Social advantages and disadvantages of religion

[KennyJC]

It is a characteristic of Humanity.

I know that... just making sure you are not trying to make scripture exempt from that. If you are in favour of cherry picking morals from scripture, how about we just go one better and live by the superior morals of the 21st century, whilst of course trying to improve upon them.

Sweden's cultural aspects still derive heavily from heritage.

As does every culture. It doesn't appear over night. But to say because everybody was religious in the olden-days, does not mean that similar culture would not have happened also. And you know what, even though some societies are no longer religious, culture is still developing and changing.

I'm pretty sure you said in a previous statement we would still be living in caves if not for religion. I say that is against nature with the way we are as a species.

Faith, on the other hand, is personal. It is belief. It is faith. It is kept within the boundary of personal belief.

Even though you clearly stated the difference between faith and religion, faith leads to religion, leads to fundamentalism, faith leads to poor education, poor societal development, astrology over astronomy, religion over science.

Faith is just a stain on society.

I forget the url, but there were polls done on countries throughout the world asking wether they believe in god. Typically, those countries where the majority said they do not believe in god are the countries that had the healthiest societies.

So you are not presenting a good case for having us all be 'faithful'.

Therefore, I argue that while religion might not be best, faith is.

The best is to be a rational person. To have an intelligent society is the key to peace and order.

The advantages of faith are numerous, including not only social enhancement (in establishing interactivity, celebration, as well as morality, etc), but on a personal level, it could be argued that it's easier to have peace of mind while having faith.

The advantage of faith, religion, astrology are for weak and stupid people. The more rational of us get the same benefits from more worthwhile persuits.

That's why I don't think it matters whether or not the Bible is historically accurate. It's in the meaning of faith, not in historical content. For all we know, most of what's in there never happened. But that isn't the point, they have a message. David and Goliath, I highly doubt they existed. But that isn't the point. The point is the message behind that.

I hate to be the one to tell you this, but the bible is not the only book or the best book for fictional tales that have a moral.

And faith, is a very important aspect of being Human. It's simply natural that we Humans want to have hope.

Well you've been using the word 'faith' very vaguely. I'm assuming you mean faith in a god and heaven. Well I'm telling you right now that the same emotion people get from believing in god and heaven is the same emotion people without a belief in god and heaven get.

Stop hijacking human emotions and stop giving them supernatural connotations or assuming that atheists can not experience them.