Religion is ‘the new social evil’

[JPreston]

Well it seems the verdict is in:

Religion is the new social evil - Times Literary Supplement

A poll by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation uncovered a widespread belief that faith - not just in its extreme form - was intolerant, irrational and used to justify persecution.

Pollsters asked 3,500 people what they considered to be the worst blights on modern society, updating a list drawn up by Rowntree, a Quaker, 104 years ago.

The responses may well have dismayed him. The researchers found that the “dominant opinion” was that religion was a “social evil”.

Many participants said religion divided society, fuelled intolerance and spawned “irrational” educational and other policies.

One said: “Faith in supernatural phenomena inspires hatred and prejudice throughout the world, and is commonly used as justification for persecution of women, gays and people who do not have faith.”

Many respondents called for state funding of church schools to be ended.

Tambourine-thumpers are fond of opining that their 'faith' is private and makes them a better person.

Now that most Britons hold this statement to be equivalent to a drunk-driver saying "No really, I'm a better driver after I've had a few drinks" and equally unacceptable, can we bring on the post-religion utopia please?

[Betty_Swallocks]

Oh FFS. Not again. Can't we have a week without an "I hate God" or an "I'm a Christian" rant thread?

[Stewart]

Its 2008 and some people still hold that a big man with magic powers, who lives in the sky, made everything we see.

This is not good.

And that's all I'm going to say in this thread.

[Fraz]

Originally Posted by Betty_Swallocks

Oh FFS. Not again. Can't we have a week without an "I hate God" or an "I'm a Christian" rant thread?

Guess we'll just have to have some more chat about computers then.

[chuckskull]

Faith in anything is good. Whether it's yourself, your family, or an invisible super natural being. Religion rarely is unfortunately, imho.

[Agent]

http://www.livescience.com/php/multimedia/imagedisplay/img_display.php?pic=060810_evo_rank_02.jpg&cap=A+chart+showing+public+acceptance+of+evolution+in+34+ countries.+The+United+States+ranked+near+the+bottom%2C+beat+only+by+Turkey.+Credit%3A+Science

UK does better than I expected
Note: Evolution not god

[shadowmaster]

Yet again, I can sense another religion vs evolution thread starting

[Andy3536]

So the USA is bottom of a common sence list? Who'd a thought it.

[shadowmaster]

Originally Posted by Andy3536

So the USA is bottom of a common sence list? Who'd a thought it.

They did vote for George Bush as their president...... TWICE!

[fuddam]

big hugs and kisses all round, then

[TeePee]

Well, religion has divided this forum (Into those who argue and those who can't stand to see ANOTHER religion thread), led to the intolerance of religious discussions, and certainly spawned a lot of irrationality from thread to thread.

[Fraz]

Originally Posted by shadowmaster

They did vote for George Bush as their president...... TWICE!

Did they? Wasn't he just lucky the first time?

[shadowmaster]

Originally Posted by Fraz

Did they? Wasn't he just lucky the first time?

Actually first time he was quite lucky, it went down to recount in Florida which went in his favour . However second time he won by an absolute majority.

[TAKTAK]

in all fairness, it might be an idea to have a religious/not religious poll...
just to see how it fairs on heXus i'll leave it to you to decide. i'm not getting involved in more religious tat something will go wrong and i'll be exiled

[Betty_Swallocks]

Originally Posted by TeePee

led to the intolerance of religious discussions

I'm not intolerant but it just seems that as soon as one thread gets put to bed another one starts with the same arguments

[G4Z]

nobody is forcing you to read it or post in it.