What do you think is the greatest epic fail for humanity?

[Tzen003]

To quote The Good Book:

"Some say coming down from the trees was a bad idea, but others say even the trees were bad and no-one should ever have left the oceans!"

 

[Jacob Haggarty]

Nuclear technology in general.

By nuclear technology, do you mean nuclear WEAPONRY, or literally ALL nuclear technology?

Because not all nuclear technology is bad. Nuclear energy is the by far the cleanest and most effective source of renewable energy. It just need proper maintenance, and watse products need to be dealt with responsibly.

Although whether or not countries DO take responsiblity for the waste is another concern altogether.

OT: Religion


HA, had you going there... no seriously, it's the American empire


BURN again, had you going twice.

Nah, i say it's world war 3... or rather, peoples obsessions with the russians starting world war 3. Why does call of duty CONTINUE to blame the russians. ITS ALWAYS THE RUSSIANS. At the very least i would like to see a change for varieties sake. Why not say that ENGLAND instigates world war 3, or america, or even ireland. There are so many ways to make it interesting, but NO. Its got to be the big bad russkies.

FOR SHAAAAAAME...

 

[GrizzlerBorno]

Religion. All of them. No single incident of death will ever do more damage than religion has. Their casualty numbers still going strong.

I know you won't reply to this, but know that I agree with you.

It's one thing that we humans invented a bunch of arbitrary belief systems to instill ourselves with a sense of importance, and also to provide ourselves with a shoulder to cry on when the shit hits the fan......it's a COMPLETELY different thing, when we use that arbitrary belief system as justification for the slaughter of billions of people, Not to mention the fact that it's willingly used as an impediment to human progress.

So yeah, you're right, in the long run, the institutionalization of Religion has done more to harm the human race than any single war in our history.

 

[Zhadramekel]

Sliced bread or M Night Shyamalan

 

[klasbo]

Religion. All of them. No single incident of death will ever do more damage than religion has. Their casualty numbers still going strong.

Edit: I wont bother responding anymore. I firmly stand by my view on this though. But I am being called a villian for hating something that hated me first for being different.

I am not wrong for hating murderers. I am not wrong for hating people who trample on freedom. I am not wrong for being for equal rights. Those all describe what religion often is.

And no, Im not a troll. A troll just wants to anger people. I merely want a better world.

Damn, you got a lot of shit for this opinion. And you know what? I can see why you have this point of view and to a certain extent I agree. The only difference is that I don't believe religion was our biggest fail, I believe letting scripture and religion run our countries was.

[...]

It's been holding us back and beating us down and it still is to this very day. It isn't a coincidence that the chains that bind us get looser when religions grip on our society does as well. There is nothing wrong with religion as long as they're off in there little corner doing whatever they want with other religious people, but there's a serious problem if it is in the hands of some self righteous king or a greedy politician. And trust me, there's always going to be a self righteous king and a bunch of greedy politicians.

I think we can combine, simplify, specialize and generalize all in one go here:
The biggest epic fail is not letting go of religion in (relatively) recent history.

A lot of advancements have been driven by a conflict of interest, and we shouldn't neglect the (albeit costly) positives former tragedies have given us. (A common and beaten-to-death example is the technological advances as a result of WW2.)
But I think we're past the objective "need" for internal conflict (within the human race) as a catalyst for advancement. I think we've come to a point where we can make the world better not by following fairy tales or by defeating enemies, but because we understand the collective needs of the human race. Not understanding that making the world a better place is a big enough reward in itself is an epic fail.

-----

But I think my "favourite" fail is this:
Thomas Midgley Jr., the man behind the idea of putting lead in gasoline (totally not poisonous) and Freon (totally not among the most dangerous/impossible-to-get-rid-of greenhouse gases out there). He is the person who has contributed the most to pollution of all time ever!
Also, his death is an odd combination of tragic and comedic; read the wiki article.

 

[Anti Nudist Cupcake]

Religion. All of them. No single incident of death will ever do more damage than religion has. Their casualty numbers still going strong.

