Dear All Brits... Lets Oust Gordon Brown...

[Quiet One 15]

Mandatory film: "Religulous"

[pumpdoc 2]

You get an instruction manual.

Hopefully not translated from Chinese.

[Grabthaw the Hammerslayer 4]

How?

He "died" and was reborn. remember?

[Grabthaw the Hammerslayer 4]

Exactly. Charities with religious affiliations tend to attract people within those religions...without that affiliation, I'm not sure it'd be as easy to get people to donate or volunteer, simply because there wouldn't be any organization to promote the charities and get the word out.

Interesting to compare the UK with USA - as a generalisation (OK I know that is flawed) the UK is a fairly unreligious lot. Yet we still have active charities and religion plays a relatively minor role in most (I know this as my current and last employer are charities and I have worked in this sector with 60+ organisations over the last 10 years).

Like you, young Eric, I don't care what people believe in. Personal choice. Hate it though when it is forced onto you or used as a rallying call for violence/war.

[Max Mosley 2]

There's nothing wrong with religion imho - I'm quite attracted to it myself. The problem is religious people rather than religion: if only more of them questioned their beliefs and thought for themselves once in a while it would be fine.

Charities religious or otherwise do a lot of good work and atheists do tend to donate and volunteer less. But there's plenty of reason to wonder if religion does more harm than good overall. For example, witness all the Christian charities preaching against contraception in Africa. Or the religious right in America lobbying against welfare (eg for Chris [AR5]'s grandma!). Or youngsters being brought up believing their sexuality is a sin.

If you look at rich, developed countries, there is a strong correlation between religiosity and social breakdown: the more religious the country, the worse it does in terms of rates of murder, suicide, infant mortality, early adult mortality, teenage pregnancy, abortion, STDs etc. Most of these trends remain even if you ignore America. Same if you compare US states, or rich and poor countries. Some of that might be because in hard times religion becomes more popular, but there are enough examples above to suggest the link is causal both ways.

[Cinco 30]

How?

It's one of those things...I don't really understand your beliefs, you don't really understand mine, and neither of us have to because yours work for you, and mine work for me. I couldn't really put into words how it happened, but the good thing is, I don't have to, because it's just not that important. It's not some "oh now I can make up for my sins cuz I have God yay" kind of things or some "now I'll never have any more problems" thing or anything like that, I think a lot of Christians do take it too seriously (and ultimately, too far), but it's something that I personally believe is there, and that's really all.

You get an instruction manual.

Yes, and it says stone those that work on Sundays.....so line up all those F1 drivers and start stoning them to death.

It also says to stone children that talk back, so you youngun's round here better watch it!

Children that talk back should be stoned if they're over the age of 12. Kids with no respect for parents and teachers who think they can call the shots need a real hard slap in the a##. I'd know. I was there a few years back.

[quote name='El Silenci

[pumpdoc 2]

I only believe in one religion.

Forgive father for I have sinned.

[dribbler 6]

I only believe in one religion.

I would go to that church.

* typo.