destruction of our planet & religion

[kman_69]

this just dawned on me while reading another thread....

now we all know how lucky we are to have such a beautiful planet....especially one that is tentatively sustaining each and every one of our lifes. but people are neglecting and/or infecting our atmosphere, oceans, rivers, etc etc....EVERYDAY....and basically turning a blind eye....

but my question is....do you think religion plays a part in this destruction?...what i mean by that is, that most religious people are awaiting an after-life when they die (which IMO ISN'T comming)....so they neglect the life they have now...and neglect the planet they have now...which in turn is neglects their true 'after-life' (future generations).

take Rumsfeld for example, he has mentioned 'revelations' on a number of occasions...basically saying that its all in 'God's hands' When in fact, the lives of many (if not the whole world) are directly in his hands.

another example is Bush's policy on SUV's and their emissions....he has left America to be the only country in the world to not cut down on green house emissions....yet he doesnt seem to care at all....what other reason could there be except that he doesnt care about this planet....i mean he seems to make reference to God and the after-life EVERY chance he gets.

anyway, what do you guys think?....intelligent discussion please.

 

[makaveli_411]

What you're saying is interesting my friend but the problem is simple. Why the hell are you talking about idiots that are basically the ones who are deciding the faith of people when sending troops, shooting hostages etc.

The destruction of the planet is because of all the idiots who are not taking care of the environment and everything that is being thrown into the ocean and the fact that salty water is started to disappear in some sectors in the oceans all because of some rich cats.

So if you want me to answer your question my friend: the destruction of our planet is not because of religion but should be related with the actions and the choices everyone makes in this society.

The worst is that one day when they'll realize that the world is not capable anymore of supporting what's in in the air they'll start crying and saying how sad it is. When the fact is that it's because of too many political cats that the Earth is going to come down on us. I'm telling you Day After Tomorrow was a very good movie that helps to try andprevent a lot of stuff that could happen in the future and it seems like nobody is realizing that one day reality will hit us hard.

Peace

 

[Jokerman]

No, I don't see belief in an afterlife as affecting this. It's more about ignorance, greed and passiveness. Avoidance and denial. Personal change is not comfortable for many people. This is true on an individual level as on a social and political one. Many are so attached to their beliefs and lifestyle that they cannot conceive of questioning those precepts, let alone moving beyond them for a new direction in life. This is true for religious people as well as the non-religious. All kinds of people support a polluting, wasteful lifestyle.

 

[Bina]

Very interesting read..

Religious scriptures tell u to live ur life to the fullest on this earth, and goodness will be repaid by going to Heaven in the afterlife. This goodness includes looking after people and your resources (the world) around you.

The way i see it, the Bible explains the end of the world (see 'end of the world' thread), but there's many ways in which the world can end- mostly natural disasters which cant be stopped by man, i.e. powerful asteroid hitting us, large tsunami/volcano, earthquake..... then again (which people can claim to be an act of God), or nuclear weapons can destroy the whole human population, and this is the one thing that can be controlled by man (or one man). Actually, just thought of the effects of the greenhouse effect,-which is the result of EVERYONE living now, tho no1 seems to be bothered about this fact, and how easily it can be prevented.

 

[kman_69]

No, I don't see belief in an afterlife as affecting this. It's more about ignorance, greed and passiveness. Avoidance and denial. Personal change is not comfortable for many people. This is true on an individual level as on a social and political one. Many are so attached to their beliefs and lifestyle that they cannot conceive of questioning those precepts, let alone moving beyond them for a new direction in life. This is true for religious people as well as the non-religious. All kinds of people support a polluting, wasteful lifestyle.

that is certainly true that there are athiests in the world that live a wastefull life, however, how many of them would be running a country? -i'd say its somewhere in the 0% range..

on the other hand you have people like Rumsfeld, who are convinced that the end of the world is inevitable.....in control of most of, if not ALL our lives.

i find that very dangerous.

 

[kman_69]

Very interesting read..

Religious scriptures tell u to live ur life to the fullest on this earth, and goodness will be repaid by going to Heaven in the afterlife. This goodness includes looking after people and your resources (the world) around you.

The way i see it, the Bible explains the end of the world (see 'end of the world' thread), but there's many ways in which the world can end- mostly natural disasters which cant be stopped by man, i.e. powerful asteroid hitting us, large tsunami/volcano, earthquake..... then again (which people can claim to be an act of God), or nuclear weapons can destroy the whole human population, and this is the one thing that can be controlled by man (or one man). Actually, just thought of the effects of the greenhouse effect,-which is the result of EVERYONE living now, tho no1 seems to be bothered about this fact, and how easily it can be prevented.

