The Faith & Religion mega Thread

interesting article
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rabbi-...b_1400766.html

and a quote from it

In his hilarious analysis of The 10 Commandments, George Carlin said to loud applause, "More people have been killed in the name of God than for any other reason," and many take this idea as an historical fact. When I hear someone state that religion has caused most wars, though, I will often and ask the person to name these wars. The response is typically, "Come on! The Crusades, The Inquisition, Northern Ireland, the Middle East, 9/11. Need I name more?" Well, yes, we do need to name more, because while clearly there were wars that had religion as the prime cause, an objective look at history reveals that those killed in the name of religion have, in fact, been a tiny fraction in the bloody history of human conflict. In their recently published book, "Encyclopedia of Wars," authors Charles Phillips and Alan Axelrod document the history of recorded warfare, and from their list of 1763 wars only 123 have been classified to involve a religious cause, accounting for less than 7 percent of all wars and less than 2 percent of all people killed in warfare. While, for example, it is estimated that approximately one to three million people were tragically killed in the Crusades, and perhaps 3,000 in the Inquisition, nearly 35 million soldiers and civilians died in the senseless, and secular, slaughter of World War 1 alone. History simply does not support the hypothesis that religion is the major cause of conflict.

How do you get into an army or politics?

Opinions are religion unlike learning to poop in the right place...

It is a sin to write this. It is a sin to think words no others think and to put them down upon a paper no others are to see. It is base and evil. It is as if we were speaking alone to no ears but our own. And we know well that there is no transgression blacker than to do or think alone. We have broken the laws. The laws say that men may not write unless the Council of Vocations bid them so. May we be forgiven! But this is not the only sin upon us. We have committed a greater crime, and for this crime there is no name. What punishment awaits us if it be discovered we know not, for no such crime has come in the memory of men and there are no laws to provide for it. It is dark here. ...

it is whatever we say

... The word "We" is as lime poured over men, which sets and hardens to stone, and crushes all beneath it, and that which is white and that which is black are lost equally in the grey of it. It is the word by which the depraved steal the virtue of the good, by which the weak steal the might of the strong, by which the fools steal the wisdom of the sages. What is my joy if all hands, even the unclean, can reach into it? What is my wisdom, if even the fools can dictate to me? What is my freedom, if all creatures, even the botched and impotent, are my masters? What is my life, if I am but to bow, to agree and to obey? But I am done with this creed of corruption. I am done with the monster of "We," the word of serfdom, of plunder, of misery, falsehood and shame. And now I see the face of god, and I raise this god over the earth, this god whom men have sought since men came into being, this god who will grant them joy and peace and pride. This god, this one word: "I.” ...

and of course facts\reality

Seeads planet themselves* and always have, get over it "big-bang" theory plus any-other fairytails like everything from nothing.... not to excluded myself, morons!

Vote only policy never wepeople!!!!

fairytails\opinions!

Religion-Opinion sound the same are either a word cause u say s0?

Aside from the fact that any philosophy built on the premise of Peace, Love and Civilized Behavior that also is responsible for millions of incarcerations, torture and murder is arguably hypocritical, I frankly don't care what percentage of the whole of conflict it adds up to. That it promotes ignorance, even resistance to revision based on tested facts, let alone smug, sanctimonious authoritarianism AND seeks economic and political power to enforce compliance is more than sufficient to wish for it to pass into historical novelty. How quickly and how thoroughly it is excised is directly proportional, IMHO, to the extent that it seeks coercion. "There can be only One" is the stuff of Fantasy and Horror and is an obstacle to real Civilization and Enlightenment.

The basic problem here is that we are human, and humans are sometimes "not nice people, not at all."

Religion has always been pressed into the service of society, and of the State. There are of course websites such as this one which are devoted to the fascinating-to-me subject of "the Imperial Jesus." Quoting a couple of paragraphs from this page:

Diocletian split the Roman Empire in 286 into Eastern and Western halves. In the Western half, Constantine converted to Christianity in 312 AD and made Christianity legal in 313. He gave high priority to the Christian faith and the leaders of it. This necessarily changed the way Christian art was viewed because Christian art (and therefore images of Jesus) was now imperial art. During the rest of his reign as emperor, Constantine established a relationship between the church and the state that lasted through the middle ages up past the time of the crusades. An interesting shift in the way Christians viewed images occurred during this time. People in Constantine’s age considered the emperor’s image as a valid substitute for the actual emperor. It was as if the emperor were actually there. The general attitude toward the imperial image became the general attitude toward Christ’s image.

And this very intriguing observation (emphasis mine):

While there are other types of Jesus, this one is an important one to focus on because it is a good example of the shift that happens from image of Jesus to icon of Jesus.

There is of course a WikiPedia page on Depiction of Jesus.

I get the feeling some posts have left polite discussion and entered into rants.

I am not directing it at any one person since this is a huge thread.

Just try to keep posts polite please.

Originally Posted by jefro I get the feeling some posts have left polite discussion and entered into rants. I am not directing it at any one person since this is a huge thread. Just try to keep posts polite please.

jefro, looking at the entire page upon which your comment was made I don't see anything but opinion completely free from rants. If you see something I don't, it is my sincere opinion that moderation requires specificity and I would welcome you speaking your mind directly so that everyone knows precisely what you mean, so compliance is even possible and further discussion if it is questionable. It is also my opinion that this thread has gone on for 500+ pages at least partly because people of very different, even conflicting points of view have felt free to speak their minds within the guidelines of a loosely academic debate.

Thank you for any light you may shine.

Originally Posted by jamison20000e Seeads planet themselves* and always have, get over it "big-bang" theory plus any-other fairytails like everything from nothing.... not to excluded myself, morons!

Jamison2000e - If you sum up Big Bang Theory and "something from nothing" as fairytales and don't wish to appear moronic I suggest you do some study of The Standard Model, the evolution of Big Bang Theory and Quantum Mechanics.

QM is the most difficult since it is the study of the nature of existence where our unaided senses are useless because of how much smaller it is (ultra microscopic) than the world in which we experience in our everyday lives. In that world the definition of "nothing" is extremely important since we detect particles popping in and out of existence all the time. Here is just one example of well-written, well-researched articles on that subject ==========>>

--- Something From Nothing ??? ---


I have no idea what you mean by "Seeads planet themselves*. Could you expand on that?

Originally Posted by jamison20000e How do you get into an army or politics?

I volunteered... and then I was elected!