[QUOTE=T.Rex;182277]So, in my opinion, religions are dying.
[/QUOTE]
How I wish you were correct, Tony! Unfortunately, the concept of religion and its application to modern society is far from extinct. Christianity and Islam are growing religions, whilst most other religions are slowly fading from the human ethos.
[QUOTE=T.Rex;182277]
Let children learn about world and Sciences till 18. Then, let them choose.
I think that discussing with people fooled/parasited by religions is useless. The most useful actions is to push good non-religious education everywhere on the world, and to forbid people to have their children indoctrinated by their family religion.
Tony[/QUOTE]
I don't mean this as an insult, but if we push non-religion onto people, are we not falling into the same ignorance of people who are trying to push religion onto people? I think that neither should be pushed. Both religion and science should be taught. Science would be taught in the schools, and religion would be taught in the churches. However, in a religious setting, science should not be bad-mouthed, and in a scientific setting, religion should not be bad-mouthed. That way, when children have cognitively developed by the age of 25, they will be able to make their own decision whether or not to be religious. But, one need not be scientific in order to be non-religious. Look at Einstein, for instance.

I am not religious at all, in the sense that I believe in one religion. Every religion has a central message when you push all the detailed bullshit aside. That central message is almost always love. And, I don't think anyone needs religion to know that love is the binding force in the universe. The primary reason most people are religious is to feel secure. Nietzsche, the founder of Nihilism, even committed suicide because he believed that life had no meaning after death! Thus, psychologically, religion is soothing. Unfortunately, religion is too often used as a justification for violence, then it goes sour. Just as long as people don't shove their religious beliefs (or non-religious beliefs) down my throat (and I likewise), and they don't justify violence with religion (or non-religion), I don't mind people maintaining their own beliefs. I for one, honestly don't care who is religious or not. All I care about is who is kind to others or not.

[QUOTE=flouran;182280]How I wish you were correct, Tony! Unfortunately, the concept of religion and its application to modern society is far from extinct. Christianity and Islam are growing religions, whilst most other religions are slowly fading from the human ethos.[/QUOTE]You live in Boston (nice town). In the USA, you can read "In God we trust" on coins and bills. Not in France. In several countries in Europe, religions are dying. Except that people with Islam parasite are coming... Religions are dying because Science have destroyed their basis. But I'm not saying they are dead !

[QUOTE]I for one, honestly don't care who is religious or not. All I care about is who is kind to others or not.[/QUOTE]You still haven't understood that all religions (even buddhism: see in Sri-Lanka) lead to fanatism. If you want to destroy religions' fanatism, destroy religions. As [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wafa_Sultan"]Wafa Sultan[/URL] said about Islam, the problem is not the fanatism, the problem is Islam. You should read more books about Islam. Mrs [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taslima_Nasrin"]Taslima Nasreen[/URL] wrote very good books about the foolishness of mulsim in Bangladesh. You should read them. She now lives in NewYork, NewYork university scholar: you could go and hear her explaining what is Islam, from the inside. It's hell for women and craziness for men.
Tony

[quote=T.Rex;182282]You still haven't understood that all religions (even buddhism: see in Sri-Lanka) lead to fanatism. If you want to destroy religions' fanatism, destroy religions.[...][/quote]

I think religions are only a symptom and the issue is that the vast majority of humans is simply plain ol' stupid. Therefore, it is a superior strategy to actively promote religious conflict, because as long as Jews, Muslims, Christians, Hindus, Buddhists and Whatnots, stay busy hating and killing each other, they are doing way more to solve the problem of their existence, than what one would achieve by destroying religions.

[quote=ewmayer;182114]However, as a scientist I do find the question of "why did humans evolve a tendency toward religiosity?" to be interesting.[/quote]

Try natural selection: in prehistoric times a human's chances of producing offspring were negatively correlated to the number of times he openly called the local medicine-man a dishonest fool.

[QUOTE=flouran;182280]I don't mean this as an insult, but if we push non-religion onto people, are we not falling into the same ignorance of people who are trying to push religion onto people? I think that neither should be pushed. Both religion and science should be taught.[/QUOTE]It is not a matter of pushing an irrational hate of religions, but just of NOT endoctrinating young people with the article of faith of ONE religion. You could have classes of comparative theology. And once you study the different religions whithout the preconception that one is good and all others are bad, you have less bigotry and it would be difficult to summon up the blind faith to accept a religion.