The bible is open to much interpretation...

but all the natural/and non-natural disasters that could happen to this planet will NOT spell the end of the planet -simply the end of life on it.

basically what im saying is, that instead of us being focused on whats going to happen when we die....we should be focused on the progression of our species -which includes the preservation of the planet that is temporarily sustaining all our lifes...and hopefully our future generations.

that just seems logical to me.

 

[AmerikazMost]

i don't think religion plays a role in it. it's mostly about money and greed (or laziness for the average civilian who litters). we don't ban cigarettes because it's big business. we don't try harder for alternative fuel because oil is big business. it's all about money.

 

[Bina]

The bible is open to much interpretation...

but all the natural/and non-natural disasters that could happen to this planet will NOT spell the end of the planet -simply the end of life on it.

basically what im saying is, that instead of us being focused on whats going to happen when we die....we should be focused on the progression of our species -which includes the preservation of the planet that is temporarily sustaining all our lifes...and hopefully our future generations.

that just seems logical to me.

Agreed!

 

[MX Red]

that is certainly true that there are athiests in the world that live a wastefull life, however, how many of them would be running a country? -i'd say its somewhere in the 0% range..

Hey hang about now, Tony Blair is religious but he sure as hell doesnt ram that down our throat...seriously religion went out the window in the UK a good hundred years ago. Religion has nothing to do with politics here (and would prob do damage to the political party if they started campaigning on a religious manifesto), and i agree with jokerman this isnt a religious issue...although religion effects the perception that creates the problem....but the perception side is the problem, its human nature. If it wasnt for religious reasons im sure some other reason like the hunt for capital (which in my eyes has an awful lot more to do with harming the planet than religion) would take over. Although i see your point, i think its simply a symptom of the problem - not the problem!
peace
MX!

 

[kman_69]

^^yeah i see where your comming from...and i agree that greed and ignorance play a big part in the destruction of the planet as well.

however, i feel that religion plays a big part in propagating that greed and ignorance....by that i mean that people dont mind being greedy if they appear to live a good life in the eyes of God, and the same goes for ignorant people...as in they can stay ignorant if they want -becuase they always have God (and an after-life) to fall back on.

by no means do i mean that all religous people are ignorant or greedy tho.....basically what i mean is that religion (in itself) is an un-needed crutch for many people....and i really feel its a crutch that we as a race need to learn to do without if we want to progress....or even last as a species.

 

[radkin]

to sum it up it all comes down to money :thumb:

 

[Jahfo]

^^yeah i see where your comming from...and i agree that greed and ignorance play a big part in the destruction of the planet as well.

however, i feel that religion plays a big part in propagating that greed and ignorance....by that i mean that people dont mind being greedy if they appear to live a good life in the eyes of God, and the same goes for ignorant people...as in they can stay ignorant if they want -becuase they always have God (and an after-life) to fall back on. by no means do i mean that all religous people are ignorant or greedy tho.....basically what i mean is that religion (in itself) is an un-needed crutch for many people....and i really feel its a crutch that we as a race need to learn to do without if we want to progress....or even last as a species.

It's not that easy to get into heaven or whatever nirvana. Because for you cannot have greed, point blank. In Christianity it teached not to have greed nor ignorance. Jesus said the second greatest commandment is to love your neighbors as yourself. The Bible also says to love all of God's creatures. So no it is not possible to always have a nirvana waiting for them. If they coud not follow that one and only simple commandment, what makes you think that they are so assured? More than half of real Chrisitianity is not about benefiting yourself, but for the benefit of others.

Progress of what? Science and technology is progressing extremely. There are also alot of religious people who are in these fields that love their work with a passion. Look at Einstein, God was his motivation of his research. Please give in detail how religion is hindering the progression of human beings.

It is human beings themselves that are corrupting this world, no matter who you are.

 

[2PacThug4Life]

eventually tha sun IS going to hit tha earth according to tha Bible, but i'm not saying this is going to end tha earth. whenever God decides tha time is up then it's up.

 

[kman_69]

It's not that easy to get into heaven or whatever nirvana. Because for you cannot have greed, point blank. In Christianity it teached not to have greed nor ignorance. Jesus said the second greatest commandment is to love your neighbors as yourself. The Bible also says to love all of God's creatures. So no it is not possible to always have a nirvana waiting for them. If they coud not follow that one and only simple commandment, what makes you think that they are so assured? More than half of real Chrisitianity is not about benefiting yourself, but for the benefit of others.

