[haylie]

Originally Posted by Led ++ How can you take the context out of the religion is what I ask myself.

Why do you ask me this again? I already answered you. In every single reply I've ever made in this thread. So have others. How you managed to ignore them is beyond me.

But I'm talking about a hypothetical state. Belgium for example already fills all those things.

Really? Then how come 70% of Belgians are Roman Catholic? How come the archbishop André-Joseph Léonard is the grand chancellor and member of the board at the Catholic University of Leuven? A university. That *gasp* teaches evolutionary biology and everything! How can that be!

Some parts in Africa for example don't. However I also heard that they have new anti-gay laws since recent. I wonder where the influence came from.

I'm pretty sure it came from this.

In all fairness, Europe also used to have anti-gay laws, and not just because of religion. People just thought it was unacceptable, religion or not. With time, they changed their views and so will Africa.

True, just as it did for thousands of years. It adapts for it's survivability.

Like humans? Like we also adapted every other aspect of our lives, starting with politics and economy and ending with the way we dress? Why should religion NOT survive, if people will still need it?

About the new religions, where do you draw the line about what has to be taken seriously? Is Scientology to be taken seriously, should they have an influence in society? Should Mormons? Etc.

Probably where you also draw the line about what is acceptable in economy (ever watched this movie?), science (cloning? genetic modifications?), politics (death penalty?) and basically every other aspect of our lives.

First question would be, can everyone be treated equally when religion has a deciding impact in your society?

What do you mean "deciding impact"? There is a set of laws that respect basic human rights and everyone has to follow them. Those who don't are punished. What's so hard to get?

If you mean that religious people will be corrupt and want power, I'm gonna tell you that so do politicians, CEOs, Joe the farmer, etc.

It wouldn't be taught in schools tho. It would be replaced with something like "Non confessional ethics". Something like we already have in Belgium.

So if I wanna study religion in school, I can't?

Funny story: at my old school we had a special category of classes called "ethics". You had a one hour class a week of either Moral as they called it, which was where you learned that democracy is awesome, people should be good to each other, yada yada yada; or you could choose a religion course and the school would find a teacher for you regardless of your religion and even if you were the only one in the school who belonged to that religion.

The punch line here is that both types of classes taught the same basic things: freedom of choice, equality, solidarity, selflessness, tolerance, etc. The moral teacher would talk about religion at times and the religion teachers would talk about climate change at times. Just that the moral teacher claimed everything she taught was "common sense" while the religion teacher said it was "how God/Allah/whatever intended it".

I would ofcourse also teach em evolutionary biology instead of creationism. You know, things not based purely around faith and dogmatics, but based on things we can scientifically explain. (But but, it's not 100% proven!")

Uh, all schools nowadays do that? Are you still stuck in the Middle Ages?

Besides, I never said I was against that. On the contrary, I would want my child to be taught BOTH and decide for himself which is more accurate.

The opinion thing about why we are here. Isn't that a bit easy? "Well it's my opinion, there isn't a certainty, so therefore our opinions have the same value." ?

Yes. Yes they do. "My opinion is better than yours cause I think so" ain't gonna cut it.

What gives religion this power to be based purely around belief? When it doesn't apply anything else?

Last time I checked, people today believe in it because they want to believe in it. Even when they go to school and study biology and philosophy and science and economics and politics, even when other people mock them for what they believe in. The Church doesn't hold them at gunpoint telling them to be Catholic or die. They believe because they want to believe. Maybe you should ask them why they believe? Maybe because it makes them happy?

At the end of the day, people don't really care what science or politicians or intellectuals say. They'll believe in what makes them happy and there's nothing you can say or do that will convince them otherwise. Maybe that's the power of religion.

Why would we be lost? I think every scientist can live with the fact that he doesn't know everything and never will. Knowing that you don't know everything is better then filling that gap with possible beliefs imo.

Highlighted the essential for you.