I hadn't thought of that o.o putting it that way without religion no government would exist beat that Aikido

if i told u guys what i believed you would think i was crazy but im not for religion im a good person cuz i like to be good and if there is a such thing as this god well i hope hes as kind as you all say and lets me in even tho im ignorant of him.

my religion believes in freedom of religion o.o (in other words even if your another religion we don't look down on you, but believe in the end we all go to heaven if your a good person.) Although I will never tell somebody else there religion is wrong or mine is right, I have no proof and there faith is just as strong as mine, we wont know til we're dead =P

It's common in nature. Lions, wolves, dogs, all have alpha-males. Those Alpha's are the ruler. There is no religion in the animal kingdom, and they have rulers.
Humans are no different, there was a time with no religion and there was the Alpha-male of the tribe, or the "Chief" who ran things.


Done. =P Extending the Alpha-male thing to a broader population, the Alpha would branch out as well, moving from a dictatorship to having those around him who he trusts and would help him run things, this moves into another form of dictatorship, but eventually into a crude working of democracy as the peoples favorite would be more likely to challenge the current Alpha-male, seeing as the others would help him do it.
Basic beginnings of government.


I do like the idea of that, but I have to ask, what if someone is a non-believer? Would they still be allowed through the "pearly gates"?


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Honestly, to me, religion just seems to be a quick and easy answer to the unexplained.
Dig deeper into what you want to know and you'll find there is less and less need for religion, or god, for explanations of the world around us.

Now, I have nothing against personal religion, if people go to it for comfort, but I view that as a completely different thing than widespread religious workings. If it stayed as a personal choice, there would be no diversity among religions, no bad thoughts towards those of another religion simply because it would all be considered a passing thought, it wouldn't be religion at all, only a belief.
When I say no diversity, I mean it in this way; When religion (or worshiping) first came about, there was no "God" or "Allah" or whatever other name you want to call it, it was simply a higher power that people looked to when they had no explanation of the events they were going through. From that it expanded into the idolization of other *seemingly* unexplainable phenomenon, such as - the sun, the moon, ocean/waves, the earth, volcanoes, etc - but as each of these things were explained and were understood, people stopped worshiping them. You then have a "void" of idols, where the society is conditioned to accept the system of sacrificing/worshiping things, they fill that space with something else and a new religion is born.
Now take "God" or "Allah", and it's genius really, something outside space and time, completely unexplainable, cannot be understood in any sense, it can never be replaced because of a deeper understanding, and will persist through other changes. Keeps the religion alive.

Anyways, these are my half-asleep semi-rants of the night, I'm sorry if I strayed from the path of the discussion, but as I am about to fall asleep, my mind tends to follow whatever path it likes.
I'm probably going to wake up tomorrow, read this over, and offer a huge "WTF?!" to myself for it, but oh well, here it goes.

Believe or not good people all get into heaven =p

er, ok, was hoping for a comment on the rest of it xD but alrighty then!
For all of the religions I've looked into and studied, that is pretty rare Hurt. Would you mind if I asked which one you were a part of?

honestly would rather not say >_> I know if I do it'll be up for attack

Wow. Aikido i love you
Alright my views on religion: (just the very very basic parts of it)
I usually ask myself and other around me this question: "would the world have been a better place had religion never existed?"
Well there is no absolutely clear answer since almost every argument here can have a counter argument of approximately the same merit. But here is my argument:

Firstly make a list. What good has religion done compared to what bad has religion done.
It might not be obvious to all of us but from what i know about history and the current situation of the world i see a big divide between the two. Religion has causes many many wars and people needlessly lost their lives "in the name of god" for ages. There are so many events of massacre because of religion that i cant even list them all. It is only recently that people have openly spoken out against religion because of the fact that you cant kill people for not believing in your religion anymore (at least in modern civilized societies). As for the good religion has done. It has given many people hope in their lives. It has also ..... actually thats pretty much it. Is that little bit of hope really worth the lives of millions of people, maybe billions. We are at war with the Muslim extremists today only because of religious conflicts.
As a counter argument to everything that ive said you could also say: yes people used religion as an excuse for war and slaughter but had religion not existed they would have simply found another excuse. I say thats true but it would be much harder to explain killing a huge group of people with a conveniently large amount of land without religion. Hell i cant think of a good enough reason thats people would b prepared to believe besides religion (which isn't a good enough reason)
Thats about all i can write atm because its 3:00am and im sleepy
discuss

I obviusly am late for this dsc but i call dibs on next topic!
Plz carry on

I think this topic is closed =\ please choose another shemen. this one is heading the wrong way fast.