| Streakfury |
After my last post in the wife beating thread, I started to think a lot about what I said. In particular, the last part:
| quote: | | I just think that the world would be a much better place without religion, and all it's "excuses" or "reasons" for people commiting terrible crimes in the name of it. |
Now I've thought about that a lot, and I started to wonder whether or not it was in fact religion that should be banned or outlawed or whatever.
My previous opinion was that so many of todays wars and terrorist acts are carried out by religious fanatics and mad-men. Wars are often called, by one side at least, "holy wars", and many of the awful criminal acts (such as beheadings, the murder of innocent children etc) are in the name of a religion or God. So I therefore thought that one way to stop the vast majority of terrorist acts would be to abolish religion altogether. I was adamant that without religion, there would be far less terrorism in the world.
Then I started to think about it a little more. When you look at the history of terrorism, it coincides perfectly with the development of technology. As new advances in weapons and the sciences (chemistry and physics) combine, more and more powerful weapons are created that are far more effective at killing people than ever before, and it's these weapons that the terrorists use to carry out their atrocities.
So it occured to me that maybe it wasn't religion that should be abolished, but the weapons that are used instead. Without the advances in weapons technology, the terrorists would have no way of carrying out the threats they make.
So I guess my question to you all is, what do you think would benefit the world as whole more: the abolition of religion, or the outlawing of all major weapons technologies (such as the nuke, chemical weapons etc)??
At first glance, many people would say that the answer is obvious: get rid of the weapons. But after giving it some thought, I'd still have to say that I think religion would best be left in the past. If you think about it, many of the technologies used in the creation of weapons weren't devised with the sole purpose of using it to create effective weapons.
Take the A-bomb for example. The same principles that were used to devise it are the same principles behind nuclear energy, which, if used correctly, is a very efficient way to produce energy for thousands of homes. Yet were it not for the development of the A-bomb, that technology wouldn't be available to us now. I grant you, that technology was first used to create a weapon, and since then another use for the technology has been found, but for the most part, it's the other way round.
Now if you look at religion, what would the disadvantages of not having it be?? Many people use religion as a way of guiding how they live their lives. They obey the rules and principles set out in their respective Holy Text, and on the whole are decent, respectable citizens. If they didnt have those guidelines, many would say that they would have nothing by which to live their lives. Not true. The modern-day laws of the land are in place to ensure that everybody lives a happy life, free from any possible evils that would be undesirable, such as murders, rapes, stealing etc. Of course these things still happen, but the justice system is there to ensure that for the most part, it doesn't.
The way I see it, technology is the means by which terrorist acts are delivered. Without the weapons they use, there would be no (or very few) ways for them to harm anyone in the name of their religion. But the underlying problem is still there: their belief. It's all very well getting rid of the weapons which actually do the killing, but the desire to kill is still there, because the religious teachings that imply they should kill people, are still there.
If religion was abolished, there would be nothing for the terrorists to use as a motivation for killing. There would be no religious texts from which people may misread or misinterpret, causing the death of any "non-believers". So personally, I say chop off the head, and the body will die. Without the teachings of religion in whatever form, there would be far less terrorism.
I guess there are many factors that i've failed to take into account, so please, enlighten me. What do you all think?? |
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