Would Atheism have worked better?

Religion exists & persists because it conveys a survival advantage on those who believe.

Religion EVOLVED because it works.

And currently Religious women are out breeding non Religious women.

So the Scientific theory of Darwinism would hold that Religion works 'better' than Atheism.

Darwin does not care about the truth of what you believe, only the effect of your beliefs on your probability of survival & creating offspring.

>>In the battle for the minds of men concerning religion

What "battle"? I'm not trying to win everybody over to my way of thinking. Some are simply idiots that aren't worth the effort.

>>atheists take an arrogant tack and insist that christianity

>>is the source of all wars

When did I ever make that claim?

>>Can atheists point to any time in history where atheism

>>created massive civilizations

Atheism is nothing more than a personal position regarding the existence of deity. Namely, the position of not believing in any deities. It's not a full-blown culture or ideology. Why should we expect the mere lack of a belief in one particular supernatural claim, to be able to "create massive civilizations"? It wasn't atheism OR theism that created civilizations or made scientific discoveries, moron.

>>If we all converted to atheism today, would man move forward

>>from here or would we stagnate and die on the vine?

Well a lot of the BS would initially clear away, but I don't kid myself into thinking that humans would become smarter on the whole.

>>Christianity is the calming force in history

The same "calming force" that brought us the Inquisition and the Salem Witch Trials?

So many fails in logic. I just can't even think right now.

Religion =/= progress. Heck, wasn't the rise of Christianity one of the causes of the Dark Ages?

It's pure stupidity to think that Christianity is the reason why we are so advanced today. Pure, pure, stupidity.

And yes, I think atheism would make a difference. Then there wouldn't be any conflicts based on religion. There'd still be a lot of other factors, but religious-based conflicts would cease to exist.

"Can atheists point to any time in history where atheism created massive civilizations and lead to all the modern scientific discoveries?"

That's flat out idiotic. Saying massive civilizations were created by an atheistic force is like saying people create empires for math. No. Just, no.

The first stone tools, bow and arrow, agriculture, all must predate the establishment of organized religion, although there was most likely a belief in the supernatural to explain things like thunder.

Since religion is imposing, and often has a "believe or die" attitude towards others, having an atheist civilization was pretty hard to establish in the past. But one could probably venture that progress would have been faster, if only for all the time not lost in churches debating the number of angels in heaven and so on.

That something had a (debatable) value in the past is not enough to justify keeping it. A lot of exploring was done in the past using galleys; is that justification enough to keep giant rowboat around today?

you really could use some critical thinking skills because you're stating all falsehoods and thinking like this will only lead to more mistakes in your intellectual growth.

religions have destroyed most knowledge and held back civilization for 2,000years. They have not been a calming force and the current state of Islam mimics the dark ages when christianity made it's most foul horrors.

get some real education, read some real history and stop thinking your church is anything but a self serving institution.

I never claimed Christianity, or even most wars were caused by religion. Stalin and Mao were just trying to force communism on people, and sadly atheism took a hit because people link them so quickly.

Also, people have killed over stem cell research. Christianity opposes anything against the Bible. Christianity isnt what brought us to this point, it was human ingenuity that has. Namely Science, a secular method of discovering about the world.

"Experience teaches us that good intentions, religion, spirituality and meditation alone give us hope and can make us feel good. They have not, however, in the last three millenniums, fundamentally changed civilization. Sinfulness abounds today, just as it did three thousand years ago.

The logos teachings of Jesus have never been tested, and therefore, unlike anything else, could be the only way to overcome sin, globally.

Gnostic Christians believe that Jesus' logos teaching is the way to overcome the prerequisite of evil, judgmental reasoning, and therefore, is a practical path to a higher civilization in the new millennium.

The fact is that history teaches that religion and believing in Jesus is good, but not enough. We must also make religious principles and Jesus' logos teachings a global reality. Love is the answer and his logos teachings are the only untested way to a higher civilization based on reasoning lovingly."

Man progresses despite of religion...

...atheists can't point to ANY point in history because it's never been tried--so all we can do is point to religious wars that have seemingly no point--that ultimately (at least some) caused the fall of civilization...

...just like the religious right is now trying to make sure that we descend into chaos now by refusing to implement any solutions rather just old ideas that have been proven to fail over and over again.

You REALLY like strawman arguments, huh?

Atheists do not claim Christianity is the "source of all wars". It HAS been responsible for many, as well as many persecutions, but certainly not all.

Christianity has also brought DOWN many of the greatest civilizations the world has ever seen- congratulations for that. Christianity did not build the great civilizations of the world- it simply conquered them and then stole their accomplishments, rebranding them as their own.

You've clearly never taken a proper history course. This is an ignorant rant of the worst degree.

Christianity formed Massive Civilisations ? On the Blood and Bodies of the Native Inhabitants and Stole their Lands. Scientific Discoveries ? i was led to believe Science was the work of the Devil Witchcraft and those who practiced it were killed

"Christianity is the calming force in history that has brought us to this point..."

It's always pretty calm when everyone who didn't agree with you has been burned at the stake.

Atheism currently leads to all modern scientific discoveries, no need to dig through history books. Most current scientist are non-religious.