Religion: pros & cons pt1 (Religion)

by Balance_Maintained , U.S.A., Friday, October 31, 2014, 01:36 (3674 days ago) @ dhw

TONY: As I said before, sometimes it is best to let the bible speak for itself...
> Romans 1:18-32-> 
>DHW: This is the sort of text which makes people sympathize with Richard Dawkins' antipathy towards religion. God's invisible qualities as manifested in the bible and the world around me are the mixture I have listed in my first post. I accept that my reasonings are empty-headed in so far as they lead me to no conclusions, but I vehemently deny that my heart has become darkened. I do not claim to be wise since I have no answers, but God so far as I know has not turned me into a rapist, a homosexual (this seems to have been an obsession among the law-givers), or a greedy, envious, murderous, deceitful, malicious, backbiting, haughty, untrustworthy, unloving, merciless candidate for the death penalty. You will of course read the text differently, but the implication that godlessness leads to sin is as obnoxious as my saying that religion leads to greed, paedophilia and war because bishops are rich, child abuse is rife in the Church, and different believers continue to wage war on each other. Human weakness is not the fault of godlessness or of religion. It's the way we are - or perhaps the way God made us.-And no one said that this condemnation applied to everyone, or even equally to everyone. Some of it will apply more to some people than to others. Perhaps, it is exactly what it said it is. That people turned away from all the teachings that are right there, the basics of love your neighbor. What I find interesting is that you SEE exactly all the things that it said would be, and we see them running rampant today, far worse than at any other point in history, and you STILL say it wrong because you don't feel it applies to you personally. I have, on occasion, been a back biter, a little haughty, occasionally greedy, and envious at times. When I was younger, there were times I was even deceitful, most especially to myself. I am not saying I am a BAD person, but I definitely can see where I have made my mistakes, and I am cognizant enough of them not to deny them.

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What is the purpose of living? How about, 'to reduce needless suffering. It seems to me to be a worthy purpose.