(June 17, 2014 at 3:20 am)jmccool80 Wrote: Thanks for the welcome all! And I'll keep my hands out of the cookie jar (sometimes!)
(June 17, 2014 at 1:05 am)Lek Wrote: Real love for our fellow human beings would help a lot. Welcome to the forum.
Before we all try to love each other, I think it's probably important that we stop at least stop killing, maiming and denigrating those with different views! Seems to me most hotspots of violence and unrest in the world begin with the "my god is not your god" debate. Even in places with the same god - Protestants Vs. Catholics in Northern Ireland or Sunni Vs. Shi'ite Muslims for example; we STILL manage to hate each other, and teach our children to perpetuate hatred.
I know this your introduction thread, but you did make a statement that calls for a reply. You're looking at the world and picking out situations where religion is a cause of war and violence, but at the same time you're not considering all the other causes of war and violence. I hear so many people say that if we could just get rid of religion, the world would be a much better place. Well, we've never had a world without religion to compare it to, but one fact is that religion was not cause of most of the wars in history.