(March 19, 2016 at 8:14 pm)BrianSoddingBoru4 Wrote: I think it might be more accurate to say that sexism and violence exist in all cultures. While religion doesn't do a helluva lot to curb sexism and violence, these behaviours don't seem to be unique to religious belief.
Boru
No, see that is what religion hides behind. It isn't that you are wrong, it is that you are ignoring that words like "culture", "ethnic", "race", "nationality" are all the excuses religions use to stop criticism of religion.
Humans ARE picking up their holy writings and using them to justify these things. If you want people to understand that what you are saying, take away those excuses so that humans can see it as an evolutionary behavior.
When you merely tell a Hindu that they have no evidence that their gods or writings are anymore real or valid than any other, and get called a racist, even when you point out atheist groups founded by former Hindus still living in India, it is clear that "racist" is the word they hid behind to avoid scrutiny to their claims. But this is what ALL religions do.
No it is NOT unique to an religion, and that is because religion has no magic powers at all. No label, not even "atheist" will magically make someone do good or bad. But when people hide behind those words, it creates conditions that set up walls to avoid criticism of bad ideas.
Your good intent isn't the issue, I am simply saying that the outcome is not producing what we really want. It has the opposite affect of what you intend. It keeps up walls and keeps humans divided.
Our species behavior, both good and bad, is evolutionary. It does no good to allow religion to hide behind words like "culture" and "race" and "nationality", much less religion itself. And again, it isn't even about forced end of religion, but better logic to reduce human divisions.
