Topic: Health and Religion - page 8. (Read 210818 times)

Religion advocate forgiving and redemption no ?



Religion is not about sticking to corrupt structures. All religions warn about the wolf in sheep clothe and corrupt structures.




Science cannot explain everything either, but religion is not really about being dogmatic or against progress, on the contrary most religion have their own eschatology and hope for better future.




This doesnt explain much either.



Lot of great scientist if not all were religious.



Its not a company, you know what jesus said about marchants in the temples etc.



Fear is a powerfull tool to influence people, but religion is not about fear normally its more about faith and hope.

Religion is a two-edged sword.  On one hand, it can stop people from committing heinous crimes and on the other, it facilitates, makes it easy to justify other heinous crimes.

Corruption and structural abuse in all of the major religions is just one aspect that I could not bear.

Supernatural claims, scientific nonsense, outright contradictions, rejection of any progressive thought, the subjective, cultural context in the "holy" scriptures is something I could not accept as divine.

Cell death is a non-reversible process.  When your DNA and RNA fragments, there is nothing that would reassemble them and rebuild each and every cell in your body to make you alive again.

A cracker and wine during your Sunday's mass cannot possibly turn into human flesh and blood. That is not chemically possible.

The universe was started most likely out of nothing via quantum fluctuations, the initial inflation was a result of non-symmetry in the matter-antimatter formation and destruction, and we are the result of it.

Scientific ignorance of religious people is appalling.  Their schizophrenic, hypocritic rejection of science and acceptance of technology is
all the proof you need to know that people running this con job are ruthless, evil psychopaths who will do anything and say anything to separate fools from their money.

Any company that would offer a non-existing product, charge you in advance and would promise that the product works after you die would end up in court for fraud.

The vast majority of the human population remains ignorant so I am afraid religions will be a necessary evil for few more generations to come.

The main function of religion is to instill fear, establish control and provide answers to ignorant people and stray them from killing each other.

Religion is a two-edged sword.  On one hand, it can stop people from committing heinous crimes and on the other, it facilitates, makes it easy to justify other heinous crimes.

Corruption and structural abuse in all of the major religions is just one aspect that I could not bear.

Supernatural claims, scientific nonsense, outright contradictions, rejection of any progressive thought, the subjective, cultural context in the "holy" scriptures is something I could not accept as divine.

The universe was started most likely out of nothing via quantum fluctuations, the initial inflation was a result of non-symmetry in the matter-antimatter formation and destruction, and we are the result of it.

Scientific ignorance of religious people is appalling.  Their schizophrenic, hypocritic rejection of science and acceptance of technology is
all the proof you need to know that people running this con job are ruthless, evil psychopaths who will do anything and say anything to separate fools from their money.

Any company that would offer a non-existing product, charge you in advance and would promise that the product works after you die would end up in court for fraud.

The main function of religion is to instill fear, establish control and provide answers to ignorant people and stray them from killing each other.

On the other hand, in developed countries, the US, Canada, Japan, European countries the numbers fall and Atheism is on the rise.

It just proves my earlier point that religions will die eventually once people become more educated.

Interesting choice of scripture there.

af-newbie has stated he was deeply influenced by the overt and gross corruption he witnessed peddled by a nominally religious leader in his youth. Witnessing corruption and abuse he rejects religion prima facie.

This is understandable and an example of the tremendous harm that can results from violating the commandment of taking the name of God in vain aka committing evil in the name of God. Hypocrisy is incredibly destructive.

I once wandered away from Christianity but I never had anything like that kind of hurdle to overcome while finding my way back. The religious people I interacted with in my youth were to the best of my knowledge genuine and acting with goodwill.

My path back started with the realization of the practical necessity of Christianity. That sparked a later deeper introspection into the fundamentals.

The decline of Christianity is seriously damaging society, atheists acknowledge
https://thebl.com/us-news/the-decline-of-christianity-is-seriously-damaging-society-atheists-acknowledge.html

How the West was won – by Christianity
https://www.mercatornet.com/features/view/how-the-west-was-won-by-christianity/23109

I guess old af-newbie will never understand things like this, even if he is not a woman.

Ah Mensa.

I was a member back in my undergraduate days.

We were really organized and even managed to get enough people to start an official Mensa club at the university. That’s harder than it sounds when the admissions test excludes 98% of the population. I was the treasurer which in reality meant I managed the pizza money and picked up the pizza for the monthly meetings which were interesting.

I still remember my feelings of smugness when I got in. I was a shallower person back then and felt IQ to be much more important than I do now. Not sure how it’s done today but back then the official test was a timed paper and pencil exam with a proctor and you got the results via mail a while later.

Good memories overall but I let my membership expire after I graduated. I understand the appeal but am no longer a fan of it’s exclusionary nature centered as it is around an inherent biological variance.

What we do with the gifts we are given is much more important than the exact abundance and quantity of what we are born with. With the benefit of age I am now much more interested in groups that focus on the former not the latter.

27“Look,” says the Teacher, “this is what I have discovered:

“Adding one thing to another to discover the scheme of things—

28while I was still searching

but not finding—

I found one upright man among a thousand,

but not one upright woman among them all.”