I'd like to, as a former atheist, offer a thought; perhaps it is not the religion that is flawed, but those who practice it? At least, I found myself opening up to the concept once I realized it wasn't god or the church I despised, it was the people that used it to justify things like intolerance and oppression. I'm a christian, I do not hate gay people at all (some of my friends are gay), and I am not opposed to their getting married. We're not all bible thumping retards out to wag our smug fingers at people that do wrong, in fact christians aren't even really supposed to be doing that.

Simply, my point is that maybe it's not the club, but the members, you should resent.


*soapbox ends*

You...

It's just surprising to see anybody write that... I thought we were in a world divided between "Christians" and Atheists, Christians who throw every verse in the bible at gays or atheists and only show ignorance and hate (they are either hypocrites or morons), and athiests who believe God is rubbish simply because of the flaws of the people that worship him...

I thought someone who sees past this, someone like you, didn't exist, I was wrong thankfully.

Peace to everyone, no matter their sexual orientation or beliefs, that will be all.

Really? I thought most atheists don't believe in god because of the scientific impossibilities (Not to mention plot holes the size of a battleship), in the bible, and because many of the teachings are rubbish (Ex. Homosexuality is wrong.) At least, that is why me and the atheists I know do >.> Doesn't make a heck of a lot of sense to not believe in something because a lot of people that practice a religion are ignorant.

Atheists read the bible wrong (assuming they even read some of it), it wasn't meant to be a book of science at all, allot of the stories can be seen as merely symbolic and not literal occurrences. It was meant to teach faith through the examples it gives and PEOPLE were used to write it, they saw things happen and interpreted it in their own primitive way (it was a primitive time) and wrote it down to teach the lessons of faith, not science. Science we can pretty much figure out for ourselves. There will be plot holes, sure but that is either because we haven't studied it well or didn't make the right conclusions or simply because of the fact that the bible has been written by humans who only wrote what they saw, which left some flaws in the writing and then got further flawed when it was rewritten and reinterpreted a hundred times over and from one language to a different language each time.

Whether or not the "homosexuality is wrong" writing was part of this series of disastrous rewritings is for the reader to decide, and whatever you decide, you can't go judging or hating others for doing something you interpreted as wrong, it's not your place to judge them, they need to sort themselves out and according to true Christian teachings (according to my opinion) you can only care for people, let God judge them. Also, you don't go to hell for being homosexual, and it is the opinion of some that the ACT of homosexual sex is the sin, not being homosexual.

I myself personally think that the scriptures on homosexuality desperately need reevaluation because the writer of one of the bible scriptures that I know of that wrote it as a sin was listing it amongst other sins and probably didn't really understand homosexuality and was threatened by it and thus interpreted it as sin.

Allot of what I say could be wrong, I'm not an expert at debating and I can't always explain things properly.

Also, you might not have a need for faith and that's fine and really not my business but this is just what I think.

 

[zerobudgetgamer]

To be completely honest, and no offense to anyone here, but I think the greatest "fail" of humanity is that we're still here.

We have mere hundreds (maybe thousands, tops) of people holding the majority of the wealth of this world in their hands, we have entire countries starving while adjacent countries are stuffing their fat faces, and regardless of this unevenness we're still presently consuming far more than we're able to replenish. And to top it all off, we the parasitic species we are have actually humored at the idea of colonizing other planets once we sap this one dry!

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying we need to commit mass genocide on the spot. But unless we can come up with some sort of miraculously fast regrowing food/fuel supply, something that we can make ourselves in order to sustain ourselves, we are and always will be a parasitic species.

A species, IMO at least, that should not see itself breeding past this planet, much less this galaxy.

 

[NinjaDeathSlap]

I would make this a poll, but theres really too much here

This came to me from seeing a book in the store that listed the 100 greatest failures in the history of humanity. In it, number one, was World War II, and I mostly agree. With over 77 million lives lost(estimated) in the period of less than ten years as well as economic collapse, the rise of global super powers and leading into the dawn of the cold war. All because a few rotten, truely evil, SOB's wanted to change the world to better fit their view of a "perfect" world.

There were others too. Scandals, genocides, uprisings, the blood diamond confilct was what in my opinion, really, really bad.

So what epic fails do you know of? Thoughts?

