Assumptions about and in Religion

Religion has its roots in genocidal massacres, ever-continuous wars, and internal corruption by higher statuses of the church. Though it would not be logical to judge a system of belief by its history, religion has in fact inflicted unto society much unforgivable damage. Even until current dates, religion is related to the complication of societal health – contrary to what religious supporters commonly advocate.

According the Journal of Religion and Society:
(http://moses.creighton.edu/JRS/2005/2005-11.html)

• A few hundred years ago rates of homicide were astronomical in Christian Europe and the American colonies (Beeghley; R. Lane). In all secular developed democracies a centuries long-term trend has seen homicide rates drop to historical lows.
• The positive correlation between pro-theistic factors and juvenile mortality is remarkable, especially regarding absolute belief, and even prayer (Figure 4).
• Life spans tend to decrease as rates of religiosity rise (Figure 5), especially as a function of absolute belief.
• Although the late twentieth century STD epidemic has been curtailed in all prosperous democracies (Aral and Holmes; Panchaud et al.), rates of adolescent gonorrhea infection remain six to three hundred times higher in the U.S. than in less theistic, pro-evolution secular developed democracies (Figure 6).
• Increasing adolescent abortion rates show positive correlation with increasing belief and worship of a creator, and negative correlation with increasing non-theism and acceptance of evolution... (Figure 8). Claims that secular cultures aggravate abortion rates (John Paul II) are therefore contradicted by the quantitative data.
• The most theistic prosperous democracy, the U.S., is exceptional, but not in the manner Franklin predicted. The United States is almost always the most dysfunctional of the developed democracies, sometimes spectacularly so, and almost always scores poorly. The view of the U.S. as a “shining city on the hill” to the rest of the world is falsified when it comes to basic measures of societal health.
• … the U.S. is the only prosperous democracy that retains high homicide rates…

Here, I do not intend to draw causation relationships between religiosity and societal health, though one can plainly see positive co relationships between the two. Rather, I am trying to say that when considering the two aspects together, the obvious conclusion is that being religious will result in a higher statistical likelihood of bringing no benefit to societal health. Never mind the immorality based effects that religion has on society – though they are quite considerably horrendous – for it has no basis on the truth of the origin of life.
The other assumption made is that religion’s intelligent design does contribute to the scientific body of knowledge, and their research is commonly peer-reviewed. However, when a surfer goes to any creationist based homepages to find excerpts of peer-reviewed material – not the original article itself – only the original article is displayed. AAAS puts it so plainly and straightforwardly:

• (http://www.aaas.org/news/releases/2005/0427forum.shtml)
• “Lawrence Krauss, a physicist and author at Case Western Reserve … said proponents of intelligent design have not engaged in the traditional process of scientific publishing. In a survey of 10 million articles in 20 major science journals over the past dozen years, Krauss said, a colleague of his found 115,000 articles with "evolution" as a keyword. Of those, "intelligent design" was mentioned in 88. All but 11 of those mentions were in articles about engineering rather than biology, Krauss said. Of the remaining 11, eight were critical of intelligent design and three referred to conference proceedings rather than peer-reviewed journal articles.”

One then has to wonder if Intelligent Design has any strong grounds in claiming an alternative theory to Evolution.

Now it is time for the amusing portion. I shall present the claims of the church. I must admit, however, that these came from a Christian Baptist church that I went to when I once was a believer.

1. AIDS is a form of punishment for homosexuality.
2. Atheists worship the devil.
3. Hurricane Katrina is purely the action of Satan or God, and has nothing to plate tectonics and natural law.
4. Atheists are the devil’s angels and therefore all who believe in God must avoid them as much as possible.
5. Dover is prone to some natural disaster because the Dover Trial supported evolutionary theory, not intelligent design.
6. If our homes are not blessed with holy water, demons can come in easily.
7. If we see strange or odd things, that must be supernatural.
8. If we see something that looks like something related to something supernatural, it must be supernatural.
9. Every end has a supernatural element in it, and that only natural causes resulted in that end is discredited.
10. Life after death
11. Diseases are what God uses to punish people [ignore societal, personal, or environmental health]
12. Ghosts exist, but we do not actually know what they are composed of, or how they come to be.
13. God lives in three states of being, of which we do not need to understand how.
14. Etc…

Those critical of things can see the foolishness behind each of those advocated propositions. Of course, what I am doing here is a straw-man. However, remember that there are those who do sincerely believe in all, or if not at least some, of these beliefs. It was my mum, however, who told me that homosexuality causes AIDS, and that that was how God punished homosexuals. Having studied biology and read much about it, I am deeply disturbed by this statement (let alone all the other mentioned ones) and worried about her deeply religious and unquestioning mind. Yet, she is not the only misinformed individual; if you are unaware, then it would be interesting to note that the belief that homosexuality causes aids is popular belief, or societal myth.

In conclusion, all I can say is that religion has adverse effects on societal. Not only does it help to perpetuate false propositions and ideas, but is also of no help to scientific inquiry. For all the things religion has done for us, it would be quite reasonable for an average individual to not to take it too seriously.


