Now, a majority of this debate has been dwelling on what the [Christian] Church has done to both help and harm the world as a whole. Casilla, thank-you for the brief history synopsis of what the [Christian] Church has done that has greatly benefited current society. It is true, without the [Christian] Church we would have lost thousands of years of technological advancement. The [Christian] Church also provided a great service during the Middle Ages in Europe. It copied thousands of pieces of text by hand so that it could be saved. However, the access to these documents was restricted only to members of the Church, meaning the public did not have access to it. However, a major reason Europe was able to move out of their education slump was that the printing press was able to mass produce The Bible. So, again, a majority of our education could be linked back to the [Christian] Church. However on a similar note, the [Christian] Church does also have a history of preventing progression (as mentioned by Casilla).
[Continued in next post.]
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While great minds like Newton and Galileo went against the Church - the only reason they were able to make their discoveries at all was because of principles and theories already established by previous Church priests, monks, etc.
However Galileo and many others also had their lives threatened because their ideas went against the Church.
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While the progression of science can exist outside organized religion, for thousands of years it has not. Nearly everything we have today in society either came directly as a result of religiously driven advancement, or was derived from previous advancements.
This, however, is not by choice but instead by a lack of education on the person's part. This lack of education is again the fault of the [Christian] Church due to the fact that they did not educate the population and restricted access to their copies of ancient texts.
Moving onward, nox (or Speaker) you explain that religion is a major source of both hate crimes and wars. True, hate crimes have been committed because of religions but hate crimes have been committed because of race or ethnicity. Wars have also been started over religion but they have also been started over population, food, money etc. This is a too big of a generalization. You continue on by claiming religion is the reason for pedophiles. Again many members of the Church have been pedophiles, but there are also many who are not. This, again, is too big of a generalization.
Another 'hot topic' in this debate has been abortion. This again is a difficult topic. That is to say, when does the person have a right to end/take away a person's life, and when exactly is a person considered alive?
Finally, I will give my opinion, as I must be on my 2ish post. I have stated, in the beginning, that I am neutral and by that I mean I am torn. I was taught both science and religion, but I would consider myself more atheistic then anything else. Ultimately I believe it is option C. Both Science and Religion are explanations for the same thing. Many claim religion is the sole cause for pain and suffering in the world while it is not. As put by Casilla it is simply human nature. While humans are social creatures, we enjoy conflict and we hate change/anything that is different. While I agree both Science and Religion has provided many good and bad things to humanity, they essentially made up of just theories. NOTHING is known for sure simply because no one was there to both witness and record it. However, just to be a devil's advocate I pose this question to you all: If God does exist, then why is there so much pain and suffering when he/she could simply prevent all of it?
Hope I have provided an adequate response!
