Should the United States outlaw religion?

Never

I do not have the time to add up where all the cause of death has come from. I personally do not practice any religion. I see the movement away from Christianity to be the demise of American culture. There is right and wrong and it is black and white. Liberals preach moral relativism, something is right and wrong depending on the person.

Two major tenets of Christianity is humility and serving others. I see little of both in many Americans. I live in CT and see arrogance from people of both parties all the time. I see a lot more lack of humility from liberals. I also see a lot of people, including celebrities, who are really screwed up find God and get their lives back together. Looks like they use religion to fix themselves, not the other way around.

As for serving others, when you give of yourself and think of others, it always comes back to you.

The biggest flaw I see in what you say is you look at life as black and white. There are somethings that cannot be explained with logic.

You would have to repeal the First Amendment to ban religion and that will never happen.

I ALSO CHALLENGE YOU TO MAKE IT SO PEOPLE CAN EMAIL YOU. IF YOU REALLY BELIEVE WHAT YOU STATE, THEN YOU SHOULD BE WILLING TO DISCUSS IT.

Hi,

You assert "Religion has caused more death and hurt in human history than any other aspect of human sociology."

And later you assert that this is more often than racial wars and violence.

For starters, I contest that contention. Not that I know for sure that you are wrong. In fact, you could be right. However, it seems to me to be just a little bit of a hand waving argument. Has anyone done studies to demonstrate that?

Another problem you have is that even though most things you list did happen (with bits of exaggeration) not everything you list has to do with religion. e.g. the invasion of Iraq and Afganistan has nothing to do with religous motivations of the Bush administrations. (And BTW, your comment about Bush saying something about Atheists is false and also totaly irrelevant to your point other than you bolster your false opion that he';s a moron.) It is also arguable that Hitler's montivations were not religious in nature, though it is certainly possible that the actions of the Nazis were based on previous centuries Christian anti semitism.

Now to the final point, which should answer your question. Suppose you are correct and that religion is the number one cause of death and hurt. But that is irrelevant since it isn't the ONLY cause. Why does its being number one allow it to be singled out by you?

Let's take another so called "cause". Try "love". Do you know how many crimes of passion are commited every year? How much domestic abuse goes on? The underlying motives behind many of these is what some of us term "love". So, how about outlawing "love"? Let's keep men and women totally separate! That way no man can abuse his wife or kill her when he finds her cheating on him because he won't be able to. (I seem to recall something similar happened in the novel "1984".)

But of course, that is ludicrous. The crime is not in the "passion" its in the crime itself. i.e. what is NOT criminal is what the person felt but what the person did.

The same applies to religion. If someone commits a crime in the name of religion, the problem is not the religion per se, it is the crime. So what is criminalized? Well, the crime of course! And guess what, America does have a justice system.

And as a final note, I think it is somewhat laughable that you have the audacity to consider yourself "enlightened" and "educated" when you do not seem to have a clue as to where the ends of your "logic" leads should it, hypothetically speaking, be carried out to its ghastly conclusions.

i dont agree with u.. Every religion want peace, its the leader who chose to cause death in the name of their religion..

without religion there wouldn't be a law that u obey right now.. if there is a statement "to kill those who oppose their religion" in the Bible, Quran, Torah or even in the Budhist book maybe its true.. but i also believe there is a statement "law changes to cope with the changes of time"......

and... only Jews kill Muslim on a daily basis in Israel. "Muslims kill Muslims in the Middle East" same as the other religion. Christian killed Muslims during the Crusades and Muslim fight back without killing any Christian civillians. "Muslim Extremist kill Christians in acts of terrorism. "Extreme Christians kill innocent people in abortion clinics" whats the different with other?

Adolf Hitler supports genocide of hundreds of thousands of Jews.. do you have the proof? Saddam orders the killing of thousands of Kurds.. with the help of?. Christian Protestants kill Catholics in Ireland and early United States colonization = another Christian crusade?. Catholic priests molest thousands of innocent children, the Vatican knows and its their way to express their hunger for sex. Muslims supress their women? to prevent them for being a sex slave. Bush, it is his ambition to fulfill his father dreams... on the contrary, yeah he's a maniac.

Most of your hateful rant is directed to things that have happened outside the U.S. and so no law enacted in the U.S. would change anything about those things. As regards to extreme anti-abortionists, we obviously do have a law to deal with those killers and the people who commit those crimes have been punished. Child molesters, whether they are Catholic priests or not, are dealt with in whatever way the law can, which isn't easy to do. But banning the Catholic church -- creating a law which will do what, cause the Catholics to stop going to any of their churches in the U.S.? Force all Catholic churches to close their doors? Punish people in the U.S. for believing that the Pope is divine? -- has absolutely nothing to do with preventing most child molestations from occurring. Even in your far-fetched dream in which the U.S. has banned all religion, there are obviously going to continue to be child molesters!

You are throwing darts at a dartboard and missing it entirely. So you're the moron!

No. making it illegal is a bad idea. Yes, religion is the source for much death, but outlawing it will only create more death. Have you ever heard of martyrs? Outlaw religion, and people will die defending their religion. They will even kill many others on their way out if they are suicide bomber types. So it's a terrible idea. Why do you think religion in general isn't a good thing??? Religions give people meaning in their existence. A practical view of religion is it helps us in the here and now; when most religions are properly applied makes us more successful, happier more contended, gives us aspirations of hope. Religion gives most of us an ideal, and ideal so high it can be seen from both sides of the valley of life. Most religions tell us of our purpose, which is to acquire experience. Experience ripens to knowledge, that knowledge will ripen to wisdom and intelligence, and I believe that our greatness will be in proportion to our intelligence. I digress...

Not if you care to read the 1st Amendment of the constitution. My liberals use the phrase 'separation of church and state' to rid our schools of religious teachings. One can use the exact same phrase to keep the government out of our religion. If you believe in God, that as well as the manner in which you wish to practice it is up to you. If you have no beliefs (which from your avatar suggests) you are also free not to practice. I will not impose my values on you nor do I want you to impose yours on me, in the end we will know which of us were right and it matters not if I am wrong since I will have lost nothing. Sadly this will not be the case for the non-believer.

You call yourself enlightened and ask if we have read the history books?!!!! Our country was founded on religious principles. If you want to ban religion, you also want to ban our constitution. There is a difference in being enlightened and being a wacko!!! Maybe you should start doing a little more reading on the positive things, the humanitarian things that have been done in the name of religion.

The US Justice Department can't because the Constitution recognizes the separation of Church and State.

Nonetheless, it's not religion per se, its the natural itendency of man to expand his territory, protect his family, exploit the weak, cling to power and not believe what he can't see. The unfaithful shouted to let Jesus die on the cross because they don't believe that He is the Messiah even when the Man has done nothing to hurt them.

With all your grasp of history, then you also know that the United States formation is with the help of God. God is mentioned in every single important document of the founding fathers, for help to mold a new world, slightly different from the old one in the old country.

We are always asking for enlightenment from God. So the answer is "not likely"

HELL NO!!! "Enlightened" people also do plenty of killing.

Judaism & Christianity, for the most part, are beyond their nihlist stages. Hindu & Buddhism are not generally problems either.

MOST religions are inherently peaceful. To learn which 1 isn't, use the process of elimination.