kevm3 said:
I'm not saying that choosing a religion and believing in God is the only way to find happiness. But for many, it does bring them happiness.
If hapiness is the requirement for goodness, then can I just hook you up to the Matrix and give you some steak? Can I tell you that Bigfoot is out there, and you're a world famous Bigfoot hunter who had his memory erased, and when you find him you're gonna be rich? Would this make you happy?
It's pretty thin to say "it makes me happy to believe in this, so it's gotta be right to believe in it."
kevm3 said:
Assuming there was no God, why would religion be a bad thing?
Because it's not accurate of the world. And when you base decisions based on false information, you come to false conclusions and actions that do not benefit.
It's the square peg of belief in the round hole of reality.
kevm3 said:
If not religion, there would be another form of 'mental crutch.' If religion is a crutch, what are videogames, music, recreative sex etc.?
The religious need to believe in something that cannot be proven to accept their pleasure. They have to delude themselves into thinking the make-believe is real.
When I sit down to play Sonic, I don't have to think "Sonic has been mandated by the lord. I know this, because my ancestors told me. I will be rewarded for playing when my brainwaves expire."
So basically, apples and oranges. Beliefs and activities.
The videogame is not real. I can even turn it off, walk away from it, and not have it affect my life. I know it's fake. I know it's fleeting. I know it's man-made. I know it's make-believe. That last one is important.
kevm3 said:
They all are things to help us pass time and delude us from the reality that we die, and according to most atheists, disappear from existence. Then for some, religion is the sweetest poison to consume before death.
See... you aren't born with the "fear of oblivion"... that's a reaction that comes when you are told from birth that there is a heaven, and you are confronted with the liklihood that it is false. You have pain because your expectations are broken.
No expectations about what life is supposed to be, and you don't have to fight against reason to believe in a fairy tale that keeps you going.
kevm3 said:
If there is no creator, then there is no real purpose set out for us here on Earth, so what is it anyone's business how they spend their time?
That's funny. It seems to me that the creator has nothing to do with one's purpose. If the creator's purpose for humanity was for humans to be food for extraterrestrials, would that satisfy you? Would that be the meaning of life? Seems to me like you have always been defining your purpose yourself, and backing it up with your religious beliefs.
kevm3 said:
Then again what exactly is a mental crutch, and assuming religion is one why would it be bad?
Again, it's a square peg into a round hole. Bad decisions made from false information.
Like Sept 11th. The hijackers weren't actually getting 72 virgins or getting rewarded by a parent-God by crashing an airplane into a building. They were wrong about reality. They made a bad decision, based on bad information.
Similar false decisions (and far less extreme, of course) are made all the time, based on false relgious beliefs.
kevm3 said:
What is the 'right knowledge' that is being blocked or what ultimate purpose is being prevented by them practicing their religious beliefs?
Beliefs guide your actions. They are our conceptions of the world. We do what we can to learn as much as we can about our world, so we can make better decisions when we're out living it. Good information guides good decisions. Bad information guides bad decisions.
Before science, a prophet's word was as good as any, since there was no one to say otherwise. What happens when a culture holds tight to the words of a prophet? Religion. Bad information, held tightly by a people as a "test of faith"..........
What happens when we actually do have a method for determining truth? Doesn't matter, because the religious have already made up their mind.... And they'll keep making bad decision after bad decision, as a result of their deeply held falsehoods.