Originally Posted by
zeppelin101
Question - how is belittling people for their beliefs and calling them names any better than what some factions of religious groups do to others?
When trying to talk down religion the same arguments are brought forward about all the bad things it makes people do. Faith doesn't make you do anything. Even if the concept of God had never existed throughout history people would still have done awful things to each other, they would just have found a different excuse for it.
My partner's mum passed away in November and I was asked to help with some of the funeral preparations and with some of the ceremonies before and after. Their family is Hindu, not out to temple every week but they would observe the various festivals and what not - mostly out of habit. To the point anyway: I know that putting loads of different things in the casket with her and spending 3 hours afterwards helping "prepare her soul" and everything was illogical. But you know what? It helped. Not me necessarily but it helped her family and her friends with their grief and start to move on as best they could. My partner is in no way religious; she has never been to temple, and she only observed festivals because her parents did but even she commented afterwards that it felt like it "mattered" and it meant something to her.
Some people don't need that and that's fine, but does it give anyone the right to tell them they are wrong/stupid/arrogant?
So sure, believing in some higher power may seem pointless, but sometimes a little bit of faith really helps.
Don't confuse those people with the ones stoning people in the streets or blowing themselves up in crowded places.
I am playing devil's advocate a little but the level of intolerance to different points of view I come across now a days is mind boggling. See the EU thread or the response to any reference to Trump...