists, that it may be "just" to assassinate Supreme Court justices who support Roe v. Wade, that any faith other than "true" Christian worship is in the service of Satan, and that abortion foes who share his views are ready to engage in more violence.

[RoadClosed]

Some early, wait make that most early scientific advancements are related directly to religion. In addition many people would go without a hot meal tonight.

[MURACU]

Religion isn't the root of all evil. Humain nature is.

[Aspman]

Pros Vs Cons

I really think religion has done more harm than good and will continue to do so.
It is a method of controlling a population with the religious leaders able to direct the actions of that population through their 'interpretation' of that religion.

[dalek]

I don't believe in organized religion

Father Dougal

Hey Aspman, I couldn't resist, I just finished reading some of the quotes from those venerable folks, with Father Ted.....Lol

That's the great thing about Catholicism – it's very vague and no-one knows what its really all about.

Father Ted

[rcgreen]

religion has done more harm than good and will continue to do so.
It is a method of controlling a population

You've made the classic junior high school athiest assumption
that religion was invented by human beings. I don't know about
you, but if I had been that mythical first cave man, I would not have
invented a religion that said that I was a sinner. In fact, I would have declared
myself the supreme being, and proceeded to kill anyone who disagreed

The fact that no one in his right mind would have invented Christianity
is an argument for its supernatural origin. Man made religions (like Islam)
invariably paint a more flattering picture of humanity, while the Bible
relentlessly tells the ugly truth about us. That's why all the world's
<sarcasm>accredited intellectuals</sarcasm> hate it.

[MURACU]

The fact that no one in his right mind would have invented Christianity

So you are saying Jesus was crazy? That may explain things .
A small point Islam doesn't see it self as man made any more then Christianity does which is one of the problem of religions and politics. Mine is better than yours.
Also in the oldest religions your example is about what was happening. The king was either considered the personification of God or he was a seen as a God.

As for Father Ted he rocks. It is a pity Dermot Morgan died so early.