Quote:
Timstone said:
Religion is not always the believe in a higher power, it can also be a strong believe in a certain way of live (Hindoeism), confidence in a leader of a country (Thailand) or an absolute dedication to the realisation of something (the progress of technology). Core of this is my definition of religion. I define religion as a very strong believe in something, for examples see the text above.
|
Religion is the belief in the divine. You describe ideology. Ideology is always present with religion but religion is not always present with ideology.
Anyway, religion is not the cause for war, it on its own is not the bad thing. The bad thing is the prejudices of humans and their greed and their willingness to use religion to justify to themselves and others that their evil actions are in the right.
Religion was often just the political tool used to leverage the masses into serving the religion's political interest. Because, in the past, people lived so harshly, they had to believe in the afterlife, as a reward for all their hard effort, as well as punishment for their crimes. In this way, the religious organisation maintained a level of peace within society while being able to turn the populace against an enemy, I mean, hey, they're the priests, they should know evil when they see it, right?
The Spanish Inquisition was an organisation whose members were good people. Good, religious people. They thought that all their torturous acts were cleansing the souls of those they 'helped' so their victims would make it into Heaven. After all, what is a period of incredible pain compared to the possibility of eternity in hell? And these fine people weren't even sure that they themselves wouldn't be punished for their acts with eternal damnation, but they put others first.
Anyway, I'd be very surprised if the whole organisation wasn't being used for political gain.
Now, back to the original topic.
Meeting aliens would lead to us developing interstellar travel far faster than any sane alien would want us to.
Facts:
We are capable of rapid expansion.
We are on the verge of making ourselves live for aeons.
We are adaptable.
We are quick to pick things up.
We are treacherous.
We do not like others being in more powerful positions than us, it engenders fear and suspicion.
Why would any sane alien want to let beings with our physical and mental abilities, and mindset, loose in the Galaxy? They wouldn't. It's best to either wait for us to change our mindset and culture, or to simply wipe ourselves out. Either way, we're a safer faction for them than we are now.