It is true that there are a lot of unknowns about our being, the problem with religion is that it gives closed answers which raise even more questions but are not to be questionned : "this is the answer and think no more."

One of the appeals of religion is the sense of belonging to a group it gives, a lot of people crave for that... Rationality does not provide such a feeling.

Jacob

[QUOTE=S485122;182310]

One of the appeals of religion is the sense of belonging to a group it gives, a lot of people crave for that... Rationality does not provide such a feeling.
[/QUOTE]
You make a good point.
But, what about think tanks, scientific communities, and research colleagues?

[quote=S485122;182310]One of the appeals of religion is the sense of belonging to a group it gives, a lot of people crave for that... Rationality does not provide such a feeling.[/quote]

Not true. Rationality does provide the same feeling, but of course [I]you[/I] cannot understand this.

The only difference is that the dumb people require explicit physical symbols (or absence of explicit physical symbols such as tattoos) to demonstrate their association to a group, because they're too stupid to realize what is essential and what is not. Which is why they go fucking apeshit about irrelevant details.

You can prove my point by censoring the expression [I]fucking apeshit[/I].

Church of Free People
 

[QUOTE=S485122;182310]One of the appeals of religion is the sense of belonging to a group it gives, a lot of people crave for that... Rationality does not provide such a feeling.[/QUOTE]Year. Perfectly right !

So, we need a "[B]Church of Free People[/B]", based on atheism !

Wy a church ? Why a religion for atheist ?
Because, it is a way to be seen, to be a group.
A religion without any God, but with spirituality.
Because people do need ideas, rules, and many other things that are provided by religions and churches though these ideas, ... have nothing to do with God but only about how to live together.
T.

[QUOTE=flouran;182355]You make a good point.
But, what about think tanks, scientific communities, and research colleagues[/QUOTE]
Nah ... those all require some actual *effort*, and some degree of individual accomplishment is generally needed to gain acceptance. Religion gives folks a way to feel superior to other folks based on nothing more more than Reciting the Pledge and learning the Holy Handshake. Thanks to the correct-by-fiat aspect of religion, folks who may not have accomplished a single thing of note nor shown any kind of superior judgment in their entire lives, suddenly become emboldened to say stuff like "I KNOW that I am on the righteous path and that GOD mypersonallordandsavior wants ME to praise him unto the heavens and that this is my purpose in life, praise be unto Him and pass the ammo, brother." What a great excuse to not get off your ass and try to actually do anything constructive, eh? Oh, and you get to look down on the billions of "benighted" other folks on the planet who don't believe as you do, call them ignorant heathen (or unwashed savages, or godless infidels ... take your pick), take their property and land, even kill them. It's like a giant personal get-out-of-loserhood-jail-free card.

Note that I'm not saying that all believers are losers - far from it - but there certainly appears to be a strong tendency among the losers of the world to embrace religion (with zeal correlating strongly with degree of loserhood) and use it both as a crutch and an excuse to aggressively "share" their loserhood with the rest of the world - and those folks are the most dangerous ones. There was a similar dynamic among people who eagerly joined e.g. the Nazi party.

[quote=T.Rex;182405] So, we need a "[B]Church of Free People[/B]", based on atheism ![/quote]

But it's precisely the collective non-critical group-think one wants to avoid, so this is counter-productive. You'll simply end up with a bunch of monkeys 'believing in atheism', because the other monkeys also 'believe in atheism'.

A rational person must figure out whether the super-natural exists (or not) by himself. What purpose does a "[B]Church of Free People[/B]" have?

[QUOTE=T.Rex;182405]Year. Perfectly right !

So, we need a "[B]Church of Free People[/B]", based on atheism !

Wy a church ? Why a religion for atheist ?
Because, it is a way to be seen, to be a group.
A religion without any God, but with spirituality.
Because people do need ideas, rules, and many other things that are provided by religions and churches though these ideas, ... have nothing to do with God but only about how to live together.
T.[/QUOTE]

It's called Unitarian Universalism.

[QUOTE=__HRB__;182416]What purpose does a "[B]Church of Free People[/B]" have?[/QUOTE]You cannot suppress religions without proposing something else... People needs helps for driving their lifes, how to raise children, how to prepare to death, help when ill, ...
T.