Psycholytic,
This Thread is not about the veracity of religion. It is just about whether or not one's religious beliefs and practices add to ones diversity. There are countless beliefs, customs, and practices which stem from religions. This can't be ignored in terms of diversity any more than one's country of origin, race, sex, or sexual orientation. Sure, for some people, religion means little more than a day off from work once a year or a chance to give a present. However, for other (e.g. Amish, devout Muslims, Chassidic Jews, and Buddhists just to name a few) all aspects of their lives are influenced by their religion from the way they dress to the way they eat. It is immaterial for the purposes of our discussion whether or not any of these people are right and wrong. Rather just how in fact this makes people different and to what extent they may or may not be accepted/ viewed by schools. This type of religious diversity is certainly important to the foundations of the United States which is why the founders of the U.S. Constitution chose to list religious freedom as a right (you don't reject the U.S. Constitution too?). A world in which everyone is the same is not interesting. A reading of Ayn Rand will attest to this.
"When one person suffers from a delusion it is called insanity. When many people suffer from a delusion it is called Religion." by Robert Pirsig
Pscyholytic, did you pull this quote from a quote book? The author of Zen and the Art of Motorcyle Maintenance is hardly an authoritative source on the validity of religion in general. Besides, in 1979, Pirsig's son Chris, who is a aslo a character in
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, was stabbed to death during a mugging. Pirsig writes about this this in an afterword to later editions of
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. He describes how he and his second spouse Kimball decided not to abort the child she conceived in 1980, because he had come to believe that this unborn child was a continuation of the life pattern that Chris had occupied. This child is Pirsig's daughter Nell.
Hmm, reincarnation! Does anyone think Pirsig originated this concept or do you think he may have borrowed it from thousands of years of documented religious thought? Doesn't say much for you source, does it? Maybe if you had attended a school which taught you how to think, respect others, and carry on an intelligible dialogue you would have researched you statements better.
Here is a better witty quote for you to learn (It even once appeared on a Time Magazine).
" "God is dead." - Nietzche
[
COLOR="Blue"]btw, [/COLOR]he is spelled Nietzsche, just to freshen your knowledge
"Nietzche is dead." - God "
God keeps outlasting His most vocal opponents. It is unrealistic to think religion is going away even if you are an atheist. It does not even make much sense to me to classify all different religions together accept for protection of Constitutional Rights. However, since psychologists study human thought and behavior, it is idiotic to ignore the human thoughts and behavior which are occuring on a wide spread basis and which happen to be derived from religion.
I feel sorry for you not because of your rejection of religion (which is Psycholytic's right) but for the vehement and unhealthy antipathy you express. Perhaps, a reactive formation! (In Freudian terms, Psycholytic longs to find friends, religions, a meaningful existence and can 't stand the fact that there are religious people who have what he doesn't).
Perhaps all the religious people here can pray for Psycholytic's well being and mental stability. Also, that Psycholytic's future education makes up for these shortcomings. And if that does not work, does any know a good psychologist who can work with Psycholytic?[/QUOTE]
Thanks for exposing yourself once more as one of the many who rely on myth and arrogance as the follower of the invisible. It's just always the same with people like you. In regards to the stuff you wrote above; it goes along with interpreting beliefs into a self-made concept that derives from the origin religion does.
By the way, an even better quote is the following, but I know that ignorance will keep you on your track and you will come up with an explanation that tries to outdo people who are worlds apart from you intellectually. As I mentioned before; religion keeps one dumb. You can pray all you want that won't change a thing in this world, only in your delusion.
"If he is infinitely good, what reason should we have to fear him? If he is infinitely wise, why should we have doubts concerning our future? If he knows all, why warn him of our needs and fatigue him with our prayers? If he is everywhere, why erect temples to him? If he is just, why fear that he will punish the creatures that he has filled with weaknesses? If grace does everything for them, what reason would he have for recompensing them? If he is all-powerful, how offend him, how resist him? If he is reasonable, how can he be angry at the blind, to whom he has given the liberty of being unreasonable? If he is immovable, by what right do we pretend to make him change his decrees? If he is inconceivable, why occupy ourselves with him? IF HE HAS SPOKEN, WHY IS THE UNIVERSE NOT CONVINCED? If the knowledge of a God is the most necessary, why is it not the most evident and the clearest?"
Percy Bysshe Shelley, Thomas Jefferson Hogg.