Religion, what's the point?

Edgar Allan Pillow said:
why mention Quran specifically when your comments could apply to any holy book?
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Because this discussion started with the following article. I am not aware of any other religion that uses technology to force people to follow a specific dress code. And I think this is a good example for how extreme this particular religion is. All religions are scams but some religions are worse than others.

(In a way, this is also a continuation of a previous discussion about whether Khomeini's fatwa for the murder of Salman Rushdie followed the Quran or not. Again, I am not aware of any other religion TODAY apart from Islam that have fatwas that call for the murder of a particular person by any random believer. )


https://www.theguardian.com/global-...al-recognition-technology-hijab-law-crackdown

Iranian authorities plan to use facial recognition to enforce new hijab law

Government says it will use technology on public transport in crackdown on women’s dress
 
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frostbite said:
I am Greek. Thinkers from Ancient Greece like Plato, Aristotle, Pythagoras, etc form the basis of the Modern Western science and democracy.

What does this mean for me today?

Should I study the Wise Greek Ancient Texts to find out what I should wear today?

Should I insist that women should NOT be allowed to vote, because they were not allowed to vote in the Athenian Democracy?

Should I consider Mount Olympus as a HOLY PLACE because that's where Zeus and the 12 Gods have their homes?

Why should the Quran have any more relevance to our lives today? There are 1100 years between Ancient Greece (400 BC) and Islam (700 AD), and one can argue that the world regressed during that time. There are 1300 years between 700AD and 2000AD, and the world has changed considerably in that time, and our knowledge for the world and science has progressed even more.

We have many problems today, but the solutions to our problems are not in books written 1300 or 2400 years ago.
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Greeks had the best ideas.
Correct me if I’m wrong but didn’t they select politicians by a sort of national lottery every few years? Not people who desired power but just random picks from elite society?(could be adapted to modern viewpoints on who is eligible).
That seems like a far better way of doing things than we (uk) currently have.
The people who desire power seem to be the people who are most inept, incompetent or worse corrupt at wielding it
 
This article already generating a lot of controversy. The NYT have it translated to Yiddish:

 
frostbite said:
We have many problems today, but the solutions to our problems are not in books written 1300 or 2400 years ago.
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i get what you're saying but writing off the entire philosophical canon isn't a smart idea. so much of what you see today is predicated upon values best articulated by plato and aristotle. they influenced everything, in politics, that came after. also beyond politics. and that's only two people.
 
"You don't see faith healers working in hospitals for the same reasons you don't see psychics winning the lottery."

That's a good one!
 
Withnail said:
Eeeemmm really? No one at all? :lol:
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He has a point actually. The Trump insanity has united the religious, very religious, people under his banner. Trump did become a symbol for extremist religious ideas (and racists also) to get behind of.

I know people in Europe that dislike the US, but love Trump; they are mega religious. There is some truth to that statement, as sad as it might be, he is seen as some sort of savior to the "oppressed" christians.
 
jackal&hyde said:
He has a point actually. The Trump insanity has united the religious, very religious, people under his banner. Trump did become a symbol for extremist religious ideas (and racists also) to get behind of.

I know people in Europe that dislike the US, but love Trump; they are mega religious. There is some truth to that statement, as sad as it might be, he is seen as some sort of savior to the "oppressed" christians.
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I was thinking of a few people who were around somewhere around 2000 years ago. But what has he actually done for Christianity? 'Uniting the religious under his banner' is a bit of a nebulous statement and promoting racism doesn't seem like it's a good thing for Christians.
 


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I had a discussion with a religious person on the concept of right and wrong today and according to him, since I do not believe that we were put on this Earth with a reason by a creator, I therefore am unable to judge whether the holocaust or killing fields were wrong and I should also not care that they happened, since I don't believe our lives have meaning in the grand scheme of things. He also said, if you believe you just evolved by coincidence without meaning, you can't trust your brain, since there is no meaning behind it so I might as well trust a monkey.

I mean, come on. I'm as open to different perspective as most people, but surely most religious people don't believe this :lol:
 
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