You can abuse almost everything. Also religion. In most religions people try to be peaceful and not to hurt anyone. Thats the point of religion. But its also true that some fanatics just pick out some phrases and use them for doing horrible things. But this is wrong and hypocritic. You can even abuse SALT to kill someone. Does that mean that salt is generally something bad and called poison? Are your knifes in the kitchen weapons or have they been made to be a helpful tool? Same goes for religion. Its a guide for a peaceful living together but once people start to think "they are better then others" the problem beginns. What you call "motive" is actually abuse of something good. So the bad people who do the bad things because it says so in their beliefs or book are misguided.
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Tower pillar - "Are your knifes in the kitchen weapons or have they been made to be a helpful tool?"
Do you use a rusty knife crafted in the stone age of human civilisation or do you keep it in a museum (where it belongs)?
We have plenty of new well crafted sharper knives available today. Why bother with one that is no longer a tool to use in the kitchen anymore but just a relic of history?
This was your metaphor I just pushed it further. to imply that we have humanism and humanitarian ideals, modern law and so many ways of self governance. Why do we need Religion or for that matter your God (Please understand that your opening statement is meant to validate religions/gods usefulness in society. If you claim that the laws are divine and so they are here, I will demand proof which you will not have and which we have discussed in past posts.) How is your God or religion Relevant today?
As Don Logan said below..
Humanism is touted as being older than religion, so should that be further back in the museum? Is it relevant today? Your analogy has a few holes my friend!
Is this meant to be a reply to Charvak?
Yes Humanism and Human Laws are not only relevant but more upto speed with modern scientific inquiry particularly since they are subject to upgrade. Unlike your archaic beliefs that cannot be readdressed.
We know today that Homosexuality is Natural and has a genetic factor to it. But your divine law forbids it.
Yeah, my bad, I`ve done it twice, no edit buttons
I have seen some WEAK excuses for religion, but this has to be the weakest I have ever seen. Religion is nothing more than a tool to force the masses to obey whatever the powers of that religion has decided it wanted. That is all it has EVER been. It isn't peaceful and never has been. It has been a tool to commit atrocities against groups of people that don't obey or comply with an authoritative power. It's politics, not a "guide for a peaceful existence."
but what about theology.. isn't that different to religion and there are theologians who are activists against the teachings of the bible.
A theologian by any stripe is a confused person of the highest order and not to be expected to recognize basic good from basic desire, much less be trusted to teach the difference.
Any theology is a doctrine of hedonism. It isn't enough to live and abide within the sensory world of the physical for the theists. They also clamor for the metaphysical and conjure up whole doctrines and methods of indoctrination as meme complexes to ensure its survival. They will even go to war over them should survival be threatened.
The bible is a sham. It's a collection of pseudepigrapha contributions written minimally 200 years after the biblical events supposedly occurred, and those events were the conjuring of Paul and the Jesus People he conspired with. They promoted a story they'd heard from old Hebrew texts and a surviving cult (the Nazarene) of a benevolent god ponied up by a crackpot heretic the Hebrews put to death. They called him the righteous one and the event preceded Paul's reprising of the story by 150 years.
This is an essay on that subject. Read it carefully if your interest in truth is a feature of your life. It might also surprise you to know that Roman Emperor Constantine - a politician - was fundamentally responsible for establishing the nature of the Jesus, god and trinity roles (from thin air) in the early architecture of the christian religion and writing of the bible. Read the court minutes of the Nicean Creed. There you will discover the Aryan Controversy and how Constantine dictated the identity of jesus to the early bishops for recording into the biblical story, soon to become the bible. The Nicean Creed was an event fully 300 years after Paul's writings dated the death of the jesus personage he conjured up.
http://www.bidstrup.com/bible.htm
Wiki gives us a good work-up of the Aryan Controversy with links to the actual events. Remember, this is out of the archeological records. It isn't stuff made up to counter the biblical story.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arian_controversy
And, then we have this -
http://mama.indstate.edu/users/nizrael/jesusrefutation.html
Towerpillar:
Take the Old Testament. You would be hard pressed to validate your claim that religion is a peaceful guide for living together.
New Testament more about preparing for the world to end.
Koran about making war on infidels.
I have read these and they are not guidebooks for peaceful living.
yes religion can be abused, but it also can be a source for good in the world.
I contest that religion gone bad is simply the abuse of religion. Evil in the name of religion can be and is justified by scripture. That makes the scripture evil also.
@towerpiller
"Its a guide for a peaceful living together"
We humans evolved to live in tribes. We fought with other tribes for territory and resources, and we needed a way to maintain tribal loyalty and diffentiate our tribes from the others. So we invented gods and religion. Religion allowed us to demonize the others, and to make our warriors more courageous by overcoming their fear of death. It even helped us to keep females silent and subservient. Religion was more useful than the wheel. It was the Swiss army knife of tribal government.
As tribes grew into nations and nations into empires, these tribal instincts became increasingly dangerous to our survival as a species. Today I think we're finally starting to outgrow our tribal childhood, but some of that dangerous toddler behavior still persists in the form of the form of religion.
Religions that truly follow a path of peace and love and forgiveness are rare exceptions. Most of them are still tools for separating god's chosen people from the others (and the guillible from their money). They are all WMDs primed to blow up in our faces. I never thought I'd survive the Cold War. Now I wonder if my children and grandchildren will survive the wars of religion.
I'm sure Bob Dylan was being ironic when he said "If god's on our side he'll stop the next war."
Salt never demands that I love salt and prepare to forsake other spices, my friends, or my family in salt's name.
Fuck Jesus, I love salt.