We should still recognize what a fathomless sink for human resources (both financial and attentional) organized religion is. Witness the rebuilding of Iraq: What was the first thing millions of Iraqi Shiites thought to do upon their liberation? Flagellate themselves. Blood poured from their scalps and backs as they walked miles of cratered streets and filth-strewn alleys to converge on the holy city Karbala, home of the tomb of Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet.
Ask yourself whether this was really the best use of their time. Their society was in tatters. Fresh water and electricity were scarce. Their schools and hospitals were being looted. And an occupying army was trying to find reasonable people with whom to collaborate to form a civil society. Self-mortification and chanting should have been rather low on their list of priorities.
(Sam Harris, The End of Faith, p. 149)
Debbie: It must be such a rewarding life making others’ lives... 
John C: Anti-no, “I” dont have any credibility either but the difference is that “I”m not... 
Custador: “Matt and Mark record “My God, My God, Why hast Thou forsaken me?”; John, “It is finished”; and Luke,... 
Daniel Florien: When you have indigestion when you’re reading it, you know it’s true! 
Mary Lynne: Hmm – I wonder what a “true fairy tale” would be. Is that like jumbo... 
Antiutopia: John C — Christ himself doesn’t have any credibility with these ignorant morons — do you... 
Uzza: Cool story. It reminds me of Confucius, meeting the mad hermit of Chu, who told him it was... 
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I believe the technical term for that is “Greeting as liberators.” Wait… or is that when you plant a roadside bomb? I’m afraid my etiquette is quite rusty.
War is worse. Hell, the Iraq and Afghanistan wars have cost roughly the same as NASA since 1958. Moon base? Or dead Iraqis and more oil?
By Gawd! This is America! Why can’t we have both?
I feel this way every time I pass a big beautiful church. I always think, that the money would be much better spent feeding the hungry (or some other worthy cause). How ironic that the very people who claim they care most, spend their money building these great edifices of ignorance and intolerance. Oh wait they don’t care about physical discomfort. As that insipid X-tian song goes, “This life has nothing for me, I will follow him.” It seems to me that X-tians would rather brainwash poor, disenfanchised people, than actually help them.
Well, it’s hardly surprising. Religion generally flourishes in times of distress and wanes in times of comfort. Religion alleges to bring meaning to our existence, so when people’s daily lives get messed up it’s natural for many to embrace it.
We can argue cynically from such trends that religion serves as a comforter, but such is human nature. One could probably make a loose analogy to the current financial crisis, where people demand answers and appeal to authorities to make things right.
Once again generalization reigns. When you lump all religions and religious people into one seething mass you get the same basis for judgment as when you lump all unbelievers in a similar mass. As a person of faith, I object to being placed in the same heap as Muslims, Hindus, animists and those who generally ignore the teachings of my Master.
Jesus Christ never taught his followers to waste time and resources building monuments, chanting, self-mortification, pomp and ceremony.
It would be far more instructional to consider one religion, sect, cult, denomination at a time. But then, that would take a lot of time, thought and research. That wouldn’t be nearly as much fun would it?
Yes, because no Christian organization has ever practiced self flagellation, or spent vast fortunes on wasteful projects like cathedrals.
But I’m sure those aren’t TrueChristians, right?
If you spend even one second of the day on your religion, then religion is wasting your time.
Dwight,
Let’s make it simple. Instead of examining each religion one at a time let’s examine this. Almost every world religion claims the existence of a divine being. Furthermore, all of these gods are different and mutally exclusive. Finally, no real evidence exists for the existence of any of these gods except for the voices believers hear inside their heads. So who’s right? Nobody. Once a person realizes this, it becomes readily apparent that religion is the single biggest waste of time ever invented. Just imagine if all the hours every believer spent in church were instead devoted to feeding the hungry, building homes for needy citizens, and assisting the poor. The world would be a much different and better place.
I’m reading Harris’s book now, and it is stirring indeed.
Unfotunately, religions exploit one of our needs as humans, that is to belong to a group. Christianity and muslim faith seem to have done this the mos though far east religions are not immune.
It is sad to think of all the resources that have been spent by people down through history for such things as paying money for sins-a common practice in the Midaeval Catholic church. Not to mention lives spent in exploitation believing that you’re doing good. Not that the churh does’nt do alot of good but there are also elements of exploitation and control.
It’s said that satan is a master of switching labels- calling good evil and evil good. I wonder where that leaves the church? If the collar fits-