Things about religion i don't get..

[_aphasiac_]

1) So, religious nutters believe homosexuality / drug / alcohol use is wrong? So why don't hey just NOT do it, and let all the other people who do get on with it. They'll end up in Heaven, we'll end up in Hell, everything works out nicely. Surely it should be God doing the judging, not them

Comments

[anonymous]

1. The majority of Christians, Jews, Buddists, etc don't try to force their ideas onto other people. Evangelical Christians believe they have a duty to save souls, which is why they do it. I have heard that the Koran instructs Muslims to kill all non-Muslims, but I haven't read it myself so I don't know if that is true.

But it's not just religious people who are evangelical. Converting others, sometimes by force, is a good way for a meme to propagate itself, so many memes are evangelical: linux users, animal rights activists, pro/anti immigration protestors.

You might think "Can't people just leave other people's business alone" but that's not practical in modern society. If you lived alone on an island and grew all your own food, maybe. We are all forced to obey the morals and customs of the society in which we live. You can't really drop out and grow your own food like you could in the past, because society has decided that every piece of land in the world is already owned by somebody, and so you have to participate in the captilist system if you want to be allowed to use any of it.

If you generally agree with the system under which you live then it's not bad. If you disagree... well, maybe that's what causes people to protest the issues you mentioned.

2. I think the (civil) war in Iraq is about tribal and ethnic conflict (and resisting the American invaders). I don't think it's about religion. There was a TV programme on channel 4 about female suicide bombers a few months ago which was very interesting. One of them blew up an Israeli hospital that had recently treated her and saved her life! Basically, they were all suicidal nutcases who wanted to die anyway, and they happenned to meet handlers who manipulated them into killing some innocent people at the same time. Religion may have been used in some cases as part of the manipulation but most of the people involved were not really religious.

Sorry for taking your questions so seriously. I know religious people are annoying! I used to have a lot of tolerance for them but I have less lately.

Richard