Join your local mensa society.  Mensa offers reliable tests to prospective members.

I am not sure about being reliable, but you could try

http://test.mensa.no/

It should reliably measure IQ between 85-115.

If you score outside of this range, you will get a message saying that your IQ cannot be reliably measured by this test.

Join your local mensa society.  Mensa offers reliable tests to prospective members.

...
Can you suggest a reliable test for IQ?  

More like not counting methodology.

There were 61% of "convinced Atheists" in China in 2015 as per Gallup poll:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irreligion_in_China

That is a lot more than the reported 10+ million (3%) in the US.

According to global Win-Gallup International studies, in 2017, 9% of the global population was in the "convinced Atheist" category:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atheism

That is more like 700 million, not 138 as reported in the article you posted.  I suspect the author of the article lowered the numbers not to cause panic among Christian readers.  

Christianity gets more followers in poor countries, where average IQ is low, the education system is of poor quality or non-existent,
countries in Africa, Latin America are good examples.

On the other hand, in developed countries, the US, Canada, Japan, European countries the numbers fall and Atheism is on the rise.

It just proves my earlier point that religions will die eventually once people become more educated.

Probably just a difference in counting methodology or limiting the definition of atheism to only hard atheism. It can make a large difference in the numbers for this kind of question. For example recently (2017), Pew found that only 3 percent of Americans say they are atheists. However the same study found that a much larger group — around 9 percent — said they do not believe in God or a universal spirit.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.vox.com/platform/amp/science-and-health/2017/4/13/15258496/american-atheists-how-many

The number of Atheists is not correct.  

There are more than 138 million Atheists in China alone.
...

Not Quite

Christianity Booming, Atheism Declining around the World, Report Says
https://www.christianheadlines.com/contributors/michael-foust/christianity-booming-atheism-declining-around-the-world-report-says.html

Christianity: 1
Scientism: 0

There are millions of Americans getting away from the religions of their parents and grandparents every year.  There are probably a few people doing exactly that as I type this post.
...
Ancient cults: 0
Science: 1

See you in the movies.

The headlines might declare that Christianity is declining in the United States, but new research shows it’s growing faster than the population around the world – and atheism and agnosticism are on a gradual decline.

The 2019 Status of Global Christianity report shows there were 2.5 billion Christians in the world as of mid-2019 – a major increase from the 1.98 billion Christians in 2000 and more than double the number of Christians (1.2 billion) in 1970. Christianity is growing worldwide at a rate of 1.27 percent each year and outpacing population growth (1.20 percent) – and is booming in Africa (2.37 percent), Asia (2.79 percent) and Latin America (2.29 percent).

By comparison, there were 138 million atheists around the world in mid-2019 – slightly more than the 137 million in 2000 but less than the 165 million in 1970. Atheism’s annual growth (.04 percent) is less than that of the population, and the number of atheists worldwide is projected to decline to 132 million in 2025.

Agnosticism and those affiliated with the “nonreligionists” category also are on the descent, according to the report.

The Status of Global Christianity report is released by the Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.

A Pew Research Center study this month showed the percentage of American adults who call themselves Christian has declined the past decade, from 77 percent to 65 percent, while the percentage of U.S. adults who identify as atheist, agnostic or “nothing in particular” has risen from 17 percent to 26 percent in that same span.

Globally, though, the data is opposite of the Pew data, according to the Status of Global Christianity report.

There were 716 million agnostics in the world as of mid-2019, but by 2025 that is projected to fall to 707 million. Nonreligionists numbered 854 million this year but are expected to fall to 839 million by 2025.

Much of Christianity’s growth is due to its surge in other continents. Africa (119 million) and Asia (160 million) each have more Christians than North America (100 million).

Among Christian traditions, evangelicalism (2.19 percent) and Pentecostalism/charismatic Christianity (2.26 percent) are growing faster than Protestantism (1.61 percent) and Roman Catholicism (1.02 percent).

So we are back to word definitions?  What is new?  Is English your second language?

https://www.google.com/search?q=religion

BTW, the articles say exactly that.  Americans are leaving religion in droves.

Your links don't say anything about people moving away from religion. All they talk about is people changing religion. Often people move away from a religion that has God in it simply because they don't understand how God pervades the whole of the universe, macro to micro. Where do they move? To a religion without a formal god... like atheism. But maybe Buddhism or Hinduism, where if there are gods, they are understood way less than God in Christianity or Allah in Islam.

There are millions of Americans getting away from the religions of their parents and grandparents every year.  There are probably a few people doing exactly that as I type this post.

https://www.beliefnet.com/news/why-are-americans-turning-away-from-religion.aspx

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/09/atheism-fastest-growing-religion-us/598843/

https://www.vox.com/first-person/2019/6/4/18644764/church-religion-atheism-secularism

And what is going to happen in the next 20-30 years:

https://www.pewforum.org/2018/06/13/young-adults-around-the-world-are-less-religious-by-several-measures/

Ancient cults: 0
Science: 1

See you in the movies.

There isn't any "without religion." Nobody can get away from religion. ...