Religious leaders to discuss how religion can help make a peaceful society

[jak2002003]

6 minutes ago, Bluespunk said:

Apart from the first one, what’s the problem with the Ten Commandments?

Maybe because most people know its wrong to murder people without the need of God to tell them.

 

I found this article interesting, and you might like it to.

 

https://ffrf.org/legal/item/23730-what-s-wrong-with-the-ten-commandments

 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 24, 2018 by jak2002003

[Bluespunk]

10 minutes ago, jak2002003 said:

Maybe because most people know its wrong to murder people without the need of God to tell them.

 

I found this article interesting, and you might like it to.

 

https://ffrf.org/legal/item/23730-what-s-wrong-with-the-ten-commandments

 

 

 

 

 

I’ll read it but I really fail to see what’s wrong with telling people it is wrong to kill, steal and lie. 

 

The world would be a better place if we all filled these principles. 

 

Edit: ok I’ve read it and there is a lot of nit picking by the articles writers. 

 

Ultimately, I still don’t see a problem with the last 6 Commandments. Though I do see the issue the writers have with the tenth. 

 

The god worship ones ones I have no time for. 

 

Though the ban on working on one day of the week isn’t a bad idea, as long as I don’t have to go to church. 

Edited February 24, 2018 by Bluespunk

[overherebc]

10 minutes ago, Bluespunk said:

Apart from the first one, what’s the problem with the Ten Commandments?

Started with 12 but the Jews in charge bargained it down to 10.

??

[DM07]

As the late, great Hitch said: "Religion poisons everything!"

[TKDfella]

I know a good intro to the meeting...listening to Megadeth and 'Rust in Peace'...(actually, didn't understand a word of it...correction...couldn't hear a word of it, Ha!)

Edited February 24, 2018 by TKDfella

[YetAnother]

9 hours ago, rooster59 said:

Religious leaders to discuss how religion can help make a peaceful society

start: eliminate organized religion

[Humpy]

 

I remember my grandmother putting up the Xmas decorations and asking me , aged 8 and my sister 6, to go and ask the village vicar for some holly which grew in abundance at the vicarage.  We knocked on the rectory door and  were greeted with ''Go away ''  before we could even ask !! 

That , my friends, is the reason why I have managed to live for 60 years without any invisible means of support ?

Edited February 24, 2018 by Humpy

[Henrik Andersen]

11 hours ago, rooster59 said:

Religious leaders to discuss how religion can help make a peaceful society

Answer is ban all religions 

[Nigel Garvie]

One problem is that Buddism, at least originally, was not a religion, but a philosophy, the others all believe in their sky wizard/s. Personally I have found there to be more evidence for the tooth fairy, I was promised that my tooth would be replaced by a sixpence at night, and it always was. Parts of Islam tragically, indeed pathetically,  are going through the Spanish Inquisition phase, although medieval torture is hard to match, for barbarity. 

 

 

[Moonlover]

16 hours ago, Ossy said:

If there was no religion, this world would be at peace. No wars, no nothing!

 

16 hours ago, Ossy said:

You've hit the nail on the head with 'nothing'. We'd all have eaten ourselves, in the final act of mankind's kamikaze self-destruction, if there were no religious creeds and 'ten commandments' style codes of conduct to live by. I believe that if our village had no temple and no religion, it would soon descend into anarchy . . . unless its Farang could save them from doom.

There are plenty of indigenous tribes around the world, including many in South East Asia, who are not tearing each other apart due the lack of religious belief.

 

And on the bigger picture, just looking around the world, it is evident that countries in which religious influence has declined have not been reduced to chaos. In fact, the opposite would seem to be the case. Compare Europe with the Middle East!

 

As far as your village goes, and probably most villages in Thailand, including the one I live in. take away the temple and life will go on as normal. The villages, by and large, run according to the seasons, the crops and the weather as they have run for many hundreds of years. They pay little heed to rules, be they religious or secular. What rituals you see are, in the main,  Animism, not Buddhism. The temples have merely wrapped a saffron robe around those rituals and called it Buddhism. 'Village Buddhism' I have heard it called.

 

The temple runs to the rhythm of the village, not the other way round. Take away that temple and a spiritual leader would no doubt emerge to take over the role, much like the Shaman in other cultures. There already is such a man in our village who officiated at our 'village wedding',  without a monk in sight.

 

And I'm quite sure the villagers would be quite content with a 'sacred tree' to direct their intonations at, as is done in many parts of Asia, including Thailand.

 

Religion is a creation of man for his own ends and not always for his overall benefit.

 

 

 

 

Edited February 25, 2018 by Moonlover

[Ossy]

18 hours ago, YetAnother said:

start: eliminate organized religion

 . . . and replace with what? . . . the NCPO's 12 Values, maybe. There needs to be some sort of code for people to adopt and live by . . . anarchy, otherwise, I would fear.

