Religion Getting a Bad Rap!

[dellinger63]

Seems to be a common consensus here that religion is the root of most wars, violence and atrocities. However even with the threats coming from Iran wanting to annihilate Israel in the name of religion, looking over the entire 20th century I ask what was the religion of the following individuals: Pol Pot, Mao, Stalin, Lenin, Mussolini, Hitler and Leopold II of Belgium in the Congo and in the name of what religious cause were they acting?

Can anyone floor a more despicable fab five then, Mao, Pol Pot, Stalin, Hitler and Lenin regardless of religion? If not I'd suggest atheism may be the most radical religion

[Clip-Clop]

Pope Urban II and Monarch Ferdinand.

Pretty sure Hitler had some religion thing going on there, something about not liking Jews if I remember correctly.

Mao hated religion and the concept so that kind of counts too.

[dellinger63]

Originally Posted by Clip-Clop

Pope Urban II and Monarch Ferdinand.

Pretty sure Hitler had some religion thing going on there, something about not liking Jews if I remember correctly.

Mao hated religion and the concept so that kind of counts too.

You kind of made my point going from the 20th century back to the 9th and 15th centuries for players. Not sure there were many atheists back then.

In essence atheism is a religion (with a portion of its congregation radical and despising other religions) and at least in recent centuries it has been far more radical than any other.

[Antitrust32]

Hitler was in no way an atheist.

He was raised by Catholics, and considered himself to be a Christian.

[Antitrust32]

Here it is straight from Hitler's mouth.

"My feeling as a Christian points me to my Lord and Savior as a fighter. It points me to the man who once in loneliness, surrounded only by a few followers, recognized these Jews for what they were and summoned men to fight against them and who, God's truth! was greatest not as a sufferer but as a fighter. In boundless love as a Christian and as a man I read through the passage which tells us how the Lord at last rose in His might and seized the scourge to drive out of the Temple the brood of vipers and adders. How terrific was his fight against the Jewish poison. Today, after two thousand years, with deepest emotion I recognize more profoundly than ever before the fact that it was for this that He had to shed his blood upon the Cross. As a Christian, I have no duty to allow myself to be cheated, but I have the duty to be a fighter for truth and justice."

[dellinger63]

Originally Posted by Antitrust32

Here it is straight from Hitler's mouth.

"My feeling as a Christian points me to my Lord and Savior as a fighter. It points me to the man who once in loneliness, surrounded only by a few followers, recognized these Jews for what they were and summoned men to fight against them and who, God's truth! was greatest not as a sufferer but as a fighter. In boundless love as a Christian and as a man I read through the passage which tells us how the Lord at last rose in His might and seized the scourge to drive out of the Temple the brood of vipers and adders. How terrific was his fight against the Jewish poison. Today, after two thousand years, with deepest emotion I recognize more profoundly than ever before the fact that it was for this that He had to shed his blood upon the Cross. As a Christian, I have no duty to allow myself to be cheated, but I have the duty to be a fighter for truth and justice."

You don't think he was trying to play/con the crowd?

[dellinger63]

Originally Posted by Antitrust32

Hitler was in no way an atheist.

He was raised by Catholics, and considered himself to be a Christian.

Scholarly Opinion

According to Max Domarus Hitler promoted the idea of God as the creator of Germany, but Hitler was not a Christian or conservative.[36] Domarus also points out that Hitler did not believe in organized religion and did not see himself as a religious reformer.[36] According to historian Laurence Rees, "Hitler did not believe in the afterlife, but he did believe he would have a life after death because of what he had achieved."[37] Historian Richard Overy maintains that Hitler was not a "practising Christian," nor was he a "thorough atheist."[38] Samuel Koehne, a Research Fellow at the Alfred Deakin Research Institute, working on the official Nazi views on religion, answers the question Was Hitler a Christian? thusly: "Emphatically not, if we consider Christianity in its traditional or orthodox form: Jesus as the son of God, dying for the redemption of the sins of all humankind. It is a nonsense to state that Hitler (or any of the Nazis) adhered to Christianity of this form."[39] Koehne says Hitler was probably not an atheist and refers to the fact that recent works have asserted that he was a deist.[39]

Can one be both atheist and believe in deism?
Or once a deist suggests there may be a God (sic god) it disqualifies them from being considered atheist?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religio...f_Adolf_Hitler

[Antitrust32]

deism and atheism are two different things. atheism is the rejection of deities.

[Clip-Clop]

Originally Posted by dellinger63

You kind of made my point going from the 20th century back to the 9th and 15th centuries for players. Not sure there were many atheists back then.

