I've formed a few opinions about all religion in general throughout my life... 1. If your church sells bumper stickers, it's a cult. - No church should be "for-profit" - I think it's inherently wrong for a church to advertise. 2. We won't know anything until we die. Then, and only then, will you know what the right path was...or not because there wasn't one. For all you know, you'll die and then find out that the Jehovah's Witnesses were right all along. 3. Why does one need to go to a church/temple/mosque/compund every stinkin week? Religion is personal. I don't need anyone telling me how to practice it. 4. Why do we need a book/priest/rabbi/etc to tell us how to live our life? Why do we need an all-knowing, all-powerful being to do this? Isn't it just enough to be a good person for the sake of being a good person? If you're wondering, I am jewish, but haven't been to a service (except weddings and funerals) since my bar mitzvah in 1988. I've simply made the decision that I'm going to be a relatively good person because it's the right thing to do.
religion is useful in keeping the tribe together. jews kurds appalachian america you get the picture.
The word you're looking for is Imam. Also, find me a self-mocking priest/rabbi and I'll consider your request fair.
Why exactly would you be able to say that countries with more atheists and more sucides are countries with more trauma? Anything to back this up? The religious countries are, at anyone's first glance, just as war-torn as the soviet states. So there goes that. Palestine and Israel have been at war forever. Suicide rates are not near peaceful irreligious countries. I appreciate your proposing potential problems. All research on earth has potential problems. But the majority of your queries have been raised and, in most cases, addressed already. Do a quick search. All religion btw doesn't correlate suicide with damnation. It has been noted that it is just a few that do. I, like you, was unaware of it too. To be fair though, around 3 billion people in the world are Muslims or Christians. That's around half. Here's a couple of other links for your enjoyment: http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/abstract/161/12/2303 http://www.gallup.com/poll/108625/More-Religious-Countries-Lower-Suicide-Rates.aspx
Why is this so difficult to understand for everyone? The conservatives recommend that no pictures drawings are made. The moderate recommend that pictures and drawings are ok. There is virtually no Muslim who would be fine with a picture of Mohammed PBUH in existence. Same goes for Jesus, Moses, and all other prophets of Islam PBUT. No Muslim on earth has a picture of him. This is how sacred it is. Not a cartoon or a mocking picture, no no... I'm saying NO IMAGE WHATSOEVER. Are you really shocked that a cartoon mocking the Prophet PBUH was met with that level of outrage? Personally, I'm ashamed of the low level of outrage Muslims have shown towards it, and ashamed that some had to resort to violence to make a point. I also won't hide that I would be disgusted with someone who supports such an intrusive act of tarnishing the sanctity of something that over 1 billion people hold sacred. Everyone is free to do what they like, but they live with the consequences of what they do. The outrage is expected and warranted - if you choose to create the hatred, then live with it. Islamophobia is what you're suffering from DaDakota. The bald white guy in this video sums it up nicely in the end: (interview begins around the 4-minute mark) Really respect this guy for making a great point in a respectful way to show how a Muslim is SUPPOSED to behave.
I'm curious why the negative correlation between atheism and suicide rates is so vital, but the nine other issues that Zuckerman found religious countries lag behind in don't matter. For starters, there is as strong of a relationship between higher levels of religious attendance and low literacy rates as there is between suicide and atheism. There's also infant mortality rates, the aforementioned income disparity, and even life expectancy rates -- this according to the article that conservapedia forgot to link when they quoted it.
Wow... conservapedia? Really? Even your highly biased and misleading source doesn't support your assertions that atheism makes one more likely to commit suicide. The only reference on that site that comes even remotely close to showing that, the American Psychiatric Association study, is a survey of people with depression (something Conservapedia conveniently fails to mention)! LOL! This paragraph makes no sense and provides no coherent point. You still haven't come close to showing a causal relationship. In fact, you still haven't shown that individual atheists are more likely to commit suicide. All you have shown is that less religious countries happen to have higher suicide rates, an observation that doesn't really say much by itself. What? Uh... no. But we haven't established that "irreligiosity and suicide are correlated". Your erroneous conclusions aside, so what if atheists do happen to be more likely to commit suicide? What's your point? Does that make atheists evil? Does it make religious people somehow superior to us? Should I convert right now, lest I put a gun in my mouth? I would rather take my chances with atheism (especially considering I've never experienced any suicidal ideation) than live a lie.
The best Religion is MY RELIGION everyone always thinks theirs is the best . . If not. . . then I think they would change to the best Rocket River who wants to think they got a second rate religion?
Am surprised that many of you think highly of Buddhism.Me be sitting under a tree all day, having no care appeals more to many in this troubled world than to indulge in a heated discussion of which is the best religion. I don't like the notion of which best,this implies there's a 2nd best,a 3rd best,etc which means to say all of them got their merits ..and flaws which by the way is an absurd notion in religions.Surely there can't be many truths, but One only IMHO, Christianity for me is the one only true,the fulfillment, the completion of the Jewish religion,all the rests are man-made
Damn you! My religion is a second rate religion! So what? I love having to spend 1/4 of my take home pay towards my church......wait.....that goes towards bar tabs. I hate eating meat on Friday's so I am good there......and I'll be damned!!!! Can't work on Sunday's......guess I have to grill out and watch Tiger win the Masters! Poor me...... Poor me....
I don't think many people see David Koresh as a Christian. They both grew up under the influence of faiths and then basically created their own cults. I accept that Buddhists have and do commit acts of violence but that is not in line with the teachings of Buddhism. Christians and Muslims have historically used their religions (rightly, wrongly, correctly, or not) to justify acts of violence in a way that Buddhists cannot. In my studies, the idea of a "just war" is fairly muddy in Buddhism and if you were to accept the idea it would be strictly limited to self-defense.
