I don't mean to offend or demean anyone with this thread i just want your opinions. When I was in (Civics And Economics) class the other day we were talking about abortion and birth control.
Later in my third period we where talk evolution. Fourth Period rolls around and we talk about Genetically modified food and organisms and whether we should use animals for testing. I forgot to mention I live in the South of the United States of America. I'm not a religious person but almost everyone in my school is. In all of my classes if something that seems "Religiously Wrong" pops up everyone goes into Jesus and God mode. So I thought to myself would we advance further if we didn't have religion? Tell me what you guys think.

It does a little, if religion already provides the answers then that could stop a person from thinking any further, but there are plenty other people in the world that don't think like that so it really doesn't make a big difference.

I think it depends on the religion, but religion or not if everyone got along some way, the human race could advanced dramatically faster ~

It already did, the church literally said science is illegal at some points through out history. And now? in some parts of the world, yes. But doesn't really affect it much in the technology production leading countries.

I forgot to add in that it doesn't matter just all religions in general.

I honestly think that it would, because to many people certain things are terrible, because of their religion. In some religion, (I don't know how to say this without people correcting me) um... gay people for example, are not accepted in some religions. Without religions, the society as a whole would be much more advanced and such.
PS: I DO support gay marriages, and think religion is a little weird.

Those are just ignorant Christians. I am one myself, yes, I somewhat disagree with some things taught in schools, but I give the teacher what is asked for. You can still believe what you believe without making a big deal over stuff.

It does not. I am not a religious person but I respect those who seriously believe, without any why or how, without hating the others, just living their own lives in peace. I think that religious is something we should respect more, is it true that a lot of bad has been done in the name of the many Gods of the humanity, but consider that it gave us all values.
Some religions are against gay marriages, some religious people are not. Maybe without it there would be no discrimination against it, which I doubt anyway.
During the ancient times being bisexual was considered normal, some say, but even Julius Caesar's soldiers, before modern religions made jokes about him for that.
Maybe there would be no discrimination, but we would kill other people as it was nothing.
I think we should change the world, but first we should try to see the good around us, not only the bad.

Personally, I think spirituality brings humanity together as a whole. It does not matter what religion a person is, belief in a power greater than our own is what counts. It gives us something to fight for, a reason for all of our questions of "why" and "how". Now for the answer to your question, yes I think science and technology will go further if religion is done away with. But even if there is no religion, morals remain. Is cloning really humane or even practical? A clone is a human being too. They have a soul. They may look and think like the original, but it would be like a twin. A good book to read on this is "House of the Scorpion" By Nancy Farmer. Also on morals (not religion) is abortion. Is it truly right to kill a life form? Is it morally the right thing to do? To kill a child that can't even think for itself yet? On to gay people. Personally, I am not even close to gay. But MORALLY is it wrong? No. A bit unnatural sure. But is it hurting anything to love? Loving everyone that isn't gender based isn't wrong in my eyes. Feel free to agree to disagree. Don't let homosexuality weird you out. Almost every single one of my friends are not straight, and you would never even know unless they told you.

Back on the topic of advancing without religion. Without spirituality, we would no longer be a peaceful people. Those with either thinning or misguided morals would start havoc. Perhaps science would advance, but at what cost? Yes war on religion would stop (USA's War on Terror for example), but what new wars would start? People that don't have a deity strapped in their thoughts at all times would probably have killed others because "He stole my lunch!"

No matter what we do, Humanity will always disagree on things. We aren't made to agree because if everyone thought the same, nothing new would ever come. I am not a Christian, or a Jew nor do I study Islam. I am not Buddhist or Hindu. I will not tell you what religion I am. However I will say that I do believe in an upper power in the form of a deity. Specifically two deities. I will not preach or bash other religions. I will never say I am right and you are wrong. If you want to believe the Jedi code as your religion, go right ahead. However I will say this: I think my religion has it right in saying one thing- it's the only statement that I live by, and that all people of my religion live by. I will paraphrase for you "Do whatever feels right for YOU, as long as you bring NO HARM" Any and all religions believe this in a nutshell, however some people mis-interpret the words of holy books so that they can fashion it into justifying their own will. My religion has no book. I daresay it's the only religion without a holy book. I follow the statement of do what you will, just don't harm anything. Isn't that basically what the 10 commandments say? What any religion says? My psychology teacher translated the 10 commandments into 4 simple words: "Don't be a Di**" (excuse the language).

If someone would like to talk more to me, I can give an email on this post. Or you can find me on drrrchat (once it gets back up). I am done with my rant. For now.

Oh, P.S.
I think that humanity shouldn't always agree on everything. But if individuals believe what they want to believe, and either keep it to themselves or keep an open mind, the world would run a bit smoother. If you don't believe in gay-ness, then don't bash people that do. Keep it to yourself or maybe keep an open mind. Instead of fighting over which religion is better why can't we leave people to their own devices? If you're Christian, great, stay Christian. Don't fight or discriminate against Islamics because they don't believe in the same thing.

Basically, believe what you want to, think what you want to. People disagreeing makes for new ideas. But don't harm others with your opinions. Please.
Now I'm really done. I promise. If you disagree, I love to debate and discuss. But please don't give me shat for giving my opinion because it is in fact, an opinion.

