Why religion should not vanish

[SteelCurtain]

I agree, and it takes place apart from it but we cannot deny religion is a big motivator for people. The Catholic Church is the single biggest provider of healthcare for AIDS sufferers in the world, just as it practically single highhandedly supports the education system in Ireland, Portugal and most of Latin America.

I find myself unsure who would be moved to take up this task should Catholicism vanish.

It is also the single biggest CAUSE of fucking AIDS, by refusing to accept that people are going to have sex, and opposing and demonizing condom use. It also is the leading cause of physical and sexual child abuse in Ireland. The fact remains that without the church and its 10% drain on society, people would fill the vacuum with less antiquated and fear based solutions to real world problems.

I agree there are exceptions, but for the average lay believer it has a powerful impact upon their behavior. My great grandmother for instance would recoil at the thought of eating meat on a friday, just as my grandmother was mortified by the idea of pre marital sex. Neither of them would have ever dreamed of taking part in either of those activities or any others forbidden by the Catholic Church at that time.

Again, without religion, people have every capability to act in an ethical way. Society is built on certain rules for a reason, because society as a whole is more successful with those rules in place. This has nothing to do with religion. I would question whether a person is moral or ethical in the first place if the only reason they are acting in that way is so that they reap some eternal reward or avoid some eternal punishment.

Indeed, but again the religion itself is a tried and tested vehicle for instilling this code of ethics into the beliver. I don't see many Catholic schoolchildren sat with copies of Plato's republic or Aristotelian commentaries but they get a good big old dose of Platonism every time they go to a Catechism class.

Clearly you are Catholic. If you think that the stories in the Bible are good source material for teaching someone ethics, then please state the region of the earth you inhabit so I can stay away. The Bible is a mish-mash of racism, mysoginism, homophobia, hatred, genocide, child rape, and ritual murder. I'll pass.

Exactly what I am suggesting, as eccentric as they are the moonies are a prime example of this. Clearly, I don't suspect they ever have any chance of achieving their aims what with the scandals within or since the death of their founder but they strive to unite all religions and nations under one banner, that of God and a sense of shared humanity. That seems quite constructive to me.

It seems quite unachievable to me. Humanity is by nature sectarian. There are always going to be people that have vastly different beliefs than others. There are always going to be truthers, conspiracy theorists, and religious nutjobs. The topics will change, but the people will always be there.