[citation][nom]kewlx[/nom]EVEN IF God didn't exist then wouldn't it be better to live a lie about being good and not killing other people and following the ten commandments and loving others and believing in a lie that some day we will go to heaven and reap the rewards for essentially being good?[/citation]
If only that was the case. Unfortunately, just 'living good' isn't enough for some people and they feel the need to impose their religious views on others. I don't buy any of the sky-fairy or magic wizard in the clouds nonsense preached to me in any of the Jewish/Christian/Islamic texts. To me, the current day religions are no different than the Greek/Roman/Egyptian pantheons of the past. Eventually (maybe a few hundred years, maybe a few thousand), the Judeo-Christian religions will be viewed the same way, as mythology believed by an ancient and primitive people who didn't have flying cars or jet-packs. It's happened to every religion before our current ones and will likely happen to many more in the future.
As far as religion being the only reason people are good... You mean to tell me if it wasn't for the threat of some supposed father-figure in the clouds you'd be on a wanton killing and destruction rampage? That scares the heck out of me. Of course, the supposedly religious people (Christians, Jews, Muslims, et. al) do spend a lot of killing each other, despite a commandment telling them not to. Not to mention the supposed "Christian" USA who happens to have a lot of people working on the Sabbath (supposedly a capital offense according to Exodus, also a violation of commandment #4).
I strongly disagree that religion is the reason we all work together towards the good of the community. Game theory has a lot of this pretty much worked out. It's in the best interest of the species to work together rather than screw each other over because such behaviour is self-destructive and can lead to the destruction of the species. Heck, just look at WoW (or any MMO really). Guilds are essentially groups of unrelated (and hugely separated) people working together for a common goal, to better themselves and their guild. People that betray the guild are punished/exiled and may end up having difficulty getting into a new guild due to stigma, thus hurting their ability to better themselves. People in WoW aren't working together as a cohesive group because of some fear of an all-powerful being, they're doing it because it makes the most sense to do so.
Of course, working together for the betterment of the group is hardly unique to humans in the animal kingdom:
http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2011/01/31/1016269108
If religious folks were all content to keep their beliefs to themselves (and good chunk of them are actually) I'd have no issue with religion. But this whole thing about "gay marriage being a slight against god, therefore we must stop it" just ticks me off (not to mention the whole "they believe in a different cloud wizard! Kill them!" issue). You have no right to force your religious views on someone else who happens to do something you don't like nor do you have the right to force them to live as second class citizen. Also, their doing of something you don't like in the open does not imply they're forcing you to live as they do. It's just as wrong for them to force you to be gay as it is for you to force them to be Christian. Same goes for you people who say 'it's gross, so they must be stopped.' I happen to think eating beef liver is one of the most vile and disgusting things on this planet, I hate the smell, the texture and the taste; however, that doesn't give me the right to stop people who like it from eating it next to me in a restaurant.
Anyway, back on topic. Good for Facebook, they're a private company and can do whatever the heck they want, it's a free country. If you don't like it, go back to myspace or some other website more in tune with your beliefs, it's a free country for you too.
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