Ideally, the ideological ‘conflict’ ‘between’ faith and ‘reason’ would die and go away. We are all just trying to make sense of the world. Rejecting someone elses idea’s does no more to strengthen your own than rejecting someone else’s beer makes you more drunk

Perhaps the author should remember the billions of dollars flowing from people of faith to both faith based and secular organizations whose sole mission is to take responsibility for making the world a better place.

Jess
http://www.online-anonymity.vze.com

This argument is also unrelated, but still irks me:
“He had it incredibly difficult. He was hated almost everywhere he went, and he was killed by the “religious” people of the day.”

Oh, boohoo. Sacrifice is when an all-powerful and eternal being lives on Earth for 30 years, is executed, resurrected and then spend the rest of eternity at the ‘right hand of the father?’ Jesus’ sacrifice would have been more commendable if it wasn’t such a pitiful joke compared to the constant suffering of people throughout history. It’s like sacrificing a morning latte…

Regarding the claims that religion is what brings morals to society, I beg to differ. Follow my logic. The primary goal of humanity is survival. Humans evolved into societies because it was beneficial to our survival. With the coming of technology, society is now effectively global. Morals are not exclusively from religion – they are simply survival tools borne of global societal needs. Why do we need religion to enforce them when religion contradicts itself?

Some have effectively demonized scientific observation for the idea of ‘survival of the fittest’ – They think that because science determined that the fittest, supposedly most ‘self interested’ organisms survive that science supports inequality. Actually what they don’t realize is that society and the entire planet is one organism. With the coming of society, collective survival is now dependent on the whole.

So why should we care about inequality? It hurts society. Poverty is a form of inequality which skews opportunities in favor of those born to privilege. This scheme squanders human potential; ergo, it is a detriment to our survival.

That said, there’s no way to make every person on the planet equal – but trying our best to give roughly the same opportunities to everyone in our society has obvious benefits. I can’t think of a person on earth who wouldn’t want a fair opportunity at life.

If we accept the fact that we live in a society, and we are collectively interested in survival, we can assess that trying to use archaic contradictory fallacies handed to us by religion can only hinder our progress. Again, that doesn’t mean that religion is the singular source of humanity’s woes, or the sole cause of inequality in society; neither does it mean that people who buy into religion are personally hurting our society (They’re only human after all, heh). I’m just hoping that someday we’ll finally outgrow it.

I think the sentiment regarding the disparity in the distribution of wealth on this globe is valid. It is sad. I raise both hands and am completely on board with you if you’re saying this could be better. But I don’t believe that material wealth is all there is. I believe that ‘blessing’ is more than material and reality is more than natural. In other words, the poor you refer to may be richly blessed in other aspects of life. (However, do not think that I then chalk this up as a balance of blessings and call it a day. As I said, I am completely on board with any effort at redeeming relationships with exploited people.)

The point is, God’s (of the Bible) heart is intensely committed to the poor and hungry, to the lost and broken. We can read about it in the Bible, the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. God really grieves over some of the things you mention, Liam. So why doesn’t He do anything? He has. He’s just waiting for us to respond. I think we’ve just misunderstood His heart.