Hi. I'm a Christian. and here's my thoughts on this all: no I don't think religion is preventing us from advancing. but yes it does have an affect on choices and how things are done in the world. all religion does in one way. and choose what you want on about abortion but my opinion is is that when there is a heartbeat, it's alive. because what defines you're living? your heartbeat. (not gonna go any further unless if you wanna chat if you see me in the chatroom) and yea if everyone agreed on everything, we'd never know that the earth was round, there were new lands out there, gravity was what kept us from being likes birds and fly.
My sister had scoliosis. the thing where the spine is curved. and was born with it. one day at church, she was in the back just worshiping, when she felt something weird with her back. she checked it out and a couple minutes, got my mom and said that her back is straightened. and I say " Praise God!" ( the part of my sister is fact, you can have your opinion and you have right to say your opinion about what you think but I have mine too. the part above is my opinion. same rule applies. I'll have mine, you'll have yours and the world will keep going.)

Looking from a different perspective, religion can guide science to advance in a more ethical way like how in 2012 there's a stem cell research that succeeded in creating stem cells from normal cells by reprogramming. If you look at it this way, ain't we advancing more admirably than before as it no longer has to face ethical issues like getting them from aborted fetus by bypassing it?

As for political aspect, there are quite a lot of countries applying the concept of secularism. The idea of Secularism is neither pro-religion nor pro-nonreligion but somewhere in between where religion does not affect much in the politics yet religions are respected and no discriminated against.

My take is that perhaps people do know that religion does impact on advancement especially if politics are under one dominating religion but at the same time, people are also aware that we should not totally remove religion from the society as it provides comfort to the believers.

Therefore, religion (especially one dominant religion) does impact political advancement to an extent yet people want to retain it in the society hence the trend of countries going secular (to make state independent of religion yet not crush them)

I consider religion like race or gender, something that divides people from each other. In a way, good things can come out of it since the human race is so massive everyone working together all at once isn't going to get us anywhere. In other ways, it allows people to be happy with the rules laid out before them, unlike science which searches for more than what's immediately obvious and change what we have into something greater.

For religion's original purpose of explaining why we're all here today, I consider it acceptable, for I believe the truth would be too great for us in one way or another. Admittedly, some religious fights lead us into more scientific discoveries, like the Crusades into the Age of Enlightenment. Religion and science have a love-hate relationship, both belonging together to balance each other out yet impeding each others' progress.

In my opinion, religion doesn't prevent the advancing of Science. There are just several theories in science that contradict with religion (evolution vs genesis). Both of these are theories and we don't know for sure so we can't say which is true or false. Religion usually just teaches you the values you must know. An example would be the ten commandments. Most of the ones there could be applied to real life.

In my religion class, we talked about the issue of stem cell research. Out teacher told us that stem cell research is fine as long as it is on adult tissues and not embryos because that would be considered killing. In this example, the research wasn't considered as an "evil" act.

So I think religion just teaches us the values and conduct of a person and it doesn't fully hinder the advancement of science.

^^ there are a lot of theories in different religions that take those contradictions and reconcile them. Like with Genesis Vs Evolution, if you look at the timeline of Genesis, it kinda matches up with the timeline of Evolution, just presented in different ways. separation of light and dark could be the big bang, the land separating from the oceans being the creations of landmasses and continents. The oceans were the first things with life, fish and plants came first, from them evolved birds and other animals. Humans came last, as evolutionarily we are the latest thing.
About stem-cell research, there are different religious definitions of when a baby is considered alive, most concluding that the end of the first trimester is when the embryo is considered 'alive'. thus, research on embryonic cells are a-ok.

i must say that keeping this topic os more like talking about moral and ethic more than Science vs religion. The religion gives you a moral code that u can follow it or not. After that judge, it's more like that if you want to follow the rules of society or not.

Of course that if you dont follow u could be an "antisocial" and get jailed or something like that, but it's all about following this code called "moral and ethic" or not.

Is religion preventing us from advancing in Science, Politics and other matters?

i believe some context is necessary to be able to determine whether or not religious beliefs would prevent the advancement of civilization. for instance, catholicism (for example) was created specifically as a method of controlling the masses and to keep them from trying to learn more about the world, so that the roman empire could retain control. there are many passages within the bible that lauds obedience rather than logic (the primary method used to help scientists discover things). another thing to consider is whether or not politics is really something that needs to be advanced. humans have only had government for merely thousands of years, and when one considers the entirity of human history, this is only the blink of an eye. we may not even really need the political structures we have now, and we may very well not need religion.

religion and politics are very similar in many ways: both require obedience, faith and willingness to ignore logic. obedience is referenced a rediculous number of times in the bible, and in many other religious texts, so is slavery, punishment for those who disobey, and many other references that allude to the topic. politics leads to a very real and supposedly necessary use of obedience, for if you do not obey the laws, you are physically punished in one way or another (being detained [prison/arrested], fined, given a 'warning,' possibly killed and having assets seized).

just some food for thought when making these considerations.

The misrepresentation of any idea prevents us from advancing.
Not to mention that evil, manipulative people wil use whatever they can for their agenda.

>>7
>believe what you believe without making a big deal over stuff
If the whole world saw things this way(not just religious folk, but literally everyone)we would all be just fine.

You, my friend, just made my favorite list of Dollars members.
Feel proud, feel warm.
:^))

I am a Catholic and I think some Catholics are ignorant in this stuff. Some Catholics and Christians use the name of the Lord just to cover up their bad doings just to make themselves look kind and good at the outside. In my opinion, religion is different from God and God > Religion.