go watch cannibal holocaust. then you know why people need god..

People need religion because it should provide a standardize way of living morally that does not change with the change of time.

Religion provides a solution for humankind that is curious in its nature of questioning the person behind all these thing that we seen, like the universe, earth, etc. Because the people feels like there should be 'the one' that creates and manage all the thing in life and also a feeling of security that there are 'a higher order' brings about the need of religion among people.

Also, religion unites people from various geographical locations, ethnic, races and strata under one single belief. While the most important factor would be it teaches good value and moral, something that distinguishes the human from other living beings.

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Added on January 29, 2010, 12:11 pm

This is not kopitiam, please do away with such replies.

science is not a guideline. science is knowledge/tool. atheist's guideline is their own moral compass and some say the golden rule

Science says we are evolution from a stardust...
Science says that we came from monkeys...
Why the dust on the ground still a dust after thousands of years...
And why monkey still a monkey after thousands of years...

At some point in our discoveries, we have come to understand the world to be much bigger, much more awesome and mysterious than what were narrated and given by holy books. God as described in those holy books seems petty, small, emotional, pale in comparison with what we would now think a god should be. There may well be some kind of a god out there but definitely it is not the one given to us by some ancient goat herder or some wandering nomad tribe. How much more confidence that we need from firmly knowing the world than to buy into the ambigious and frequently wrong visions of these religions?

We need a "religion" but not the ones from the past.

It did. But that's probably not because religion is to blamed, but religion CAN be CONVENIENTLY blamed. Remove religion out of the picture, and you will see war will still happen, and instead of blaming religion, they will simply justify that survival of the fittest is really, the evolutionary imperative for all mankind, hence, justifying war.

It helps with the moral compass, usually. I wouldn't force a religion to a man's throat, but to those who think a world without a religion is a wonderful utopia, you might have forgotten the abusive nature of mankind to their taken-for-granted-selfish-benefits, i.e. human nature.

There was an idea, which I think it has formed its way into a novel, about a visionary who actually built a city with no religions, no restrictions, no censorship, basically total freedom.

Guess what happened?

Human nature got in the way. And it was discovered that even the absence of religion, is, in ACTUALITY, a religion in human nature itself.

The city falls, only because of one man's vision of a city with no religion. He thought he will enrich man's advancement in science and humanity itself, alas, he did not understand the intangible implications of human nature itself, conveniently forgetting that religion might be just the answer for that.

No, you don't understand. The novel made it clear that with religion ceased to exist, the moral compass becomes utilitarianism, and with the progress of science and technology, humanity's expectations become higher as well, changing all standards of utilitarianism, conveniently gratifying what may be thier biggest vices, and that is usually SELFISHNESS and GREEDINESS.

That is human nature. Perhaps one or two people in a community will have their own self-created virtues and moralities, but if PEOPLE actually found out that they will have NO CONSEQUENCES to even the SLIGHTEST VICE in their lives, they will partake larger crimes I will assure you.

And your example of Resident Evil is weak. The comunities of Resident Evil are typically like our modern world, with technology co-existing with religion. The novel about the city without religion is an idea of the absence of religion is ACTUALLY a religion unto itself. That means while people do not carry the names of their religion to do their killing, they carry on the ABSENCE of religion, as an evolutionary imperative, that they should have the right to kill someone for they are the superior ones, forever never compromising with those who are weak.

RELIGION = Kill in the name of religion

NO RELIGION = Kill for the sake of evolutionary imperative, i.e. survival of the fittest, as how human nature dictates it.

Religion WAS a good guide to kick-start humanity and we WERE progressing as a civilization because of it. But its time has passed and now its the time for a new religion to tackle new challenges.
Apparently, with 3 main religion is in childish conflict in the middle east (as Bill Maher put it). I cant find it convincing for the same ppl from the same creed to take about peace and tolerance.

God in the Koran and in the Bible does not suit as a Supreme Being and the creator of the universe having to send a soul to be tormented in hell for eternity for some temporary sin on earth. Fairness in punishment is not there.

An eye for an eye.

If the Most Just and Most Fair does not give us this example, then who will.

Koranic and Biblical God were there to educate ppl in that intended period alone - be it thru fear of eternal fire. But as mankind has evolved, God should treat that development with respect and give us a new revelation, instead of putting a stop to it all with Armageddon and Judgement Day. It will be such a waste to His own creation which has grown to be such an intelligent being. Does He afraid that we have grown to be too smart?

You were discussing the specifics of religion of how it can be used to cause wars.

Yet you forget, of how religion can be distorted, and how religion is actually not perfect.

You may view religion as a perfect guidance as a moral compass, but what you didn't realize about religion is that, it is the ONLY thing to deters humanity's lack-of-intelligence moments when they are at its most emotional state. Those who deny this has no understanding of the human psyche.

I was implying that the human psyches are the causes of sex and violence, hence war, be it with religion or not.

Religion has become a tool for war, and yet you blame it on religion and call it the "cause", when the cause is ACTUALLY HUMAN NATURE.

The one "less" tool is imaginary, and inevitably there will be another tool.

You see, the "tool" is a symptom of mankind's disease of causing wars.

But if you were to find a "cure", you don't just cure the symptoms, you cure the disease.

That disease, is human emotions, and human nature itself.

Can you remove human nature?

There will be a new debate going on if people are focusing on that instead of religion.

What's funny is, instead of blaming human nature's superstitions and imaginations, they blame ON the superstitions and imaginations.

Whether religion is man-made or not, it has been used, modified, for misinterpretations.

To blame on religion for being making humanity stupid is to exempt the infinite possibilities that humanity can be stupid in many ways, i.e. human nature.

Why blame religion for making people stupid, ALLOWING people to believe that the removal of religion will also remove their stupidity as well?

This is how it'll happen:

Remove religion, and mankind's will find a NEW religion:

It is called utilitarianism. Will mankind be so stupid to use this a new tool like how do they do it in religion? Oh yes. It is called, the evolutionary imperative, the best excuse for the superior to have TOTAL power over the inferior, justifying MURDER and KILLING as a NATURAL RULE for the survival of the fittest, esepcially the rule of "good and evil" are beset among those who in the majority who THINK it's good because it serves their purpose, and to those who studied psychology, the emotion of FEAR, will finally have NEW excuses to think that "necessary evils" are completely justifiable by utilitarianian rule. And will that start another war? You bet.

And those who like NUMBERS, and think religion caused the most deaths in wars, Y'ALL OBVIOUSLY HAVE NOT HEARD OF GENGHIS KHAN'S GENOCIDES, which is completely non-religious.

You must be quite naive about the human psyche to think that mankind are more inclined to do good than evil. Human nature is not all negative, but most it is. Only a few are able to see through their own vices, and live beyond it, in comparison to the masses of other humans. If you have studied social psychology along the history, you will realize that most of humanity are always enveloped in fear, laziness, and stupidity, leaving only a VERY FEW smart an wise ones who are often taken for granted.

Look around you, and tell me negativity isn't in the reality of humanity. You and I may not be negative about certain things, but I'm sure you're old enough to understand why there are more stupid people than smart ones in life.

Not when you trace back the human psyche back to its roots and origins.

It is like questioning black matter and the Big Bang itself.