What if... religion never existed

[Zetta_x]

Although, I know pastors who say science is all false...

Then the pastors you know are mental, but you shouldn't condemn the entire group just because a pastor you know refuses to use his brain.

As a person who studies statistics, believe me, I'm not the one to generalize

Of course the pastor is mental, I never went back to that church ever again. He said almost literally, "Things of nature was created by God, Scientist pretend they can explain things of nature with thing like physics, chemistry, and biology. They are all wrong, scientist pretend we can comprehend God's intelligence"

So many logical fallacies in that one sentence... the sad thing is that people like my cousin and his friends will take to heart what he said

 

[Depravo]

What if... threads about religion didn't exist.

Spoiler

Moderators would have a lot less to do.

 

[Foxi4]

As a person who studies statistics, believe me, I'm not the one to generalize

Of course the pastor is mental, I never went back to that church ever again. He said almost literally, "Things of nature was created by God, Scientist pretend they can explain things of nature with thing like physics, chemistry, and biology. They are all wrong, scientist pretend we can comprehend God's intelligence"

So many logical fallacies in that one sentence... the sad thing is that people like my cousin and his friends will take to heart what he said

Preachers like him don't understand the idea behind explaining nature. I sincerely doubt that any serious scientist out there wakes up in the morning, shakes his or her fist at the sky and screams "I will disprove your existence, whoever you are not!" - that's just stupid. The idea they should entertain is that scientists explain how God's creations "work" and why in a manner of admiring them. It saddens me that people buy into that kind of bullshit.

 

[gifi4]

I just thought I'd mention this: I don't hate religion, the school I actually go to is really multi-cultural and has a whole lot of different religions and I deal with it with no problem. And what Zetta has said, is the type of stuff that annoys me (The pastor, not Zetta), and yeah I do see a fair bit of it, sadly.

 

[kupo3000]

Please don't be ridiculous. Your point was that sciences would be more developed than they are now if there were no religions and I just proved to you that religion itself had either little impact or proved to be inspiring for scientists.

Some people believe in God or Gods, some people don't, that's just how things are. A truly religious person marvels at the creations of God and wishes to understand them - "Christian Scientists" wanted to understand the divine and chose the path of science to achieve that. By understanding the world around them, they understood God and that led them to discovering and inventing plenty of things that nowadays we take for granted.

Just like any possible factor, Religion can have a positive or a negative impact. You're going to pull out the argument of book burnings and I'm simply going to say that with or without religion, there would still be people fighting for some other cause that would stall development. It's not a matter of religion per-se, it's a matter of education and understanding.

I don't recall ever mentioning, "that sciences would be more developed than they are now if there were no religions".
Probably where you live Christianity is kept in bay as something cultural like modern day Shinto.
In America, not so much.

 

[Foxi4]

I just thought I'd mention this: I don't hate religion, the school I actually go to is really multi-cultural and has a whole lot of different religions and I deal with it with no problem. And what Zetta has said, is the type of stuff that annoys me (The pastor, not Zetta), and yeah I do see a fair bit of it, sadly.

Oh, trust me, I realize that there are nutters out there and it really pains me to say that some do seep their poison into the ears of their listeners, but I choose to belive that it's not the religion that made them that way, but their upbringing or education. I know that for every loud and famous nutter there's one educated, timid and never-heard-of intelligent priest or pastor.

Like in every organised group, churches of all kinds have their black sheep - some churches are even made specifically out of black sheep because "treating scripture as fact" is a part of their belief, but I don't think we should condemn the entire concept of religiousness just because of them.

There's a saying where I live - the smallest dogs bark the loudest. They're the small dogs.

I can see how certain religious leaders can "dumbify" the nation, but then again, don't politics or TV stars do the exact same thing? Whenever there's fellowship involved, there will be good and bad examples, don't you think?

I don't recall ever mentioning "that sciences would be more developed than they are now if there were no religions".
Probably where you live Christianity is kept in bay as something cultural like modern day Shinto.
If America, not so much.

The "Old Cavalery" in the form of the eldery is still here, 96% or so of Polish citizens declares they're Catholic *however* the youth of the nation follows science rather than doctrine, so I suppose we're walking in the right direction. Where I live, if you said that "there's no such thing as evolution" or another fallacy of the kind, you'd be ridiculed in an instant... so yes, I think that paradoxically, the situation is better compared to the states.

 

[Blood Fetish]

If religion was never invented then man would have created some other system to control the populace. In that alternate universe we would have a thread discussing that.

 

[shortz1994]

Do people think without religion, all of them would just suddenly drop their morals and ethics?
Science would be "stalled" anyway since not every advancement may not be the right thing to do.

Also, even if their was a sudden advancement in science if their was no religion, there is a bad
side to technology and things can get dangerous much quicker.

