Does religion corrupt morality?

[downbeatplumb]

Well, to be fair about it there are passages in the Bible and in the Koran telling people not to abuse the poor but some people still pee in their faces.  People will always follow their own rules to satisfy their own desires.  Bigots will always use their favorite ethnocentric Middle Eastern Jewish or Arabian religious fairy tale to oppress people they don't like.

Missing my point.

It's not that there are good passages in either book. It's that there are bad ones.

And funnily enough the good ones don't discount the bad.

If you magically had a book that was just full of nice stuff, maybe we could go around saying it was all down to people's fucked up 'interpretations'. But I don't really think it's a great argument when there's already plenty there to justify bad behaviour.

They do if you like at them sideways and squint. You can crowbar most things into the bible if you want to.

[Napoléon]

They do if you like at them sideways and squint. You can crowbar most things into the bible if you want to.

Meh, I still disagree. Only the irrational are any good at doing this.

[downbeatplumb]

They do if you like at them sideways and squint. You can crowbar most things into the bible if you want to.

Meh, I still disagree. Only the irrational are any good at doing this.

It would be boring if we all agreed with each other all the time.

[Wyrd of Gawd]

Well, to be fair about it there are passages in the Bible and in the Koran telling people not to abuse the poor but some people still pee in their faces.  People will always follow their own rules to satisfy their own desires.  Bigots will always use their favorite ethnocentric Middle Eastern Jewish or Arabian religious fairy tale to oppress people they don't like.

Missing my point.

It's not that there are good passages in either book. It's that there are bad ones.

And funnily enough the good ones don't discount the bad.

If you magically had a book that was just full of nice stuff, maybe we could go around saying it was all down to people's fucked up 'interpretations'. But I don't really think it's a great argument when there's already plenty there to justify bad behaviour.

Sure there are bad things in the books according to our sense of morality.  But the whole point of the books is that a person must believe and obey without exception.  That includes doing things that we find "good" and also doing things that we find "bad" if the God character commands people to do them.  For instance, the Bible says not to allow a witch to live.  We know that there are no such things as real witches.  But dummies in the past read that and concluded that witches actually existed and that there was some in their midst.  So they killed the people they wanted to get rid of by claiming that they were witches and therefore deserved to die according to the Bible.  So those killers did not sin because they obeyed.

The Bible says to be impartial.  No one is ever impartial.  Jesus was partial to his favorite group.  We are partial to our favorite groups.  So we are "sinning" because we do not obey the rule to be impartial.  

Therefore, according to the holy books it's perfectly acceptable for believers to do what we non-believers consider to be bad things if the God/Allah creatures command it.  So they can stone their rebellious children to death and not commit a sin.

[Mental Outlaw]

The more devout you are the more corrupt you will become.

[Wyrd of Gawd]

The more devout you are the more corrupt you will become.

A person can't really be religious unless he's a bigot.