Is religion rational?

[Kubanator]

I've noticed that some religious people take offense to having their religion called irrational. Is it? For reference:

Irrationality is cognition, thinking, talking or acting without inclusion of rationality. The term is used, usually pejoratively, to describe thinking and actions that are, or appear to be, less useful or illogical than other more rational alternatives.

Rational: consistent with or based on or using reason

Reason: an explanation of the cause of some phenomenon

 

[Mozared]

I'd say religion is pretty rational. Seeing as we're conscious beings I don't find it absurd that we attempt to explain our existence. Religion at least partially springs forth from that idea.

 

[Jenkins]

I guess it really just depends on the subject matter you speak about, for example, Christianity teaches you (I am pretty sure) to love thy neighbor, dont fight, be helpful to people in need so on and so forth, THAT is rational thought I feel.

however, suspending your belief for Metaphysics, is Irrational.

 

[Worgen]

no

 

[Valate_v1legacy]

No, but it doesn't need to be rational to be compelling.

 

[RebelRising]

If one applies Aristotle's mathematical brand of logic, with deduction and induction, religion is technically illogical because, while the conclusion may be sound, it is ultimately invalid, as the premises themselves are almost always based on assumption, not solid fact.

No offense, of course, to those with religion. But then again, if you needed 100% irrefutable proof, it wouldn't really be faith, now would it?

 

[APPCRASH]

I guess it really just depends on the subject matter you speak about, for example, Christianity teaches you (I am pretty sure) to love thy neighbor, dont fight, be helpful to people in need so on and so forth, THAT is rational thought I feel.

however, suspending your belief for Metaphysics, is Irrational.

Religion helps keep people in line, especially if they fear going to hell.

 

[IxionIndustries]

I guess religion is pretty rational, in some cases..

It gives people an explanation to why things are the way they are. It makes people comfortable knowing that they aren't alone, or that they won't rot in the earth when they die.
It also brings people together, and bringing respect for one another as well..


...Too bad no religion that I know of works like that..

 

[Raven's Nest]

I think the majority of every religion preaches the fundamental basics of morality. In a Christian country we base our morals on the ten commandments, thou shall not kill, steal, bang someone else's wife, steal another guitarist's plectrum etc. These are all pretty rational ideas of how to maintain a peaceful society. So even if you don't believe in god, there are still lots of rational reasons to follow a religion.

 

[crudus]

I've noticed that some religious people take offense to having their religion called irrational. Is it? For reference:

Irrationality is cognition, thinking, talking or acting without inclusion of rationality. The term is used, usually pejoratively, to describe thinking and actions that are, or appear to be, less useful or illogical than other more rational alternatives.

No, religion is completely rational. It followers (most of them) however, are not.

 

[Dorian6]

Christianity: the belief that a cosmic Jewish zombie can make you live forever if you symbolically eat his flesh and telepathically tell him that you accept him as your master, so he can remove an evil force from your soul that is present in humanity because a rib-woman was convinced by a talking snake to eat from a magical tree.

What's irrational about that?

 

[Samurai Goomba]

You can't define a word with the word itself. You can't say that "hungry" is defined as "the opposite of being not hungry."

Please properly define rational thought before we go any further with this.

Besides, rationality seems to be a thought process pertaining to what is "normal" or "logical." Two other terms which I would argue are completely subjective.

Factual is a word we could use (since it has an objective interpretation which does not change based on perspective), but factual and rational are not synonyms.

 

[rainman2203]

The existence of religion is totally rational- the practice is quite the opposite.

 

[Satin6T]

Oh god it's not rational
thats why we have faith

 

[Raven's Nest]

You can't define a word with the word itself. You can't say that "hungry" is defined as "the opposite of being not hungry."

Please properly define rational thought before we go any further with this.

I agree...

What are we questioning the rationality of here? Faith or religious teachings?

 

[Kubanator]

I agree...

What are we questioning the rationality of here? Faith or religious teachings?

Good call on my definition, I edited the initial post, and we can talk about both, separately if you'd like.

 

[Mozared]

If it were based in science it would be rational. It was rational, but now we have the truth. However, people still cling to their bibles like Republicans cling to their nukes.

It would only become irrational if everybody on this planet knew the full truth. Then it's just going against what's proven to be true. Right now there are insufficient scientific arguments to completely disprove all religions.

Also

Christianity: the belief that a cosmic Jewish zombie can make you live forever if you symbolically eat his flesh and telepathically tell him that you accept him as your master, so he can remove an evil force from your soul that is present in humanity because a rib-woman was convinced by a talking snake to eat from a magical tree.

What's irrational about that?

I can turn that around though.

Science: the belief that at first, absolutely nothing existed, after which nothing exploded which by chance happened to create millions of galaxies filled with millions of stars on which in turn millions of living beings have lived and evolved over millions of years for absolutely no reason at all.

 

[ottenni]

Yeah it is. Most religions would be well described as a hypothesis, but then it would be hard to prove them as anything more. But of course there are the more interesting things like Buddhism.

Christianity: the belief that a cosmic Jewish zombie can make you live forever if you symbolically eat his flesh and telepathically tell him that you accept him as your master, so he can remove an evil force from your soul that is present in humanity because a rib-woman was convinced by a talking snake to eat from a magical tree.

What's irrational about that?

Yeah, thats nearly as stupid as the guy who though the world was ROUND. Just because we cant prove something doesn't mean it isn't true.

 

[Samurai Goomba]

Oh god it's not rational
thats why we have faith

No, faith is not based on provable evidence. Faith is belief without evidence. It is not belief without sanity, or belief without normality, or belief without the ability to properly reason.

See, this is why we have to define what exactly we are talking about here, and narrow down the field to the specific part of religion we're talking about.