??. how would science stall or stop due to no religion? i think science would grow. look at what was stopped over the period of time, before science was more main stream as it is today.
religion is what stopped the great thinkers of there time,cause it went against the so called church. morals an ethics also don't have come from religion.( i can count on my fingers/toes how many people are so called religious an have no morals or ethics.) morals/ethics are taught at home by mom's dad's if you think the sunday school teacher is going to teach that we might as well never come out of the dark ages.( that's what was happening back then, "the church is always right.") shit just a small point here, look at the crap going on with the chicken restaurant
who gives a flying F$%k if they are happy let them be happy. what right is it of a church to tell anyone who they can or can't marry or be with.( or for anyone of us for this matter.)
an as far as there would not be a war with out religion. i didn't say there wouldn't be. just there would be a lot less. humans will always fight over some thing. even the last roll of toilet paper.
it's our nature. but religion has had a big role in starting wars. more then the last roll of toilet paper has. i could say a lot more.( shit i'm one of those that got kicked out of a catholic church, couldn't even see my mom before she was buried, an why. cause i got into a philosophical rant with the father, over this very fact.). but the fact is true for all religions, they always try an cram their beliefs down others throats.

 

[Foxi4]

Religion is what stopped the great thinkers of there time,cause it went against the so called church.

We've already established in the duration of this thread that it's subject to change and there was a time when it was the Religious institutions that were the epicenter of scholastic pursuits, so the rest of your post makes little sense.

It was also established that without Religion, we'd find something else to fight over.

 

[KingVamp]

Do people think without religion, all of them would just suddenly drop their morals and ethics?
Science would be "stalled" anyway since not every advancement may not be the right thing to do.

Also, even if their was a sudden advancement in science if their was no religion, there is a bad
side to technology and things can get dangerous much quicker.

??. how would science stall or stop due to no religion? i think science would grow. look at what was stopped over the period of time, before science was more main stream as it is today.
religion is what stopped the great thinkers of there time,cause it went against the so called church. morals an ethics also don't have come from religion.( i can count on my fingers/toes how many people are so called religious an have no morals or ethics.) morals/ethics are taught at home by mom's dad's if you think the sunday school teacher is going to teach that we might as well never come out of the dark ages.( that's what was happening back then, "the church is always right.&quot shit just a small point here, look at the crap going on with the chicken restaurant
who gives a flying F$%k if they are happy let them be happy. what right is it of a church to tell anyone who they can or can't marry or be with.( or for anyone of us for this matter.)
an as far as there would not be a war with out religion. i didn't say there wouldn't be. just there would be a lot less. humans will always fight over some thing. even the last roll of toilet paper.
it's our nature. but religion has had a big role in starting wars. more then the last roll of toilet paper has. i could say a lot more.( shit i'm one of those that got kicked out of a catholic church, couldn't even see my mom before she was buried, an why. cause i got into a philosophical rant with the father, over this very fact.). but the fact is true for all religions, they always try an cram their beliefs down others throats.

I think you misunderstood. Basically moral and ethics with still be there without religion, therefor science still wouldn't advance as fast since they would be check every step of the way.


Have to go, so I can't elaborate more right now.

 

[Foxi4]

I think you misunderstood. Basically moral and ethics with still be there without religion, therefor science still would
advance as fast since they would be check every step of the way.

This is an incredibly good point.

Look at the "Orthodox Green Movement" - organisations like the Animal Liberation Front, or other movements of the kind. They cross the border between being eco-friendly and being an eco-terrorist, ordering their members to attack and burn down science facilities or even to assasinate their "enemies" not because of religion but because "they care for animals".

Every reason can be a good reason if you build a cult around it, not just religion. Morality and ethics are "human" and they'd be still there even without an established religion, and "those two are like an a*shole - eveybody has their own".

 

[DiscostewSM]

Less wars with no religion? Maybe, but along with that, I would also think that less wars would have lead to a slower development of science and technology. Just think about it for a bit. In war, you have to push for victory, and having an advantage over your opponent. Your opponent makes bullet-projectile weapons, so you make bullet-proof armor. Your opponent makes better bullet-projectile weapons to counter your protection, so you make better protection. Rather than continuing with this game of cat and mouse, your opponent goes and makes bombs, to which you then have to try and counter that. Sure, this may not explain the universe, but there is no doubt that some advancements made because of war can lead to increased development of non-war studies.

Besides, isn't science simply a bunch of theories based on our own interpretations and observations? The way "we" think the universe works may not be the same as how it actually works. Our theories just happen to work until something new happens, to which our theories change. Many people believe the universe was created with the Big Bang (a theory nonetheless), yet even our own observations and interpretations of science has shown the Big Bang theory to be false due to different factors, like the conservation of angular momentum. Is it false, or is our data regarding how we think the universe works is false? That is why it is all just theories.

If anything from what I just said, I would say that religion had more of a impact towards increased development of science/technology rather than holding us back because it made us think differently of the universe.

 

[Depravo]

Closed at creator's request.