Comments on: Is religion a good or evil force in society? https://gregladen.com/blog/2010/11/26/is-religion-a-good-or-evil-for/ Fri, 08 Jul 2011 20:02:39 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.8 By: christopher https://gregladen.com/blog/2010/11/26/is-religion-a-good-or-evil-for/#comment-527019 Fri, 08 Jul 2011 20:02:39 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2010/11/26/is-religion-a-good-or-evil-for/#comment-527019 My name is Christopher. I come from a Christian family. Way back, after finishing my schooling and when I was doing my Intermediate (junior college), I sensed a kind of emptiness in my heart. (This emptiness, which I later-on understood, was Godâ??s way of drawing me to Himself). In my desperate attempts to solve this problem, I found myself bunking college and attending Christian meetings and visiting Christian bookshop with the hope of finding a solution. During one such visit to a Christian bookshop, I came across a small book-let titled; Tell me plainly, how to be saved. Through this book-let (written according to the Bible), I have understood that every human-being is a sinner and is bound to go to hell after oneâ??s time on this planet-earth is over. But Godâ??s great love for man-kind made Him send His only son, Jesus Christ, into this world. Jesus, who lived a sin-less life, suffered an account of our sins and died on the cross in our place. He rose again from death the third day and is now in the midst of us in the form of the Holy Spirit. Whoever believes in Him will become a child of God and will skip hell to enter heaven, the presence of the Almighty God.

The book-let went-on to say that the way of believing in Jesus Christ is by repenting of our sins and asking Jesus for forgiveness for our sins as only the blood of Jesus Christ has the power to cleanse us from every kind of sin. Then we should invite Jesus into our hearts. When I did all this, the emptiness in my heart left and the love, joy & peace which I never had till then filled my heart. Since then, the Lord has been wonderfully leading me and has never left me alone, as per His promise in the Bible for all those who come to him in faith. He gave a purpose for my living. Whatever I have been going through in life, I can say with all confidence, that there was never a time that I felt or was left helpless; this is so as one of the precious promises in the Bible says: â??Even lions go hungry for lack of food, but those who obey the LORD lack nothing good.â?

This is how the Lord has sought me, forgave my sins, made me His child, gave me a purpose for living, has been meeting all my needs and put His peace & joy in my heart that no person or experience or circumstance or problem can take it away.

Itâ??s a Biblical fact that every person has a heart with a God-shaped vacuum and nothing can fill that vacuum, except God Himself. This is why we need to invite Jesus to come into our hearts after repenting of our sins.

The one decision I will never regret is, giving my heart to the Lord Jesus Christ. I hope and wish that you also will make a decision to make Jesus Christ your personal Lord and Savior. If so, please say this prayer meaningfully from your heart:

Lord Jesus Christ, I believe that you are the Almighty God. Thank you for suffering on the cross for my sake. I now repent of all my sins. Forgive me of my sins. Cleanse me with your precious blood. Come into my heart, Lord Jesus and make me your child. From now on, I will read the Bible regularly and obey what it says. In Jesusâ?? name, I pray. Amen.

If you have made a decision to follow the Lord Jesus Christ, please let me know the good news. Thanks. May you know the truth, and the truth will set you free.

]]> By: Mike Haubrich https://gregladen.com/blog/2010/11/26/is-religion-a-good-or-evil-for/#comment-527018 Sun, 28 Nov 2010 20:07:55 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2010/11/26/is-religion-a-good-or-evil-for/#comment-527018 Hard news and straight talk? Sounds like fun for Canada.

]]> By: mk https://gregladen.com/blog/2010/11/26/is-religion-a-good-or-evil-for/#comment-527017 Sun, 28 Nov 2010 17:02:30 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2010/11/26/is-religion-a-good-or-evil-for/#comment-527017 This should get the religious motivated for change in Canada:
Canada is to get a conservative all-news TV channel after the CRTC on Friday granted Quebecor Media a license to launch Sun TV News nationwide.

