How do you believe in religion when you take most of your positions based on facts and proof?
Q: “How do you believe in religion when you take most of your positions based on facts and proof?”The question assumes everyone must believe in religion. That is the farthest thing from the truth. Religion is totally unnecessary to us and our lives. It seems though that Christians often think one must just keep converting as they search for truth. Leave one church, denomination or religion but then jump right into another without ever asking themselves, Is this really necessary? I often see them on Quora asking, Which should I switch to?I have found nothing wrong with taking positions based on proof, solid evidence or scientific knowledge. Having a strong basis for my positions or beliefs makes more sense to me than having them based on imaginary supernatural entities and stories meant for tribesmen in the Middle East 6,000 years ago,
What is the role of religion?
Religion, or more generally, faith, enriches your life in many, many ways. Here are some:Participating in an organized religion gives you:collective worship. Whether it's liturgical prayers, historic hymns or whatever, sharing our adoration of God with others is a charged spiritual experience;intercessory prayer. Your faith community can pray for you or your family when needed;access to expertise. Every church has elders who can mentor, provide information and advice, and point to wonderful sources of even more knowledge; andcommunity. You can make many good friends who share your values, are willing to team up for charitable works, and who support you in your faith.Even if you choose not to participate in a faith community, basing your daily life on a faith gives you:love. God's gifts to his people include peace, joy and love, which are a wellspring of comfort;meaning. The world can be a random, cruel place, but God has a universal plan and invites you to participate;morality. Intellectual approaches to right and wrong fail to give you any sense of good that endures, while God's justice is wise and eternal; andovercoming fear. You may be afraid of death, or evil, or suffering, but God reassures you that you will be resurrected, that you will prevail over evil, that you are not alone, and that suffering has a purpose.
Atheists: Isn't nihilism the most logical position?
No, because it disregards the values that we ourselves place on things, and so ignores the goal-based prioritsation that is part of the function of human consciousness. Edit: "I would also like to raise the is/ought problem. Just because something occurs, doesn't necessarily mean that it is a morally right behaviour, whether it is beneficial or not." Correct. Our behaviour is regulated by established codes and principles, rather than arbitrary ad-hoc judgement of individual instances of behaviour. It is the formation of such codes that is part of the social function of humans, where consensus / hierarchy establishes the rules. We then hold people to those rules for all their subsequent behaviour, unless and until the rules are changed by the same process. The rules are important because of precedence; one instance of risky behaviour might turn out OK, but the rules will be based on the risk and the (estimated) long term consequence of such rules, not any one outcome. Hence you'll be prosecuted for throwing knives at people even if you miss.
Which roles allow a church to discriminate on the basis of religion, and which roles can they not discriminate?
In the United States, yes churches and other houses of worship can discriminate based on religion.http://www.legalmatch.com/law-li...Often, employers will require potential employess to sign a morality clause prior to accepting a job. In Catholic organizations, people have been let go for utilizing IVF to get pregnant, for being in a same sex relationship, or even having a child out of wedlock. What many misunderstand is that hospitals with religious histories/ connections do not fall under that umbrella, because the majority of their day to day activity is not centered around engaging in religious activity. Catholic hospitals in the US are not religious charities like they once were. Archdiocese do not fund the care provided by the hospitals, they do not provide a significant amount of probono care and they receive federal dollars and goverment funded reimbursement for care.Churches and other houses of worship being exempt from federal employment laws makes sense from a first amendment standpoint.But when I look at the amount of government funding related organizations get, I feel like exercising the freedom to discriminate who you hire and who you provide services is in violation in atleast the spirit of the first amendment.62 percent of funding is tax payor funded, and CSS is allowed exemption from discriminatory adoption law. I feel like it would behoove these organizations to follow their conscience, and stop getting public funding. But discriminating against the taxpayors who fund it feels highly unethical to me.
What's an easy topic to write about for religion research paper?
Be succinct, pick St. Francis of Assisi,or Martin Luther, or the nine levels of prayer. go to www. ask. com and pick one of the above. go to www. wikipedia.com and do the same. A research paper should not regurgitate the info. you read. It should inspire the reader to analysis, discover, probe, synthesize, evaluate the position you propose. Don't make it boring, challenge your reader! Make them think. If you do your paper with this perspective in mind you'll enjoy the hunt (research) and the capture of the readers' minds. Good-luck!
Why would a political progressive, who opposes discrimination on the basis of religion, belief, philosophy, etc., disqualify a job-seeker on the basis of being a Republican?
Why? Some progressives just don't like conservatives and don't want to have them around, just as some conservatives don't like progressives and would rather avoid them. But it's completely legal. Just as it is 100% lawful for a conservative hiring manager to decline to hire a progressive (absent some other prohibited basis for discrimination), it is 100% lawful for a progressive to decline to hire a conservative, at least in the US, with the same caveat.It might or might not be pretty dumb to do this, depending upon the kind of job the applicant is being considered for. Auto mechanic? Who cares what your politics are? Graphic designer? How could your politics possibly matter?Personal assistant? Such a person needs to be as simpatico as possible with the principal s/he will be working for.Supreme Court clerk? You bet your ass the Justice will vet the applicant's philosophy to make sure it is aligned with his or her own.If I own a radio station do I have the right to decide whether I will hire progressive talk show hosts or conservative talk show hosts? The thing that makes it different from discriminating against (to use the OP's example) a Muslim, is that religion is a classification protected under US civil rights law. It is illegal to discriminate against a job applicant on the basis of race, religion, sex, national origin, and certain other classifications that are treated as immutable. (Although religious beliefs are not strictly speaking immutable, it would be against the public policy of the United States to expect an applicant to convert from one religion to another just to get a job.)The question asks whether this is outrageous, wouldn't a progressive be outraged by this? To be honest, no. If someone is such a diehard conservative that that person does not want to hire me because of my political views, it's a pretty good sign that I don't want that job and would not be happy in it. Bottom line: in the US at least, it is perfectly legal unless it is a smokescreen for discriminating against some group illegally. But it might be a really stupid, short-sighted thing to do, depending upon the circumstances.