[Do not forget, however, the wars that have been fought and justified by religion, of which millions of people were wasted for the sake of religion.]
Buddhism vs. Confucianism, Mongol invasions of Vietnam, 1258-1285
Buddhism vs. Confucianism, Mongol invasion of Vietnam, 1288
Buddhism vs. Communism, Chinese Invasion of Tibet, Tibet, 1950-1951 CE
Confucianism vs. Taoism, Mongol invasion of Western China, 1205-1209 CE
Confucianism vs. Taoism, Mongol invasion of Northern China, 1211-1234 CE
Confucianism vs. Islam, Mongol invasion of Central Asia, 1218-1220 CE
Confucianism vs. Islam, Mongol invasion of Baghdad, 1258
Confucianism vs. Shinto, Mongol invasions of Japan, 1274-1281
Confucianism vs. Islam, Mongol invasion of Baghdad, 1258
Confucianism vs. Buddhism, Mongol invasions of Vietnam, 1258-1285
Confucianism vs. Taoism, Mongol invasions of Southern China, 1279
Confucianism vs. Christianity, Mongol invasion of Hungary, 1285
Confucianism vs. Christianity, Mongol raid against Bulgaria, 1285
Confucianism vs. Christianity, Mongol raid against Poland,1287
Confucianism vs. Buddhism, Mongol invasion of Vietnam, 1288
Confucianism vs. Islam, Mongol invasion of Syria, 1299
Christianity vs. Zoroastrianism, Roman-Persian Wars, Mespotamia and Modern Turkey, 502-562 CE
Christianity vs. Islam, Byzantine-Arab Wars, Modern Lebanon and Turkey, 632-750 CE
Christianity vs. Islam, Umayyad Conquest of Iberia, Modern Spain and Portugal, 711-718 CE
Christianity vs. Islam , History of Islam in Southern Italy, Sicily and Southern Italian Peninsula, 831-902 CE
Christianity vs. Islam and Judaism, Reconquista, Iberian Peninsula, 923-1212 CE
Christianity vs. Islam, Crusades, Middle East, 1091-1402 CE
Christianity vs. Judaism, German Crusade, Germany, 1096 CE
Christianity vs. Confucianism, Mongol invasion of Hungary, 1285
Christianity vs. Confucianism, Mongol raid against Bulgaria, 1285
Christianity vs. Confucianism, Mongol raid against Poland,1287
Christianity vs. Indigenous Beliefs, European colonization of the Americas, The Americas, 1492-1890 CE
Catholicism vs. Eastern Orthodoxy, Fourth Crusade, Balkans-Greece and Anatolia, 1201-1204 CE
Catholicism vs. Protestantism, Wars of Religion, France, 1560-1598 CE
Catholicism vs. Protestantism, Thirty Years War, Western Europe, 1618-1648 CE
Protestantism vs. Catholicism, The Troubles, Ireland, 1609-1998 CE
Hinduism vs. Zoroastrianism, Seleucid Invasion of India, Indus River, 304 BCE
Hinduism vs. Pantheism, Battle of the Hydaspes River, Indus River, 326 BCE
Hinduism vs. Islam, Muslim conquest in the Indian subcontinent, 664-712 CE

Islam vs. Pantheism, Wars of Arabian Unification, See(Muhammad as a general), Arabia, 622-632 CE
Islam vs. Christianity, Byzantine-Arab Wars, Modern Lebanon and Turkey, 632-750 CE
Islam vs. Zoroastrianism, Islamic conquest of Persia, Modern Iran, 637-651 CE
Islam vs. Hinduism, Muslim conquest in the Indian subcontinent, 664-712 CE
Islam vs. Christianity, Umayyad Conquest of Iberia, Modern Spain and Portugal, 711-718 CE
Islam vs. Christianity, History of Islam in Southern Italy, Sicily and Southern Italian Peninsula, 831-902 CE
Islam vs. Christianity, Reconquista, Iberian Peninsula, 923-1212 CE
Islam vs. Christianity, The Crusades, The Middle East, 1091-1402 CE
Islam vs. Confucianism, Mongol invasion of Central Asia, 1218-1220 CE
Islam vs. Confucianism, Mongol invasion of Baghdad, 1258
Shi'ism vs. Kharijism, Battle of Nahrawan, Mesopotamia, 657 CE
Sunnism vs. Shi'ism, First Fitna, Arabia and Mesopotamia, 656-661 CE
Sunnism vs. Shi'ism, Second Fitna, Arabia and Mesopotamia, 683-692 CE
Sunnism vs. Shi'ism, Iraqi Civil War, Iraq, 2004 CE-ongoing
Judaism vs. Pantheism, Great Jewish Revolt, Levant, 66-135 CE
Judaism vs. Christianity, Reconquista, Iberian Peninsula, 923-1212 CE
Judaism vs. Christianity, German Crusade, Germany, 1096 CE
Shinto vs. Confucianism, Mongol invasions of Japan, 1274-1281
Taoism vs. Confucianism, Mongol invasion of Western China, 1205-1209 CE
Taoism vs. Confucianism, Mongol invasion of Northern China, 1211-1234 CE
Taoism vs. Confucianism, Mongol invasions of Southern China, 1279
Zoroastrianism vs. Hinduism, Seleucid Invasion of India, Indus River, 304 BCE
Zoroastrianism vs. Christianity, Roman-Persian Wars, Mespotamia and Modern Turkey, 502-562 CE
Zoroastrianism vs. Islam, Islamic conquest of Persia, Modern Iran, 637-651 CE