Religion, what's the point?

Yeah it's the religion it's bound to I have a problem with, not the act of praying itself, or even the act of belief. I've no problem with deism, or cosmic ordering (basically praying to the universe) though I'd personally think it a bit daft. My problem is more that organised religion has its dirty little tentacles in all these things, which continue to act as crutches for people, and thus helps prolong it's influence.
 
A letter sent to parents by the head teacher of a primary school in Staffordshire:


http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/201...community-school_n_4328256.html?utm_hp_ref=uk

The workshop, by the way, is called 'Explore Islam', and as the name suggests isn't about exploring a number of religions as the letter implies.

From my experience, these 'workshops' are one way opinion and only show the particular religion in a good light. They teach kids that there is a requirement to respect the particular religion but no requirement to question it. In fact I suspect that many will go further and will try to instill a belief in the kids that certain kinds of critical expression are not allowed.

If/when I have kids, there's no way I'll be allowing their school to take them to one unless I can determine for myself that it's an academic and impartial insight into religious history, and not a day of religious and political propaganda.

It's monumentally fecked up that there are head teachers in our schools who will actually threaten parents and their kids with a formal accusation of racial discrimination if they're uncomfortable with their kids going to these things.
 
It's an atrocious choice of font, too.

I take it Mrs Small and Mrs Edmonds were forced to withdraw the threat?
 
Giggzinho said:
we are in the final stage, where belief is doubted and where one day it will become a crime to believe in god

after that will come judgement day and the cycle will start again from 100% purity to 0% purity and so on until god sees fit..
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Brilliant. Believe me that I have seen people sayig the same and being serious about it.
 
Relevated said:
I dont know where to put this but since it relates to islam and this is the religion thread then I'll stick it in here.
Tribal leaders are pledging allegiance to Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi as the next Caliph of Islam. If all this goes to plan the Khilafah will rise and you can bet that thousands of Muslims will go to syria to also pledge allegiance. The people who have pledged say that he is the caliph but the people who haven't say they havent heard a thing about it.
This is all very interesting.
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Is him the head of Al Qaeda in Iraq?
 
Silva said:
That's the dumbest thing I've read today. The world is currently a better place to live in than at any point in human history.
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In the Western world, yes. Sadly the rest are suckers. Yeah...as my mate told me, we've got microwaves, we can now heat up food and stuff.
 
Revan said:
Well, same thing, isn't it. He'll have a Bin Laden-like fate.
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Yeah I agree. The news currently is that most tribes are joining the ISIS as he is calling for unity. Basically one massive organization instead of smaller ones.
 
Spoony said:
In the Western world, yes. Sadly the rest are suckers. Yeah...as my mate told me, we've got microwaves, we can now heat up food and stuff.
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I get why you would think so, but it's actually essentially the case for pretty much the entire world. Yes, there are areas of the world where it probably isn't true (Somalia, North Korea, etc), but on the whole life is easier for people all over the world. There are less wars (just more reporting on the wars), less atrocities (and more reporting on atrocities), roughly the same number of natural disasters (just a better response to those disasters and, again, more reporting on them), etc. At the same time the world has never been as literate as it is now (as true for Afghanistan as it is for Sweden), more girls in schools, less women dying of childbirth, less children dying of easily preventable diseases (if still quite many in the "third world"), and so on.

The reason it doesn't seem like that is probably much the same as the reason why people think crime has gone up in many Western countries when it has much more often gone down. We're simply more aware of them because of better reporting and more media coverage.
 
rednev said:
A letter sent to parents by the head teacher of a primary school in Staffordshire:


http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/201...community-school_n_4328256.html?utm_hp_ref=uk

The workshop, by the way, is called 'Explore Islam', and as the name suggests isn't about exploring a number of religions as the letter implies.

From my experience, these 'workshops' are one way opinion and only show the particular religion in a good light. They teach kids that there is a requirement to respect the particular religion but no requirement to question it. In fact I suspect that many will go further and will try to instill a belief in the kids that certain kinds of critical expression are not allowed.

If/when I have kids, there's no way I'll be allowing their school to take them to one unless I can determine for myself that it's an academic and impartial insight into religious history, and not a day of religious and political propaganda.

It's monumentally fecked up that there are head teachers in our schools who will actually threaten parents and their kids with a formal accusation of racial discrimination if they're uncomfortable with their kids going to these things.
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That letter is not real is it?
 
Apparently it was written by that one lady, then the council stepped in and she retracted the statement the next day. Hot air. Some of the people in this thread are obsessed with religion, it's almost worrying.
 
Well that depends on how close to the speed of light you are travelling, but seriously, is this thread worth a look? or am I best avoiding it?
 
afrocentricity said:
Well that depends on how close to the speed of light you are travelling, but seriously, is this thread worth a look? or am I best avoiding it?
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I suppose that depends on what you desire from a thread.

I've got 80 something comments in it, so it clearly interests me at times. It's been less fun since Saliph was banned, though.
 
Well I'm just interested in hearing peoples thoughts, not one group versus another... although there will be a bit of that I suppose. Just open minded discussion... fcuk me there's like 100+ pages though.
 
niMic said:
He's pretty cool. I still despise the Catholic Church, of course, but he's trying.
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I am pretty much in this position. Much better than Palpatine for sure, but still I have little sympathy for Catholic Churche.
 
niMic said:
He's pretty cool. I still despise the Catholic Church, of course, but he's trying.
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Hmm, he's happy to be a media darling from the Vatican these days but wasn't so keen to speak out when the junta were doing their dirty work in Argentina back in the 70s-80s.
 
Revan said:
I am pretty much in this position. Much better than Palpatine for sure, but still I have little sympathy for Catholic Churche.
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Still makes me laugh every time

557736_422637897752228_201900393159314_1897599_1199028185_n.jpeg
 
It's not news that Judaism/Christianity/Islamism/Sikhism are just refinements of primitive superstition/religion so unsurprising that earlier versions have more carry over from sun worship/fertility rites etc.
 
Islamism isn't Islam, he is wrong there, I think he meant to say Islam.
 
Pew Research Center has been tracking religious restrictions and hostilities around the world since 2007. Our new report found that a third of the 198 countries and territories studied in 2012 had a high or very high level of social hostilities involving religion, the highest share in the six years of the study. These hostilities – defined in the study as acts of religious hostility by private individuals, organizations or groups in society – increased in every major region of the world except the Americas. Here are some top findings:
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http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tan...owing-religious-hostilities-around-the-world/
 
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