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Kyo · 12-02-2003, 11:30 AM

- I think 'only' and 'best' are mutually exclusive, or rather, non-sequiter. You can't be the best if you are the only one, since it 'best' implies you have something to compare against. In the case of religion, 'only' is the key - all other Gods are necessarily false rather than worse. This is, as you can see, a very important distinction.

- MrSelfDestruct, it is exactly because you are not a follower that you are able to co-exist happily with Christians, Jews, and Muslims. Many people tend to think that those who aren't followers are neutral, with no opinion. It is easy for them to forget that having no opinion is, in fact, in direct opposition to their belief. Aetheists ("There is no God") and agnostics ("There might be a God, but there is no way of knowing") are actually directly opposed to any religion which worships a higher power. If your religious friends were to seriously consider this, I'm not entirely sure they would be so tolerant of you.

- Tolerance is something which cannot exist in any true religion, as most of their doctrine is black and white. Either you are a follower or you are not, a believer or an infidel, a friend or an enemy. There is no 'halfway' or 'gray area' - by it's very nature religion simply does not allow such compromises to exist.

- To directly answer the question of whether the absence of religion would have prevented some of the conflicts and atrocities that we have seen through the ages, I believe that the absence of religion would have little impact on the conflicts humanity has suffered through. Whereever there are boundaries or differences, there will be conflict. If there are different countries with different goals and different ideals, there will be wars between these countries. If there are different cultures, different races - in short, if there exists any way to categorize people and divide them into separate camps with conflicting interests, then we, as a species, will fight over it until we bury ourselves beneath our own weapons and hatred. It is, after all, human nature.

12-02-2003, 11:30 AM	#9 (permalink)
Kyo Crazy	- I think 'only' and 'best' are mutually exclusive, or rather, non-sequiter. You can't be the best if you are the only one, since it 'best' implies you have something to compare against. In the case of religion, 'only' is the key - all other Gods are necessarily false rather than worse. This is, as you can see, a very important distinction. - MrSelfDestruct, it is exactly because you are not a follower that you are able to co-exist happily with Christians, Jews, and Muslims. Many people tend to think that those who aren't followers are neutral, with no opinion. It is easy for them to forget that having no opinion is, in fact, in direct opposition to their belief. Aetheists ("There is no God") and agnostics ("There might be a God, but there is no way of knowing") are actually directly opposed to any religion which worships a higher power. If your religious friends were to seriously consider this, I'm not entirely sure they would be so tolerant of you. - Tolerance is something which cannot exist in any true religion, as most of their doctrine is black and white. Either you are a follower or you are not, a believer or an infidel, a friend or an enemy. There is no 'halfway' or 'gray area' - by it's very nature religion simply does not allow such compromises to exist. - To directly answer the question of whether the absence of religion would have prevented some of the conflicts and atrocities that we have seen through the ages, I believe that the absence of religion would have little impact on the conflicts humanity has suffered through. Whereever there are boundaries or differences, there will be conflict. If there are different countries with different goals and different ideals, there will be wars between these countries. If there are different cultures, different races - in short, if there exists any way to categorize people and divide them into separate camps with conflicting interests, then we, as a species, will fight over it until we bury ourselves beneath our own weapons and hatred. It is, after all, human nature. __________________ Sure I have a heart; it's floating in a jar in my closet, along with my tonsils, my appendix, and all of the other useless organs I ripped out.