What is the purpose of religion?

[Castiel]

so your telling me stars are not real ?

from the evidence that we have about about the dead of stars we come to the conclusion our star will die too


if you have evidence that stars don't die you could like share it

if the sun dies we go with it is that simple

I'm not doubting that the stars explode. I'm doubting that this is what is going to be what destroys the earth. It is a reasonable explanation but we have no proof of it being the absolute sure way of being the cause of the end of the earth.

WW1, WW2, Cold war ,the crusades , 100 year war , the dark ages the black death ,napoleon ECT

"Later, Jesus sat on the slopes of the Mount of Olives. His disciples came to him privately and asked, 'When will all this take place? And will there be any sign ahead of time to signal your return and the end of the world?' Jesus told them, 'Don't let anyone mislead you. For many will come in my name, saying, 'I am the Messiah.' They will lead many astray. And wars will break out near and far, but don't panic. Yes, these things must come, but the end won't follow immediately. The nations and kingdoms will proclaim war against each other, and there will be famines and earthquakes in many parts of the world. But all this will be only the beginning of the horrors to come.'" Matthew 24:3-8 (NLT)

In the mean time if nothing else destroys Earth, the Sun will.
Like all dying stars do when surrounded by a planetary system.

This I can agree with

 

[Valwin]

"Later, Jesus sat on the slopes of the Mount of Olives. His disciples came to him privately and asked, 'When will all this take place? And will there be any sign ahead of time to signal your return and the end of the world?' Jesus told them, 'Don't let anyone mislead you. For many will come in my name, saying, 'I am the Messiah.' They will lead many astray. And wars will break out near and far, but don't panic. Yes, these things must come, but the end won't follow immediately. The nations and kingdoms will proclaim war against each other, and there will be famines and earthquakes in many parts of the world. But all this will be only the beginning of the horrors to come.'" Matthew 24:3-8 (NLT)
This I can agree with

so you made my point good

see how generic it is all this happen at many points in history

 

[kupo3000]

It seems worldwide peace isn't a viable option when many want these so-called prophecies to actually happen.

 

[Castiel]

so you made my point good

see how generic it is all this happen at many points in history

It's generic, I agree. But your argument that it should have happened 100 times in the past remains invalid.
"Yes, these things must come, but the end won't follow immediately."
"But all this will be only the beginning of the horrors to come."
They are signs, not the causes of the end times.

 

[Valwin]

It's generic, I agree. But your argument that it should have happened 100 times in the past remains invalid.
"Yes, these things must come, but the end won't follow immediately."
"But all this will be only the beginning of the horrors to come."
They are signs, not the causes of the end times.

but the end won't follow immediately." <<<< how convenient we have been getting signs for a millennia they sure are taking their sweet time with
something so generic we could stay like this forever


next your going to tell me the earth is 10.000 years old

 

[Castiel]

but the end won't follow immediately." <<<< how convenient we have been getting signs for a millennia they sure are taking their sweet time with
something so generic we could stay like this forever
There have been signs since the beginning of time. The Old Testament is based around nations fighting nations. I'm in no rush. As much as I want to go be with Jesus, I quite enjoy gaining relationships with people and debating with people about this kind of stuff.
next your going to tell me the earth is 10.000 years old
No, the earth is much older than 10 years old, considering I'm almost double that age

 

[BlueStar]

Some things (like flagella on cells, eyes, DNA, particle physics, etc.) are way too complex to have been formed accidently.

The Theory of Evolution doesn't say those things were formed 'accidentally', quite the opposite. It's not like it's just chance we have teeth in our mouth and hair on our head and if it wasn't for a coin toss it'd be the other way around. Those things have been honed very specifically by environment and natural selection. If you took a copy of the solar system at a time when simple organisms were occurring on earth and plonked it in a big galactic cupboard, when you came back billions of years later you'd find the life forms on each earth had evolved very similar methods to fit into their environment, including eyes.

It's like saying when you throw a handful of marbles in a funnel they all accidentally come out of the same place. What are the odds?

