What’s your plan?

@skado A good start would be to criminalize the religious indoctrination of children.
Then, completely remove all tax exemptions for all religious organizations.

@KKGator
OK, how do we make that happen?

@skado We have to organize, and not be afraid to piss people off.

@KKGator And get rid of all references to god & the bible from political arena and money, and anything government related.

Could close all religious building, ban holy books, and shutdown all religious media.

The origin of two thirds of the NT are from Saul of Tarsus who never even met Jesus. Good old Apostle Paul.

Depends.

At most one religion could be right, but more likely none of them are. I’ll stay with the better odds.

@Willow_Wisp If we say that none of the religions are true then man becomes the measure of all things. The next question might be, which man? Many more questions will arise if man is regarded as the measure of all things. Which view of the world is the correct one? We may choose a scientific view of the world which simply deals with known facts. However, we cannot simply discard all man’s creative achievements many of which are an expression of his finer feelings without excising his feelings/emotional nature.

The scientific view/model of the world can only measure that which is objectively quantifiable and cannot be applied to the diversity of the human domain. We have "social science" and "political science,” etc etc, however, such are far from being scientific in the strictest sense of the word.

Religion exists primarily because it fills a deeply rooted emotional need in people and a rational approach to it simply does not work, it has not worked throughout human history as the current number of followers of a religion attest.

@ASTRALMAX
Man is the measure of all things?
That's spiciest AF.
I'd expect a narcissistic primate to say nothing else.
I'm an altruistic primate just smart enough to have an inkling of how little I know.
Stop trying to insult science, we don't have a single technology that it isn't responsible for.
As for emotional needs, all primates hug all the time practically, except a large proportion of humans.
No wonder we're the pissed off apes.
Religion is the primary method of separating groups of people, the prime us verses them, all manor of war and racism stem from it.
I agree humans aren't rational, I regret ever becoming one.

@Willow_Wisp “According to the Encyclopedia of Wars, out of all 1,763 known/recorded historical conflicts, 121, or 6.87%, had religion as their primary cause.”

@ASTRALMAX
A study conducted by the Correlates of War Project, which examined the causes of all interstate wars from 1816 to 2001, found that only 7% of those wars were motivated by religion.
Another study published in the Journal of Conflict Resolution analyzed 91 wars fought between 1820 and 2007 and found that only 7.7% of those wars were primarily religious in nature.
These studies only examined interstate wars, and may not provide a comprehensive view of all historical conflicts.
Even if religion isn't the primary reason for a war it is almost always used as an accelerant to some extent.
While it is true that religion has been used as a rallying cry to galvanize support for a conflict, the extent to which it actually accelerates or exacerbates conflicts must vary from case to case.
For instance, in some conflicts, religious differences may be a relatively minor factor compared to other issues such as economic inequality, political power struggles, or ethnic tensions.
In situations where religious identities overlap with other social or political divisions, such as ethnic or national identities, religion becomes a potent force that intensifies the conflict.
Which explains the reason conservatives insist on bringing God into every god damned debate like a weapon, while liberal ministers use God to inspire hope and perseverance in their people to speak truth to power, in other words to stand strong in the face of conservative aggression.

@Willow_Wisp Perhaps you could tell how many of the wars the US has been involved in since the Declaration of Independence 1776 that involved religion, since that time 247 years ago it appears that the US has been involved in warfare for 225 years out of 247, how many of those wars were caused by religion?

To the best of my knowledge the British Parliament does not bring god into debates.

What do you think of this statement:
"Considering all the paintings in the world as a matter of simple logic only one of them could be true."

@skado In so far as a painting is an accurate reflection of a scene I would consider it to be true within that context.

@ASTRALMAX
Different conflicts had varying levels of religious motivation and multiple factors contributed to their outbreak. Some historical conflicts involving the United States have had religious dimensions. For example, the Pequot War (1637), King Philip's War (1675-1678), and the Salem Witch Trials (1692-1693) were all conflicts in the colonial era before the Declaration of Independence that had religious overtones.
In more recent times, the Vietnam War (1955-1975) and the Gulf War (1990-1991) had religious dimensions, with religion being used as a factor in the mobilization of troops and as a justification for the conflicts.
It is also worth noting that some conflicts involving the United States have taken place in regions where religion plays a significant role in local conflicts, such as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which has a religious dimension, with both sides invoking religious claims to the land and religious symbols.
Overall, while the US has been involved in numerous conflicts since the Declaration of Independence, the role of religion as a primary cause or an accelerant of those conflicts varies.

To be clear I never said religion is the sole cause of conflict, but whenever conflict occurs religion becomes part of it for some reason, and that reason is to highlight the us verses them concept. My opinion is more nuanced then you might expect based on any synopsis I give which will always try to keep things as black and white as possible because I always doubt the general publics ability to think in non-binary ways.

@ASTRALMAX
A painting viewing a lake from the shore at noon might look unrecognizably different from a painting viewing the same lake from a distant mountaintop by moonlight, while both are accurately executed. Yes/No?

@skado Viewing a lake from the shore and from a distance at different times and distances throughout the day will result in different paintings of the same lake. In much the same way as the photos of a lake will appear different when taken at sunrise and at different times throughout the day and with distance it becomes more of a challenge even with very expensive lens. So, yes, the results will vary according to the factors and all of them will be a true reflection when the relevant factors are taken into consideration.

@ASTRALMAX
That’s how I feel about the Russell quote.

@ASTRALMAX Having the thoughts of what man has achieved or whether religion is a worth the time and effort so many put forth, I think man is arrogant not to include other animals. We are part of the same branch of life forms called mammals. Whatever conclusions are made must include other mammals. They're just now discovering how intelligent dolphins, whales, octopus and other animals really are; some may even exceed human intelligence. If we're part of the animal genre then it's necessary to include them all as US. This would naturally make bibles and religion a non topic, who do dolphins, whales and other mammals think of as god? Do they even believe in any leader in any form? I'm thinking if animals/mammals are not included we don't have enough knowledge to judge whether or not god exists.

@K9Kohle Yes, we are all part of the class called mammals. Even though there is a small percentage of difference in DNA between us and higher primates, it is very significant in terms of what we can achieve and do. Many animals have signals and gestures the meaning of which is fairly clear to us as in expressing fear or a warning or an emotion.

Killer whales employ a strategy when hunting sharks and from what I can recall they only seem to be interested in eating a shark’s liver. Dolphins employ complex signalling, Cetology (from Greek κῆτος, kētos, "whale"; and -λογία, -logia). is the study of Dolphins, they can recognise themselves in a mirror.