Learn the true mercy

[R00tKiT]

You know...Kloro...a great many of us think that making weapons of mass destruction does discredit the character of the scientists doing it, and the institution from which it arises.  I want you to hold on to whatever feeling you had when you thought there was a gotcha here - and realize that some people see the religion you believe in, as a mere tool of social control or as a divinely sanctioned tool of social control..exactly the same way

You say religion is merely a tool of social control, this is clearly false as one can some simply hold the core beliefs of some religion without seeking any benefit or manipulating anyone.

Christianity, an obviously false belief, is still widespread despite losing all kinds of influence in the recent centuries. Clearly there is more to the story than just social control.

Besides, given that people like Stalin and Pol Pot existed and had a long and prosperous career of genocide and mass murder, one obviously doesn't need religion to rule people and convince them to do horrific things.

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We have evidence that nuclear weapons exist, so the statement "nuclear weapons exist" is reasonable.

We don't have evidence that gods exist, and any religion that promotes the worship of a deity cannot be said to be true until an actual god shows up.  It may not be falsifiable, but at this point it is not verified.

The issue here is unrelated to God's existence. Using religion for social control exists, and happened repeatedly. Nobody is denying this. But the truth-value of religion is clearly independent of religious people's intentions. And the same is true about science.