 

[Augusta]

The Theory of Evolution doesn't say those things were formed 'accidentally', quite the opposite. It's not like it's just chance we have teeth in our mouth and hair on our head and if it wasn't for a coin toss it'd be the other way around. Those things have been honed very specifically by environment and natural selection. If you took a copy of the solar system at a time when simple organisms were occurring on earth and plonked it in a big galactic cupboard, when you came back billions of years later you'd find the life forms on each earth had evolved very similar methods to fit into their environment, including eyes.

It's like saying when you throw a handful of marbles in a funnel they all accidentally come out of the same place. What are the odds?

You undermine the complexity of DNA if you think it could just randomly happen by chance.
If there is no intelligent designer involved, it is chance. Accidental. Coincidence.

If there's a lottery and you have to pick 100 numbers in order to win, what are the odds of winning?
That would be a better analogy to describe the odds.

 

[Amber Lamps]

It is pretty simple. It was a way to do the following:

-keep people sane by making provisions for a gathering place (people go insane if they aren't around other living creatures or human beings)
-explain things that can't be explained and basically give logic and explain whether something is right or wrong (modern psychology didn't exist back then, to give example without getting into some politically correct crap on this forum for we all know that leads to someone becoming a big baby and crying cussing like one)
-give people more hope and less fear of death

maybe more things that I haven't thought of just now but that is the bulk of it. is religion a good thing? for the most part it is. there is good in every religion as long as it doesn't include radicals. seems like every religion has radicals but we all know there is one that is very deadly and insanely destructive that gets in the news all the time which is pretty shameful. some countries practice that religion in peace.

I had quite a debate with a friend today and it really got me thinking about this.
My opinion on religion was that it was used as a mean to keep society civilized back in the time of Ancient Greeks and stuff. I mean, if you commit a sin, you are damned and go to hell. If you commit acts of kindness, you are blessed and go to heaven. Right? Also, I think that religion helped answer some questions that people had in the day like how humanity came into being or whether the sun or earth goes orbit each other.

What are you thoughts on this matter? What do you think the purpose of religion is?

 

[BlueStar]

You undermine the complexity of DNA if you think it could just randomly happen by chance.
If there is no intelligent designer involved, it is chance. Accidental. Coincidence.

If there's a lottery and you have to pick 100 numbers in order to win, what are the odds of winning?
That would be a better analogy to describe the odds.

Except it's not at all, because not every gene has the same chance of being passed on. How about a lottery where some of the balls are the size of tennis balls and some are the size of marbles. Is that totally random chance, accident? If you pick the balls out 500 times and throw away the ones that didn't get picked out 3 times in a row, is it pure chance you end up with bigger balls? It's religion that says we know that things (gods) came out of nowhere, and 'just happened' not science.

 

[Clydefrosch]

religion has many many purposes. and they change with time too.

believing in deities obviously is a way to comprehend the uncomprehendable.
turning it into a cult or religion is in some way social. the first religions probably started out by accident, without any real intention behind them and ended up uniting some people beyond family or racial or geographical boundaries.

but i believe that some of the younger religions, like mormonism or scientology (i dont believe its a religion in the traditional sense, but it helps the argument here) among them even christianity, started out with a purpose. an idea to start a religion. mormons and scientology both pretty much started with 'i want to start my own church'. there were motives behind it. getting money, getting power, maybe even saving people and doing the lords work.

christianity may be a combination, where it didnt exactly start, but simply developed by many people believing in a certain thing. but it was then seized by other people with some desires like power and influence. humanity hat quite enough time to understand what a religion could do and how its a great way to make some people leaders and others followers for pretty much no good reason at all (by inventing the reason oneself)

obviously, religion brought us some good and some bad. the social aspect is visible even today, though i'd guess its almost lost all importance as we now find other things to bind and unite us socially.
power and money can still be found plentyful, more so in the new age religions, as in those that already were there 2000 years ago.
religion can still be a crutch for many people having a hard time. and providing faith, some sort of ethnics and morality, one way or another, i guess is a good thing still, even if its not rational.
being rational, sadly, is one of the worst ways for a world to be, cause it opens up too many of those scary options. those that we sometimes have to tell ourselves that we are better than to go that way. (just imagine, a single large act of violence may easily solve a dozen or so of the greatest problems we face globally in our time.)

so yeah anyway, theres many purposes of religion. some better, some worse than people often make them out to be.

