"where's The Harm?"

[joko]

people often say this regarding religion, in the spirit of 'live and let live' - as though its all a lovely harmless fuzzy warm thing, and they cannot fathom whats wrong with it.

are some people really that oblivious to all the other stuff that happens either directly or indirectly because of religion? - any and all religions

i always find that such a bizarre and pointless argument - as though people will just shrug and say, "aw yeah, suppose you're right, lets leave it at that eh?"

it would be a great argument if the religious could let everyone else live and let live ... but they whole problem with religion is - they can't and won't and don't let anyone else 'live and let live'...

[tamborine]

You called this religious debate but you should take own advice & 'live & let live'.

Its all about club rules & like-minded. Dont want to join; walk away. If the 'club' is popular it will survivie without you.

[jomifl]

Well for starters;
1. Denying life saving medical treatment (especially to minors who are given no choice)
2. Murdering people who do not subscribe to the murderers beliefs. eg. abortion specialists in USA
3. Murdering members of the same religion who are too lax, or don’t subscribe to a particular branch of that religion.
4. Murdering apostates ie. those who no longer agree with you.
5. Teaching myths as truths.
6. Indoctrinating children into a belief system without giving them a choice.
7. Causing the death by AIDS of thousands by denying them the use of condoms.
8. Teaching deliberate lies as truths eg. made up catholic dogma
9. Suppressing information that contradicts religious dogma.
10. Teaching guilt to naïve ethnic groups.

I could go on but wouldn't want to be non PC.

[beso]

jackthehat // I would never seek to deny or gainsay anyone who derives personal comfort from their particular flavour of Spiritual identification. //

The problem is that some find that comfort in the confidence of righteousness when they follow the doctrine of their faith and kill those who break "god's law".

The holy books explicitly promote such murder.

I am bewildered that so many decent people uphold these books as divine inspiration and a guide for life. Quite bizarre really. I can only conclude that they have not actually read the book right through, which is odd when they hold it in such high esteem.