h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Please just answer the question without any justifications or discussion ... I am simply interested in your objections.

This question is taken from here... F19585?thread=5126320 , but is clearly not asking for anything other than what you object to.

I will start by saying that what I object to is when church and state are not clearly separated within a society.


azahar

IMHO..

God doesn't exist.

Religion is too often used as a repressive social institution. In fact, only so, cos it doesn't have divine inspiration, obviously.

I have no objections in principle, so long as the teachings of that religion provide an effective moral framework which I would consider to be good rather than evil.

While I naturally object to some of the things that have been done in the name of religion, my only objections to religion in general would be that (a) it is untrue, and (b) it discourages free thought, scepticism and critical thinking.

Gif

1) It's simply silly: there is no god.

2) It has a track record of trouble.

3) Even at its best, it's no antidote to badness.

4) While it may contain good bits, it is often incapable from distinguishing those from its bad bits.

6) It discourages critical thinking.

7) It provides a justification to people to trust solely in their own opinions, without their having to test them against reality and whether or not they lead to acceptable outcomes.

8) It has a strong tendency to elevate one brand of opinion over another without seeing a need for justification.

9) It provides an ineffective and intellectually vacuous basis for a moral code.

I could go on...

(And I probably will, later ).

Is a list really interesting without follow-up discussion? Opinions have to be tested, questioned, refined. I'd rather people told me why I'm wrong than accepted me at my word.

I don't object as strongly as some, but my chief objections are:

(1) God doesn't exist and religion is a load of untruths

(2) Religion in practice tends towards being a hierarchical, authoritarian organisation, and this is bad for reasons independent of the truth or otherwise of religious doctrines

Good list for you, Edward. Yes, I think there is value in just seeing what is objected to without all the other stuff.

Thanks for playing.


az

If I may be so presumptuous as to post on behalf of one C. Hitchens of Washington DC:

"There are four irreducible objections to religious faith: that it wholly misrepresents the origins of man and the cosmos, that because of this original error it manages to combine the maximum of servility with the maximum of solipsism, that it is both the result and the cause of dangerous sexual repression, and that it is ultimately grounded on wish-thinking."

To summarise for you, I personally have no objections to god as an abstract theory. I have objections to the way religion is often exploited as a means to divide, judge, belittle, repress, contain, harm and disrupt people going about their normal, humanitarian lives and to protect wrongdoers. I also object to it's use as a power-grabbing utility for those who like the sounds of their own voices and their own private power trips.

So, believe in god all you like, but dont use your own personal form of spirituality to cloud your self-awareness, justify your weaknesses or to further yourself in relation to your fellow humans.

Clipped from the other thread... Took mee ages to find it but's about as complete and concise as I get!

i dont object to god

i know some good one and some bad ones

you have to take each one as you find them

i object to religion because after the first few years of being nice to each other it changes to being a way to maintain the power of the clergy

cheers

I'm probably not going to put this terribly coherently but my main objection (as someone who was brought up as a Catholic) is that religion kind of resolves you of any personal responsibility.

As in, 'my life/the world is carp - so it's God/Allah/Jehovah's will that I/other people suffer'. No, get off your ass and make your life better, schmuck!

Or, 'If I do nasty things all my life, I'll get a magic get out of hell free card if I repent at a later date'.

If you get what I mean?

Nice one, Robyn. And I agree with you that it is capital R Religion that I object to, rather than any personal god concepts that any individual may have for themselves.

A personal belief does nobody any harm if they keep it to themselves. But Religions are political entities that often do a lot of harm. Which is what I basically meant to say in my first post.


az

TY az.. That thread goes on and on doesn't it!

I get what you mean, Deakie, and I think it's a very good objection. Very clear and concise.


az

Well, except for the world being 'carp', Deakie...


az

Apart from it should have been 'absolves' instead of 'resolves'.

Preview is my friend...

Deakie

My objection is that it only seems to divorce those who seek to justify it, and those who seek to decry it, from the very principles of morality, community and brotherhood it is either presumed to speak for or misrepresent.

It doesn't matter to me whether there is or isn't a God. What matters is it seems impossible to be humane by discussing it.

I reckon ultimately it comes down to how you treat your fellows. If it means a happier overall society there's no problem really as far as I'm concerned, however misguided I think the thinking is.

Looking at history however suggests very much the opposite. All sorts and types of people get labelled heretics and deviants. And history shows us just how appallingly such people have been treated and continue to be treated.

Plus, on a more practical note. Probably the biggest threat to all of us on this planet is population pressure. And one of the main faiths still encourages people not to limit family size for religious dogmatic reasons.

<>

I didn't know if I could get away with crap!

Pretty much all of the previous

And --

It is not possible for someone who does not believe god exists to object to it.

However, it is possible to object on purely philosophical grounds to the irrationality of any god-concept: To an anthropomorphic god, because it is demonstrably false, and to a purely metaphysical god, because it is a non-concept devoid of meaning.


Religion, defined as a set of behaviours based immutably upon unsupported, and often extraordinary beliefs about the natural world, are objectionable in that they at best stifle creativity, original thought, rationality and science, and at worst promote a host of negative actions towards other sentient beings.


I object to 'god' (concept) because it is either false or meaningless

I object to religion because it is restrictive and destructive