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I think it's important to distinguish between organized religion and religious/spiritual belief and practice in general. Religion in general is not dying, but traditional, organized religion is clearly on the decline in places like Western Europe especially. It's like how mainline Protestant...

I wasn't specifically thinking of Muhammad. Well, my statement still stands. I don't really think any human is perfect, including the Messengers. I don't say that to offend anyone's religion. I'm sure they were very good and holy people.

And yet even some of the Messengers engaged in or promoted war/violence? No human being can be described as perfect imo.

Most people don't really practice their faith. I think most people who identify with a religion do so because that's the religion that is predominant in the part of the world they were born in.

Yeah, it’s complicated because I think individual believers can and do prevent evil by changing their own behaviour. Personally, my faith in God has made me a better person than I was. But deeply religious societies don’t necessarily produce less violence or war, as history bears out. And then...

Yes, I do admire the JWs for their nonviolence. I don't think education will stop violence or war though.

But isn't that a fairly common religious belief, the idea of an end times that puts an end to all human evil? Unless I'm misunderstanding your statement, isn't that also what (most) Christians believe? That sin won't be destroyed until Christ comes, triumphant?

I disagree. I think we have always been violent. We can't blame the environment. It definitely isn't just a matter of scarce resources in our case. I feel like bonobos are a bad example if you know anything about the way they remain peaceful, which I won't go into here lol. They actually do also...

Because I believe in God and I was stating my personal view lol! But evidence for what? God?

If its up to humanity, we're doomed lol. I'm not waiting for God to fix the world. I think we should all work to make the world a better place. What I meant is that we will never stop violence, we will never stop war. Only until 'end times', for lack of a better word, will those things stop.

...when I spill my 9 dollar smoothie all over my table (definitely not being sarcastic) 🫠

My personal view is that there will only be eternal peace and love when God steps in for the final time. Until then, I agree, peace on earth is a fantasy.

I guess the world gets better and worse all the time. There have been better times, and there will be worse times. Its good to remember that before panicking.

100%. Humans have been around hundreds of thousands of years. If we haven't stopped war by now, I don't think it is going to happen.

I've been thinking about this topic a lot lately, considering all that is going on in the world. If we loved each other as God loves us, of course no one would ever harm another person. But I don't think that will ever happen, until 'the end'. I think war and violence are fundamentally part of...

I love Max Miller’s videos! I need to get around to making one of his recipes sometime.

Yup. Some atheists seem to consider it a personal affront that other people are religious. And there are others who think that religion is a force for evil and actively want to destroy it. It definitely isn't most atheists who are like that, but they exist!

I've seen this in movies, usually when a character is performing a seance or something. 'Don't break the circle' was a rule I always heard about seances, the same as the rule that you have to say 'goodbye' when using an Ouija board, or else an evil spirit can break through.

I get the other ones you listed, but why did you list Papua New Guinea? Besides the fact that it was colonized, of course. But that wasn't really an attempt to evangelize.

I hadn't noticed that before, but now that you mention it, you're right, he doesn't have much Hindu content. Hopefully he does more in the future.