Big Think

Scott Underwood on March 21, 2008, 6:35 AM

Faith and religion are helpful to the INDIVIDUAL, it's a necessity to some it helps them make sense of things, but in the grand scheme of the world I think history does and will show faith and religion have been more detrimental to the world.

Scott Underwood on March 21, 2008, 10:35 AM

Faith and religion are helpful to the INDIVIDUAL, it’s a necessity to some it helps them make sense of things, but in the grand scheme of the world I think history does and will show faith and religion have been more detrimental to the world.

Steven Sturdevant on April 16, 2008, 12:39 PM

First, what does "helpful" have to do with rational or not? I think the professor is off the track.

Religion may have played some part in keeping groups together in the past when wars were much more local, but in today's world it merely creates militant nationalism, which inevitably leads to more widespread war. I agree with CriticalMass; it's detrimental. Likely, to the point of our extinction. And due to the influence of people like Prof. Ariely calling it useful, it's not going away any time soon.

Steven Sturdevant on April 16, 2008, 4:39 PM

First, what does “helpful” have to do with rational or not? I think the professor is off the track.

Religion may have played some part in keeping groups together in the past when wars were much more local, but in today’s world it merely creates militant nationalism, which inevitably leads to more widespread war. I agree with CriticalMass; it’s detrimental. Likely, to the point of our extinction. And due to the influence of people like Prof. Ariely calling it useful, it’s not going away any time soon.

Musycks on April 17, 2008, 12:41 AM

If this is what passes for professional insight then God (non existant though he is) help the lot of us!
Useful is not rational. Did he not understand the question?
Belief in fairies at the bottom of the garden might be calmingly beneficial and therefore 'useful' by some stretch of reason, but is it rational?

Still, he's the expert.

sciencesaves on April 17, 2008, 4:11 AM

Better stick to your expertise. I sense a lot of religious lean on this one. Helpful would be to continue teaching what you actually understand, and keep the opinions out of the classroom. I would expect better critical thought…

Musycks on April 17, 2008, 4:41 AM

If this is what passes for professional insight then God (non existant though he is) help the lot of us!
Useful is not rational. Did he not understand the question?
Belief in fairies at the bottom of the garden might be calmingly beneficial and therefore ‘useful’ by some stretch of reason, but is it rational?

Still, he’s the expert.

sciencesaves on April 17, 2008, 8:11 AM

Better stick to your expertise. I sense a lot of religious lean on this one. Helpful would be to continue teaching what you actually understand, and keep the opinions out of the classroom. I would expect better critical thought…

HerbieP on April 23, 2008, 12:17 AM

Roakes: I like some of your posts but to hold the view that religion does more good that bad requires some substantiation (and yes probably a thread of its own). Dawkins has cited many examples of how religion has been bad for mankind and religious apologists had cited many counter examples. The truth is that every significant human civilisation that we know about has had one or more religions. Every human being has been influenced by religion (even supposed atheists like Stalin) so we cannot know what we would be like without the part religion has played. Everything we are, good and bad, has been tainted by religion. i don't think that we can seperate it out. For every Spanish inquisition there is a Gandhi.

HerbieP on April 23, 2008, 4:17 AM

Roakes: I like some of your posts but to hold the view that religion does more good that bad requires some substantiation (and yes probably a thread of its own). Dawkins has cited many examples of how religion has been bad for mankind and religious apologists had cited many counter examples. The truth is that every significant human civilisation that we know about has had one or more religions. Every human being has been influenced by religion (even supposed atheists like Stalin) so we cannot know what we would be like without the part religion has played. Everything we are, good and bad, has been tainted by religion. i don’t think that we can seperate it out. For every Spanish inquisition there is a Gandhi.

sciencesaves on April 25, 2008, 3:58 AM

roakes, Sorry to interject here, but I wanted to add something regarding the "faith" of (U.S.) prison populations.

Prisoners declaring faith are given some priveledges that others will not receive. I would tend to think that even those who don't know, don't care or even have strong opinions opposing religion will lie to get something, anything extra when facing incarceration.

I don't believe the statistics, and I would be willing to bet that the actual beliefs of such a group vary as much as a cross-section of the world itself.

Carry on!

sciencesaves on April 25, 2008, 7:58 AM

roakes, Sorry to interject here, but I wanted to add something regarding the “faith” of (U.S.) prison populations.

Prisoners declaring faith are given some priveledges that others will not receive. I would tend to think that even those who don’t know, don’t care or even have strong opinions opposing religion will lie to get something, anything extra when facing incarceration.

I don’t believe the statistics, and I would be willing to bet that the actual beliefs of such a group vary as much as a cross-section of the world itself.

Carry on!