Dutch Clergy drop God and Heaven.

[modeller]

Many Dutch clerics are agnostic or even atheist .

http://www.bbc.co.uk/...world-europe-14417362

Is this a dose of common sense in our century or should we continue to believe in the old myths .

Some pedantic ABers may say this should be in Religion but I feel it is Newsworthy as it could have a major political influence in the world not just in Holland.

[Kromovaracun]

"I wonder how many killers are atheists and maybe find killing easier than it might otherwise be"

That's a rather facetious link, to be honest. History indicates that the faithful can be no less scrupulous, and the reason for that is actually that it has little to do with faith or lack thereof at all.There's a wealth of evidence suggesting that people (yes 'ordinary' people) can possibly be convinced to do or believe terrible things - atheists are no more susceptible than believers. But the other extreme exists too - they can also be persuaded to do remarkably good things: the whole concept of altruism (like genocide or hatred) is one that comes from humans.

[emmie]

I believe that more people have been killed in the name of one religion or another, they may dress it up, or use their faith as an excuse, but when you really look into it, so much hatred over the thousands of years, Catholic, Protestant, Muslim, Christian, and so forth, there is the other side of the coin, many do good in the name of their particular faith, but i am afraid all i see is strife, conflict and war, and even those faiths who proclaim that it is peaceful, have been hijacked by extremists, and they can't even agree, Sunni, shi'ite case in point.

[Kromovaracun]

To be fair I'm not completely sure religion is necessarily more predisposed towards violence or abuse than modern secular ideologies are. It does likely have a higher 'body count' but that's largely because it's been around longer. Faith/lack of faith doesn't seem to have much impact in the matter compared to other psychological factors common to all humans.

[jomifl]

It seems followers of god fear everything including god.

[RATTER15]

I actually believe Atheist are far less likely to kill, we have a better moral purpose in life, that is why we are mostly appalled at seeing a ruthless murderous god being so highly revered.

Look around the world, the countries which thrive on religion , middle-east, USA etc are usually at war with someone and the the countries that have very little religion are the most peaceable countries like the Scandinavian countries.

[Khandro]

Uniquely, Buddhism is the only major world religion that can claim that not a single drop of blood has been spilt attempting to coerce people to convert to it.

[RATTER15]

Buddhism is more of a philosophy than a religion. Buddha was a mortal man, so im not sure if that counts but apart from that I agree.

[Khandro]

'Buddha was a mortal man,' but isn't that equally true of Christ and Mohammad ? Yes, Shakyamuni was the 'Historical' Buddha, but according to Buddhism there are many others.

[RATTER15]

Buddha being a mortal being and is not considered a God is undisputed where as these so called gods are just myths.

[Sqad]

RATTER
>>I actually believe Atheist are far less likely to kill, we have a better moral purpose in life<<

Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, and Mao Zedong produced the kind of mass slaughter that no Inquisitor could possibly match. Collectively these atheist tyrants murdered more than 100 million people.”

[RATTER15]

^^^^^ apart from those :-) I agree, I didnt say there are not any total nutters out there that are also Atheists, and they committed those crimes because they thought they were superior to all beings, not your run of the mill Atheist!

[Sqad]

RATTER....;-)

[RATTER15]

and still not a patch on those killed by and in the name of this murderous god.

[Khandro]

Actally, neither Christ nor Mohammad are gods; the former considered himself "The son of", and the latter "The mesenger of".
:-) at 'apart from these'.

[birdie1971]

Sqad – You state that Adolf Hitler was an atheist. Why do people always do this? He was a self confessed Christian. He said so quite explicitly in Mein Kampf, “... Hence today I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator: by defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord....". He was raised as a Christian and often made reference to his religious belief in his speeches [full quote edited for brevity]...

"My feelings as a Christian points me to my Lord and Savior as a fighter.... As a Christian I have no duty to allow myself to be cheated, but I have the duty to be a fighter for truth and justice... And if there is anything which could demonstrate that we are acting rightly it is the distress that daily grows. For as a Christian I have also a duty to my own people.” - Adolf Hitler, in a speech on 12th April 1922.

Nazi troops before battle were often blessed by Christian Priests. The Nazis and the Christian Church had very close ties and yet, time and again, when people are talking about the atrocities carried out by religious leaders, Adolf Hitler is wheeled out as an example of murderous atheists.

[RATTER15]

See Sqad, Like Birdie said^^^

I didn't actually know that!