<p>
</p>
<p>This ignores the fact that it was overwhelmingly religious people who opposed slavery.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>As a Christian, I can say confidently “forever unless the human race dies first”.</p>
<p>Religion will keep going strong, but it’s a tossup whether we nuke ourselves into oblivion before a few 100 years have passed.</p>
<p>
At this point in time, any selected group was likely to be overwhelmingly religious. Both the groups who were for slavery and those who were against slavery were overwhelmingly religious, since most people were religious.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I agree with that, with the qualifier that most people claimed to be religious, not neccesarily most people actually adhered to a religious code of ethics.</p>
<p>What I find to be more troubeling is the rise in religiousness in the US over the last couple of decades.</p>
<p>In a trend completely opposite to those in almost any other developed country, religion today plays a more important (or better: active) role in US politics and public life than it has in the last decades (I’m basing on a number of historians I’m not going to quote here cause im lazy). While most European and developed countries are majority atheistic, agnostic or at least non-practicing (even Spain and others) and have - for example - very high ranking gay politicians, it seems like support of christian churches in the US is still necessary for public office.</p>
<p>Some have attributed that to the evoking of religiousness as being anti-communist in the 80s and religion for that ‘triumphing’ over atheism.</p>
<p>But I have to say that trend troubles me… the concept of unreasonableness being a prerequisite for high public office in one of the (if not still the) most powerfull countries on earth is not a good thing. If you’re religious that’s (mostly) fine with me, but why the hell is that a basis for leadership?</p>
<p>^ Well, people like me consider it important that the people leading our country believe that they have a higher authority than themselves to answer to, especially in these days when we have less and less ability to do anything about government corruption.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Perhaps the problem lies not with the increasing religiosity of the United States, but with the fact that you have no problem being overtly bigoted.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>For some, it’s not the actual religion, but the values that the religion requires – stances on social issues, for example. The religion can be considered a shorthand for views on a variety of issues.</p>
<p>Hmmm on coins & dollar bills you still see “In God we trust”.</p>
<p>crusades, 9/11, persecution of galileo and other scientists</p>
<p>thanks a lot jesus</p>
<p>^</p>
<p>…</p>
<p>Try and justify any of those things by Jesus’s words in the Bible. Blaming Christianity for those things is like blaming Evolution for the nazi master race ideas, or blaming Judaism or Islam for the situation in the Middle East, or blaming Socialism for the various Communist atrocities, or even blaming Democracy for the Reign of Terror. It’s the people who do wrong, not the faith, unless the faith actually tells people to do those things.</p>
<p>pretty much what MosbyMarion and Baelor said</p>
<p>While I can’t say I actually care about what people choose to believe (they can be right in my opinion, misguided in my opinion…), their beliefs and actions stemming from those beliefs kind of make me have to care.</p>
<p>To those who say that religion is dying out in the US, I can assure you it’s definitely not. All we’re seeing is people becoming uncomfortable with the strict guidelines of the original religious texts and finding ways to shirk them while keeping their afterlife, salvation, etc. secure.</p>
<p>We’re seeing more of the “screw church, but I love Jesus”, “Just because you go to church doesn’t mean you’re a devout Christian”, “You don’t have to be Amish to love God”, etc. Facebook groups and opinions because people don’t feel like denying themselves recent scientific knowledge, feel morally obliged to support the gay rights movement, blah blah blah. It’s less of religious behavior, alright, but these people still want to believe that God cares about them as an individual, their life has actual purpose beyond being born, eating, sleeping, reproducing, and dying, and that their awesome friends of Muslim, Hindu, Jewish, etc. faiths don’t actually go to Hell, right? Because that just sounds wrong. How do those guys who said that know God???</p>
<p>It’s kind of true that people make religion. It’s a people thing, as part of culture as food, clothing, architecture, language, and music. And since culture evolves over time to fit general consensus and modern improvements, so does religion. Since it’s something the beliefs of people dictate, it changes bit by bit until people are happy with the image of themselves and a loving creator again.</p>
<p>It’s natural to want to feel more important than you probably are, to want to feel not alone, and to soothe any misgivings about things to come. I don’t have any problem with a comfort tool/spiritual guidance system/source of personal purpose and love/whatever, but it’s nice to be able to have your own, too, as different as that might be.</p>
<p>Religion is definitely not dying out, especially not since they added “Under God” to the pledge, incorporated it on some national firearms a while ago, and have “In God we Trust” on currency. Our school board also starts every meeting with a prolonged prayer session. And if you try to take that away, I’d be surprised if you don’t get stoned to death/death threats.</p>
<p>If I continue to read this thread, I suspect I shall have a cracked skull from excessive <em>headdesk</em>ing.</p>
<p>
For giving my opinion that religion has taken over our laws, constitution, and the way we think? Even though it was not supposed to be in the first place. The vast majority of the men and women back then were definitely religious, I know, but now it has gone to an extreme. They breathe for god and base their opinions and views of what “god” has to “say”. Nobody has individuality anymore, they base their individuality by the bases of religion. That is why I believe religion has not done as much “good” as it has bad. There are no human beings, just walking talking religious robots preaching about god. Although I must admit there are way more atheists in the world than before. But the religious people are becoming more… Religious. I hear little children telling someone their going to go to literally burn in hell because they do not go to church. It may be because I live in the South, and use to live in Texas (when this happened o.0) but still.</p>
<p>^… never would I think I would have to use this on CC, but SMH. Your US history class has not done you any justice.</p>
<p>I’m not talking about what I learned in APUSH? I actually learned about all the destruction from religion in World History. I think my teacher was an atheist…</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Nope, more like the ideals that their religion promotes, such as goodwill, charity, solidarity and whatnot.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>First APUSH, now World History, what’s next? Art History?</p>
<p>
“It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.”
- Mark Twain</p>
<p>I’m not a religious person at all. But religion in it’s shell does nothing of what you said. In the theoretical but realistically impossible perfect world, religion would be all fine and dandy. But because the followers, the people, twist and contort religion, you see it as it is now. Religion doesn’t cause destruction, people do. We just use religion as a scapegoat because we don’t want to blame ourselves or another human directly.</p>
<p>^ I concur.</p>