"Tournifreak" wrote in message
oups.com...

Steve S wrote:

snip

It was peculiar to religion that pre-pubescent boys were castrated so
that
the Catholic church could have soprano voices -- women were banned.
Yes, sometimes religious people (and the organisations they are a part
of) do terrible things.

So isn't there enough suffering in the world without religion adding to it?


It is peculiar to religion that women are genitally mutilated today.
I strongly suspect this is much more to do with culture than religion.
I've never heard a religious reason given for it anyway.

It's commonly regarded as a pagan practice. Where 'pagan' means 'primitive
religion that grown-up religions look down on'.


It is peculiar to religion that children are being born with HIV in
Africa
because their parents are denied contraception.
This is just silly. People are being born with HIV because people (men,
that is) often have multiple sexual partners. Using prostitutes has
become part of the culture. You can try to patch over the problem by
handing out hundreds of millions of free condoms or you can encourage
people to change their lifestyles. One is sustainable, the other isn't.

And in the meantime thousands suffer. How thoughtful.

And there are many more "religious" organisations caring for people
with HIV, setting up treatment centres and trying to educate people
than non-religious ones. In general (and it is a generalisation of
course) religious people care more for all sorts of reasons.

I dispute that.

snip

Logically, at most, one can be
correct. It could be that all are incorrect too of course. That's where
we have to apply our minds to try to discover what the truth is. We
look at al the available evidence and decide on who is most likely
telling the truth. You can't prove everything though, so the rest is
down to faith.

The truth is out there...


There is no evidence. Only faith/superstition/whatever you were brought up
with.

Steve