NOTE: these studies were based upon loss of human life, economic and political turmoil, and the outright lack or non-exsistent source of reason of why they happened in the first place

I would say WW1 was a bigger fail than WW2. While the casualties were not as high in WW1, at least there was a significant change brought about by WW2 that has prevented another conflict on a similar scale since. WW1 was born out of next to nothing and achieved next to nothing. As well as this so many of the casualties in WW1 were just down to generals on all sides being mostly foppish retards, rather than that level of sacrifice actually needing to be made.

 

[icame]

Religion. All of them. No single incident of death will ever do more damage than religion has. Their casualty numbers still going strong.

I'd like to, as a former atheist, offer a thought; perhaps it is not the religion that is flawed, but those who practice it? At least, I found myself opening up to the concept once I realized it wasn't god or the church I despised, it was the people that used it to justify things like intolerance and oppression. I'm a christian, I do not hate gay people at all (some of my friends are gay), and I am not opposed to their getting married. We're not all bible thumping retards out to wag our smug fingers at people that do wrong, in fact christians aren't even really supposed to be doing that.

Simply, my point is that maybe it's not the club, but the members, you should resent.


*soapbox ends*

You...

It's just surprising to see anybody write that... I thought we were in a world divided between "Christians" and Atheists, Christians who throw every verse in the bible at gays or atheists and only show ignorance and hate (they are either hypocrites or morons), and athiests who believe God is rubbish simply because of the flaws of the people that worship him...

I thought someone who sees past this, someone like you, didn't exist, I was wrong thankfully.

Peace to everyone, no matter their sexual orientation or beliefs, that will be all.

Really? I thought most atheists don't believe in god because of the scientific impossibilities (Not to mention plot holes the size of a battleship), in the bible, and because many of the teachings are rubbish (Ex. Homosexuality is wrong.) At least, that is why me and the atheists I know do >.> Doesn't make a heck of a lot of sense to not believe in something because a lot of people that practice a religion are ignorant.

Atheists read the bible wrong (assuming they even read some of it), it wasn't meant to be a book of science at all, allot of the stories can be seen as merely symbolic and not literal occurrences. It was meant to teach faith through the examples it gives and PEOPLE were used to write it, they saw things happen and interpreted it in their own primitive way (it was a primitive time) and wrote it down to teach the lessons of faith, not science. Science we can pretty much figure out for ourselves. There will be plot holes, sure but that is either because we haven't studied it well or didn't make the right conclusions or simply because of the fact that the bible has been written by humans who only wrote what they saw, which left some flaws in the writing and then got further flawed when it was rewritten and reinterpreted a hundred times over and from one language to a different language each time.

Whether or not the "homosexuality is wrong" writing was part of this series of disastrous rewritings is for the reader to decide, and whatever you decide, you can't go judging or hating others for doing something you interpreted as wrong, it's not your place to judge them, they need to sort themselves out and according to true Christian teachings (according to my opinion) you can only care for people, let God judge them. Also, you don't go to hell for being homosexual, and it is the opinion of some that the ACT of homosexual sex is the sin, not being homosexual.

I myself personally think that the scriptures on homosexuality desperately need reevaluation because the writer of one of the bible scriptures that I know of that wrote it as a sin was listing it amongst other sins and probably didn't really understand homosexuality and was threatened by it and thus interpreted it as sin.

Allot of what I say could be wrong, I'm not an expert at debating and I can't always explain things properly.

Also, you might not have a need for faith and that's fine and really not my business but this is just what I think.

I thought it was supposed to be a book of ultimate truths? If it is then shouldn't everything it in be correct? Shouldn't every teaching be perfect? Shouldn't there be no plot holes, and nothing that goes against the laws of our universe (Science)? If this book is so full of truth how can anything in it need reevaluation? If the rules it sets forth can simply be changed when it is required what is the point of believing in it at all, but thats just my thinking I suppose.

I also have only noticed people calling the stories metaphors only when it has been proved to either be impossible or never happened at all, but I could be wrong.

 

[Terminate421]

Thanks for brightening my day by telling me Religion is an epic fail.

Adolf Hitler being born is the largest epic fail, just look what he has turned Germany into.

 

[similar.squirrel]

Honestly, for me, it's a toss-up between one of the things mentioned above, and burning down the library of Alexandria.

We actually needed World War II, without it I dread to think what war we could have had a decade later.

And I have to agree with Burning down the Library, even thinking about it makes me mad.

