hessam mohammadi

Computer Programmer,

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Do you think religion has played a positive role in people's personal lives?is it neccessary or not?

They must refer to their wisdom or their beliefs?

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    Aug 5 2013: Hello Hessam,
    Whether or not a person embraces a certain religious or philosophical belief is a personal choice. We are often born into a family which practices a religious belief, and as we become adults, we can choose to continue with that belief and practice or not.

    If people choose a particular religious or philosophical belief, apparently, they feel it is necessary for their personal life experience, otherwise they would not choose it.

    There are lots of people who use religion as a valuable life guide, and there are people who use it to control and oppress other people. If it is used as a beneficial life guide, it may be considered a "positive role". Any belief and practice that controls, oppresses or excludes certain people, I do not believe is beneficial to the whole of humankind.

    You write..."They must refer to their wisdom or their beliefs?"

    We might think that people would actually live their beliefs, and we know that does not always happen. Some folks seem to embrace certain beliefs and forget to apply those same beliefs to the life experience.
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    Aug 5 2013: Referring to one's personal lives, I think this is an unfair question to be honest. It truly depends on the experiences each individual has had with religion and how that affected their life.

    Personally, I have grown up around religion my whole life. I'm Muslim and I am thankful everyday for being born into it. I have learned so much about humanity, kindness, relationships, individuals and more by reading the Quran and learning about Islam. I would never have set my career around wanting to help people if it wasn't for the teachings I had as a child. I would never make sure to dress respectably and in that, learning to respect my own body as a woman if it was not for Islam. I would never make sure that every guy I want to be in a relationship with me has to respect me and treat me right. I would never have put so much thought into everything I say and do for my parents. The Quran always talks about being kind to your parents and I really love that.

    Of course, I am not blind to all that goes in the social media about Islam and all that is negative. The people who are Muslim and did not like it, I really believe it is because they didn't have positive experiences with it. It really depends on everyone's situation and environment in my opinion.

    Great Question! I hope I helped your thoughts untangle a bit!
  • Aug 4 2013: No, religion has not played a positive role in anyone's life. It may have played a role, but only to fill in the gaps where the person is too illiterate, confused, immature, backwards, stupid, etc to build a model of the universe from evidence rather than wishful thinking.
    This is similar to a child who wonders where their tooth goes after it falls out. Mom and dad say you put it under your pillow and the tooth fairy comes for it.
    How do presents get under the tree on Christmas morning. Santa comes down the chimney and leaves them.
    All ridiculous stories even if you do go to great lengths to make them consistent and complete (Santa has magic reindeer and one with a glowing nose in case its foggy, etc).
    But they fill a spot in the child's understanding of the universe until such time as their thinking can handle reality.
    In the case of religions, sometimes this never happens.
    I am still holding out hope for the human race although evolution is a frustratingly slow process in this regard
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    Aug 3 2013: Religion has benefited many people. It gives them security and tradition. It gives them a basis on which to behave towards other people.

    And no. Religion is not necessary. That from personal experience.
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      Aug 3 2013: how do you know that tradition is right or correct? why don't you want pass the red lines,maybe you get something better.
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        Aug 3 2013: You want me to assign right and wrong to tradition? I am just not that silly. I only assign right and wrong to my own behavior because I have my own morals. I do not hold the moral standard for the rest of the world.

        I do not understand the red line reference.
      • Aug 4 2013: Traditions are neither right nor wrong, they are a connection to your cultures history. Some traditions loose their meaning over time and are slowly dropped. For example, no one remembers what the Yule log was for at Christmas. I have always thought Ash Wednesday was for planting certain types of trees and I went to Church one year during palm Sunday and some guy slapped me with a plant and threw water on me. Boy, there was almost trouble then... but I digress
  • Aug 5 2013: I think when it comes down to it, it's not religion that matters but what they choose to do with it. Some people can seem very religious and by-the-book but deep down lack inner peace and spiritual strength, and end up missing the entire point. Some people can be atheists but have good connection with their soul. Religion can only become a positive influence if it is practiced with clear conscience, kind & open heart and above all a good faith.
    For me at least, I always try to separate faith and religion because the latter has become too saturated and distorted.
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    Aug 5 2013: Some do find it necessary to have in their lives. Some need the positive focus on something positive to keep them from becoming harmful to others. In extreme cases it is bad, very bad; everything in moderation. I believe many morals are written in this place (religion) behind something powerful in order to keep us from harming each other. However, some of these morals are contradicting and totally up for interpretation which can be ...um, not positive at all.
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    Aug 5 2013: There is no blanket answer to this question as it depends on individual.
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      Aug 5 2013: aleykomaslam .
      thank you,maybe one person has the some moral virtues and does'nt believe in any religion. religion does'nt give us new thing. all things that we need are in nature,i want to complete yours. religion, in the past 2500 years, cheated people.and people who didn't have enough information believed it. we born free, but, why we can not think freely!! why we have to wait till religion says to us do it or don'tdo it. look at in middle east, most of the religious countries,most of them have many problems that west countries dont have, for example i think at least for my country, believd in islam, in past 2500 years, didn't help us to improve. because religion dont let people think and think and think, and says do everything that i say so god will take you to heaven and beisde it the religion leaders do their work->stealing their money and freedom and every thing .i hate islam and every religion .thats it.but thanks for your comment, good luck .khodahafez
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    Aug 5 2013: Hessam,
    I broached this subject awhile back and this is what you will learn as did I....
    If a person comes from a religious background and has held to those values, he will say that religion is important to his life.
    If he is not religious or can not reconcile religion, he will say that religion is not important to him, other values hold more meaning.
  • Aug 5 2013: You should refer to human conscience rather than the nominal religion. For example for many Catholic priests, occasionally you find some of them did hideously immoral things, even though they study and practice christianity all their life. I am not saying that religion led them to their misconduct, but it didn't prevent their misconduct either.
    The word tradition could be interpreted in many ways, some of it could be linked to the main religion in that geological region also. For example, most of the Iranion tradition probably is linked to Islam. It probably is quite different from Christianity. Most of the posting here referring Christmas tradition as if they are separated from Christianity.But probably that's not so, otherwise, why it is named CHRIST-mas? So, whether one belives in Santa Claus or not, this is related to Christian religion. I am neither a Moslem nor a Christian, you may consider me as a disciple of Confucius. His teaching involves lot of morality and philosophy, but he kept his distance from religion overall. If you believe that humanity or moralty plays the most positive role in personal life, then I think I am doing OK in that respect.
  • Aug 4 2013: Generally and overall?
    I strongly believe religion has served no good interest in the lives of humans.
    It serves its own agenda which is to completely destroy the human spirit.
    Its natural propensity is to gravitate into Fascism and control.

