Re: Losing My Religion

[Rebecca Bender <renna@deep13.cs.umd.edu>]

While I see Elefante's point that religion has fed people and saved them from
suicide and all that, I think it needs to be qualified that it only goes so 
far... while religion-- Christianity in particular because of its psychological
potency-- has given a lot of people reason to live, I don't think it's done
much to "feed people" etc, and here's why: The people who help others "in the
name of God" are the same people who would have helped others anyway even
if they had never seen a Bible or a Koran. I feel that if organized religion
had never come about, Oral Roberts would be just as much of an asshole and
Mother Teresa would be just as much of a saint, no pun intended. Maybe 
religion gives people a reason to put on what they're doing, but I'll bet
you anything the good people would have done it all anyway.

                          -Rebecca