One of the more common responses from religious members is that their faith contributes to society. They often state that religious organizations give way to charities, not to mention that they set out a moral guide for people. Because if there was no God to judge you after your death, why wouldn't you just go around and do whatever it is you like.
First of all, I find the implied statement that "If no one was watching, human nature is to steal, murder, rape, etc." silly. Humans are social creatures and wish to live in societies where that won't happen to them. I don't know about you, but I'd prefer not to be in a society where theft, rape and murder is acceptable. And to be perfectly honest, I everyone who's sane shares the same viewpoint.
No matter what culture you look at, they have rules against killing their own. The only exception to this would be the Aztec culture, who often had human sacrifices. But even then, they still preferred to use prisoners captured via raids or war.
But isn't that interesting? Different cultures, from all over the world, with different morals, different social structure and most importantly, different systems of faith, all come to the same core conclusion that you shouldn't harm your own people.
Doesn't that show that religion isn't the driving force? Doesn't all these differences, with the only true similarity being the human being in all cases, show that these "morals" are an intregal part of who we are? Just like how birds form socieities with rules, just like how wolves hunt in packs and just like how male gorillas protect their family.
And that's not even including all the negatives we are burdened with because of religion today. For example, preventing stem cell research, oppression of women in the middle east, rejection of scientific principals due to "holy books", protection of sexual predators, spreading of AIDS in Africa because condoms are "against God's will"... The list goes on and on.
What are your thoughts?
No comments:
Post a Comment