Ex Catholic

[BetaOrionis]

Thanks for the welcome all! And I'll keep my hands out of the cookie jar (sometimes!)

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.

[Lek]

Thanks for the welcome all! And I'll keep my hands out of the cookie jar (sometimes!)

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.

[Rampant.A.I.]

We do, however, have secular countries where violence is significantly lower than in religious countries.

[BetaOrionis]

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.

True enough, please accept my apology for the generalisation - I wasn't meaning to imply that religion was the only cause for war. Merely that it is a completely preventable one based, in my opinion of course, on fallacy. Either way, don't worry about stating a debate in my introduction thread. That's why these forums exist after all!

[laikashuman]

you made the same journey as i did from catholic to antitheist.

but i did mine about 17 years later than you did.

so congratulations on seeing the true light at a younger age.

i know what you mean about friction between family members, my parents are not catholic anymore, but still very religious and even though they are trying to let me live my life without much hassle, they do make little comments they don't notice or post silly shit on my newsfeed on facebook.

i am new to the forum, too. hopefully, we both can find a new home here.

i also understand what you mean when you say that we all have to stop killing each other etc, but humans are animals. and like animals we can be aggressive, territorial, hungry, dominant, and all kinds of "evil" and "morally wrong" things. it's nature. war isn't natural. but there are some baser instincts that we will all have to fight as we come into an age of enlightenment and knowledge.

anyway! welcome!