Best anti religion book I have ever read , Sam Harris, letter to a Christian nation

[Duggie]

I was brought up a Catholic, so know a fair bit about it.

I would disagree, there’s plenty the Catholic Church can’t/won’t teach you about Christianity, just about their own rules. There is a big difference between a relationship with God and organised religion. I wasn’t raised anything, I came to God aged 39 after I studied the Bible for myself.

[Harry Monk]

I would disagree, there’s plenty the Catholic Church can’t/won’t teach you about Christianity, just about their own rules. There is a big difference between a relationship with God and organised religion. I wasn’t raised anything, I came to God aged 39 after I studied the Bible for myself.

I've read the bible and the Koran. I've read plenty of other religious texts as well. They're all man's way of trying to explain something they didn't understand at the time, and to appease the fear that once we're dead, there is nothing else.

[Taunton Blue Genie]

I've read the bible and the Koran. I've read plenty of other religious texts as well. They're all man's way of trying to explain something they didn't understand at the time, and to appease the fear that once we're dead, there is nothing else.

Indeed. Most religions were founded when man had little concept of electricity, science, and a million other things that the average person these days understands. In the absence of knowledge (and the word 'science' mean knowledge) people were either ignorant about many subjects or assigned phenomena to unseen deities and spirits.
Believing in religion is essentially an intellectually childlike state and it is no co-incidence that almost every believer adopts the deity or deities passed on to them by local influences when they were children.
Homo sapiens* have been around for hundreds of thousands of years and religions have come and gone with empires, dominant tribes and the equivalent of evangelism. It is unlikely that any believers on this board would have held the same religious beliefs if they were born in a different location where another religion is dominant or in any era before Abrahamism took root.

As for the conflation of art, poetry and the like: yes, belief sysytems do inspire people and creative souls have always found work with the powers that be in any location. However, if I were to believe in little green men and paint a wonderful picture as a result of inspiration infused by the experience it doesn't mean that little green men exist - and someone else in a different location may assign that same inspiration to another deity. However, there are experiences in the mind of man (and all around the world) that are obviously common across all societies and it's more about other factors than little tin gods.

*At what state of evolution man was assigned a soul that could pass to the afterlife is another matter. Are there Cro-magnon and Neanderthal souls in your chosen afterlife/paradise/heaven?

[Tuerto]

Indeed. Most religions were founded when man had little concept of electricity, science, and a million other things that the average person these days understands. In the absence of knowledge (and the word 'science' mean knowledge) people were either ignorant about many subjects or assigned phenomena to unseen deities and spirits.
Believing in religion is essentially an intellectually childlike state and it is no co-incidence that almost every believer adopts the deity or deities passed on to them by local influences when they were children.
Homo sapiens* have been around for hundreds of thousands of years and religions have come and gone with empires, dominant tribes and the equivalent of evangelism. It is unlikely that any believers on this board would have held the same religious beliefs if they were born in a different location where another religion is dominant or in any era before Abrahamism took root.

As for the conflation of art, poetry and the like: yes, belief sysytems do inspire people and creative souls have always found work with the powers that be in any location. However, if I were to believe in little green men and paint a wonderful picture as a result of inspiration infused by the experience it doesn't mean that little green men exist - and someone else in a different location may assign that same inspiration to another deity. However, there are experiences in the mind of man (and all around the world) that are obviously common across all societies and it's more about other factors than little tin gods.

*At what state of evolution man was assigned a soul that could pass to the afterlife is another matter. Are there Cro-magnon and Neanderthal souls in your chosen afterlife/paradise/heaven?

Genie, you are generalising massively. You are entitled to your opinion, but you talk in such definitive terms about a subject that means different things to different people, and those people exercise their faith in many different ways. It's not as easy to suggest that everyone is wrong and you're 100% sure of it, it's a dangerous attitude to take. Plenty of religious people don't take what the good book says literally, how could they and why would they want to? Faith is a hugely complex subject. You may think it's all nonsense, that's fine, i'm no believer either, but to be dismissive is an insult to so many good people who have faith in my opinion.

[Taunton Blue Genie]

Genie, you are generalising massively. You are entitled to your opinion, but you talk in such definitive terms about a subject that means different things to different people, and those people exercise their faith in many different ways. It's not as easy to suggest that everyone is wrong and you're 100% sure of it, it's a dangerous attitude to take. Plenty of religious people don't take what the good book says literally, how could they and why would they want to? Faith is a hugely complex subject. You may think it's all nonsense, that's fine, i'm no believer either, but to be dismissive is an insult to so many good people who have faith in my opinion.

Please don't patronise me as I know a fair bit about religions but I tfy to keep my responsed to a length that bexits the format. However you wish to couch your argument many pepple havr faith built on myth, indoctrination. naivety, tomes that are put together selectively by other human beings and no evidence that stands up to close examination. As for my being dismissive being insulting to meople that is a bloody hoot. I am fair-minded enough not to be insulted when religious people knock on my door and tell me I am in the wrong by eschewing their particular deity. Oh yeah, once again you are seemingly concentrating your comments ('the good book' ) on just one of thousnds of rigions that have existed in the history of mankind. This persistance conveys a certain myopia and mNy Christians have very little idea as to how even their own so-callew holy book was collated and how it differs from other Abrahamist versions. Or that so many Bible stories came from earlier religions. Religion is a broad and fascinating subject but you seem to be dwelling on just one of thousands of them.

[Tuerto]

Please don't patronise me as I know a fair bit about religions but I tfy to keep my responsed to a length that bexits the format. However you wish to couch your argument many pepple havr faith built on myth, indoctrination. naivety, tomes that are put together selectively by other human beings and no evidence that stands up to close examination. As for my being dismissive being insulting to meople that is a bloody hoot. I am fair-minded enough not to be insulted when religious people knock on my door and tell me I am in the wrong by eschewing their particular deity. Oh yeah, once again you are seemingly concentrating your comments ('the good book' ) on just one of thousnds of rigions that have existed in the history of mankind. This persistance conveys a certain myopia and mNy Christians have very little idea as to how even their own so-callew holy book was collated and how it differs from other Abrahamist versions. Or that so many Bible stories came from earlier religions. Religion is a broad and fascinating subject but you seem to be dwelling on just one of thousands of them.

Man, you're so Pompous, or is it righteous, that's probably a word that you don't like for obvious reasons. I wasn't trying to patronise you or insult your sensitivities. Here's the irony, you seem so sure that what you say is correct, you make no attempt to leave the door ajar or show some understanding towards those with faith, yet you are critical of religion for being pretty much as puerile as you are in the opposite direction. Shame you can't see that

[Baloo]

Genie, you are generalising massively. You are entitled to your opinion, but you talk in such definitive terms about a subject that means different things to different people, and those people exercise their faith in many different ways. It's not as easy to suggest that everyone is wrong and you're 100% sure of it, it's a dangerous attitude to take. Plenty of religious people don't take what the good book says literally, how could they and why would they want to? Faith is a hugely complex subject. You may think it's all nonsense, that's fine, i'm no believer either, but to be dismissive is an insult to so many good people who have faith in my opinion.

I’d agree there is a lot of diversity in terms of belief. The Quakers for instance seem to range from fundamentalists to non-theists, with a significant proportion holding more liberal views. I read they’re considering dropping the word god from guidance for their meetings for worship.