I think I've gone past thinking too much about other religions now, especially Catholicism. I do have a problem with organised religions, putting people in positions of power etc.
My 70 year old Uncles a catholic cannon, my 90 year old aunts a nun. They both nice people, if divorced from reality to some degree. However there are stories of an older more distant uncle, now dead 30 years. He was a cannon and always travelled with a young boy.. he has become a subject of various conversations.
I remember late night, 20(?) years ago seeing one of your programs '60 minutes' doing an expose on catholic priests being sent to an area of Mexico, when accusations arose.
And we know its not just Catholicism thats had these accusations. We've had an Imam jailed over here. Waco, Jimmy James, the Mormon guy who's just been jailed over there.
What stops me damning all religion outright though is looking at charity work etc. You look at the voluntary groups that are full of individuals giving their spare time to help the less fortunate. Theres a disproportionate number of these that have a religious base. Their beliefs have a practical good. The ones I've seen don't use this work to proselytise and convert.
I don't volunteer. I kind of cheat and say I enter that many races that are organised to raise funds for charities.
In some ways the world would be better off without religion, in some ways it'd be worse?
It was probably 60 Minutes, they like to do a lot of investigative reporting. The FBI has also been investigating them and trying to use the RICO act to come after them, the Catholic Church that is. And this is true of any and all organized religion can be. It's just that "The Church" is currently one of the easiest targets.
So long as they can separate their beliefs from their charitable work, I agree that they can and do good. It's when they start preaching that one has to do this or that to be a "good moral person" that I have a problem.
I forget where I read this, but I remember reading about a person who's parents were missionaries. They'd gone to a country that was in a tropical region. One where the natives went nude, or all but nude. The mother talked to some of the women telling them that they needed to cover that part of their body that was sexually attractive.
After consideration, they agreed. The mom was surprised when the next day their breasts were still bared, but their hair was covered. When asked why they hadn't covered their breasts as they were in her opinion used for sexual attraction. The women explained that they had, their hair.
I think that you are right that in some ways the world would be a better place without religion in it, as well as a worse place. As it does have the ability to keep honest people honest. People who aren't going to be honest will use whatever argument to rationalize their behavior, so that if nothing else they can justify their actions to themselves.
In another forum, I've been involved in a discussion with another member. Who's take on rules and ethics is that they're "situational." And the impression is that the ends justify the means. His main goal is to rationalize why it's okay for him to run a red light or stop sign when the road is "empty" and therefore "safe" in his judgement to do so.
He refuses to accept that by running red lights and/or stop signs that he's reinforcing the opinion that a lot of motorists have that "all" cyclists are just a bunch of scofflaws.
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