In essence atheism is a religion (with a portion of its congregation radical and despising other religions) and at least in recent centuries it has been far more radical than any other.

Atheism is in no way a religion. People that hate religion and act radically against religion have something else going on. I have nothing against any religion and would never suggest that what you might believe is wrong for you. It just won't work for me, faith in the unknown is a concept I cannot get behind, nothing more or less.

Hypocrisy on the other hand should be pointed out, especially among those with domain over their constituents. The church (all churches, not just one) too often preach one doctrine and follow a completely different one, Sikhs excused.

[Danzig]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andrew..._b_684551.html


try reading that dell, perhaps it'll help you to understand where i'm coming from. or maybe not.
maybe you'll just call me carnac or riotesque some more. whatever.

[dellinger63]

Originally Posted by Danzig

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andrew..._b_684551.html


try reading that dell, perhaps it'll help you to understand where i'm coming from. or maybe not.
maybe you'll just call me carnac or riotesque some more. whatever.

You're coming to the belief 9 of 10 really don't believe in God based on one's actions not words then.

(Compare: if you really believed that the bridge you were about to cross was going to collapse, would you even chance driving over it?)

So using that logic 9 of 10 cigarette smokers do not believe smoking causes cancer and death.

Compare: If you really believed that cigarettes cause cancer, would you light up?

[Danzig]

Originally Posted by dellinger63

You're coming to the belief 9 of 10 really don't believe in God based on one's actions not words then.



So using that logic 9 of 10 cigarette smokers do not believe smoking causes cancer and death.

Compare: If you really believed that cigarettes cause cancer, would you light up?

first off, 9/10 isn't something you can extrapolate for all cases/questions/scenarios based on one survey.

i'd imagine that most smokers think they won't get cancer. typically, when someone engages in a risky behavior, they don't really consider that they are at risk.
for instance, if i rode a motorcycle, i wouldn't necessarily be afraid of riding it, or think i'd be in an accident. however, i'm not happy at all knowing my son owns one. you don't worry about yourself in those types of situations. smokers know full well the risk, and decide to engate in it anyway.

and it is both words and deeds that tell me what people are like. i mean, if people really believed-why do people willingly break many of the ten commandments on a regular basis? why do people struggle so hard to live longer, if they really know heaven and a better life is waiting? why would people say 'i'm going to church just in case'-if god is all knowing, wouldn't he know they're just hedging their bets??

i used to smoke- i never took the dangers into thought. and i didn't quit because of warning labels, i quit because i no longer wanted to pay the price, which was about to jump.

[dellinger63]

Originally Posted by Danzig

why do people struggle so hard to live longer, if they really know heaven and a better life is waiting? .

Why do so many people ask for last rights on their death beds? Are they taking the lie of believing in God to the grave?

Why do people go to confession? Adorn their lawns with the Virgin Mary? Hang crucifixes in their homes? Get married in the church? Give their money willingly to the church? Raise their children with the belief of God? Baptize their children? Memorize the stupid song 'this little light of mine' not to mention kumbaya.

Quite the charade a good portion of this country is engaged in if your assumptions are correct.

[Danzig]

Originally Posted by dellinger63

Why do so many people ask for last rights on their death beds? Are they taking the lie of believing in God to the grave?

Why do people go to confession? Adorn their lawns with the Virgin Mary? Hang crucifixes in their homes? Get married in the church? Give their money willingly to the church? Raise their children with the belief of God? Baptize their children? Memorize the stupid song 'this little light of mine' not to mention kumbaya.

Quite the charade a good portion of this country is engaged in if your assumptions are correct.

lol
yes, a great many are playing charades. why do they do it? it's what they're supposed to do. maybe they find reassurance from those actions. i'm sorry if this is a struggle for you. some people have death bed conversions, many are hedging their bets (and it's last rites, not rights). then there are folks like my mother in law, who is many, many things....including a hateful, racist, bigoted homophobe...who has a statue of the virgin mary on her front lawn. she is in church on every sunday and holy day...why, she even showed just how 'nice' she can be by repeatedly asking the visiting priest from nigeria to dinner. the first time she asked, he said no. same as the second. so she figured she was 'safe' and kept asking..well, he felt more comfortable after being there a bit, and accepted. so then, she showed how she really felt when she apologized to the others that were coming because he'd be there!!!! lmao. they were all appalled. yeah, her true colors came out.
it was the funniest thing i can remember in some time. she never asked him again after that.
if you sleep in a garage, you don't start calling yourself a car, do you? but because many go to church and play the part, they call themselves christian-and they really aren't. matter of fact, a study showed evangelists are more prone to be racist, divorced, bigot, etc. so yeah, that's one of many reasons religion gets a bad rap.