What religion is he talking about?
Biblical religion defined for 2000 years is: James 1:27 Religion ... pure and faultless is this: to help widows and orphans in need and avoiding worldly corruption.
@Pamela_Hedge You make a rant the covers several different topics. I didn't cherry pick.
cher·ry-pick·ing
/ˈCHerēˌpikiNG/
noun
the action or practice of choosing and taking only the most beneficial or profitable items, opportunities, etc., from what is available.
You said, "biblical god wiped out entire nations including babies and old women."
Do you know anything about evolutionary processes like survival of the fittest? Fittest means those that reproduce the most. Those reproduce the most and those smarter and stronger survive to reproduce thus wiping out those that produce less, ignorant and weaker.
If you believe in biblical God thingie then you attribute those evolutionary processes onto biblical God thingie. If you know evolutionary processes then you know they are refering to evolutionary processes as their God thingie.
Then you do not know the old testiment. The old testiment is, in part, as it purports itself, is the laws of government, writtings of poetry, wisedom sayings, and documentation considered to be kind of like Executive Presidential records - writings of the prophets for the nation of Israel prior to 2000 years ago.
Beiing a former Christian I understand sometimes better than others and as to Christianity following the old testiment, it would be considered an out of Jurisdiction issue, especially out side of the nation of Israel, to specifically follow the old testiment. However, the nation of Israel does not currently run its government specifically by the laws of Moses or the old testiment details specifically.
I could cover more but that could be enough for you to learn to understand for now.
So, again, What religion is he talking about? As in, how is this person defining religion as he uses it in his quote.
He is not using the word religion as Biblical religion defined for 2000 years is: James 1:27 Religion ... pure and faultless is this: to help widows and orphans in need and avoiding worldly corruption.
@Word "Religion is an insult to human dignity. Without it you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion"
-Steven Weinberg (not me)
What religion you ask? All religion I assume. So then I asked you "Why do you want to know what religion?" You didn't answer that. You talked about widows and orphans. Religious believers do often help people. Their motivation is that it'll save them from the gates of hell. Atheists care about widows and orphans because they have feeling for human suffering without fear of retribution from a fictitious God. If we differ on that, we differ. You think what you like. I'll think what I do.
@barjoe a word can have more than 1 definition. For 2000 years Religion has been defined as #1 below. For #2 I will leave blank so you can fill in the definition that the Stevens person is using for religion.
#1. Religion is helping widows and orphans in need and avoiding worldly corruption.
#2.
@Word Weinberg quote OP shared in the meme was not a definition of religion, it was an indictment. Religion means nothing for me. I don't care to play your "fill in the blank" game. No offense. Religion in my life is non-existent. Other people need that crutch? Good for them. I don't begrudge.
@barjoe You say, "Religion means nothing for me. "
So your definition of religion is "nothing".
Then to put your definition of religion into Steven Wienburg quote it would read.
"Nothing" is an insult to human dignity. Without it you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things.
But for good people to do evil things, that takes "nothing".
To put Biblical defination into Steven Weinberg quote it would read:
"Helping widows and orphans in need and avoiding worldly corruption " is an insult to human dignity. Without it you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things.
But for good people to do evil things, that takes "Helping widows and orphans in need and avoiding worldly corruption "
Do you understand now?
@Word I don't want to participate in defining religion. It's not real in my world. I don't want to insult religious people but I think religion is a fairy tale. I don't believe in Santa Claus and I don't believe in a fictitious deity. I understand what you are trying to say but I disagree with what your saying. Man created God in his image because people fear their own mortality. It is total nonsense. I do understand, believe me. I reject!
@Word I don't know what to tell you. I agree with the quote. He's a Jew. Read up on him yourself. [en.m.wikipedia.org]
[blogs.scientificamerican.com]