I said "religion" meaning more than one. Many of them are very much alike with slight differences that people have needlessly fought and killed themselves over for thousands of years. Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are all very much alike. There's been arguments about who's the messiah and who isn't but the teaching of each of those religions is very much alike. But I recognize there are other religions that are non-Abrahamic and that are entirely different altogether but it's still a religion nonetheless and holding the people of their societies together on a common ground vs. having everyone run amok doing what they want so freely without remorse or consequence.

Look, I've stated my feelings about this. I'm not judging anyone for their beliefs. Believe what you will but please extend that courtesy to me as well. I sense from the comments that I'm being judged for my faith in Christ. I'm being called a "bad Christian" and all sorts of other stuff. I guess that just proves my point even more and shows that religion really is the moral glue because how can I be a 'bad Christian" if you don't even believe in it at all? LOL! It's obvious you do believe in it but you just choose to pretend not to. Otherwise how can I be a "bad Christian"?

I feel like I'm sort of taking a whipping like Jesus did on the cross by the non-believers on here bashing me. They know I'm right but are too afraid to admit it. They'd rather kill the truth than accept it.

Oh well, I'm not Jesus and never claimed to be. I just try to follow his wisdom as much as I can. There's no doubt he was a man of peace and wanted no part of violence and wished all would live in peace and love. But he understood the nature of men and women and children very well which does give him a lot of merit I'd say. I mean, how do people prophesize about you before you even exist and once you do exist you show you're more knowing than most about life and death? I don't see how he could just make it all up on the fly with witnesses following him around to see for themselves that he wasn't just your ordinary common man. There was something very different about him. Could it be that he was telling the truth? Of course not if you're an atheist that wants to deny him because you fear his words because you wish to live in sin without judgment.

Let's not mention that those words of Christ have stood strong for thousands of years after his death. Now all of a sudden people in society are showing signs of wanting to walk away from his words? How did this come to be? Marxist philosophy is my theory. But I also look around and see mass shootings, lots of indecency, rape, murders, a nation on the verge of collapse financially and morally as atheism spreads and becomes the mainstream. Is this punishment for walking away from Christ I wonder? I'll let you figure it out. I know I can't change you and I'm not even going to waste my time trying. You will likewise be wasting your time trying to change me just as well. I'll never let go of my faith no matter what. Christ at least offered me that whereas you're offering me nothing at all. I'm not much of a gambling man but I'd not bet my soul on a guaranteed loss like you're offering me when I stand a chance with Christ's offer. And if it turns out you were right upon my death, you'll never hear me tell you that you were right and you'll never be able to brag you were either. You and me won't be anything more than a fart in the wind.... But if it turns out that Christ was right and I'm right for having faith him, that would mean you were wrong. And in that case, I pray for your soul.

AKA: "My religion is being questioned, thus I'm offended." That's how you're coming off to some of us.

Quite. It is an evolutive process, generations of feedback cycles and commensurate corrections (along with the occasional increase in entropic noise). In the same exposure to philosophy, ethics, and morality in the social environment also inculcates these things in us, even if we don't embrace them in the same expression as they are shown to us.

I believe, with great hope and from a different origin and vantage, what Flannery O'Connor said - "Everything that rises must converge."

A lot of people believing something (standing strong), doesn't make something true. Neither does believing said things.

One could argue a lot of things, but that is far-fetched at best. My own husband was raised by two non-believers and has never been anything but an atheist, and he is the most equitable person I know.

I just read an article from a magazine about the sense of morality and justice in people, and they concluded even the very youngest children have a sense of fairness and sharing. Morality and a sense of right and wrong are a part of what makes us human, even if they can become messed up.
Well, I know that in my country the number of religious people has constantly dropped, as well as crime rates...

The OP is low rated!?
What the fuck, are you people on dope!?

Granted the subject matter is delicate at best but he went out of his way not to offend anyone or step on any toes and has in fact created a pretty nice open discussion here.

Fucking Stalin has come to the GOG forum I guess. This is ridiculous.

I think some very large bugs have crawled up some people's asses and died there.

That and wish they had the bravery to at least say they're downvoting and why, the OP was a lot less insulting than Thorn.

Your post is full of exaggerations, assumptions and biases.

Fun fact: Shootings are up, but violence is down overall, as are deaths caused by shootings. People use the same evidence of shootings being up and so forth as the reason to ban video games and movies and rock and roll and books and whatever else.

Murder, and societal rules are not an indicator of religion. What say you to the atheists who fear not god? What do you say to the tribals of the last remaining societies that have no been touched by the outside world, who most certainly don't believe in a christian god? What say you to people who kill in the name of god, spread hate in the name of god, and do so with all honest certainty that they are doing the right thing? What say you to the Hindu faith that vastly outnumber the christian world, and have outnumbered them for the longest periods of the world? You can't say that people who feel with such certainty and with vastly different different ideology, act the way they do because they fear or trust or acting against the wishes of the Christian deity, for the sake of such.

What people are against is not that you disagree, but that you disagree in a way that says you must be right and only you will ever be right, and we are immoral, wrong, liars or deceitful. Atheism is freedom not from law and order. It is freedom from the perception that we hold to ideals that hurt one another, in knowledge and in our actions. It's freedom from the thought that we act because we must, not because we have free-will and choice to guide our actions. It's freedom from the bondage of seclusion for mankind, those who don't follow and won't follow in our steps, and freedom to be guided by action for a greater good instead of in faith to wish it so. You will tell us that it comes from God. The monks of Asia will say it comes from Buddha. The Arabs will say it comes from Mohammad, The Hindu from Krishna. No, others like me will say it comes naturally, just like any other feeling, and we act because we want to see the world become a better place, just like any body else.

Thank you for that well stated post.

No, you just insinuate that atheists are immoral and unlawful, or in denial at best...

Point of order, I'm all of that, but then I don't represent all atheist and hence all atheist should not be judged on my behavior and complete lack of taste. :D

Were those kids born with it, or was it learned / taught behavior? If the latter, is it not possible that this may have come down through history with some of its roots in religion? Not saying religion is the sole reason for the state of moralities, but that there is likely some effect that has seeped into our various cultures over the years and has contributed to what we have today, regardless of whether you or I hold any particular religious beliefs.

Be careful with that whole cause-effect thing. It's really cold out, and my dog stinks. I wish it were warm so she would smell better. =P

-My dog doesn't have a nose.

-How does he smell?

-Terrible!