Religion. All of them. No single incident of death will ever do more damage than religion has. Their casualty numbers still going strong.

Spoiler

He does have a good point. Regardless of the fact that people will kill each other anyway, a massive amount of bloodshed has been committed in the name of religion. That's not trolling. It's a fact.

It is also a fact that religion is one of the few reasons the middle ages didn't turn into a free-for-all bloodbath. It is also the fact that Christianity and Confucianism were both used to unite a large pool of people with different ethnical-cultural backgrounds, prevent civil wars, hell, even Islam did this. It is also a fact that the Church is responsible for a large section of charities and freedom movements (the Church is, at the moment, an advocate of gender and race equality ). Almost every religion has been teaching people to be "good", not to murder, to be respectful and etc., which was the basis for Law for a great deal of human history (and is still so today). It is also a fact that it keeps helping people today ( just see how many ex-drug addicts, alcoholics and porn-stars were helped by the church).

But he didn't know that, he doesn't care enough to do so and most likely neither do your (assumptions). Religion has been, for the most part, uniting people, and ensuring peace. But no, most of today kids on the internet saw the words "Religion = Cursade/Jihad" and started to spew misinformation left and right. Yes, due to religion bad things have happened, but this is mostly people being people, far from the worst thing in history.

Spoiler

Not to mention that new archaeological evidence suggest that Temples may pre-date agriculture leading scientists to believe that the first cities may have been build on spiritual foundation

One could argue that Fascism prevented inter-war Germany from descending into anarchy. But it eventually led to bloodshed anyway, because Fascism does not tolerate conflicting ideologies.
Invoking a higher moral authority is not a feasible long-term solution to anything, because the people at the top care about nothing but power and will eventually come full-circle and do what psychopaths do but under a different pretext.
By the same token, the ulterior motive of any religious charity is to instil convert the people they are helping to a certain ideology. Yes, helping your fellow man is noble regardless of your beliefs, but it's wrong assume that it is a faith in the supernatural that inspires people to do so.

Morality is an outcome of our evolutionary past; religion is just a framework for it to work in. People can be 'good' without the carrot-and-stick of eternal bliss, or the threat of eternal suffering.

 

[Trolldor]

Not religion so much as the religious mindset, the delusional belief in a single doctrine, a single method of approaching all the world's ills. From Christianity to Socialism that wilful ignorance, the dogmatic adherence to a single mode of thought. The arrogant pretension to special privilege, to superiority, that divine mandate to rule.
The greatest crimes humanity has ever witnessed were committed by those convinced of their own righteousness.

 

[CrazyGirl17]

Whenever people follow the evil whims of a person or twist religion to suit their own ends.

Examples: World War 2, Nazis, racism, terrorism, scientology, fundementalists, and the Westboro Baptist Church, to name a few.

(Look, I'm not saying I hate religion itself, just the people who ruin it for everyone else.)

 

[Crazy_Dude]

http://www.cracked.com/article_18533_the-6-most-important-things-humanity-just-plain-forgot.html

This basically. It's incredible how many things humanity has just plain forgot on a collective scale. The cure for Scurvy is one of the bigger face-palms considering humanity has been a seafaring species for as long as we've been walking and talking.

I will have to agree with you on that one.

http://www.cracked.com/article_19201_6-objects-you-wont-believe-people-managed-to-lose.html

This one shows a few good ones aswell. Losing nuclear bombs isnt that smart or safe.

 

[sune-ku]

I think WW2 is demonstrates some of the worst and best extremes of humanity, but I'd like to point out a specific instance within it that I think demands particular merit as an epic fail:

The Maginot Line.

For those who don't know what this is - basically France built an amazing series of defences to prevent the German invasion. It had only one flaw - the Germans were able to walk around it. This excerpt from Wikipedia reads like dry comedy:

"Military experts extolled the Maginot Line as a work of genius, believing it would prevent any further invasions from the east (notably, from Germany). However, the German army in World War II largely bypassed the Maginot Line by invading through the Ardennes forest and via the Low countries, completely sweeping by the Line and conquering France in days"

 

[boholikeu]

Am I the only one that's a little depressed by the number of people listing religion?

