Imagine No Religion

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 12/10/07 at 5:42pm

[don logan]

Posted: 12/10/07 at 5:43pm

I think it should read "Imagine no Fundamentalism"

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 12/10/07 at 5:44pm

But that's not what it says.

[bobby_luvs_bway]

Posted: 12/10/07 at 5:46pm

I think it's perfect as written

[artscallion]

Posted: 12/10/07 at 5:49pm

Imagine no religion

[don logan]

Posted: 12/10/07 at 5:50pm

Religion in its pure form is a good thing. It's the people that f*** it up. I'm not religious, but I blame the messengers, not the message. If people are dumb enough to read an allegory as fact, that's human ignorance.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 12/10/07 at 5:54pm

Well since Imagine No People is the logical extension of people not being able to Imagine No Religion, you seem to be arguing in favor of the original graphic.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 12/10/07 at 5:57pm

Don--you can make the point that spirituality in its pure form is a good thing. But once organized religion enters the picture, power becomes an issue, and spirituality is corrupted.

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 12/10/07 at 6:09pm

3 posts into this thread and I'm already tearing up.

Just IMAGINE?!

No one saying that your life is going to make you burn in hell.
No one saying that you are less than perfect just the way you are.

Imagine NO MORE WARS (except for the crap Bush is pulling for 'oil')

Women would have rights.

And hate might just be a thing of the past.





IMAGINE!!!


Namo, THANK YOU for the PERFECT thread for the holidays!

Posted: 12/10/07 at 6:12pm

religion is all about control, money & property.
spirtuality is found within, & you cant buy your way in.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 12/10/07 at 6:15pm

There's a background story on the graphic, but I love reading the responses to it without the real world context.

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 12/10/07 at 6:19pm

You can PM me the story, if you want...

[jrb_actor]

Posted: 12/10/07 at 6:22pm

I made this video a couple of months ago and the reaction has been and continues to be very interesting. So many people who think they hold THE answers to THE word of God comment and debate.

Fun sidenote! The author of the book I reference contacted me after having seen it. Very nice guy.

Anyway, I post it for any of you that have expressed feelings regarding religion and being gay.

It's sad that so many evil actions are taken in God's name.

Why Gays CAN be Christians

Updated On: 12/10/07 at 06:22 PM

[jam_man]

Posted: 12/10/07 at 6:32pm

It's easy if you try.
No Hell below us.
Above us, only sky.
Imagine all the people living for today.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 12/10/07 at 6:40pm

Here's the background. Do note the incorrect use of the word "ironically" in the photo cap.
Atheists' Sign ...

[orangeskittles]

Posted: 12/10/07 at 6:43pm

I think the implication that the world would be a perfect place without religion is ridiculous. War and discrimination has existed in all cultures since the beginning of time, and even without religion, man has always found some other reason to cause conflict.

Now, if you can find an atheist culture to show that there's no discrimination, war and conflict to suggest that your hypothesis is correct, by all means.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 12/10/07 at 6:47pm

Unfortunately, cultural forces of control have always dominated (and often put to death) those who have had no need for belief in a magical being in the sky. So, your snide comment is not only not apt, it's not pertinent to this discussion.

I think it's interesting that you saw any indication from that graphic that anybody was suggesting that the world would "be a perfect place." Very interesting.

Updated On: 12/10/07 at 06:47 PM

[orangeskittles]

Posted: 12/10/07 at 6:49pm

That was in response to TheatreDiva's post, not the graphic.

[artscallion]

Posted: 12/10/07 at 6:51pm

There's no religion in my house. And yes, conflict exists. But not a lot of hate, fear and oppression. And none of it in the name of some imaginary being. Nothing's perfect. But you have to admit that more oppression hate and war is committed in the name of god, than any other single reason.

[smartpenguin78]

Posted: 12/10/07 at 6:56pm

The arguement can be made that it is the opposite artscallion- people are filled with hatred, intolerance and fear and they attribute those values unto God.

[artscallion]

Posted: 12/10/07 at 7:11pm

That's not the opposite of what I'm saying. I actually agree with you. I'm not blaming any god for being bad manipulating innocent people into doing harm. I'm saying people, through religion, claiming to act in the name of god, cause a ruckus. Religion, with all of its unprovable vagueness, is perfect fodder when people filled with intolerance and fear need a justification to act on those things.

Imagine no religion. Don't you think fearful, intolerant people might then be forced to act differently without the crutch of being able to so easily support their oppressive actions through something so easily malleable and ready to conform to their purpose as religion. They might actually have to think about what's right!

Updated On: 12/10/07 at 07:11 PM

[bobby_luvs_bway]

Posted: 12/10/07 at 7:17pm

"Imagine no religion. Don't you think fearful, intolerant people might then be forced to act differently without the crutch of being able to so easily support their oppressive actions through something so easily malleable and ready to conform to their purpose as religion. They might actually have to think about what's right!"

Exactly!

[smartpenguin78]

Posted: 12/10/07 at 7:21pm

No, I think fearful intolerant people would continue to act fearful and intolerant.
I don't disagree that people use religion as a crutch to support their stupidity, but just getting rid of the crutch doesn't remove the sickness.

Some people use religion to do good loving things for other people as well. The vagueness and reliance on something greater than humans leads them to act in favor of the whole.

Greed and power are also much of the reason for war and intolerance, people don't want to share what they have.

While great damage has been done in the name of religion, it is fundamentally misleading to attribute so much of what is wrong in the world to religious belief.

What I was saying was opposite, was rather than religion being the justification for those things, religion existed and was changed in order to BECOME a justification for the painful things people do to each other.

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 12/10/07 at 7:22pm

I'm sorry, but when I talk about religion, I mean ORGANIZED religion.

The same group of folks who:

Make old people kneel, bow, get up, sit down and practially dance the hokey pokey every Sunday. They are old, it's hard for them.

Hate my lifestyle and tell me, "It a choice"

Have started every war ever known to man (except the one George Bush is fighting now)

Foster people who say one thing and then do another (The Chystal Cathedral, who my Grandmother used to send money to every month, even they kicked senior's out of their apartments so he could have a parking lot for the cathedral).

Give refuge to people who are breaking the law

Obstruct Justice







I could go on and on about it.

[orangeskittles]

Posted: 12/10/07 at 7:29pm

That wasn't what I meant in my post, artscallion.

"The image of the towers is meant to convey that without religion the towers would still be standing"

We can't come to that conclusion, because without religion, who knows if the towers would have even been built. Probably not, because without religion, America wouldn't have been populated by Europeans in the first place, let alone progressed to 2001 and attacked by zealots.

My point was that you would have to go back to prerecorded history to reach a point where religion did not in some manner effect the path of humans- for the positive or negative- and progress forward to be able to tell what a world without religion would truly be like. Religion in any form (Muslim, Christian or animistic paganism) is too ingrained in our world's history to be able to realistically "imagine" how the world would be different without it.