DeletedUser16008
In the very distant past religion had a positive role partly in shaping how people interacted, in history it was responsible for the furtherment of human knowledge. Islam was the force that discovered the concept of zero for example and the early sciences were largely discovered by the religious cast, the disconnect seems to have happened when those same groups became corrupted with the power knowledge brings. The benefits of a structure of some kind in a group allowed a society to form and thereafter grow, whether religion had anything to do with that positively or not is like everything else to do with religion, debatable.
In the past the church has completely interfered and stunted scientific advancement, such as when Copernicus realised that the earth probably was not at the centre of the solar system, such as had been taught before - he had to keep the thoughts to himself until he was very old for fear of how the church would punish him, 50 years lost and for what ?
Galileo attempted to convince the church that they were wrong, and he was found guilty of heresy, his book was banned, he was forced to claim that he was wrong, and he was placed under house arrest for the rest of his life. How much progress did humanity lose there ?
These are just two examples in history of time wasted and progress stunted.
Religion is now holding us back, for example, 50% of america do not believe the theory of evolution, and of the half that do, 30% believe that it was initiated by God - how can one of, if not the, most influential country in the world, have half its population believe the words of a book written thousands of years ago over scientific theory based on facts and evidence and really call ourselves an intelligent evolved species ?
Although religion has not stated lately that is is directly against scientific advancement anymore, it has a lot of indirect effects on it - one of the most prudent would be in Africa, where the Pope, and many other visiting christians have gone around telling the inhabitants not to use condoms because they are frowned upon by jesus or some nonsense. They are taking advantage of the fact that in Africa, many are religious and not as well educated so defer to religion to tell them whats best.Telling these people not to use condoms has lead to many more deaths from HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases than there needed to be, has made it a lot more difficult to stifle the diseases and has made that situation far worse than it need have been.
I would agree that we should be very careful about how we go about things like STEM cell research in terms of correcting mistakes in our species, but these are ethical arguments, I think would take place whether there was a church or not, and that these ethical concerns come not from the church, but rather just from our common sense and growing intelligence as a species.
On the whole the last thousand or so years has held terrific advancement for humanity, we would probably be much further along without religions interference.
Had religion not emerged or been finally thrown out once we understood certain sciences I think the world would be far cleaner, safer and humanity far more humane, have medicine far more advanced, probably already have free energy and possibly be among the stars. Of course I cannot prove this but can prove that religion has been holding humanity back. It stands to reason it will continue to do so.
In fact its hard to find anything religion has had a positive effect on the whole towards the advancement of humanity. It belongs on the scrap heap of history and should get out of the way of human evolution and progress. Both on a scientific and personal level.
The question is do you think Religion is holding humanity back and so how ? if not what does it bring to the table for our continued progress ?
In the past the church has completely interfered and stunted scientific advancement, such as when Copernicus realised that the earth probably was not at the centre of the solar system, such as had been taught before - he had to keep the thoughts to himself until he was very old for fear of how the church would punish him, 50 years lost and for what ?
Galileo attempted to convince the church that they were wrong, and he was found guilty of heresy, his book was banned, he was forced to claim that he was wrong, and he was placed under house arrest for the rest of his life. How much progress did humanity lose there ?
These are just two examples in history of time wasted and progress stunted.
Religion is now holding us back, for example, 50% of america do not believe the theory of evolution, and of the half that do, 30% believe that it was initiated by God - how can one of, if not the, most influential country in the world, have half its population believe the words of a book written thousands of years ago over scientific theory based on facts and evidence and really call ourselves an intelligent evolved species ?
Although religion has not stated lately that is is directly against scientific advancement anymore, it has a lot of indirect effects on it - one of the most prudent would be in Africa, where the Pope, and many other visiting christians have gone around telling the inhabitants not to use condoms because they are frowned upon by jesus or some nonsense. They are taking advantage of the fact that in Africa, many are religious and not as well educated so defer to religion to tell them whats best.Telling these people not to use condoms has lead to many more deaths from HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases than there needed to be, has made it a lot more difficult to stifle the diseases and has made that situation far worse than it need have been.
I would agree that we should be very careful about how we go about things like STEM cell research in terms of correcting mistakes in our species, but these are ethical arguments, I think would take place whether there was a church or not, and that these ethical concerns come not from the church, but rather just from our common sense and growing intelligence as a species.
On the whole the last thousand or so years has held terrific advancement for humanity, we would probably be much further along without religions interference.
Had religion not emerged or been finally thrown out once we understood certain sciences I think the world would be far cleaner, safer and humanity far more humane, have medicine far more advanced, probably already have free energy and possibly be among the stars. Of course I cannot prove this but can prove that religion has been holding humanity back. It stands to reason it will continue to do so.
In fact its hard to find anything religion has had a positive effect on the whole towards the advancement of humanity. It belongs on the scrap heap of history and should get out of the way of human evolution and progress. Both on a scientific and personal level.
The question is do you think Religion is holding humanity back and so how ? if not what does it bring to the table for our continued progress ?
