The question is purely academic, There are countries in the world where atheists population is quite high, in sweden it is at maximum about 85% which is maximum in the world there are other countries as well where atheists are quite many. For the information of few of you, i would mention that atheists are fourth biggest group(if counted as faith) in the world, after hindus.
Anyways, This was to show that there are many people who are faithless and living and living well. So what exactly is that religion provides to us? What can we say about these people that they lack something because of lacking faith?
i was at a youth islamic workshop, and imam makki had this to say about why humans need religion:
man can eat, drink, and live a healthy physical life. but when it comes down to our mental conscience, 'nafs' in arabic, needs reassurance and fullfillment. people believe in a supreme being, because it allows them to have faith in the creation of this world, and the consequences that will come after it. and for those who do not believe in god, they believe in theories. they do believe in something. and if they were to open up to divine logic, they'd see that a god does exist. so what exactly is the need of religion? it is to complete the human's life.
religion gives us rules and regulations. tells us what is considered right and worng. before there was the "miss manners" stuff, there was religion.
at the same time, it connects with this primal need to have someone more powerful than us, who controls things, and upon who we can blame things. these days, such a person is your boss, your parents, or other beings.
religion provided an explaination for the beginning of earth, for the going ons of the universe, and gave us an inkling of what might be beyond our little villages. these days, you've got science.
but at the same time, even today, many are using science to prove the existence of God, a higher power than us. Einstein set to prove the same thing. (for explaination, ask my Phd holder uncle)
With no strings attached I dare say. Faith is a parasite of an idea, it latches itself onto any idea that makes it seem good. Everything that happens and is good is taken to be proof of the existence and grace of God or the power of faith. Everything that is bad is the fault of human weakness. Praise be to God, shame on man. That is the constant message of the whole of human history. The atrocities of the wars were down to the evils of men and the influence of Satan while every battle won and every freak survivor of an otherwise all destroying calamity is down to God. If a child is pulled out from under the rubble of an earthquake after two weeks God gets praised for the miracle, as if every person trapped alive for two weeks is rescued before they die in agony. What is the record for survival buried alive?
I suppose the answer is God alone knows, but doesn't care.
AND
Man is a primate. All primates have innate morality. A moral sense is vitally important to the efficient running of any society or group. There are no amoral primate groups anywhere. The Mafia have morals, baboons have codes. There are differences between the various groups and their codes of morality but all primate groups have some morals and standards of behaviour. Religion is also very common but it is not universal and it did not cause the codes or the instinct to observe them. These are facts that need to be clearly stated. Morality does not require religion.
This I agree with you its all about controling the masses. Its all about passing the buck. Its all about blame culture.
Yes it provides explaination for the starting of earth and all but does it also proves the explaination.
Bro, nobody can prove God it's a believe person to person. If you are interested in this stuff go to religion forum and see my threads over there especially Atheists explain. All of these things have been discussed.
BTW before everybody starts wondering I am not an atheist, I am rational born in a muslim family.
Actually if we say that people need religion for “completeness” then we are saying that atheists are un-complete, and an un-complete person should be required to be missing something, Atheists are present in most wealthy nations of the world and living happily, While on the other side we the complete people are running around the globe for what? So question remains for the need of religion?
And regarding believing in theories and believing in religion there is alot of difference, i can elaborate if you are interested, In short religion needs faith, while theories don’t.
If we take the matter of “morality, right/wrong” and say that religion shows this to us, then it is not right because it will be like saying that, “There is no morality where there is no religion” and this is not true" because every group requires some moral rules to live together and there is moral understandings between people of all cultures though some are quite drastically different. Atheists are specifically quite moral and peacefull people of the world because they don’t have a God to fight for.
Yes it connects somewhat but its about past, what it its need now.
Your last sentence suggesting that we don’t need religion these days.
Can any body tell me that how science can be used to prove an absolute faith? How induction can produce absolute certainty?
The obvious “problem of induction” restricts science to talk interms of degrees of certainty.
The biggest Evil in the world today is religion. If you take religion out of the equation we'll have less wars then we have now. we'll have less hate, Trade and prosperity will be high. but because in the olden days, when few people had to control many, they used fear to control society, Follow our religion or you will burn in hell forever. etc. etc.
The biggest Evil in the world today is religion. If you take religion out of the equation we'll have less wars then we have now. we'll have less hate, Trade and prosperity will be high. but because in the olden days, when few people had to control many, they used fear to control society, Follow our religion or you will burn in hell forever. etc. etc.
So have you taken out the religion from your equation already, Shah jee?
What you are trying to say speak a bit clearly. The term "need" gets raised after the existence i.e. if you exist then you will need something. Now using it for existence itself is a wrong use. So please clear it up.
What i can understand from this, correct me if i'm wrong, you are actually asking that "Why we should exist?" if so then the answer is that, You are free to choose.
Actually human beings are different, as existentialists put it, in case of humans "existence precedes essence" you had to determine essence after the existence, you don't know it before, because you don't exist before.
And by the way this isn't the question for which the thread is started please contribute on the main question, i.e. what is the need of religion?
With no strings attached I dare say. Faith is a parasite of an idea, it latches itself onto any idea that makes it seem good. Everything that happens and is good is taken to be proof of the existence and grace of God or the power of faith. Everything that is bad is the fault of human weakness. Praise be to God, shame on man. That is the constant message of the whole of human history. The atrocities of the wars were down to the evils of men and the influence of Satan while every battle won and every freak survivor of an otherwise all destroying calamity is down to God. If a child is pulled out from under the rubble of an earthquake after two weeks God gets praised for the miracle, as if every person trapped alive for two weeks is rescued before they die in agony. What is the record for survival buried alive?
I suppose the answer is God alone knows, but doesn't care.
AND
Man is a primate. All primates have innate morality. A moral sense is vitally important to the efficient running of any society or group. There are no amoral primate groups anywhere. The Mafia have morals, baboons have codes. There are differences between the various groups and their codes of morality but all primate groups have some morals and standards of behaviour. Religion is also very common but it is not universal and it did not cause the codes or the instinct to observe them. These are facts that need to be clearly stated. Morality does not require religion.
This I agree with you its all about controling the masses. Its all about passing the buck. Its all about blame culture.
Yes it provides explaination for the starting of earth and all but does it also proves the explaination.
Bro, nobody can prove God it's a believe person to person. If you are interested in this stuff go to religion forum and see my threads over there especially Atheists explain. All of these things have been discussed.
BTW before everybody starts wondering I am not an atheist, I am rational born in a muslim family.