Progress of what? Science and technology is progressing extremely. There are also alot of religious people who are in these fields that love their work with a passion. Look at Einstein, God was his motivation of his research. Please give in detail how religion is hindering the progression of human beings.

It is human beings themselves that are corrupting this world, no matter who you are.

yes, but christianity also preaches repentence for sins...so anyone who repents is still granted a ticket to heaven.

yeahwe are progressing in science.. in many areas....while some areas are being neglected...one example is that there is only $100000 dollars spent WORLD-WIDE per/year on watching for approaching asteroids...this is a rediculously low amount of money word-wide spend on something that could potentially kill us all.

another good example of religion holding us back from progressing... is the "religion vs science" controversy of stem-cell research.

but i really mean progression in terms of not only science, but in terms of putting an end to war, over-population, and polution of the environment....all of which are directly related to religion.

 

[kman_69]

eventually tha sun IS going to hit tha earth according to tha Bible, but i'm not saying this is going to end tha earth. whenever God decides tha time is up then it's up.

heres a perfect example of religion holding us back^^

do you understand how gravity works? larger object are not attracted to smaller objects......it works the other way around...eventually our sun is going to collapse on istelf (like all stars do), and our planet will be pulled towards the collapsed star....but its not going to happen for millions of years.

 

[Glockmatic]

eventually tha sun IS going to hit tha earth according to tha Bible, but i'm not saying this is going to end tha earth. whenever God decides tha time is up then it's up.

sounds like the old idea of the earth is in the center of the universe and everything revolves around us

 

[2PacThug4Life]

heres a perfect example of religion holding us back^^

do you understand how gravity works? larger object are not attracted to smaller objects......it works the other way around...eventually our sun is going to collapse on istelf (like all stars do), and our planet will be pulled towards the collapsed star....but its not going to happen for millions of years.

in a million years every person dead or alive will be in heaven or hell for all eternity:thumb:, there will be no more earth. i'd say in between 1000-2000 years we will all be in heaven or hell, i am just about 100% sure.

 

[spoons]

in regards to the condition of our biosphere...

until our environmental conditions become a commodity themselves, it will not come into our phyci.

 

[Jahfo]

yes, but christianity also preaches repentence for sins...so anyone who repents is still granted a ticket to heaven.

Do you know how repentence works and what it is? Its not just God forgive me and your forgiven.

yeahwe are progressing in science.. in many areas....while some areas are being neglected...one example is that there is only $100000 dollars spent WORLD-WIDE per/year on watching for approaching asteroids...this is a rediculously low amount of money word-wide spend on something that could potentially kill us all.

And religion plays what in how we spend money with asteroids?

another good example of religion holding us back from progressing... is the "religion vs science" controversy of stem-cell research.

This is beyond me.

but i really mean progression in terms of not only science, but in terms of putting an end to war, over-population, and polution of the environment....all of which are directly related to religion.

And religion is not helping the progression of this? I will state briefly my opinions of each.

War - Wars have always been about power conflicts and self-interest, the majority of wars of history have had trade and resources at their core with imperialistic motives. This is a deadly pattern. Now as resources get wasted in these wars, more conflicts and contention will come about through access of even more limited resources. The ending result woud be the destruction of this Earth and if we destroy the Earth, we destroy ourselves.

Over-Population - Do you even know why over-population is even an issue? Earth's resources. Another because of wars like stated above. Other than that over-population wouldn't be an issue at all. But this is very debateble, can't really get into it.

Enviornment - Resources. Economic policies. Political directions and policies. These are the issues of the enviornment. Industrialized nations. http://www.ourplanet.com/txtversn/91/ramphal.html

All this is in a link. So I will end it from with this quote from a book a read.

Though most societies were efficient for the time in which they were formed, powerful nations disintegrated when too large a share of their labor was diverted to unnecessary tasks. Some societies, such as the European aristocratic structures, needlessly expended labor, resources, and capital to support militaristic elite bent on plundering neighbors and their own workers. Each of these societies became locked into a wasteful system of production and distribution. The United States is also locked into a wasteful expenditure of labor, resources, and industry.

 

[kman_69]

in a million years every person dead or alive will be in heaven or hell for all eternity:thumb:, there will be no more earth. i'd say in between 1000-2000 years we will all be in heaven or hell, i am just about 100% sure.

actually the universe will always be here whether we are here or not....time is relative. Within a 4 dimensional universe (space-time) the universe has not beginning or end....just polar opposites within space-time...but not points of singularity.

but either way, in a third dimensional perspective this planet is still going to be making revolutions around our sun in the next 1000-2000 years whether we are extinct or not.