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Just finished watching "Religulous" for the second time. In my opinion, there is no point in discussing whether society needs religion or not. I speak only for myself.
I'm an atheist and I've been like that for many years. Even though I used to study Bible in school for 6 years, I never had faith. Maybe I have to thank my other teachers who taught me about Greek, Roman, Egyptian, Norse and other mythologies, so I never had any doubt that most things that were described in holy books of the past did not take place.
I agree with Bill Maher about people being able to fulfill the prophecy of Armageddon without interference from any almighty being and that actually scares me more than some sort of punishment I might get for my sins after I die.
I feel myself pretty comfortable without faith and I don't try to fill the "hole" with drugs, sex and alcohol or whatever poison people come up with. At the moment science can't provide answers to all questions that we might have about ourselves, our planet and the Universe in general, but in the past three hundred years we as a race gained a lot of knowledge about things that were thought to be there just because some creator put them there. Scientists can't answer why the Universe appeared in the first place and it's not really a scientific question, but is it really that important to find an answer to that to be able to live a happy life?
Without faith I don't have to worry about Judgment Day and I don't have to go to church to confess in my sins. It doesn't mean that I don't do bad things, but I do have my own mind to decide whether I was right or wrong. If you don't follow Machiavelli's teachings it does actually take some effort to forgive yourself for certain deeds. Looking back at my life, the only things that I regret are the good things that I never said to some people, not the bad things that I said to others since I already asked them to forgive me and most of them did.
I'm not a rapist, not a child molester, not a killer, not a burglar or a thief. Pretty much, I'm just your regular Joe or John or whichever name is popular in your country today. Even though I do believe that religion is a bad thing for the same reasons most atheists probably do, I do realize that some people will have hard time living without faith. I know that I will sound like a snob, but currently being a non-believer is as hard as being a homosexual in some redneck state in USA.
I didn't read the whole thread, but I skimmed through some posts here. Opthimus has written "All scientific beliefs need to be argued, revalued, dismissed and so on to be realistic, and to develop. Religion on the other hand just is at is is." To be honest, I don't think that it's the problem of religion. Some people just don't want to hear perfectly rational explanations even if it's not about religion, but about something controversial. I recently had a discussion with a friend of mine who just dismissed everything I said, even though I actually tried to prove my point with scientific facts. The only thing that I realized is if I want to continue the friendship, I will just have to accept her opinion, even if it's based on "no matter what you say, I'm right" sort of argument. On the other hand, I had a very long discussion about god with one religious friend of mine. Though none of us succeeded in persuading the other, I don't feel like it was a waste of time since I learned some facts about Christianity and he actually tried to reason with me. The former case proved to me that some people just can't acknowledge the fact that they might be wrong and that's the root of all evil. If such a person is religious, it only adds insult to injury.
In before any possible answer someone might decide to write, I voiced my opinion and I'm leaving this thread for good.
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