Is there any evidence of that?
I think humanity's natural curiosity to understand how things really work is far more inspirational than mythology.
I think you are grasping at very little here. Some secular documents in the transitional period of the enlightenment may have mentioned a God because it was the politically safe thing to do. If you are referring to the US Constitution or to Darwin's Origin of the Species, yes they briefly alluded to a creator, but I don't think religious faith had much to do with the motives behind those documents. The people who wrote the US Constitution wanted to build a nation based on secular rationality, to get away from the mindless superstition that governed European monarchies. Darwin was inspired by the beauty and diversity of life that he witnessed, he was driven by natural curiosity to understand how things really work, he had no use for mythology. And you certainly wont find a scientific paper today that draws it's inspiration from God.
You really haven't provided a concrete example of anything particularly impressive that belief in religion has achieved. What are the achievements of religion?
I think you are so eager to argue with me that you are missing the fact that I’m not saying anything very different from you. Why did Darwin have to reference things like a creator? Why did completely secular documents have to mention things like God? Not because those things were real. But because of the profound effect and hold that faith has on the masses, they were forced to use the language of the people. It is noted that even Darwin was hesitant at first to publish the Origin of the Species because he knew what an upset it would cause. And the ripples still have not settled today.
I’m not saying that religions are true or that gods are real. When I say that they are great, I mean that they have been able to inspire people to act, both for good and for evil, in ways that not much else has.
How many soldiers died in battle believing that “God” was on their side? How many native populations followed the heard because the omen was good, or sacrificed babies because the crop “gods” were displeased? Why did so many pilgrims and puritans make the long voyage across the Atlantic? Why did Columbus have to bypass the Middle East in order to reach India?
Of course, there may have been, and likely were, people at the heads of those endeavors that used the faith of the masses for their own good. But for sure, nothing has been able to motivate people the way religion has.
My family hailed from the Southern US and migrated to the North during the Great African American Migration. Faith was very much at the center of it. My Grandfather was a preacher and went on to build the first African American church in the city they settled in. My mother was active in the civil rights movement. If not for the power of religion, whether it was the faith of Martin Luther King or the Faith of Malcolm X, I physically would not be here today. Religion made my mother the woman she is.
So again, I agree with you that religion has led humanity to do some really horrible things. All I’m saying is that even that demonstrates its power.
Topic: Yes I AM a Muslim!!