 

[TrolleyDave]

I love these types of discussions, and I know I'm a little late to the party but I'll throw in my tuppence here.

Belief in gods came a long time before organised religion. Humans are pattern seeking beings, it's something we evolved with as a survival instinct. Those that had a natural tendency to assign things to the rustling in the grass tended to live longer than those that ignored it. If a hunter heard the bushes moving behind him it was much safer to assume that it was a predator then it was to assume it was a bird or the wind. As our consciousness evolved, so did our tendency to assign things to the unknown.

Back during when we first started forming tribes we began assigning things to natural processes such as the wind, lightening etc. simply because humans knew nothing of the natural processes governing the universe. As we became braver, stronger and more curious we began to check the bushes to see what was there, so to speak. Humans began noticing that when the bushes rustled, sometimes there was nothing there but the wind. So we assigned a personality to the wind to make it easier to understand and less threatening. Eventually the spirits evolved into gods.

As our consciousness and pattern seeking abilities evolved humans began to make false correlations between what they saw and what was happening around. Nature is indifferent and harsh, and they saw suffering everywhere. Just as we find we have a need to explain suffering today, so did the people back then. When there was a drought, a flood or any other natural disaster, humans back then would assign it a cause. That cause was gods (it was a long time between the idea of spirits, gods and a monotheistic belief). People were being punished by whichever god had emerged in that area. It also gave people hope, because they felt that they could do something to avoid natural disasters. It made the world a less indifferent, less harsh place. Religion then began to emerge from belief in gods. Sets of rules designed to please the gods were developed, to ensure that the gods stay pleased with the tribe. It was also a way to pass on myths such as their creation story, as well as history - albeit distorted over time.

That's how religions began, and that was their purpose originally. Religion went through an evolution again when tribes began to merge into city-state style settlements. Not only was it used to pass on rules to the local population, along with threats and promises in the after-life, it was also used to install kings and emperors. While a human was likely to rebel against a harsh king, they were far less likely to rebel against a king that their god had chosen. After all, rebelling against the king was akin to rebelling against their god.

As city-states began to build up armies large enough for conquest, religion was then used to guarantee a loyal fighting force willing to die. Not just willing to die, an army that wanted to die fighting for their god, religion and king. The promise of a special after-life for warriors is evidenced in several religions. The religion was also then used to unite the conquered lands to the conqueror.

Religion, like any other school of thought, has evolved and adapted itself to time and place. It would never have survived otherwise. Of course, this is a very condensed version of the history of religion. To write it out fully would take pages and pages, something I'm pretty sure nobody here wants to read.

In modern times there is no single purpose to religion. It's purpose depends on country, type of religion and the person following it. Most people glean what they what from their particular religion. It can be everything from hope and purpose to control of a nation. It's a large subject unfortunately, and there is no quick and simple answer.

 

[Fear Zoa]

Religion is whatever you need it to be. Its the answers to the questions you don't understand, the thing you can turn to when all else is lost. It gives comfort to the human mind and its lust for knowledge, perhaps because its easier to say an almighty deity did it rather than accepting the fact that the answer is simply beyond human comprehension.

Another reason is as a weapon. I really hate to say this but historically religion has been a weapon, an excuse to kill people. Even today its often used to justify homophobia and racism which is just plain fucked up. Back in the day it was used to control people, keep them in line, prevent them from questioning the king and his motives. Say god is ruler of all, then say he tells you his will and that your words are his, suddenly your rule is solid and you've effectively quashed free thinking.

I hope I didn't offend anyone here i'm just speaking my opinion, and if you couldn't tell I am in fact an Atheist.

 

[DragorianSword]

It's just a lot more simple to explain our existence and everything that happens if you just say: It was a god.
Then they just add some moral sense to it (no killing, stealing, eating this because...) and you have religion.
There is nothing wrong with religion of course although I prefer a scientific way to look at life.
I have seen people who got through really difficult times thanks to a religion.