    As Linda says below: " It gives them a basis on which to behave towards other people."
    Yes,. To kill them, torture them, terrorize them, impoverish them, enslave them and corral and control them.

    Not what she meant, but what I mean.
    It is my personal and direct experience with religion and people of religion that has taught me all of this.
    I no longer have any doubts about it.

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      Aug 4 2013: but slogan of many religions is that ,be kind with each other, don't lie,dont kill,don't steal,
      however,why people still believe in these religions, it seems that they've got used to refere their ignorance to something beyond this world.
      totally i agree with you.
  • Aug 4 2013: Religion has played a positive role in the lives of many people. It usually offers hope based on faith. It also frequently provides a faith based explanation to many of the mysteries of life to many people, thus offering a measure of comfort. Science is offering new explanations to many of these mysteries, but the choice of which path to follow is up to the individual.

    'Is it necessary or not?' is kind of a personal issue, but in some areas, religious policies and doctrine are interwoven with civil laws, cultural moral codes, and acceptable social behavior. In these instances, the answer is complex.

    In some countries, there is a complete separation between church and state. In this case, there are civil laws in place to provide social order. In these instances, whether a person uses religion as a basis for a personal philosophy is not important, therefore religion is not necessary.

    In countries where there is no separation between church and state, and religion is being used to help with social order and civil law, then it is necessary.
  • Aug 5 2013: Hello:) hessam mohammadi! Religion takes a huge part of people's lives and it is same with me. If we think that the present life will totally end when we died, every thing would be in vain, hopelessly. I find religion helps people live in apositive way and do their best in every moment. Rather than worshiping a certain religion passionately, religion is meaningfu as it isl in that people gain happiness and peace from it.
  • Aug 5 2013: Let me express a view which some will not like. Religion has played a positive role but it has played a major role in controlling the population from revolting against the country leaders. This is true of the Christian, Muslim, Buddhism, etc.
  • Aug 4 2013: Religion can be positive or negative (certainly negative in the case of entire societies). Anyone can perceive religion in their own fashion, therefore, whether one reaps positive or negative results is entirely dependent on their sanity. This is why no one can ever trust religion to provide them with a consolidated truth. Christianity alone has been determined to contain 48,000 denominations, that is, it has 48,000 truths. This is a clear contradiction that applies to all known religions. Anyone who turns to religion for guidance will soon find their minds led astray in the realm of mysticism. Most people don't realize it because they end up being fooled by their own theology.
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    Aug 4 2013: through the centuries religions have been a moral source for many a peoples. As I shared Hessam, human beings left on their own regarding the morality of behavior is one I have yet to put much stock in.

    I thank you for your reply !

    mary ellen
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    Aug 4 2013: I believe the system of an organized religion plays an important role when speaking to the moral development of not only the individual but, the human race. Moral development concerns rules and values about what people should do in their interactions others, (this is a conversation in of itself). Religious concepts are powerful moral teachers and offer a ready-made set of values through teachings, religious books, rituals and, services.

    From the on-set of organized religious practices, it brings to the table its inherent “Achilles heel”. There is the danger that an individual will cease thinking for themselves and simply accept religious dogma without question. World leaders have asserted a privilege to choose the religion of an entire populous; control of others has been gained through fear, through the sands of time lives have been lost over religious practices/ beliefs. To this very day, emotional hatred resulting in horrendous acts are taking place in the name of set of religious beliefs.

    I firmly believe that organize religion is not the catalyst of any of this. It is simply the Trojan Horse that speaks to the injurious part of human behavior we have yet to rise above. Organized religion remains a positive and much needed part of any culture. The moral compass of the human race is slowly but surely progressing from its infantile state of consciences but the journey is only beginning.
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      Aug 4 2013: ok, but moral development does'nt need to religion, its about humanity, its come from humanity, .for example ,i have my mentality with best moral factors, and i dont have any religion, so whats the problem ?you know that stealing is not acceptable but why you want to religion says it to you?