Positivity

In light of the recent complaint of former teammate EV13 I thought it may be fun to see if we could come with something nice to say about the religious and or their religions.

I'll start by saying that the Catholic church as become a great advocate for the interests of the poor and the poorer nations. It may be that their largest congregations are now centered in very poor areas of the world, but even taking that into account it is still nice to see.

Let the positivity begin!

AS the Catholic church has by condemning safe sex it has done a lot for the poor nations as decreasing the population by the spreading of aids.

Sure why not. :)

Religious organizations like the Catholic church have commissioned some of the greatest works of Art and Music that man has ever made. Some of the artists were truly inspired by their religion, some just needed the cash that the churches often had. The end result is what matters.

As Bertrand Russel points out, they gave us the calender and helped us to learn to chronicle eclipses (http://www.positiveatheism.org/hist/russell2.htm).

What else...

OK, somebody else give it a shot.

Despite being atheist most of us belong to religious cultural traditions. For example, I am a Christian Atheist. I have grown up in a Christian culture and Christianity influences the literature I read, the music I listen too, etc. Others might be Jewish Atheists or Muslim Atheists and so on.

Religion is not just about what you believe it is also about community. I think Atheists need to do a better job and providing a community for one another. We need a way to celebrate the passage of life. We need secular wedding ceremonies, secular funerals, a way to recognize moving from childhood to adulthood (a secular bar mitzvah), a place for atheists families to get together. Religion does a great job in creating communities and we Atheists could learn a thing or too from that.

 Great point, but sadly you must receive one demerit for negativity regardless of the fact that what you say is probably true.

Well I'm sorry but I have to disagree. After the Second Vatican Council, held in 1962, many latinamerican catholic priests decided that the Christian mision was  to bring justice to the poor and oppressed, particularly through political activism. So they founded the Liberation Theology movement. Their work emphasized cultural and economic development of poor settlements and avoided assistentialism (which is the common approach of the catholic church to poverty).

Karol Wojtila's papacy destroyed all the work made by this people and today there are'nt any more priests that hold the tennets of this school of theology. So once again, the poor people of latin america suffer the benevolent smiles of their priests as they receive their holy aid.

¿Rememer? Religion is the opium of the people. And when it ceases to be, they will find how to make it so again.

More likely, we can find the largest catholic congregations in countries with very poor schooling policies.

I am not feeling very positive. I am going to change my positive statement because you jerks *insert smile so that no one gets offended at being called "jerks," feel the need to thwart my attempt with facts I was not fully aware of at the  time of my writing. I am a fan of liberation theology though and I am not as certain that it is as dead as you state tales, but regardless I am changing my response.

I work/volunteer at a homeless shelter and without the religious groups that donate most of our materials and food it would be a much less pleasant place. I may not agree with why they help those in need, but without them the shelter would not be able to function anywhere near the level it does today.

Viva la Positivity!

Well, I would say that on a purely pragmatic level, religious charities do help a lot, even if their main motivation is not to provide material aid, but to gain converts. Kind of a begrudging positivity, I guess...

I fully agree with Dahan, and think that perhaps religious art is the major enduring contribution of religion - I get shivers at Pavarotti singing "Ave Maria", and Beethoven's 9th must be up there among the best music that's come out of human history. Much of world music is religiously inspired.

Biblical imagery, sayings and stories have enriched our culture, though I suspect that, in the absense of Christianity, whatever was to fill the void would have done likewise - the influences might be different, but would they be any less valuable for that?

Religious belief can, occasionally, be a comfort and a source of optimism for those who hold it - though it can be a source of unjustified fear and mental suffering as well. All depends on the circumstances, the personality of the believer, and the specific nature of religious doctrine held. I really don't see much positive at all in the fundamentalist kinds of faith. Though, a strict fundamentalist faith shared with a community can facilitate a very tight "in-group", giving a tight sense of belonging, and an expectation of strong coalitional co-operation, much like in an army unit. That can undoubtedly be appealing to many people, and may be positive, on a personal level to those who happen to not be secretly gay, or otherwise of a minority persuation condemned by the strict religious dogma.

That's a precious little positive, for so much negative though, when it comes to fundamentalist faith.

The interesting question is whether there are ANY benefits to religion that could not be achieved through adoption of non-religious, non-dogmatic ideologies? I'm not sure that there are - though I suspect that religiosity is too deeply ingrained in human nature to be easily replaced.

You guys are disgusting and of this I am positive !!