Last night, Hubby and I couldn't bring ourselves to listen to another rendition of the "hope and change" rhetoric, and while channel surfing, found ourselves watching something called "Intelligence Squared" on PBS. Apparently, they raise a question then have both sides debate it. The audience answers the question before the debate, then after the debate, and the winner is determined by the percentage of changed votes. Last night's question was, would the world be better without religion? Not surprisingly, those who answered "yes" won the debate. It's PBS after all, and it was easy to tell by the questions which way the audience was slanted.
I don't remember the names of the highly intelligent humanists, but, D'nesh D'susa (my apologies because I'm sure I have misspelled his name) and a rabbi (whose name I also can't recall) were on the "no" side. If I had known I was going to blog about this, I would have written down their names and taken better notes, but I've just been thinking about it all morning. We started watching the show in mid-point so I don't know all the arguments that were made.
To sum up the Humanist viewpoint (which I would hasten to also call a religion), all religions have just made a mess of the world. Religion is for the weak-minded, their lives are in as much of a mess as non-religious people. In his closing remarks, he actually said, "We all just need to do unto others as we would have others do unto you."
Did he really just quote the Bible? Oh, yes he did. But, the world would be better without religion, I thought. So, how can he quote something which he obviously despises?
So, let's just take religion out of the world. There's no more Bible, no more Koran, no Book of Mormon, no book of anything that spouts religion. How do we know how to treat each other? We have no Ten Commandments to tell us how we should live. Humanists think people will just automatically go about doing good things because that is our nature. Children have to be taught how to hate, don'tcha know. Children are born loving others, unselfish, sweet little humans, and they only become hateful because of their religious upbringing, which is divisive. When they are hungry, they unselfishly wait patiently until their mothers have time to fix them some food. What child has been told to stop sharing so much? There has only been one child who was born that was totally unselfish, and that was Jesus Christ, God in the flesh. Opps, I forgot. No religion.
The fact is, that we can't imagine a world without religion, because whether humanists/atheists want to admit it or not, religion has and does make the world better. If there was no religion, why should we treat others as we want to be treated? What would be the point? Because we want to be a good person? How would we even know what "good" is without religion? If we are our own god, then, good would be what I determine it to be, and may not necessarily be what you would determine it to be. If there was no religion, the world would be in total chaos. How many hospitals have been built in the name of religion? How many schools and universities have been founded because of religion? How much art and music has been inspired because of religion?
Yes, I know that wars have also been fought in the name of religion. There have been some horrible things done in the name of religion, but that doesn't mean religion should be erased from our existence. Do humanists/atheists believe there would be no wars if there was no religion? That there would just be peace and love as each "god" lived their own lives, not bothering any of the other "gods", doing good "just because"?
Humanists can't comprehend a loving God, who created us, and in spite of our sinful nature, wants to have fellowship with us. A God who is so holy, that he required a perfect and atoning offering, so that we could be forgiven of our sins, and have perfect fellowship with Him.
People are not perfect with religion in existence. How could they possibly be perfect without religion? But, then again, who would determine "perfect"? The Ten Commandments were given to teach the people how to live. Without the law of "thou shalt not kill", how would we know not to kill? Without the law "thou shalt not commit adultery", what would keep us from committing adultery?
At the end of the debate, which side do you think made the first move towards good conduct? While the "enlightened" humanists were relishing in their victory, congratulating themselves, the Christian and the Jew walked over to congratulate them.
And so, I must disagree with the 59% of the audience that said the world would be a better place without religion. I would not want to live in a world where religion did not exist.
Until next time,
I agree, religion does make the world a better place because of our moral standards. If we only followed human nature and not God's nature, I don't think humans would be around to debate the question. We would have killed everyone off.
ReplyDeletewonderful post. Unbelievers have NO IDEA how awful the world would be with no religion. Religion/faith/God is what elevates us above the animals. The arrogance of man is what tells him he has no need for God. In other words, the pride that goes before the fall. It was great to read this, thank you for writing it. We need more voices like this!
ReplyDeleteAMEN SISTA!!!!!!I am standing and giving you an ovation!!!!
ReplyDeleteHave a BLESSED Weekend!!!!
Joanne
Okay, first off I have been having so many computer problems that I have not been visiting like I normally do. Still haven't fixed it correctly but just enough to where I can visit a little more often and not have it freezing up for hours. It is just freezing for a little bit but at least it is unfreezing.
ReplyDeleteAnyway I hope you do not get mad but I am going to take the side of we would be better off without "religion". For me "religion" is not what we should follow. Every different "religion" thinks their "religion" is the only "religion" and everyone should follow theirs. Maybe I am cynical because we went to so many different types of churches as we were growing up and every one of them would preach that they were the promised ones of the Lord God and his son Jesus.
Somewhere throughout all those years the one thing I have learned is that there is not a "religion" that is the correct one. I think that if you talk to Catholics, Baptists, Jehovah Witnesses, Mormons, Lutherans, Church of Christ, this denomination and that denomination, you will find out that they all believe they follow the "religion" of their church and God has chosen them. Then you have the Jewish people who do not believe that Jesus is the Savior and you have the Muslims who believe that Mohammed is the prophet to follow. And what about the Dali Lama and his believers, or the Buddhists, the Hindu's and how many other so called "religions" are out there.
So many people have been killed by others trying to force others to believe and accept their "religion" as the chosen one. All these people are sick and need to go into mental hospitals or an island where only people of their so called "religion" live. I have tried to find a place in the new testament where Jesus tells us that one "religion" is the "chosen religion" and have never found one. So I think the world would definitely be a better place without "religion" in it.
Now as to if the world would be a better place without God or Jesus my answer would be a definite "NO". But then that is my faith and my choice to follow God and Jesus as I choose. My rules to live by are The Ten Commandments. Some people tell me that Jesus does not follow The Ten Commandments and I think they are crazy. I ask them to show me how he does not follow the rules of his Father and they truly cannot show me. And if you ask them to show you how their "religion" is the one that Jesus said to follow, they cannot do that either.
So for me I cannot tell you if your religion is the chosen religion or if my just following God and Jesus is the right way to be but I can say that I would never kill anyone or try to force them to follow my faith. Since my faith has a rule of "Thou shalt not kill" as one of them. And faith in Jesus as our Savior is what The New Testament is all about then it is hard for me to do anything but follow the bible, not some "religion" that some man has made up and called for us to follow.
I am not sure if this makes any sense for you but I also think going to church is just fine as long as you worship God and Jesus and not the church. I know so many that try to do both and you just cannot do that. For Jesus said that only through him can you come to the Father. There is nothing there about you have to go through a church first before you can come to Jesus or come to the Father.
I am not sure how that audience was thinking or if anyone there was thinking this way but I would probably think most of them are atheists because PBS seems to trend that way. I never watch them and if I could take my tax dollars away from them I definitely would. They are just a part of a certain political machine and should not be using our tax dollars at all.
Oh and I sure do hope your state swings to the right this year.
God bless.