Why do we need religion anymore? (Christianity, Islam, Judaism)?

Long Live the JEWISH State of Israel.

Israel belongs to Jews only because they fought for their homeland. All Muslims must be kicked out of Israel.

My answer is lengthy as well and some of it I think you realized on your own, but please read:

Try and imagine why people turn to religion, you might say its because that's what they were taught from birth but that can't be completely true because religions need to start from somewhere and there are many new religions starting even today (although they're all considered messed up until they become either very big or very old). Also, people are constantly denying what they learned from birth and what their society believes by converting to other, foreign religions.So... why do people seek religion? Because it gives order to the world. It explains where the universe came from, what happens after you die, etc. Most people can't deal with constantly questioning everything so religion gives them a nice ordered, view of the world. If all religions were to just suddenly disappear different ones would soon evolve to fill the role of providing a sense of order in peoples lives. Even you and many people like you, who deny all religions and perhaps even God, adhere in a sense to a religion of your own. Read what you wrote and you'll see that you've basically subscribed to a belief system where you simplify the world into black and white, good and evil, where religion takes the place of the ultimate evil. In fact you go so far as claiming that it is entirely useless and unimprovable. ("Religion in its current state is a Gangrene-stricken limb hanging off the collective body of society. It is useless, inflexible, and cannot be made any better. It prevents us from doing things to help ourselves collective. It is long-past overdue for amputation." Cool metaphor by the way ;-) ). You have a need to simplify the world just like everyone else, maybe you don't do it in the way most people do, but you do it nonetheless simply because you're human. Hopefully you realized that even when religion taken away (like in your case) some other set of overly-simplistic beliefs takes its place. There may be no more Satan and no more movements against unbelievers (missionaries,crusades,etc.) but you've replaced Satan with Religion and movements against unbelievers with movements against religion.

One last thing, you might counter the points I made above against your philosophy by saying that you actually promote Empathy in the end. But don't all other religions promote empathy at least in theory (Love your neighbor as yourself)? People just choose to act more often on the violent aspects of those religions than the peaceful ones. Your philosophy runs into the same problem it has a loving side (Empathy) and an overly simplistic, black and white, angry side (Religion is an entirely evil dead limb which should be amputated). So you see even if you remove religion, a philosophy with problems identical to most religions arises. Just like most religions, it can be constructive or destructive depending on which aspect of it people choose to emphasize.

In summary, my basic point is that religion is an inseparable part of human society, we can't get rid of it cause we need if for order comfort. We need an ultimate truth and an ultimate good and evil to guide us. That doesn't mean we need to be extremist about it, but we can't get rid of religion as its part of us. If we do, another religion will form and take its place.

Muslims who have a slight bit of knowledge of Islam will know that Christians and Jews are also seen as Muslim but their religion and holy book has been corrupted do much that they have gone astray from the original meaning. However if you clear up these misconceptions and inconsistencies you will be left with three religions that are no different from each other and share the same message and teaching; to worship one God only. A Muslim is someone who submits their will to God and there many sects of Christianity who do not believe that Jesus was God or that he was divine. These Christians are considered to be Muslim.

Acceptance of a supernatural claim tends to promote cooperative social relationships. This communication demonstrates a willingness to accept, without skepticism, the influence of the speaker in a way similar to a child's acceptance of the influence of a parent. By encouraging this kind of behavior where the most intense social relationships occur it facilitates the lack of skepticism and deters more open minded thinking.

They are christian, Muslim or the other religions depending where they were born simply because they were indoctrinated by their parents as very young children. They will go on to indoctrinate their own children and those will go on to indoctrinate their grandchildren!!

Atheists have the intellect to see through the conditioning and escape into the real world!!

Agnostics have the intellect to see through the conditioning but lack the courage to throw of the conditioning entirely.

Sadly Christians are still held firmly prisoner by the self perpetuating brainwashing!!

I agree with much of what you said but I think the big propaganda is that the war is being promoted by big business and major arms dealers and political sweet heart deals... focusing on the religious fanatics is just a ploy to take the spot light off the big greedy profiteers in these wars who are selling weapons to every side... there are billions of dollars in subsidies that our government is paying out that is specifically allocated to fund the purchase of more weapons. By population we are giving more annual aid to Israel than is allocated to American citizens each year...but lets just point the finger at religion instead. We also give aid to all of the surrounding Arab countries but not in such large amounts.

u talk talk great things bro but don't practise them yourself. u say we give smile happiness etc whenu r not just giving the other person a chance to speak .i read the entire question and in the end u don't even want to hear the answer.

why do we need religion and about other doubts u have, their exist answers but it seems u r not ready to know/hear the answers. if ur mail me ,i'd be happy to help.

