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GraemeA's profile
GraemeA

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GraemeA  ·  3522 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Religion's use.

Finally, no 140 character limit. The best way I think I can put it is this.

People were already trying to learn about the universe, they studied the stars and tried to find the meaning behind it all. The issue is that when organised religions such as the catholic church caught wind of this and when it disagreed with their teachings they had these people killed or tortured.

They stopped people from findings things out because they knew there would be conflictions with their religious beliefs. This held back many areas of science for hundreds of years. I couldn't begin to imagine where we would be as a society right now if this hadn't happened.

It's for these reasons that I think religion has been a burden on the human race and not a help. I know most, pretty much all, religions started out as people trying to find answers to life's big questions. I get that, I want answers too. But we're no closer to finding conclusive answers to these questions than we were thousands of years ago and as a result we've been held back hugely.

People began to use religion as a tool to exercise their bigotry and persecute those who held different values than they did. This is still prevalent today in many places. Even very modern countries such as America change their laws and ways of governing society because of religion. Because of incidents such as the attack on the WTC, Muslims in America are treated by many people as if they are devil spawn.

This divide in people is caused by their religious beliefs. It is my firm belief that most genocides that have occurred throughout history would have been easily avoided but for one group of people having different beliefs than another. I know this is unavoidable, people come to different conclusions about why they are here but there is no reason for them to fight and kill because of it.

I believe that any possible benefits given by religion are far outweighed by the thousands of years of suffering they have caused.