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Would the world be a better place without Islam?

Had the crusades been successfull and Isam replaced with Christianity things would have been very different but probably not better. For it to be better you'd have to reduce the influence of all religions and have a politically secular world.

Reply 41

A Mysterious Lord

20

Not at all, as a religion there's nothing wrong with it. As a political ideology however it's up there jostling with Nazism for the most totalitarian, oppressive and brutal political system known to man.

Reply 42

callum9999

16

Original post by CombineHarvester

Assuming the costs of organised religion outweigh the benefits of course. I've yet to see someone reasonably justify that this is the case.

It's justified in my head (fully understand if that isn't enough to convince you!).

People who are currently in organised religions now would probably still be religious if the church collapsed, and they would still do the things they could have done within the organised religion. (In my head anyway, you could speculate that the good religious people are only good because they have been brainwashed to be so).

By having their own personal spiritual beliefs then (in theory) they shouldn't be homophobic, create religious wars etc. etc. as there wouldn't be texts encouraging any of it.

Reply 43

CombineHarvester

16

Original post by callum9999

It's justified in my head (fully understand if that isn't enough to convince you!).

People who are currently in organised religions now would probably still be religious if the church collapsed, and they would still do the things they could have done within the organised religion. (In my head anyway, you could speculate that the good religious people are only good because they have been brainwashed to be so).

By having their own personal spiritual beliefs then (in theory) they shouldn't be homophobic, create religious wars etc. etc. as there wouldn't be texts encouraging any of it.

I think that's idealistic. Followers of religions aren't immune to the environment or society they grow up in. A Christian growing up in 1960s England would be more likely to be racist than one growing up in 2011, the reason being because racism was more commonplace and socially accepted. There's a lot of atheist people who are homophobic (in footballing culture for example or China which is predominantly atheist) and there's a lot of religious people who aren't, Latin America is very Catholic yet Brazil is has a large openly gay, sex industry. The vast majority of wars and deaths from wars in recent history are due to secular politics as well, even religious wars tend to based on political ideas such as territorial arguments. Stuff like homophobia and war are seen all around the world regardless of which religion people follow, I don't think if you got rid of organised religion such behaviour would stop.

Reply 44

Malsy

18

no.such.thing.never.ever.ever.

Reply 45

cakefish

10

Original post by Dreamseeker

Buddhism aims to develop in a person a healthy way of life, and is by far superior to the mainstream, repressive religions that are at the heart of a lot of the world's current problems.

I'm glad to see someone agrees that Buddhism is the best!!!

Reply 46

qasman

15

Original post by Rant

Here is another example of a madman calling for a holy war on the West in the name of Islam. He's calling the Western countries "crusaders" in a presumed attempt to link relief efforts in Libya to the Crusades.

I here a human being killed another human being.

THEREFORE ALL HUMANS ARE MURDERERS

/yourlogic

Reply 47

Rant

OP

3

Original post by qasman

I here a human being killed another human being.

THEREFORE ALL HUMANS ARE MURDERERS

/yourlogic

Read thread carefully. I didn't say this was my opinion, it's a discussion.

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 48

Jenny_Jazz

6

Would the world be better off without stupid questions?

Spoiler

Yes.

Original post by Layabout

I'm no big fan of Islam or religion in general, but it's funny when people point out how backwards social attitudes persist in the Islamic third world, and convienantly forget that the same attitudes persist in Christian Africa.

One obvious example of bad attitudes between the Islamic world and Christian West is the issue of women. While they cover their women from head to toe in black robes, our women are half-naked on the front pages of magazines, photoshopped to our perception of perfection. Both sides are clearly imbalanced.

Reply 51

Rant

OP

3

Original post by Jenny_Jazz

Would the world be better off without stupid questions?

Spoiler

And it has revealed that more people would like to see it abolished than not. Interesting.

Reply 52

Jenny_Jazz

6

Original post by Rant

And it has revealed that more people would like to see it abolished than not. Interesting.

Well firstly it's on a certain amount of TSR.
Secondly you can't be sure that those people who voted "yes" were serious, nor can you say it is a proportionate representation of students, or people on here, or anyone in general.

A random poll on a forum doesn't actually prove anything.

Reply 53

Rant

OP

3

Original post by Jenny_Jazz

Well firstly it's on a certain amount of TSR.
Secondly you can't be sure that those people who voted "yes" were serious, nor can you say it is a proportionate representation of students, or people on here, or anyone in general.

A random poll on a forum doesn't actually prove anything.

Oh, but it does. Also, what are you hiding behind in that photo?

Reply 54

Jenny_Jazz

6

Original post by Rant

Oh, but it does.

Not it really doesn't.

Also, what are you hiding behind in that photo?

You mean in my avatar? Nothing except my face

Reply 55

mikeylfc1989

8

Without religion altogether. To think how far we could have progressed in medicine/technology without backward religious thinking and how much more politically stable the world would be.