BigRedBuster Posted January 3, 2014 Share Posted January 3, 2014 OK....in the human slavery thread, statistics have been pointed out and claimed that it shouldn't be at the top of the list of world problems. I would agree that there are other problems that affect a lot more people. My question is.... What are your top three world problems that the world should not be ignoring and should be doing what ever it takes to improve? Link to comment
knapplc Posted January 3, 2014 Share Posted January 3, 2014 Education Easy Internet access Food Provide those three things to the world and a LOT of problems either go away or are reduced dramatically. Link to comment
carlfense Posted January 3, 2014 Share Posted January 3, 2014 Food supplies Disease Religion (sorry religious folks) Link to comment
Landlord Posted January 3, 2014 Share Posted January 3, 2014 Religion (sorry religious folks) I'd say the state of the world's most 'successful' institutionally atheistic countries would disagree with you on this. In general poverty, starvation and education seem to be the three foundational epidemics that lead to a lot of the rest. Link to comment
carlfense Posted January 3, 2014 Share Posted January 3, 2014 Religion (sorry religious folks) I'd say the state of the world's most 'successful' institutionally atheistic countries would disagree with you on this. Which examples are you thinking of? Are you drawing a distinction between atheistic and secular? Link to comment
Landlord Posted January 3, 2014 Share Posted January 3, 2014 Religion (sorry religious folks) I'd say the state of the world's most 'successful' institutionally atheistic countries would disagree with you on this. Which examples are you thinking of? Are you drawing a distinction between atheistic and secular? I probably should have used the term irreligious instead of atheistic. I am no expert on state religions, but even if I was, the lines are blurry and don't have a lot of clarity. Regardless, China is the first example that comes to mind. Technically they have 'freedom' of religion, but that's a stretch of the term and a large number of citizens that claim religion likely claim it more out of culture and custom than conscious faith, so demographic surveys are inconclusive. Anyways, Albania, the Soviet Union, Cuba, North Korea, the horrors of the French Revolution. All good examples of a less than ideal culture as a result of actively and purposefully trying to get rid of religion. Link to comment
carlfense Posted January 3, 2014 Share Posted January 3, 2014 I probably should have used the term irreligious instead of atheistic. I am no expert on state religions, but even if I was, the lines are blurry and don't have a lot of clarity. Regardless, China is the first example that comes to mind. Technically they have 'freedom' of religion, but that's a stretch of the term and a large number of citizens that claim religion likely claim it more out of culture and custom than conscious faith, so demographic surveys are inconclusive. Anyways, Albania, the Soviet Union, Cuba, North Korea, the horrors of the French Revolution. All good examples of a less than ideal culture as a result of actively and purposefully trying to get rid of religion. Oh. I think that we're thinking of different things. I wasn't talking about trying to get rid of religion. (I see that BRB specifically asked for things that we should be trying to improve.) I was thinking more along the lines of things that if I could wave a magic wand and make a change. That said, there are plenty of secular countries that are doing just fine. The US, Canada, Sweden, Norway, etc. But again, my thinking was more along the lines of we'd be better if religions didn't exist. One less reason to kill each other. Link to comment
rawhide Posted January 3, 2014 Share Posted January 3, 2014 So you consider the US as secular?? 2008 study showed that 76% of Americans identify as being some denomination of Christianity. So the US must be identified by the 24% secular?? A more recent Gallup poll: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/29/religions-influence-us_n_3354499.html Link to comment
Landlord Posted January 3, 2014 Share Posted January 3, 2014 Oh. I think that we're thinking of different things. I wasn't talking about trying to get rid of religion. (I see that BRB specifically asked for things that we should be trying to improve.) I was thinking more along the lines of things that if I could wave a magic wand and make a change. That said, there are plenty of secular countries that are doing just fine. The US, Canada, Sweden, Norway, etc. But again, my thinking was more along the lines of we'd be better if religions didn't exist. One less reason to kill each other. Well, I obviously disagree (batting for Team Jesus and all), but do think that religiosity as a system of actions/rules/legality is still causing a lot of injustice and evil in the world and needs to be fixed. There's nothing particularly wrong with thinking religions shouldn't exist - except that as soon as you are in power, you're going to try and force that to happen, which results in oppression. Link to comment
sd'sker Posted January 3, 2014 Share Posted January 3, 2014 Well, I obviously disagree (batting for Team Jesus and all), but do think that religiosity as a system of actions/rules/legality is still causing a lot of injustice and evil in the world and needs to be fixed. There's nothing particularly wrong with thinking religions shouldn't exist - except that as soon as you are in power, you're going to try and force that to happen, which results in oppression. i tend to agree with carlfense more than i disagree with him, and i do agree religion causes a lot of problems (namely in the middle east), but i imagine people would find other reasons to hate each other if religion did not exist. seems like you could argue that religion is the excuse, not the cause. Link to comment
Landlord Posted January 3, 2014 Share Posted January 3, 2014 i tend to agree with carlfense more than i disagree with him, and i do agree religion causes a lot of problems (namely in the middle east), but i imagine people would find other reasons to hate each other if religion did not exist. seems like you could argue that religion is the excuse, not the cause. I agree with this also. Religion is just the vehicle that people use, either for good or bad. I think the cynical American perspective towards religion is prone to overlook just how many services, charities and the like were originally founded by practitioners of faith, BECAUSE OF their faith. Getting rid of religion would change very, very little imo. Link to comment
NUance Posted January 3, 2014 Share Posted January 3, 2014 Food supplies Disease Lack of Religion 3 Link to comment
BigRedBuster Posted January 3, 2014 Author Share Posted January 3, 2014 I'll give mine. Education: Probably the first thing that a tyrannical government tries to do to keep the population under control is to reduce the level of education. Look at what the Taliban has done with women. Food distribution: We don't have a supply issue with food. We have a distribution issue. It usually is an issue due to horrible governments that either don't allow distribution of food to the population or they don't allow systems to be developed to distribute it. Truthful distribution of information: I believe this is the main problem and if this could be fixed, most other problems would be minimized. All the way from the Democrat and Republican parties to the Chinese, North Korean governments and the Taliban, one thing is constant, they want to control what information the population has and the have done a darn good job of developing control of the information flow. The internet has increased the amount of information available, but, these institutions have even affected the quality of information on the internet that all of us turn to and hope is correct. Nobody can make good decisions no matter how educated and healthy they are without quality information. Honorable mention (because it was being discussed) is people who use religion for their own power. Religion by itself is not a problem and the world and individuals have benefited from it. However, humans in the name of religion have done horrible things. Link to comment
carlfense Posted January 3, 2014 Share Posted January 3, 2014 So you consider the US as secular?? 2008 study showed that 76% of Americans identify as being some denomination of Christianity. So the US must be identified by the 24% secular?? A more recent Gallup poll: http://www.huffingto..._n_3354499.html Referring to governance . . . which admittedly might be at odds with the general premise. 1 Link to comment
carlfense Posted January 3, 2014 Share Posted January 3, 2014 There's nothing particularly wrong with thinking religions shouldn't exist - except that as soon as you are in power, you're going to try and force that to happen, which results in oppression. Not necessarily. You can believe that something shouldn't exist and still defend the right to do it. Flag burning, Westboro protests, etc. Link to comment
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