The upstart cable channel, dubbed Fox News North by liberal critics, has the go-ahead to launch on January 1, 2011, with the moniker Hard News and Straight Talk.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/fox-news-north-secures-broadcast-49377

]]> By: Greg Laden https://gregladen.com/blog/2010/11/26/is-religion-a-good-or-evil-for/#comment-527016 Sun, 28 Nov 2010 16:49:42 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2010/11/26/is-religion-a-good-or-evil-for/#comment-527016 Chris, in the words of Swami Clang of the Kaili Worshipers: “Go to the window … Go to the window … Go to the window….”

Say no more.

]]> By: Chris Hanson https://gregladen.com/blog/2010/11/26/is-religion-a-good-or-evil-for/#comment-527015 Sun, 28 Nov 2010 12:42:02 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2010/11/26/is-religion-a-good-or-evil-for/#comment-527015 Religion is one of the most Anthropologically interesting of human social constructs. I’m a more grown up version of one of those young university students who read too much of the modernists in the early years. I’ve spent far too many hours re-re-re-evaluating my opinions on David Hume and Rene Descartes.

Greg, you gave the class an exercise in a class I took from you. I won’t give up the secret here, but the result was the understanding of what the soul could be in a metaphorical or idiomatic sense. These are a couple of the influences on my firm belief that religion is a social construct based on metaphorical understandings of trends that people notice but can’t explain. There seems to be a basic way in which things work.

This is why religious dogmatists seek union with G-d and why physicists seek a universal theory. They want to find a representation of the way things work.

Unfortunately, religions are bastardized forms of the metaphors that are used to legitimately understand the world. Religion is a social construct abstracted from its social milieu. It’s a one way method of social control. The society making up the religion builds it and starts it in motion then completely loses control of it.

I’ve rambled long enough 🙂

Regards,
Chris

]]> By: daedalus2u https://gregladen.com/blog/2010/11/26/is-religion-a-good-or-evil-for/#comment-527014 Sat, 27 Nov 2010 23:29:54 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2010/11/26/is-religion-a-good-or-evil-for/#comment-527014 I think a better survey would be to ask individuals if each of the 10 most common religions/sects in their country were a force for good or not.

What I think you would see is a lot of people saying that their religion was a force for good but everyone else’s religion was not a force for good.

]]> By: stripey_cat https://gregladen.com/blog/2010/11/26/is-religion-a-good-or-evil-for/#comment-527013 Sat, 27 Nov 2010 20:56:47 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2010/11/26/is-religion-a-good-or-evil-for/#comment-527013 I’ve always (since infant school at least) thought that good people would be good despite religion, and evil bastards find justification in it, so the net effect is harmful. It annoys a lot of people who are both good and religious if you assume their goodness is innate 😉

]]> By: Mike Haubrich https://gregladen.com/blog/2010/11/26/is-religion-a-good-or-evil-for/#comment-527012 Sat, 27 Nov 2010 18:29:52 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2010/11/26/is-religion-a-good-or-evil-for/#comment-527012 I wonder how many people who answered yes actually thought the question was “Is religion a farce for God?”

]]> By: Pantsman https://gregladen.com/blog/2010/11/26/is-religion-a-good-or-evil-for/#comment-527011 Sat, 27 Nov 2010 17:46:16 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2010/11/26/is-religion-a-good-or-evil-for/#comment-527011 Hm. It may yield interesting results to conduct a different study asking each test subject from each country how much they agree that religion is a good force in society on a scale of 1 to 10, then multiply each answer by 10, then average the numbers in each country, then average the averages to get the final number and see how it compares to the average of the percentages (47.07142857142857…%). I get the distinct feeling that this would be implausible, but I don’t know why, because I would’ve gotten the same feeling if I were conducting the study you cited in the original post, yet the study was obviously done.

]]> By: Andrew G. https://gregladen.com/blog/2010/11/26/is-religion-a-good-or-evil-for/#comment-527010 Sat, 27 Nov 2010 17:23:52 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2010/11/26/is-religion-a-good-or-evil-for/#comment-527010 @9:

Bishop “Soapy” Sam Wilberforce, who debated against Darwin’s theories, was the son of anti-slavery campaigner and politician William Wilberforce, who was religious (evangelical Christian) but not a clergyman himself.

]]>