Worst invention in man's history (and why)

As a Christian, I have found not a truer statement… Religion kills…

GG

Ofcourse I think our definitions of Religion may be off… :wink:

OK, they don’t match :-D…

Religion is a pretty shitty invention, but not as bad as sporks.  Sporks suck.  And if anyone tries to defend the usefullness of a spork, the he or she is a card carrying communist.  I said it, and what!!  :-P

Religion := The belief in an afterline(heaven(reincarnation)/hell(reincarnation) ) for which a person must act according to the rules defined by a so-called supreme being or collection of these.

thats a pretty bad definition of religion. youve basically said the only three possibilities for a religious belief are: heaven, hell, or reincarnation.

has anyone said liberal socialist mindthought.  quit dreaming, the world hates itself, and wont hold hands.

@balungaloaf:

has anyone said liberal socialist mindthought.  quit dreaming, the world hates itself, and wont hold hands.

With that attitude, maybe you are right.  Gandhi, MLK, and others were all BSing us it seems.

once again quit dreaming.  Wasnt martin king jr.'s line “I have a dream”.  Gandhi was a huge huge racist, refered to blacks as caffers and said the race was lazy.  They were bs-ing you, big time.  all i’m saying if you believe in the everyone hold hands and dance in a circle crap, go to some mid-east countries or poor places in S america of africa and start talking to them friendly.  They wont care if you are friendly, because they dont want to be your friend.  They hate you and me.  the middle eastern ones would love to kill us, no matter what we do.

I’m not asking anyone to hold hands and chant “We are the world.”  I’m just asking people to grow up, stop the violence, and treat everyone else like human beings.  Of course, that would cause such a major change in this nation that I don’t think anyone would be up for it.  Perhaps people dislike us for what we DO, not who we ARE?

ORGANIZED religion would definitely be in the top 10 worst inventions.

small group of leaders controlling huge populations based on fear, myth and superstition
small group of leaders usign their populations to wage war on other competing leaders
small group of leaders taking power and wealth to themselves at the cost of their followers

It is a rare war or conflict that does not have a major religious component.  The Trojan War is the only one that comes immediately to mind… that was over a piece of tail :-P

Vietnam and Korea were both wars fought by Good Christian “In God We Trust” Americans against the Godless Atheistic Creeping Monolothic Communist Bloc.

:mrgreen:

Thanks to Dr. Platt for the GACMCB reference.

Nope, they were wars to preserve American style Chistian Capitalism.

well not cause of their religion per se, rather that they acted as a group and had their own groups inside of germany.  Hitler found these groups to be a threat, not because of their religion but because of actions that he deemed went against his authority.

I think organized religion is one of the best inventions ever.  keeps people in line.  If there were no religion who could argue with me that what i am doing is wrong.  I would just say thats your own made up morality and you have no legitimate reasons for thinking yours is better than my morality, as i rob and steal to my benefiet.  I would only see my robbing and stealing as a good thing because it helps me.  Moral probably not, but who could say otherwise?  (looking at it from a secular point of view).

It might not fit all but it fits most major religions that i know of. Christianity/islam/judaism/hindoeism/budism.

well, you leave out Nirvana, and the Hindu “equivalent” whose name escapes me, when you limit it to Heaven/Hell and Reincarnation. Also, you leave out Confucianism, Daoism, and Shinto as major religions. What about Sikhism? these are all major religions by numbers.

The ( ) where merely exaples that i tried to take all in if you find another afterlife type feel free to share it:) Afaik most religions are based around an afterlife and X supreme beings ( where X < 0 ).

most western religions are based around X supreme beings. There is no supreme being in Buddhism, not in the sense that you have. There are “Gods” but again, not in the sense you refer to.

**MODERATOR NOTE:

A Portion of this post deleted due to highly questionable content… both in terms of flame and nature of the flame.

Watch it El Jefe.**

Okay, so  the major contenders so far are(in no particular order)…

1. TV,
2. MS Windows(Any particular leading contender?[95?, 98?, 2000?, Millenium?, XP?]),
3. Income Tax Withholding,
4. Money(is the root of all evil…Error, error! Correct input required.),
5. The _Evil_  Spork,
6. Video Games,
7. Lazy Parents,
   8 ) Capitalizm,
8. Guns,
9. Religion,
10. Woman(though I think that falls under the “God/s” or “Evolution” category rather than a creation of MAN,
    12, 13, & 14) _________________any I missed in a quick perusal of these 5+ pages.

Jen, I see your point about TV, but Uncle Milty, Lucille Ball and “Sports Night” make me vote that one out.
My vote would lean more toward “The TV Remote”(forefather of “The Universal Remote.”)  It lead to surfing, more dictarorships of the TV viewing time and bigger couch potato(e)s.  :-)

MONEY and CAPITALIZM, are both very high on my worst list. People who ain’t got money hate those who have money. Those who do have money feel guilty and want to destroy “The System” or find some way to make up for “The Sin of Being Rich.”

I kinda like the idea of some Polynesian islands…
the richer you were the larger the stones you had to carry in your pocket.
I recall seeing pictures of some chiseled round stones that hadta weigh a coupla hunert pounds.   :-D

RELIGION , Come on!  We’e discussed this many times over.  Hitler klled the Jews.  He was working on the Catholics and Protestants, too.  Lenin and Stalin virtuallly eliminated religion from the USSR(the State their religion.)  China still persecutes religions to this day.

Muslims attacked nonbelivers.  Convert or die!  Catholics attacked in retaliation, not just to regain Jerusalem(the Holy Land.)

If they hadn’t you wouldn’t have a choice today!
IF you’re gonna say RELIGION, at least say RELIGIOUS FANATICS and be specific…not just MUSLIMS…
INQUISATORS(Jesuits…see Xavier University, Cincinnati, Ohio), JEHOVAH’S WITNESSES(only hang with their own), those LDS(Mormons) STILL PRACTICING POLYGAMY…would be examples I’d choose.

Jen,  “Computer” was on my mind just prior to reading your note.  Frightening eh?
But I’d still go back a step and say “Calculator”…as it took away many student’s ability to CALCULATE for themselves.
I got thru Math, Geometry, Algebra and Calculus without a calculator.

Pornography usata be about 90% of the internet.  Now it’s down to less than 2%.
_Damn!_  Just kidding…
I usta look at the Mags, but came to realize that it could be pics of my wife or daughter.  Or someone else’s wife. daughter, sister, or mom.
Pictures could be posted wifout permision, too.

What NO call for…
“INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINE?”

Here’s two late entries…

1. Vocalized Language(Homo Erectus Shoulda kept his mouth shut) and
2. Hieroglyphics/Cuneiform/The Written Word(Homo Habilis shoulda stuck with the bison and mammoth.)

Nirvana is a form of afterlife isnt it. The names are not of any concern for their definition. Different languages different words same definition. Afterlife = something after this life

in the sense that it is something after this life, yes. but otherwise no, no in any sense that you are thinking of. you refer only to heaven/hell, and reincarnation. nirvana is a concept wholly different from all three.