NOTE:im not forcing my view on u or any1 else, neither do i want a debate but just an exchange of knowledge which will help s both .not a fight.

currently ur like a cup of water which is fully filled in which no more water can come , u r not ready for more knowledge because of ur ego which is telling u , u know everything,whereas u don;t know the everything-god.

let me know if u r ready.

and about the regret, yes u will die without regret but the regret would be later when u will come 2 know that u had entire life a gift of god to recte his name and have the mercy of god and connect to him. whereas u wasted it by not even hearing about god .

whatever u have said is about those peole who don't have actually figured anything about god. a person who loves god , also loves his creation , entire universe, does not discriminate as he knows we all r humans even though we may look different ,have different views but are all alike . we all pray to same god, but the pryers may be different as god has made us different but te destination is same god .

i hope u get my point my friend

The Rapture

Remove the Religion!

And open the doors

Day and night, night and day.

Of all the Churches, Temples, and Monastery

Let the people in, to sit and ponder.

Without Idol or Hymn.

Allow the hungry to be fed.

Give them shelter and a bed.

If you love your Gods, Set them Free!

Remove the Religion!

Free your mind instead.

On wooden pew you could see

All the Love of Humanity.

This Energy is the “Silent Rapture of GOD”

Here's a funny thing....while I certainly agree with you, I'm not going to join you. Why?

Because sometimes that's how religions might start, with one person's idea and others joining him/her.

I've already seen how decrepit religion is in this world. And I'm glad that others live with their eyes opened too.

All you can do now is tell others for their own education, bearing in mind that many people cannot absorb such education - it's beyond their capacity to do so.

And live in peace as best as possible.

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The Meaning of Community

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http://info.bahai.org/article-1-9-1-1.html

It was Aristotle who first defined the word "community" as a group established by men having shared values. That initial definition has been refined and expanded through the years. We have come, for example, to recognize that people can belong to a number of different "communities" simultaneously--communities of place; cultural communities; communities of memory, in which people who may be strangers share "a morally significant history"; and psychological communities "of face-to-face personal interaction governed by sentiments of trust, co-operation, and altruism.

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The prophets of an internetted world in which national identities gradually fade, proclaim its revolutionary nature and yet believe the changes will be wholly benign. They won't be. The shift from national to some other political allegiance, if it comes, will be an emotional, cultural, and political earthquake.3

Mathews raises important questions: What kind of community can be forged in an internetted world, where the structure of the technology promotes anarchy, with its emphasis on complete freedom of expression and lack of regard for authority? Does this spell the end of the nation-state and, if so, what other kind of political entity might arise in its stead? The challenges posed by the new information technologies may generate significant crises felt throughout the world, but such a development looms on the horizon.

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Such loss of "community of place" can also bring loss of communities of memory and communities governed by trust.

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...our present economic system should also be understood as our religion, because it has come to fulfill a religious function for us. The discipline of economics is less a science than the theology of that religion, and its god, the Market, has become a vicious circle of ever-increasing production and consumption by pretending to offer a secular salvation. The collapse of communism--best understood as a capitalist "heresy"--makes it more apparent that the market is becoming the first truly world religion, binding all corners of the globe more and more tightly into a worldview and set of values whose religious role we overlook only because we insist on seeing them as "secular."9

George Soros shares this view, stating, "What used to be a medium of exchange has usurped the place of fundamental values.... The cult of success has replaced a belief in principles. Society has lost its anchor."10

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The Ballad of George Fox

"There's a Light that was shining

when the world began,

And a Light that is shining in the heart of man:

There's a Light that is shining

in the Turk and the Jew,

And a Light that is shining, friend, in me and in you."

Walk in the Light, wherever you may be,

Walk in the Light, wherever you may be!

In my old leather breeches and

my shaggy, shaggy locks,

I am walking in the glory of the Light, said Fox.

"With a book and a steeple

and a bell and a key

They would bind it for ever--but they can't," said he.

"O, the book, it will perish,

and the steeple will fall,

But the Light will be shining at the end of it all."

Walk in the Light, wherever you may be,

Walk in the Light, wherever you may be!

In my old leather breeches and

my shaggy, shaggy locks,

I am walking in the glory of the Light, said Fox.

"If we give you a pistol,

will you fight for the Lord?"

"You can't kill the devil with a gun or a sword."

"Will you swear on the Bible?"

"I will not," said he,

"For the truth is as holy as the Book to me."

Walk in the Light, wherever you may be,

Walk in the Light, wherever you may be!

In my old leather breeches and

my shaggy, shaggy locks,

I am walking in the glory of the Light, said Fox.

"There's an ocean of darkness

and I drowned in the night

Till I came through the darkness to the ocean of Light;

You can lock me in prison,

but the Light will be free.*

And I'll walk in the glory of the Light," said he.

Walk in the Light, wherever you may be!

Walk in the Light, wherever you may be!

In my old leather breeches and

my shaggy, shaggy locks,

I am walking in the glory of the Light, said Fox.

--by Sydney Carter

(George Fox was the founder of Quakerism.)

[*Some Quakers change these two lines to read:

"And the Light is forever, and the Light will be free."]