Is religion rational?

[Pegghead]

I'm a Catholic and heres my stance on this. Is loving thy neighbour irrational? Is doing unto others as you would have them do unto you irrational? Is being generally peaceful irrational? Is not murdering, not stealing, not cheating, not lying and just not being very nice in general towards anyone irrational? Because those are the basic teachings of all religions, and if you call that irrational you need to take a long hard look at yourself.

 

[Kubanator]

I'm a Catholic and heres my stance on this. Is loving thy neighbour irrational? Is doing unto others as you would have them do unto you irrational? Is being generally peaceful irrational? Is not murdering, not stealing, not cheating, not lying and just not being very nice in general towards anyone irrational? Because those are the basic teachings of all religions, and if you call that irrational you need to take a long hard look at yourself.

You're being selective. For example, the hate of gays is not rational.

 

[NubletInc]

(In my opinion feel free to disagree)No, technically religion is irrational, because it has no basis or legitimacy, it is simply a possible scenario leading to our creation that is spread and somehow becomes common belief I mean look at scientology IT WAS A F***ING SCI-FI BOOK, and then the worst sci-fi movie of all time.

I have a better question, why is humanity so insistent on it's origins or past, like constantly fighting over believed past occurences, hate over wars led by people LONG dead, why is the past such a... fuse to violence or hate, and Why? why do we NEED to know how old the planet is? How long ago we existed? The time before we existed technically has no relevance to us. I mean I understand wanting to remember occurences like wars so we remember what came of it, death, destruction, despair, so that we learn not to do it, but why do we start new wars because of battles or insults between long dead people?

 

[NubletInc]

Oh, and why does it really matter how we got here? We are here now and doing ok, kinda, minus the self-destruction and planet-destruction, do we hope to learn how to do better? How to maybe survive our own stupidity? Or is it for something as pointless, to me, as closure?

 

[Last of the Chinchillas]

I still fail to see how the non-existence of everything before the Big Bang is important to this. I mean, if you want to boil Christian theology down to its most basic elements involving creation, it's pretty much the same: there was nothing, than God created everything.

It's not nothing, it's that what ever existed before the big bang is irrelevant. It could have been nothing, or it could have been ninja robot zombie Jesus.

Ok, so you're saying that there may or may not have been something that existed before the Big Bang, but because our own existence came after that event, it's completely irrelevant to us. Makes sense. I still fail to see its relevance to the discussion.

Ok, let's look at it this way. There are a lot of planets in this universe. Trillions. Now if one in a trillion planets develops life, is that really unlikely?

Ok, point taken. But consider the development of the human intellect. Sure, there are primates that are very close to us in things like language, tools, social interaction, etc. But none of them has the peculiarities of mankind: things like art, philosophy, music, and religion. None of them are compelled to produce such things unless we place a paint brush in their hands and give them a canvas.

Also, concerning the origins of life, there was an experiment to prove that life can originate from nothing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miller%E2%80%93Urey_experiment

No, this proves that you can get organic compounds from nothing. Adenine, guanine, cytosine, and tuarine may be the building blocks of life, but their existence does not constitute life. The production of amino acids and the production of life are two different things.

 

[2012 Wont Happen]

Shit, I didn't know we were in California

but here come the flames.

OT:

It depends. Religion to an extent is rational- radicalism is not.

 

[cocoadog]

of course not. don't ask stupid questions. *lightning bolt hits face*

 

[thermo1]

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.

Greeks proved it.

True, they were a smart bunch, they also invented some truly delicious salad. Anyway i only use that example because its so well known. I cant think of any others at the moment, but i'm sure there are lots of very important scientific theories that were laughed at.

yeah like Evolution, which is as proven as the Theory of Gravity these days

 

[NubletInc]

I'm a Catholic and heres my stance on this. Is loving thy neighbour irrational? Is doing unto others as you would have them do unto you irrational? Is being generally peaceful irrational? Is not murdering, not stealing, not cheating, not lying and just not being very nice in general towards anyone irrational? Because those are the basic teachings of all religions, and if you call that irrational you need to take a long hard look at yourself.

You're being selective. For example, the hate of gays is not rational.

Plus the fact that due to religion with said beliefs Millions of people have been senselessly killed. Is that rational? Following a book with those rules than saying "God wants only us to live because only we believe in the "True" god." and then killing those who disagree? Religion could just be an excuse, to lead wars, gain money, power, land, and technically, immunity to many things, like you cant say the pope would be treated the same as any other guy if he were to commit a crime or something.

 

[NeutralDrow]

Religion is typically irrational.

The problem arises when people think irrationality is inherently bad.

 

[ShadowsofHope]

I'm a Catholic and heres my stance on this. Is loving thy neighbour irrational? Is doing unto others as you would have them do unto you irrational? Is being generally peaceful irrational? Is not murdering, not stealing, not cheating, not lying and just not being very nice in general towards anyone irrational? Because those are the basic teachings of all religions, and if you call that irrational you need to take a long hard look at yourself.

No, this is entirely a rational moral stance in life. But when it comes down to it, you dont need a religion, or a "God" to figure out these are nothing more than -common sense-. Dont get me wrong, the moral's pointed out are not irrational. It is the way people use religion as a means to an end, or an ultimatium to all things without proof, and try to force it upon other people (ie. Fundamentalism). Personally, I believe to believe in something without any shred of proof or reason other than "it is right", is to delusion yourself to reality around you. That isnt saying the person is delusional, or is insane, just.. doesnt make sense to me.

People are going to beat the dead horse to proverbial annihilation on this controversy between believing and non-believing, and it will only continue to feed hatred and violence for the other in its redundancy.

 

[thermo1]

Religion is typically irrational.

The problem arises when people think irrationality is inherently bad.

and how is irrationality ever good?

when you help people in need for no personal benefit. is that not technically irrational?

 

[Nieroshai]

This thread is inherently divisive. Neither side will believe the other under any circumstances. The best way to make enemies on a forum is to mention religion or politics.

 

[NeutralDrow]

Religion is typically irrational.

The problem arises when people think irrationality is inherently bad.

and how is irrationality ever good?

If I'm ever paralyzed with existential despair, but I suddenly realize that I believe that whatever happens, there's a higher power that cares enough about me to watch over me, so I can go on with my life...that's irrational.

People fear the unknown. Religion is an excellent way to cope with the unknown.