Not religion so much as the religious mindset, the delusional belief in a single doctrine, a single method of approaching all the world's ills. From Christianity to Socialism that wilful ignorance, the dogmatic adherence to a single mode of thought. The arrogant pretension to special privilege, to superiority, that divine mandate to rule.
The greatest crimes humanity has ever witnessed were committed by those convinced of their own righteousness.

Whenever people follow the evil whims of a person or twist religion to suit their own ends.

Examples: World War 2, Nazis, racism, terrorism, scientology, fundementalists, and the Westboro Baptist Church, to name a few.

(Look, I'm not saying I hate religion itself, just the people who ruin it for everyone else.)

I'd agree with both of the above, and ironically I'd say those ideas apply to many atheists as well.

Religion. All of them. No single incident of death will ever do more damage than religion has. Their casualty numbers still going strong.

Edit: I wont bother responding anymore. I firmly stand by my view on this though. But I am being called a villian for hating something that hated me first for being different.

I am not wrong for hating murderers. I am not wrong for hating people who trample on freedom. I am not wrong for being for equal rights. Those all describe what religion often is.

And no, Im not a troll. A troll just wants to anger people. I merely want a better world.

I'm actually going to support Saelune here, partially. Religion's caused a lot of shit.

Not saying I'm against it completely, but frankly it's probaly caused a larger kill count than any single war or disaster has.

i agree with you saelune. more blood has been spilled in the name of religion than any thing else in the history of mankind. mankinds ethnic and religious differences will always cause wars, because it is simply human nature to hate what is different.

also. justin beiber. epic fail right there.

I'd have to say Religion.

Agreed from what I can work out major Christian events (such as the crusades, Inquisitions,) have caused around 6 million deaths, that doesn?t even begin to comprehend the number of people worldwide that have died as a result of all religions. The fact that quite possibly billions of people around the world since the beginning of time have died because of bad fan fiction just pisses me of when I have people, oblivious about the violent history of their religion, preaching peace and love to me.

+1 Religion.

I still cannot believe people still believe the rubbish.

It is so so obvious that it is a human creation, just look at how this "God" acts in all religious texts.

I know you won't reply to this, but know that I agree with you.

It's one thing that we humans invented a bunch of arbitrary belief systems to instill ourselves with a sense of importance, and also to provide ourselves with a shoulder to cry on when the shit hits the fan......it's a COMPLETELY different thing, when we use that arbitrary belief system as justification for the slaughter of billions of people, Not to mention the fact that it's willingly used as an impediment to human progress.

So yeah, you're right, in the long run, the institutionalization of Religion has done more to harm the human race than any single war in our history.

How is religion any more responsible than, say, government, the invention and development of weapons, the concept of land ownership, etc? I think when you actually go back and look at wars and disputes that were "caused" by religion you find that's it's not as simple as "you believe something different from me, so you must die". There are almost always underlying economic, historic or ethnic reasons as well.

Maybe it's just me, but anyone who views religion as either inherently good or evil is missing the whole picture. You simply have to ignore too many facts to have an opinion that polarized.

 

[icame]

I also have only noticed people calling the stories metaphors only when it has been proved to either be impossible or never happened at all, but I could be wrong.

Actually the resurgence of fundamentalism is a fairly recent phenomenon, in the Victorian era it was quite commonly held that the Bible was largely allegory. Most famous evangelical Christian figures in the Victorian period abandoned their literalistic approach to their faith as they grew older. The fundamentalist resurgence was largely contained within a period of roughly 1890 to 1920 and was geographically localised.

Outside of the US and the largely imaginary realm of the Internet (where fundamentalists can be conjured up as needed) Christian faith seems to largely believe that the Biblical stories are either true stories filtered through the lexicon of those who observed them or were fictional stories told to make a moral point.

EDIT: In fact I've never met anyone in the UK who believes that the Bible trumps science. Never. Oh I'm sure they exist (there's always one) but in all honesty the Internet exaggerates the evils of religion because they make a mighty fine punchbag.

If the bible is full of stories then couldn't the story of christ and god also be a story? ( I believe it is as I am an atheist, but I'm just asking your point of view on this.)

 

[Toaster Hunter]

The fall of the Roman Empire. Why, oh why did you have to collapse. Seriously, things were going great then the barbarians move in, property values go down, and next thing you know, its the Dark Ages.