DukeTwicep
New Member
I had/have an argument with an atheist, I find it hard to believe that he really believes what he's saying but.. given that he does, how should I proceed? I'm a little unsure as to what to respond with.
No, I don't think religion can make people psychopaths, that's certainly not the real purpose for religion [I didn't claim that making psychopaths was the real purpose of religion]. Furthermore, when I said that people are imperfect and will always do bad things, I didn't mean they would fall back into worshipping god, I just mean that people are not angels, and removing god from their lives will not change that. People will always find excuses to wage war, to be intolerant, to be racist, etc, because those are just natural tendencies. You can't go through your entire life without ever getting angry, or making mistakes, even if you don't believe in god. Remember that atheists have waged war and committed genocide as well, so obviously religion is not the root of all evil. Furthermore, religion is not just simple minded fairy tales, religion is a tool which allows societies to teach their members very complex things that aren't easy to understand, this gives them cohesion. It allows a large number of people, whether literate or not, to learn what they need to know to live together as a social unit. Religion is a tool to teach morals and social norms, which vary depending on the type of society you're talking about. You obviously can't apply all the same rules to a nomadic life style as you would a modern western lifestyle in the industrialized world. You have to live according to your environment and deal with people accordingly. Of course some people use religion to start wars, if there was no religion they'd use some other excuse, because war isn't really about religion at all, it's about resources, and power, and that's not going to change any time soon. It would be nice if we could just point to one thing, get rid of it, and be perfect, but it just isn't possible. We are imperfect and have to deal with that fact without hating each other.