Atheists often see religion as having a negative impact on society, the root cause of many wars and the cause of intolerance and tension within our own communities. Therefore, they can often be dismissive of it, as many consider that the world would be a better place without it. To suggest that this forum is a good yardstick to measure religious intolerance on either side of the fence would be wrong though imo.
Adam and Eve had many children but only Cain, Abel and Seth are mentioned by name - “And the days of Adam after he had fathered Seth were many. And he fathered sons and daughters.” It means that Cain's wife was related to him somehow, marriage among cousins and even siblings was common then.
You talk as if religion is an entity in itself - how do you destroy 'it' ? Religion is surely the people who have certain beliefs - without people there's no such thing as religion so what are you going to destroy exactly?
The story of creation and the many books of the Old Testament are nothing more than fables and moral teachings imo. The Adam and Eve and their offspring example, is one of many tales that need explanations that simply don't hold water, when offered up for rational examination. They cannot be taken as statements of historical fact, and the fact that they seemingly are in the eyes of some believers is something that atheists struggle to rationalise.
People can marry who they want (as long as they are human, yes Australians, I am looking at you!). It is their funeral and should they want to live in complete misery, then so be it. Religion is also bollocks. Created by man to control man by undermining and destroying man. Religion is based on fear. The so called good bits are simply human nature. We are a social species. Do apes have a god? Do they care for each other, have a structure, have a hierarchy? If you could freeze yourself for 2000 years and when waking up, you saw people worshipping the T-rex from Jurassic Park, would you laugh? Thats what religion is. Believing in what was a made up story ised to scare people a few thousand years ago.
No. Man is the cause as man created religion. Its a form of control and very early government. Thousands of years ago people worshipped the sun. It evolved from there. The thing is, worshipping the sun makes sense. Its real, it does provide and it can destroy. After those promising early days, it went crazy.
It's based on the trade off of eternal life for obeying a set of rules whilst on the planet, and yes, fear and control are a major factor in that. All religion is ultimately based on mans inability to accept his own mortality, as they all offer the prospect of something beyond this mortal coil.
Its certainly fear. Fear was tactic of choice for human in power. It still is but these days, most of us dont believe in monsters. 2000 years ago people lived in a smaller world, some never travelled more than a few miles and certainly never left their homeland. They were afraid of the unknown and the people in power capitalised on this with tales of horrors. Dragons and the like.
Christianity like other things, was hijacked by the Roman state, they stole greek gods too and renamed them, even greek politics. They took chunks of Egyptian religion and merged it with existing Christus religion that they'd hijacked as it began to become too powerful. A religious coup. The whole Jesus things is about the sun anyway. The whole "he died and rose again" is a metaphor for the sun rising and setting isn't it?
True, and the whole suffering is good cause good likes you to suffer, when **** is bad, just put all your faith in someone that is not you, essentially don;t act yourself, let someone else do it I get faith, I can understand that, and principles, but actually depending on some imaginary dude to bail you out.. nah
What really irks me is when people give god credit for mans work. Good or bad. God doesnt send over tonnes of aid, he doesnt care for people, he didnt create a human shield in Tunisia nor did he open fire on the people there. It was all man.
Even a bad roofing job is blamed on god, insurance won't pay out of a tile falls on your car from a roof, it's called an act of god My mate in Ireland was refused a claim on his insurance and that is what he was told, "cant claim, act of god"
