Debate Do we need orginized religon?

Whats the Debate Why theres a need for organization and can you explain what organizing means? duh theres a need for organization probably more than we have at the moment so we stop getting crazy extreemists.

 

Do we need organization? yes. Do we need organized religion? No. Do we need organized religion with corrupt leaders and modified over time beliefs? Definitely not.

 

everyone needs religion, even athiests, because without religion, they really can't be called athiests

 

Lol, no...

That's like saying we NEED Evil, even Good people! Because without Evil there could be no Good people...The fact is that without Evil everyone would be Good, it's just there would be no classification because we would all fill the criteria.

It would be like if some people could breath water and others could breath oxygen, you could say "Hey we NEED people to breath water, even oxygen breathers! Because without Water breathers, there can't really be oxygen breathers." - Yet the fact is there are no water breathing humans, yet amazingly we still have oxygen breathing ones...Crazy!

So if there was no oganized religion, or "religion" at all for that matter, we would all be atheists, there would just be no classification for it because there would be no non-atheists.

I think I've sufficiently repeated the same point thrice, hopefully that's enough for it to sink in!

 

yes, there would still be all of those things, but no one would call themselves one would they?

 

Exactly....

So it means you can't use it as a means to prove we need Religion.

Anyway the way I see it this debate isn't about whether we need Religion at all. But whether we need a Relgion that is organised. For instance, you could have a bunch of people believing in God and that's fine and dandy, just regular old Religion. However if they become organised so that a bunch of them can unite for an individual cause, is this something we need or not?

As an organised group of individuals following a united goal they can achieve both good and bad, but how does the trend tend to fall? Which situation is better, a disorganised Religion or an organised one?

I don't plan on actually debating which is right or wrong here, I'm just trying to further refine the debate for you guys, so ponder those things if you will!

 

i agree with buddhacrane:
organised religion is the religion that causes all of the problems, and all the fighting. if everyone had their own little belief and just kept it to themselves we would all be perfectly fine.

but NOOOO, people must impress their opinions on other people until it gets to the point where they need to bash peoples skulls in or just carpet bomb countries.

 

I believe that organized religion can be a great thing, and I personally am part of an organized religion. However, I believe that many of the world's problems are caused by fighting between different religions.

There are many positive of religion. Probably many more than the negatives, however the positives are not as far-reaching and ingrained in peoples' minds as the negatives. Positives include community, a more positive outlook on the world, treating others and self better, and being more satisfied.

The negatives are predominantly the feeling of superiority over other religions/races and the exploitation of religion for personal or violent means. The first is seen very often in the extreme Christian right and of course in the Middle Eastern Muslim community. Many borderline-extreme Christians believe that people of different beliefs or denominations will be sent to hell in the afterlife. This can cause a feeling of superiority over others in this life. Both negatives are shown in some Muslim groups, most notably the extremists and martyrs that are fighting Americans, fighting Israelis, and killing their own people in Iraq.

After looking this all over, religion has been the cause of many of the world's problems, but this does not overrule the goodness that has come from religion. Organized religion is not necessary in life, but if one is looking for a sense of community and has a compulsion to do good in the world, organized religion can be a pathway to happiness.

 

I think it's irrelevant. I don't "need" the things I disagree with, but there's nothing I can do about them. You can say everyone who believes in superior creator of sorts is cookoo, but you've not changed the fact that a majority of the world works under a religion.

The same works both ways, though. My own opinion on abortion and homosexuality doesn't stand to change anything.

The answer to the OP's question is so blatantly obvious that it hurts. A non-religious person will tell you that we don't need religion, and vice-versa. /thread

 

Choking

You don't get to end threads with surface scratching statements like this. Just because I think that religion is fabricated, false, and unnecessary for me to function, that doesn't mean that I would automatically answer that humans don't need organized religion. Religion keeps people in line. People that, without the fear of hell and the thought that God is watching, would not be able to control their impulses. I don't think it is possible for the vast majority of people to behave morally without having anyone to answer to in the end. Being a good person just because it's the right thing to do, doesn't come easily to everyone. For that reason alone I appreciate the role religion plays in our society. Getting populations to behave is what religion is good at, and the people who created it realized that.

The original post is asking if it would be possible for humans to exist in a society without organized religion, and in our current state, I would say most people do need it.

How are your views on homosexuality relevant? What are your views on homosexuality, by the way? It seems like your signature is a joke about choking every gay person on the planet at once. Good thing the thought of God is there to stop you. Without anyone to answer to you might end up in the papers for one of those massive hate crime sprees.

 

I honestly think every other thread on Forge Hub alternates between God and Weed.

Oh there's so much I can say on this particular topic, on both sides of the debate... I'm just going to pick a side and stand on it for a while.

While it may not fully reach the lofty standards of "necessity", organized religion comes very close. I'm not even going to use the "it keeps people in line" argument because I think that's totally bogus. I would base my argument on the cultural significance and psychological benefits of religion.

Culturaly, religion has held people together throughout all of human history. I mean, there's really no exception here until relatively recent times. I think that for various reasons that go well beyond the scope of this debate, we have lost sight of what culture truly is, but that doesn't mean that we aren't still affected by it. Today's version of culture (the borg cube) still has a place for organized religion that holds groups of people together in meaningful ways.

Psychological, religion has a purpose. If you are one of the many people who see it as an illusion and are able to rise above, that's good for you but still, it can't be denied that religion, illusion though it may be, has a rather strong comforting power. I mean, it's what it is for a reason. Whatever gets you through the night, eh? In short, religion can potentially be a source of overwhelming good in the lives of many people under the right circumstances.

Let's see if we can agree with this at least - it's not religion that people have a problem with. It's evangelical religion that people have a problem with... the practice of trying to spread one's beliefs to others. I realize that intentions are pure in evangelism, but I think that regardless of intentions, evangelism has been an overwhelmingly unpopular aspect of religion throughout history. I also think that a better debate can be made of this point.

In fact, I submit that in every example that anyone can present condemning organized religion as a destructive force against humanity, one of two things are occurring.
1- That religion has crossed over into evangelism
or
2- Religion is not the root cause, and is being used as a pretext.


On a personal note: two of my personal heros are religious figures: this guy and this guy.