Does religion make people bad, or do people make religion bad?

good question. i think it's probably a bit of both. religion can make people hold very extreme views which can corrupt there thinking so it's not always very logical. but as people have mentioned it's all to do with interpretation. i think overall it's people that make religion bad, after all relgion was created by people to begin with. it could have been created as a form of control over people for all we know, and its certainly been succesful.

i'm a bit tired to think to hard about this atm, but may come back later and try and make more sense

 

Technically everything bad is so because of people cause we invented the terms of good and bad.

 

Excuse me?

 

Sorry, is it not clear what i ment? Or doesn't it make sense to you?

 

I've always said that a pure religion only gives to the world through peace happiness and understanding. However, if people take religion the wrong way or are misguided then that can cause some horrible suffering.

 

people created religion and concepts of "good" and "bad."

i suppose they made themselves "bad."

all because we decided to evolve and start communicating.

 

political PROWESS!

 

anyone who is prone to warring and hating seem to think that the more people they have supporting/following them, the more powerful or influential they can be. one of the easiest ways to gather these people without paying them, but still having them loyal, is to use religion. these people arent really moral or religious, they are just pretending.

 

Just drink the Kool-Aid.

 

It always struck me as weird how many criminals serving time in United States prisons are religious versus those who are not.

Does religion naturally attract people who are predisposed to criminal behavior?


The Federal Bureau of Prisons does have statistics on religious
affiliations of inmates. The following are total number of
inmates per religion category:


Catholic 29267 39.164%
Protestant 26162 35.008%
Muslim 5435 7.273%
American Indian 2408 3.222%
Nation 1734 2.320%
Rasta 1485 1.987%
Jewish 1325 1.773%
Church of Christ 1303 1.744%
Pentecostal 1093 1.463%
Moorish 1066 1.426%
Buddhist 882 1.180%
Jehovah Witness 665 0.890%
Adventist 621 0.831%
Orthodox 375 0.502%
Mormon 298 0.399%
Scientology 190 0.254%
Atheist 156 0.209%
Hindu 119 0.159%
Santeria 117 0.157%
Sikh 14 0.019%
Bahai 9 0.012%
Krishna 7 0.009%


Total Known Responses 74731 100.001% (rounding to 3 digits does this)

Unknown/No Answer 18381 ---------------------------- Total Convicted 93112 80.259% (74731) prisoners' religion is known.

Held in Custody 3856 (not surveyed due to temporary custody) ---------------------------- Total In Prisons 96968

It would seem so...

 

Very good point Asmodean....I think about this a lot actually.

Nothing in and of itself is truly "good" or "bad" it's only in labeling it as such that makes it so.

Human concepts....fragile things they are, but what do I know....

 

I'm not sure I go along with that interpretation. I don't see any obvious reason to believe that religion is attracting criminals, and the interpretation I've make based purely on my own experience is that it's prison that attracts religion. I don't know whether the statistics above refer to prisoners as they enter the penal system, or just at a given point. If it's the latter, I'm sure we're all aware of programmes in prisons where prisoners can "convert" as a means to show that they have reformed. In that context, there is a clear reward for identifying with a religion which a non-incarcerated criminal wouldn't receive.

 

Do you believe "converting" is an acceptable means of penance?

Should religion even be discussed at parole boards?

 

IMO, religious groups are a form of the gov. to distract them from what is really going on. No offense to anyone that is religious. Either way, it is a form of social conformity/control.

 

I think that it makes a mockery of religion AND the penal system. Christianity in particular objects to attrition, which is what "if you say you love God we'll knock five years off your sentence would amount to. And similarly, I think the idea that someone converting to a religion should be able to knock years off their sentence in one fell swoop (while someone who is honest enough to admit that they don't believe in God does not get the same courtesy) makes an ass of the prison system and of rehabilitation.

 

:cheers2: well put!

 

In my opinion religion (that is a belief system in the unknown ) causes people to close their minds. This is good for those who are anti hippie, IMHO hippies figure things out for themselves, religion causes a person's mind to close and make the believer follow the religion's dogma and this causes the religious person to only see things from that perspective.

With that said if you are a Orthodox Christian you could rationalize that people who preform abortions should die, or if you are a Muslim you could rationalize killing infidels.
Or feel that it is your duty to bring everyone you know to the "true faith".

I'm not saying that most of a large portion of religious people take things to the extremes as mentioned above, but enough of them do to be noticed by the public at large. Consider this, have you ever had you door bell ring at 8 am Saturday with some one with the watchtower magazine in their hand? Or been told that your kids cannot play with a Christain person's kids ( this happen here a couple of months ago), or hear on the news that a mullah issued a fatwa that all infidels should die.

Religion IMHO (PS I know that this is going to piss off some religious types but) religion is for those who don't have time to figure the world out for themselves, kinda sorta like get your info on the world and spiritual detentions from McReligion in the fast food for your mind queue.


Peace
Dan ,