[Ossy]

3 hours ago, Moonlover said:

 

There are plenty of indigenous tribes around the world, including many in South East Asia, who are not tearing each other apart due the lack of religious belief.

 

And on the bigger picture, just looking around the world, it is evident that countries in which religious influence has declined have not been reduced to chaos. In fact, the opposite would seem to be the case. Compare Europe with the Middle East!

 

As far as your village goes, and probably most villages in Thailand, including the one I live in. take away the temple and life will go on as normal. The villages, by and large, run according to the seasons, the crops and the weather as they have run for many hundreds of years. They pay little heed to rules, be they religious or secular. What rituals you see are, in the main,  Animism, not Buddhism. The temples have merely wrapped a saffron robe around those rituals and called it Buddhism. 'Village Buddhism' I have heard it called.

 

The temple runs to the rhythm of the village, not the other way round. Take away that temple and a spiritual leader would no doubt emerge to take over the role, much like the Shaman in other cultures. There already is such a man in our village who officiated at our 'village wedding',  without a monk in sight.

 

And I'm quite sure the villagers would be quite content with a 'sacred tree' to direct their intonations at, as is done in many parts of Asia, including Thailand.

 

Religion is a creation of man for his own ends and not always for his overall benefit.

 

 

 

 

An excellent post, M, especially so, in response to my typically tongue-in-cheek and somewhat provocative remarks. I do think a bit of fire-poking is a good thing from time to time.

(Regarding your quote sources, although the second of these is mine, the first is from a post by the guest. I don't know how that's become miss-labelled.)

[Ron19]

A troll post has been removed.

 

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[CharlesSwann]

22 hours ago, DM07 said:

As the late, great Hitch said: "Religion poisons everything!"

Hitchens is always interesting and his style is worth admiring but on religion he had an impoverished understanding of human nature. Basically anti-theism is fine for people like him (and me), but it won't work at all for the masses who need something to keep them under control. Without religion there would be systemic moral anarchy. Best leave them be, and the understanding among religions is largely that they leave each other alone because they know that religion is all about keeping the members of the group under control, not really about lording it over other groups.

Edited February 25, 2018 by CharlesSwann

[Ossy]

1 hour ago, CharlesSwann said:

that religion is all about keeping the members of the group under control, not really about lording it over other groups.

And therein lies the heart of the problem. Whilst religions can and usually do have a good and strong controlling effect on their followers, why do they so often attract or cause conflict and massive loss of life in many areas of the world, e.g. Africa, Bosnia, Ireland, Israeli-Palestine and, right on our doorstep, Muslim/Buddhist flare-ups in Myanmar and on Thailand's southern border. So difficult to explain why the same religion(s) can bring about so much hatred and conflict or so much love and togetherness. There would need to be some honest and forthright speaking if these discussions are to achieve anything at all. And for me, too often the cynic, I'm afraid, the fact that they were held in Thailand's junta capital doesn't bode well . . . that feeling that they might be being listened to by an incognito junta spy (Porky, perhaps) in case of risk to national security. When did we last hear anything other than meaningless hot air, be it from the junta puppets themselves or their top ministers for education, law and order, corruption, tourism, road safety? I cannot recall one worthwhile seminar making the news in the past couple of years. More to the point, when will we hear the results of yesterday's talks on religion and peace? . . . never, probably.

Edited February 25, 2018 by Ossy
correction

[EnlightenedAtheist]

As an atheist, I see some value of religion in SOME of the morals that they advice people to follow. There are good ones. I do not see a world void of morality or lack of guidance as a good thing. Sorry! I am not an extremist atheist. That being said, all of those leaders should find one common "god", one common set of decent morals, a common denominator as it were and make ONE "religion", but without all of those Disney-like characters. Many religious people are decent well-meaning people who want peace. The leaders, many of them, are just there for the money.

[DavisH]

9 hours ago, Ossy said:

 . . . and replace with what? . . . the NCPO's 12 Values, maybe. There needs to be some sort of code for people to adopt and live by . . . anarchy, otherwise, I would fear.

Actually, morality developed long before any organised religion. Look it up.

[DavisH]

On 2/24/2018 at 5:25 PM, Bluespunk said:

I’ll read it but I really fail to see what’s wrong with telling people it is wrong to kill, steal and lie. 

 

The world would be a better place if we all filled these principles. 

 

Edit: ok I’ve read it and there is a lot of nit picking by the articles writers. 

 

Ultimately, I still don’t see a problem with the last 6 Commandments. Though I do see the issue the writers have with the tenth. 

 

The god worship ones ones I have no time for. 

 

Though the ban on working on one day of the week isn’t a bad idea, as long as I don’t have to go to church. 

George Carlin got the 10 Commandments down to two. 

 

[Matt96]

same old story "Islam - religion of peace (unit we meet an infidel)"

 

 i guess?