Obviously not. To ban anything serves only to subdue values of openness and free thought. As already stated, it will be through proper education and time that religious fallacies will be done away with. Only the fool seeks to subdue through force, whereas the wise man will gain victory through reason. (and a healthy dose of manipulating one's audience... which at the moment, the religious are much better at doing than the logical)

Banning religion?

LMAO

Why would you want to do that? Not only would it be impossible to enforce but would just encourage rebelious, anarchist groups.

Sure religion has had a violent history (e.g. Crusade) but there's really nothing wrong with it, it provides a set of answers for the questions science is yet to answer. It also sets out moral and ethical guidlines that all people should follow.

I personally am not religious, but banning it would just be ludicrous, and i would.could never support it.

That is of course, part of the problem with religion. Because it provides answers to questions that science cannot answer, when science does actually come up with viable answers for those questions (a la evolution, heliocentric solar system, etc etc) religion tends to hold people back from accepting them, because people are most often comfortable with what they have always been used to.

Religion claims to lay down guides to living that everyone should follow, but how many of those precepts are viable, and for that matter, humane? Homosexuality is widely considered by many religious groups as sinful or morally corrupt. Whether top theologians believe this is irrelevant, as what matters in organized religion is what the majority believe. The rules and guides layed down within religious texts are notoriously ambiguous. In the Qu'ran, one can find conflicting messages of both violence and peace, the same goes with the Christian Bible. I would never be able to agree that the morals and ethics of religion are truly moral or ethical, nor should they be followed blindly by so many, as they are today. (I'm going to risk sounding like a pompous old professor and quote a latin phrase.) Cogita tute - Think for yourself.

That is of course, part of the problem with religion. Because it provides answers to questions that science cannot answer, when science does actually come up with viable answers for those questions (a la evolution, heliocentric solar system, etc etc) religion tends to hold people back from accepting them, because people are most often comfortable with what they have always been used to.

Religion claims to lay down guides to living that everyone should follow, but how many of those precepts are viable, and for that matter, humane? Homosexuality is widely considered by many religious groups as sinful or morally corrupt. Whether top theologians believe this is irrelevant, as what matters in organized religion is what the majority believe. The rules and guides layed down within religious texts are notoriously ambiguous. In the Qu'ran, one can find conflicting messages of both violence and peace, the same goes with the Christian Bible. I would never be able to agree that the morals and ethics of religion are truly moral or ethical, nor should they be followed blindly by so many, as they are today. (I'm going to risk sounding like a pompous old professor and quote a latin phrase.) Cogita tute - Think for yourself.

I just need to say that religion cannot provide the answers science has yet to answer, as religion can only provide some easy answers to explain a complicated world.

However though religon is the root of most of the worlds prejudices and problems, these problems are only caused because the Abrahamic religions ( Judaism, Christianity and Islam ) are simply relics of a time where religion was not an expression of faith and love, but a way for corrupt, barbaric Kings, Sultans and nowadays George Bush to keep control over their people and convince them fight pointless wars for them. ( Most other religions were, and still are simply tools for a human being to live happy existence)

The thing is that to try and "ban" religon would make us no better than them, may i remind you that there are a number of countries where religion is banned - e.g. In China there not to keen on it, and you couldn't love god in the USSR - and i certainly wouldn't want to try and grow up gay in those countries.

It is not religion that is the problem with the world, it is the few power-hungry greedy bastards that exploit it to their own ends that are the problem, and a whether religion exists or not - in the cases of China and the USSR - our freedom will still be threated by others, it always will be, and we will always have to keep on fighting to save it.

P.S.
Please do not think that my end comment is condoning the war in Iraq, because it intended to do the very opposite

Post edited by: rad55667, at: 2007/09/21 07:20<br /><br />Post edited by: rad55667, at: 2007/09/21 07:21

<br /><br />Post edited by: rad55667, at: 2007/09/21 07:22

Many people need the comfort of religion in their day-to-day life, so would it be right to deprive them of what they need? I admit that religion has done some really bad things in the past, and indeed, are still doing these things today, but religion is still doing good as well as evil.

There are many charities and missions around the world working toward the improvement of life for the poor and downtrodden. Religion helps give security and comfort to those who have been hurt. Are there any corporations who can claim to be able to do these things?

Religion shows both the good and the bad sides of human nature.

Banning religion is foolish, there is no need to.

The only decent reason for banning religion is because they 'spawn' violence, which is bollocks, religion is a tool used by violent people to justify theirs means.

Thanks to everyone for replying to my thread.

Now I would like to bring up a couple more issues:

1) Guns vs. Religion

I have heard several people say that religion is not the problem. It is bad people who use religion to justify murder who are the real problem. However, we have bans on guns. Afterall, guns don't kill people, people use guns to kill people. Just as religion itself doesn't kill people, but people use religion to kill people.

If we can ban guns because they are used by bad people to cause harm to society, why not ban religion?

2) Smoking vs. Religion

In many parts of the world there are smoking bans in public places. People in these public places are annoyed by the smell of smoke, and they also fear the health impacts of second hand smoke. Therefore we have smoking bans in public places.

Well religion annoys me and it makes me fear for my health. Why not ban religion in public places? Not totally ban it, but just ban things like praying in restaurants?

Also, some states have banned smoking around children because it harms their development. I would argue that religion is harmful to a child's development.

So why not have a law banning religion around children?



Thoughts anyone?

Just refering to the last part of your question

QUOTE:
Also, some states have banned smoking around children because it harms their development. I would argue that religion is harmful to a child's development.

So why not have a law banning religion around children?

The Catholic Church or a sub sect of the church has a motto. 'Give me your child to the age of 7 and I will give you a Christian for life'. This actually works because children get indoctrinated with Christianity through all the iconography used in the church. So yes it can be very damaging to a child if they are brought up around religion from a very young age.

As to the first part of the question (let me do it in reverse) the saying is: 'guns don't kill people, apes with guns kill people'.