David.Podedworny wrote:
Agent_Dung_Bomb wrote:
While the human species has done many great things, and could continue to do such, we let greed, jealousy, religion and other things get in the way. We are here for the short term if we don't get our shit together.
Religion is not the problem, The ease of exploitation of religion is the problem.
I would actually say the motivation for religion is often the problem.
We have a natural tendency to make assumptions where there are no empirical answers for something at the time. Long before we really had anything resembling science, we created religion to answer all those questions we had but had no logical answer for.
In combination with this tendency to make a lot of assumptions, we also tend to be creatures of habit. So, when we put a tradition in place, it doesn't matter how stupid the practice proves to be later on, it takes a long time to end it.
So, when you combine what essentially are baseless assumptions (religion) with stubbornness (blind adherence to tradition) and then get very different cultures to interact with each other (each of which believes their religions and traditions are superior), you end up with war.
In the modern age, this takes on a more materialistic and political angle, so that we justify war for ourselves by pretending that so-and-so is a grave threat to us, when the people behind the war machine are just looking for power, resources, and wealth. The motivations of the powers that be haven't changed much, but their methods of manipulating us have....
In summary, we are undoubtedly more destructive than constructive, but that's not to say we haven't accomplished anything....
Last edited by Turquoise (2007-06-29 21:13:23)