Personally I have no idea if there is a god/higher power etc. Sadly there is not enough proof either way for me so I'm kinda on the fence on that one, but I have no problem with faith.
The problem I have is when religion becomes organised, as that's when the trouble starts. Faith can become fanaticism, established religious doctrine becomes dogma and any deviation from what is seen as the "proper way" is not tolerated. If you look across history, some of the worst conflicts are not between different religions, but between two different factions of the same religion.
A good quote is from Red Dwarf, where the Cat civilisation was destroyed due to an arguement between two factions over what coloured hats should be worn in Lister's paradise, red or blue (and the hats were intended to by Lister to be green!).
As for the bible, well, sorry, i place no stock in it. How can it be accurate when parts of it were written hundreds of years after the supposed events? Also, as long as my memory is incorrect, but didn't Adam and Eve only have male children? Kinda makes it hard to continue the species that way.... (plus if they did have female children, you're still going to have a lot of in-breeding going on!) Quite a few of the world's problems are down to the fact that holy books were written long before anyone dreamed of modern civilisation and so many have to be "interpreted" to try and fit. And that interpretation is a very personal thing and can differ wildly.
For instance, in a rather nasty 1990's internal conflict in Algeria, a scholar of the anti-governemnt group called the Islamic Fighting Group (GIA) used his interpretation of the Qur'an to announce it was perfectly fine to kill children. His reasoning being, everyone is born a muslim, and by killing a child before they can be brainwashed into another faith, you ensure they go to paradise. Likewise, from Christianity you have the Pope's Crusade era proclaimation that killing Muslims in the Holy Land is not murder, it is the path to heaven. A finally, for balance, you have the Jewish claim, based on the Torah (sp?) that the land of Palestine is theirs becasue it is their devine right. And that little one has caused all manner of problems in the last 60 years (and is one of the major factors in the world's problems today).
Sorry chaps, but I place no stock in organised religion and their books what so ever. Faith can be good, but be wary of when it becomes organised.
The problem I have is when religion becomes organised, as that's when the trouble starts. Faith can become fanaticism, established religious doctrine becomes dogma and any deviation from what is seen as the "proper way" is not tolerated. If you look across history, some of the worst conflicts are not between different religions, but between two different factions of the same religion.
A good quote is from Red Dwarf, where the Cat civilisation was destroyed due to an arguement between two factions over what coloured hats should be worn in Lister's paradise, red or blue (and the hats were intended to by Lister to be green!).
As for the bible, well, sorry, i place no stock in it. How can it be accurate when parts of it were written hundreds of years after the supposed events? Also, as long as my memory is incorrect, but didn't Adam and Eve only have male children? Kinda makes it hard to continue the species that way.... (plus if they did have female children, you're still going to have a lot of in-breeding going on!) Quite a few of the world's problems are down to the fact that holy books were written long before anyone dreamed of modern civilisation and so many have to be "interpreted" to try and fit. And that interpretation is a very personal thing and can differ wildly.
For instance, in a rather nasty 1990's internal conflict in Algeria, a scholar of the anti-governemnt group called the Islamic Fighting Group (GIA) used his interpretation of the Qur'an to announce it was perfectly fine to kill children. His reasoning being, everyone is born a muslim, and by killing a child before they can be brainwashed into another faith, you ensure they go to paradise. Likewise, from Christianity you have the Pope's Crusade era proclaimation that killing Muslims in the Holy Land is not murder, it is the path to heaven. A finally, for balance, you have the Jewish claim, based on the Torah (sp?) that the land of Palestine is theirs becasue it is their devine right. And that little one has caused all manner of problems in the last 60 years (and is one of the major factors in the world's problems today).
Sorry chaps, but I place no stock in organised religion and their books what so ever. Faith can be good, but be wary of when it becomes organised.
