I know that only in hindsight does an invention show its benefits or faults,but it has to be guns–from handguns to the largest artillery pieces…The destruction they have caused is literally incalculable and dwarfs any benefit they have given humans. I bet for every animal shot for food with a gun,there have been five times as many people destroyed by guns during wars and in the commission of crimes. Atomic weapons are pretty bad too,but we have only used them twice,so I guess we will have to wait until after a few dozen cities are eradicated before we can say they are the worst invention. All we have to do is just wait.
The second worst invention is religion
As a Christian, I have found not a truer statement… Religion kills…
GG
Ofcourse I think our definitions of Religion may be off… :wink:
OK, they don’t match :-D…
Religion is a pretty shitty invention, but not as bad as sporks. Sporks suck. And if anyone tries to defend the usefullness of a spork, the he or she is a card carrying communist. I said it, and what!! :-P
If we wanna get into theoreticals: Science has killed off more souls then any other act of mankind. Whether by incorrect administration of medicine or nuclear weapons/power, or biological issues or scientific accidents to technology used in an incorrect fashion and resulting in death.
But the number 1 killer of mankind? Life. No one has ever survived life (except Jesus and those two prophets from the Old Testament that were whisked to Heaven instead of dieing on earth, for those who believe the Bible.)
Religion := The belief in an afterline(heaven(reincarnation)/hell(reincarnation) ) for which a person must act according to the rules defined by a so-called supreme being or collection of these.
thats a pretty bad definition of religion. youve basically said the only three possibilities for a religious belief are: heaven, hell, or reincarnation.
has anyone said liberal socialist mindthought. quit dreaming, the world hates itself, and wont hold hands.
has anyone said liberal socialist mindthought. quit dreaming, the world hates itself, and wont hold hands.
With that attitude, maybe you are right. Gandhi, MLK, and others were all BSing us it seems.
once again quit dreaming. Wasnt martin king jr.'s line “I have a dream”. Gandhi was a huge huge racist, refered to blacks as caffers and said the race was lazy. They were bs-ing you, big time. all i’m saying if you believe in the everyone hold hands and dance in a circle crap, go to some mid-east countries or poor places in S america of africa and start talking to them friendly. They wont care if you are friendly, because they dont want to be your friend. They hate you and me. the middle eastern ones would love to kill us, no matter what we do.
I’m not asking anyone to hold hands and chant “We are the world.” I’m just asking people to grow up, stop the violence, and treat everyone else like human beings. Of course, that would cause such a major change in this nation that I don’t think anyone would be up for it. Perhaps people dislike us for what we DO, not who we ARE?
ORGANIZED religion would definitely be in the top 10 worst inventions.
small group of leaders controlling huge populations based on fear, myth and superstition
small group of leaders usign their populations to wage war on other competing leaders
small group of leaders taking power and wealth to themselves at the cost of their followers
It is a rare war or conflict that does not have a major religious component. The Trojan War is the only one that comes immediately to mind… that was over a piece of tail :-P
Really? World War I was fought over religion, huh? How about the French Civil Wars? Vietnam. Korea. Gulf War 1991???
I could continue. But I think I make my point in so much as all wars can be attributed to power hungry governments willing to sacrifice their followers in the name of personal and political glory. This is how Rome became, Alexander the Great, Ghengis Kahn, the Greecian States, Napoleon, King George III, Hitler, et al.
Vietnam and Korea were both wars fought by Good Christian “In God We Trust” Americans against the Godless Atheistic Creeping Monolothic Communist Bloc.
:mrgreen:
Thanks to Dr. Platt for the GACMCB reference.
Gee, and here I thought the despotic leftists were fighting a war to contain communism.
Nope, they were wars to preserve American style Chistian Capitalism.
@ncscswitch:
Nope, they were wars to preserve American style Chistian Capitalism.
That’s not what they said when they went there. Gee, you mean politicians lie to the people? Even those saints that sit on the left side of the aisle??? Wow! I’m so dis-illusioned!
(On a side bar, you do know to be dis-illusioned you must first be illusioned, right?)
well not cause of their religion per se, rather that they acted as a group and had their own groups inside of germany. Hitler found these groups to be a threat, not because of their religion but because of actions that he deemed went against his authority.
I think organized religion is one of the best inventions ever. keeps people in line. If there were no religion who could argue with me that what i am doing is wrong. I would just say thats your own made up morality and you have no legitimate reasons for thinking yours is better than my morality, as i rob and steal to my benefiet. I would only see my robbing and stealing as a good thing because it helps me. Moral probably not, but who could say otherwise? (looking at it from a secular point of view).
It might not fit all but it fits most major religions that i know of. Christianity/islam/judaism/hindoeism/budism.
well, you leave out Nirvana, and the Hindu “equivalent” whose name escapes me, when you limit it to Heaven/Hell and Reincarnation. Also, you leave out Confucianism, Daoism, and Shinto as major religions. What about Sikhism? these are all major religions by numbers.
The ( ) where merely exaples that i tried to take all in if you find another afterlife type feel free to share it:) Afaik most religions are based around an afterlife and X supreme beings ( where X < 0 ).
most western religions are based around X supreme beings. There is no supreme being in Buddhism, not in the sense that you have. There are “Gods” but again, not in the sense you refer to.
