(December 23, 2010 at 11:30 pm)Marx Wrote: You cannot eliminate religion wholly; there are individuals who need to believe there is something superior to look forward to, merely beyond the material world and towards the afterlife.
People believe there is something more == People need to believe something more?
Complete non sequitur - The fact that people do believe something stupid is no reason to assume they couldn't get by without it. Anyone can deal with the fact that life is finite, they might not like the idea but they do not need to delude themselves to be able to function - You cannot possibly need something that does not exist.
Quote: There are aspects of religion that are negative, but demolishing it is an entirely different thing. Religion will always be a part of humanity, and the very notion of eliminating it altogether is impractical, religion is so concrete all over the world. It provides a “truth” which creates safety and specialty, for a person who can strive to ignore reality; it can be used merely as a crutch for some individuals.
People believe now =/= people will always believe.
How is the notion of eliminating religion impractical? To strive to remove delusion and self-deception from the human cognitive process is about as practical as you can get. The task is not a small one, but that's no reason why it can't be done or shouldn't be attempted.
How many people do you think will come to conclude that a god exists all by themselves in this day and age? Without the presence of deluded religious preachers it would almost never happen. Raise a child to use reason and evidence as their tools of investigation and the chances of them coming to plainly bullshit conclusions about reality will be diminished.
Quote: There are individuals who do not support religion entirely, but, on a perspective for a personal necessity that one needs religion in order to survive in this world.
Huh?
Quote: There are over 2000 deities that have been worshiped. Some individuals do not need to rely on faith, and do not need something all mighty and powerful for support, but some individuals do, and not everyone is the same, we are all diverse.
Nobody needs to rely on faith. Believing in things that do not exist is of no advantage to anyone, they might be fooled into misattributing their behaviour to a deity but their behaviour exists irrespective and is displayed by people with no such delusion. If such a massive portion of the worlds population can function without making idiotic assumptions then we all can - Our biochemistry is the same, so there is no excuse for self-deception to achieve the same ends.
Quote:I'm not a religious person, I'm Agnostic. But I think if you're an Atheist, you should not try to remove religion wholly, maybe religious extremist.
Do you currently believe a God exists? If not you are an Atheist.
Agnosticism refers only to your convictions, whether or not your position is "I reject the concept of god but do not know" or "god does not exist and I know it". In that respect I am an Agnostic Atheist.
Belief is binary, you either do or you do not - Agnosticism as you use it refers to a middle ground that simply does not and can not exist - You can't both believe and disbelief simultaneously nor can you do neither.
Quote: I personally think we do not need religion in our material world, but some people do need it, alas. Any comments? I know I'll probably get ripped on, but I'm open to hear your views.[/size][/font]
By 'we' you mean Atheists or Humans? Depending on what you mean you are either stating the obvious or contradicting yourself.
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