Some tools were created for negative purposes. A sword's only real purpose is to kill people. A guillotine has the same sole purpose. Religion is the same. It's ALWAYS manipulated to suit the people in power. Every single popular religion in the world today.
Religion is fairly old, to say the least. It wasn't originally as it is today, as organized or vast that is. Initially, people explained phenomenons they saw every day as the work of Gods or Goddesses, it was really used as a way to discover that which they were unaware of. As for the popular religions today, I agree that in many cases it can be used as a manipulative tool, but that doesn't mean it always is.
That's bullstuff and you know it. Sounding poetic doesn't make something true. All faith is is the desire to gain knowledge without caring whether your "knowledge" is true or not. It's the ultimate form of self-delusion and it's a disgrace to all thinking beings.
That's how you define it, dear, and that's what you think of it. I define it differently, which is why I explained that. I feel that Faith is what keeps us going, whatever a person may have Faith in.
It happens to be speculative bullstuff, and the only people who rely on it are the people who've been raised around it. If religion was abolished from everyone's minds right now no child would develop this.
Well that's a given. If we abolished anything from everyone's minds right now, no child would develop the fundamental ideals it teaches either. That's why religion is a tool. It can be used by whomever desires to and dropped by whomever desires.
Once again, like I said to Solid:
But this really has nothing to do with the Mosque. I'll continue via PM, though, if you desire. :o