[SuchFriendsAreDangerous]

Originally Posted by !@#$%!

one of the frequent cons perpetrated by religion is that without god(s) we'd be devoid of morality. morality is a function of the human brain just like language or mathematics. yes, it varies from culture to culture, but i think that religion reflects morality more often than it shapes it

l.

ahem

Originally Posted by SuchFriendsAreDangerous

By the way, y'all again are right, people can exist just fine without religion. The Dali Lhama just put forth a great analogy philosophically speaking. He said that in life, religion is like tea, and the water that is the base is compassion. Like tea, religion and faith is spiced with healing, consoling, strengthening additives collected from across the world, and the water is compassion, empathy, morality, politeness which religion is based and built upon. Just as man can live without tea, but must drink water, so to can we live without God, but surely we can't live without compassion and empathy and politeness, something which even atheistic evolutionary theory strongly suggests.