 

[shoyrumaster11]

I hope I didn't offend anyone here i'm just speaking my opinion, and if you couldn't tell I am in fact an Atheist.

Not offended. Heck! A whole lot of my friends either do or don't have a religion. One of my best friends does believe in god. But she's not christian, same with her older sister. That kinda makes no sense to me personally but, I and all my friends are at a young age. Even though I do plan on keeping my religion. Just because, yeah! In my opinion having a religion or not is a part of our personality. Also, I'm so glad I could come to this thread and not see a flame war. I mean, seriously!

EDIT: Got ninja'd by DargorianSword!

 

[nryn99]

oh, nice thread, though i didn't read it all.
But I've made something like this before: http://gbatemp.net/threads/religion-is-somehow-a-type-government.325775/

 

[FAST6191]

You undermine the complexity of DNA if you think it could just randomly happen by chance.
If there is no intelligent designer involved, it is chance. Accidental. Coincidence.

If there's a lottery and you have to pick 100 numbers in order to win, what are the odds of winning?
That would be a better analogy to describe the odds.

That is a terrible analogy

The very sort response is yes things are random after a fashion but given enough events, enough time and the nature of the chemistry involved random does not mean roll of a single many sided dice and probability of life as you know it is likely not as low as that analogy would lead you to believe.

First there is increasing complexity- a fully formed eye did not appear out of goop but likely started as a single light sensing cell. Moreover different species evolved light sensing organs in different ways (some of the underground sea animals being a good example of alternative light sensing cells appearing), more on that in a moment.

Going back to basic chemistry or indeed basic physics it is noted I can in no way know where all subatomic particles are (Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle), this line of thought then leads to entropy which also agrees you can not know but given a single gram of an element contains something in the order of 10^23 atoms (see Avogadro constant) the singular distribution does not really matter. This gives us chemistry for even if I can not know where things are I can still with certainty that a reaction will happen at a given temperature and pressure every time and this definitely takes entropy into account (see the free energy equation).

On DNA itself- many things happen here. As mentioned there is not just one type of DNA that works which seriously damages the "how to win" thing. Life is also fairly self selecting (certain errors in DNA lead to a self destructing/non dividing cell) let alone stuff at a macroscopic level (see "conventional" evolution). Most of the more successful types of life also split their DNA in half and have it recombine it and saying "in half" also fails to account for other interesting combinations (mitochondrial DNA and later in life other interesting aberrations (recently wheat was kind of sequenced and it is noted it is the combination of a few ancient grasses), copying errors, radiation induced errors..... ).

Related to basic chance you have to also consider if life has been around for however many millions of years and life cycles tending to measured in years at best (especially as complexity decreases) multiplied across the number of "reactions" happening is not a "wow that was lucky" event, doubly so when combined with the self selecting nature of DNA based life.

Back to the main idea of the topic I think I will have to echo TrolleyDave and say religions evolved from attempted explanations and got warped/taken in by various things along the way. Personally I find the evolution of religions quite fascinating (both how they merge, adopt parts of others and branch and overall trends like the trend towards monotheism*), I can not say I especially see them being especially useful today (indeed in the past I have said net negative as of fairly recent history and I stand by that).

*going evolution again the more interesting one for me on the trend to monotheism was that polytheism necessitates a spread of worship which leads to a less unified front against a monotheistic faith.

 

[Valwin]

There have been signs since the beginning of time. The Old Testament is based around nations fighting nations. I'm in no rush. As much as I want to go be with Jesus, I quite enjoy gaining relationships with people and debating with people about this kind of stuff.
next your going to tell me the earth is 10.000 years old

well sorry that's too generic and convenient i could make up my own predictions as generic as that

 

[Sanoblue]

the answer is simple..... to control the masses with a unified belief and moral structure.

 

[Guild McCommunist]

the answer is simple..... to control the masses with a unified belief and moral structure.

Despite the fact that religions (even sects within religions) are significantly different and have different beliefs.