Saturday, February 14, 2009
"Religion is an insult to human dignity. With or without it you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion."
Quote by: Steven Weinberg
A quote I took off my Jon David's blog. Was planning to rebutt it on his comments page but was too lazy. Original post exists in on my cg blog
Firstly, by saying that religion is an insult to human dignity, this person is saying that religion makes people do disgraceful or degrading things. Most widely accepted religions usually preach loving others, giving to charity and believing in a higher order. I would think it is more disgraceful and degrading to your own dignity if you do not love others and give to charity.
Secondly, in saying that religion is the only thing that can make a good person do a bad thing is being simplistic. Anything that you feel strongly about whether it be God, Science, studies, food, sports, etc. will make you do things you would otherwise not do. Most of the things we do for what we believe in are acceptable in the world but some things we do are not. Lets take it from the point of studies. You want good grades and you know everything is marked on the curve. You would do a bad thing to get an advantage over your peers. It could be as innocuous like not sharing you notes or not studying with fellow students. It also as malicious as cheating or stealing people's notes just before the exams. These people could be good people normally, nice guys, loving boy/girlfriends, etc, but when it comes to studies, they turn into bad people.
The irony of his statement is that religion is also one of the rare few things that can make bad people do good things and turn into good people afterwards. What is preached by many religions is aimed at the bad people not the good ones. Jesus came to Earth to save the Lost not to chill with the Righteous. His statement was probably made in response to all the suicide bombings and religious violence in the world. A more careful analysis of the religious texts of Christianity and other widespread religions would say that these 'good' people doing bad things are actually bad people. Nothing is more 'bad' than abusing the name of your God to fulfill your own selfish aims or justify your actions. We as children of God know this all too well.
I came across such an example recently. This person (let this person be A_ has had a bad experience in church owing to the abuse of Jesus' name. A's mentor used physical and mental abuse to get information from A. When A refused, the mentor said that he/she had the authority from Jesus to know. After the revelation of the information, A's cell group used 'Jesus' authority to control A's life. Needless to say, A no longer follows God and hates Jesus to the extent A sees all bad things as from Jesus to destroy A's life.
We know as followers of Christ that such actions are unbiblical but from the perspective of the ordinary onlooker this is an example of good people doing bad things.
Quote by: Steven Weinberg
A quote I took off my Jon David's blog. Was planning to rebutt it on his comments page but was too lazy. Original post exists in on my cg blog
Firstly, by saying that religion is an insult to human dignity, this person is saying that religion makes people do disgraceful or degrading things. Most widely accepted religions usually preach loving others, giving to charity and believing in a higher order. I would think it is more disgraceful and degrading to your own dignity if you do not love others and give to charity.
Secondly, in saying that religion is the only thing that can make a good person do a bad thing is being simplistic. Anything that you feel strongly about whether it be God, Science, studies, food, sports, etc. will make you do things you would otherwise not do. Most of the things we do for what we believe in are acceptable in the world but some things we do are not. Lets take it from the point of studies. You want good grades and you know everything is marked on the curve. You would do a bad thing to get an advantage over your peers. It could be as innocuous like not sharing you notes or not studying with fellow students. It also as malicious as cheating or stealing people's notes just before the exams. These people could be good people normally, nice guys, loving boy/girlfriends, etc, but when it comes to studies, they turn into bad people.
The irony of his statement is that religion is also one of the rare few things that can make bad people do good things and turn into good people afterwards. What is preached by many religions is aimed at the bad people not the good ones. Jesus came to Earth to save the Lost not to chill with the Righteous. His statement was probably made in response to all the suicide bombings and religious violence in the world. A more careful analysis of the religious texts of Christianity and other widespread religions would say that these 'good' people doing bad things are actually bad people. Nothing is more 'bad' than abusing the name of your God to fulfill your own selfish aims or justify your actions. We as children of God know this all too well.
I came across such an example recently. This person (let this person be A_ has had a bad experience in church owing to the abuse of Jesus' name. A's mentor used physical and mental abuse to get information from A. When A refused, the mentor said that he/she had the authority from Jesus to know. After the revelation of the information, A's cell group used 'Jesus' authority to control A's life. Needless to say, A no longer follows God and hates Jesus to the extent A sees all bad things as from Jesus to destroy A's life.
We know as followers of Christ that such actions are unbiblical but from the perspective of the ordinary onlooker this is an example of good people doing bad things.
# posted by Ian @ 10:15 AM 
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