I have not posted in a while and it feels good to be back.....
I was wondering does religion and religious lore have any place in a moral society (I define moral society here as one where the laws are a result of discourse and common sense which are subject to change and evolution and not based on religious edict)
Would they be obsolete to a point where they need never be discussed or rather would the irregularities and absurdities be worthy of a thought experiment?
Your thoughts on the matter
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There is no reason to ban religious ideas from rationale discourse. Religious ideas are human ideas. They should not be granted special status and they should be criticized rigorously.
As Chimp says, all ideas should be open to rational discourse,and no ideas should be ring-fenced from criticism and critical thinking. Sadly the principle that underpins religious ideas and apologetics is precisely the opposite, that they are divine and therefore beyond human criticism. This is an idea that has no rational merit, and no objective evidence to support it. Human morality is derived from human intellect, obeying dogma and doctrine isnlt moral, even "good" Nazis managed that, and they were overwhelmingly christian as well.
Questioning everything is a healthy moral outlook.
I think Chimp 3 and Sheldon have covered it, except that all bookshops and libraries should be required to place religious matter, including commentaries, apologetics, testimonies etc in the Fiction section.
Oldma : I don't think book stores should be required to do anything.
I don't think they should be banished: if you need a little reassurance humanity is making progress, read religious texts and marvel at the new normal. I'd put them all in the mythology section.
Nothing to do with banning. The link between religion and morality is as imaginary as a god. Where Christian teaching covers moral questions it is frequently wrong, misleading or irrelevant, such as the Pope banning condoms, or that homosexuality is a 'lifestyle choice', or that justice is ultimately given by god in an afterlife.
The only links I think I see between religion and morality are the ways religious superstitions, religious teaching and dogma inhibit moral decision making. Or the way practices like child genital mutilation or ritual animal slaughter are themselves immoral when religiously motivated. Or the way things like religious courts may tend to challenge One-Law-for-All.
So religion and religious lore have a place in a moral society for those interested in them, but when they aren't active impediments they are entirely dispensable and superfluous.
Every religion known to us has some version of the golden rule. It could be asserted that people familiar with some of the older religions, through reading texts, may be familiar with constructs like "Treat others as you would like them to treat you." Obviously this could come up in any discourse on modern morality. The difficulty would arise when you assert that it came from one God or one correct belief system and everyone should be following it. Certainly religious lore has something to offer, it is our history and our values throughout history. But history is dead. It is stagnant. Lore is something of the past. What is important is how it is used in the present.
Yeah. Put them in the Mythology section.
rmfr
If many religious texts were published today, they'd be banned under anti-hate legislation.
I don't think such books should be banned however, if only because it'd probably start the next world war.