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Is Religion Really Needed?

British Poll: Religion More Harm than Good
More people in Britain think religion causes harm than believe it does good, according to a Guardian/ICM poll published today. It shows that an overwhelming majority see religion as a cause of division and tension – greatly outnumbering the smaller majority who also believe that it can be a force for good.

The poll also reveals that non-believers outnumber believers in Britain by almost two to one. It paints a picture of a sceptical nation with massive doubts about the effect religion has on society: 82% of those questioned say they see religion as a cause of division and tension between people. Only 16% disagree. The findings are at odds with attempts by some religious leaders to define the country as one made up of many faith communities.

Religion: loved and hated

I think British’s sceptical attitude towards religion represents the larger picture of developed country in general and Western Europe in particular. And it’s understandable; interestingly it’s not the case in the US. So, if similar survey is conducted in a developing country, say Indonesia, the result will be altogether different.

On grass-root level, some, if not most, people regard religion like a would-be-divorce couple who desperately need a psychologist to sort their problem out. It’s only needed when your mental strength is weakening to the extent that you cannot rely partly or mostly to your own brain. And hence you need a higher Being, whatever it might and could be, to depend and trust upon. This might explain why even the most backward people in the stone era still followed a kind of ’religion’ of their own. Hence, to some agnostic thinkers, religion is like a temporary escape from reality and religious believers are considered to be attaching to ’unscientific’ attitude and mindset.

People in the developed country feel ’powerful’ enough mentally to not rely on other Being, despite there’re some tendencies in the West or to any agnostic people in this matter, who revert to religion in their later life when their strong independent mind evaporate by ages. John Naisbitt in Megatrend 2000 told some interesting facts in which even during the golden era of Soviet Union, many Atheists in the country invite the priests to pray for them in their deathbed.

 

21 thoughts on “Is Religion Really Needed?

  1. i think why so many war or conflict based on “religion” is becaused by people just think and do what they think in religion particularly and just “Text book” not what the “religion” truly want.

    It just like people who just read a part of Al-Quran or Bible and give their own opinion, and they enforcement their idealisme to all over people.

    rahadian-pencerahan.blogspot.com

  2. The problem is not the religion itself. I think the selfishness of human being is the root cause of the problem. It means that every religion actually agrees with the life in harmony among people and the environment.

  3. Tergantung lokasi polling juga dong. Itu kan di inggris, coba kalau di indonesia. Hasilnya pasti beda. However who knows? Kalaupun bila polling ada diseluruh dunia, mungkin hasilnya kompetitif. Polling yang useless nampaknya. Malah dengan hasil tersebut, kaum penganut agama bakal terkena diskriminasi

  4. you can now visit afatih.wordpress.com,the current kolom-mario.blogspot.com from the same owner

    #hi mac jr with whom were you speaking? :)

  5. It’s just my mind. I think, many people only think “religion” without “spirituality”. We do worship on sunday, sabbath and friday, several say a pray in the morning and almost sleep. But it’s just religion, not yet spirituality.

    We just do the “habbit” , we don’t think deeply the character of God and what God want we do in every second pass in our life. We may do religion, we pray/ worship, but after that, we forget to do the words of god to share love to others. “God is Love” …

    We say : ” I love you my GOD ” ….but We hate the other human …it’s ironic. Because GOD create “the other human” same like us. GOD love them too. GOD give them food and sun and rain same with us, because GOD love all people in the world and want all people become his own without dogma, but rasio.

    it my comment.

    by the way, why I can’t access kolo-mario.blogspot.com sir ?

    thanks
    Partisimon Partogi

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