why are religious fanatics about as cool as AIDS?
543343
well if more people would listen to the voice of God, then we would not worry about aids.
165951
Yikes!  Oh, yes, the bible thumpers are SUCH a peaceful bunch, aren't they?  I think they forgot about the Holy Crusades.  Anyone who adheres to an organized religion must automatically surrender brain cells at the door, otherwise they would realize that killing someone is not going to save them from hell or anything else.  Problem is, most of these people were born and raised in their faith and will never consider that any other way to live is possible.  They were brainwashed from such an early age that they become enraged when their 'faith' is challenged.
300702
Because Believers are human too
774367
Religions, like adverts, work only because someone is interested. There was a particularly good episode of The Simpsons, about it, one of the Treehouse of Terror ones. The moment the last person who worships a god dies, or gives up religion, religion will banish in the air.
393826
Religious people does not hurt themselves or any other for any reason . These are not from the religion . People adding these to it . \n\nPeople Religious are statistically the best living humans on world .
632726
You may have created a new oxymoron.  Evolved religion.  Religious fanatics tend to be UNBENDING in their beliefs.  I just can't see the major religions getting together and coming up with something that they all can worship and still cover all their basic needs.
769148
Why are some people so offensive about other peoples religion?
267808
religeons evolve, like species. At first you have primitive people, tens of thousands of years ago, wondering how they got there, and thanking the clouds for rain. And the infection keeps on going.
626475
It's very simple.  Some people are tolerant (of people and ideas that are different) and others are intolerant.  Most intolerant people want others to be like they are (and therefore be intolerant of those who are not like they are).  Ironically, many of the intolerant are more (traditionally)religious and, conversely, many of the tolerant are less (traditionally) religious.
711570
Religion is a "mind virus" it grows and spreads, like a virus. Inhabiting each victim with a belief system that is 2,000 years old. At a time when there was very little knowledge of the actual world and the Universe. These beliefs are spread from person to person, inhibiting people from believing and understanding truth, logic and reason. Something that science, atheists and in most cases, agnostics can understand. Science carries the human consciousness to a higher level. Religion lowers it.
698009
I think that scientists are above that petty religious crap.\n\nWe're the better people for bettering humanity.  They can keep their religious petri-dish people have soul's crap to themselves.
393804
no it's not, christians & other hyper religious people reproduce asexually, & antiseptically...they cut off an arm or a leg & it spontaneously grows into another hyper religious person...much like the magic broom in Walt Disney's movie, Fantasia...
501396
Both. Ultimately religion is a tool in the hands of man. Like any other tool it can be used for good or bad. Even the abscene of religion as in Athiests is a sort of religion on it's own. You see athiest activists wasting taxpayer money on really trivial things such as a courthouse having a copy of the Ten commandments or a phrase in a Boy Scout handbook. \n\nSo fanaticism is independent of religion. You can find it in the Linux vrs Windoze wars. You can find it between programmers argueing over which computer language is best. Religion does not cause fanaticism. Man does. Religion is just a common expression of it. \n\nAs a positive, religions give people a common idenity that often motivates them to help total strangers. Without chruches leading the way in helping the poor there would likely be little or no social services at all today. The Western world is a literate culture because of religion. It was religious scholars who preserved the languages during the dark ages and transcribed the books that allow us a peak into history before those times. It was religious scholars who often document history in the ancient world. \n\nReligion often saves lives. Even if you assume it is a purely placebo affect people every day find a new life and a constructive life through religious transformations. Some stay at it, others don't. But while they are "saved" they live a constructive life and attempt to put away destructive habits. \n\nIt is the promise of an afterlife which shapes many people into unselfish people. After they've tried it they often do it naturally but were there no religion society would become very brutish in a hurry. To see an example one merely needs to look into nations with no religion or religions which do not promote charity and other benificial actions toward society. Rome for example before Christianity was an empire built on strength. Weakness was not tolerated and the weak were expected to commit suicide in shame. It was a society with little pity and little ambition except personal glory and the glory of kin and clan. Human life had little value and the end of it was generally seen as entertainment. \n\nHitler was a good example of Athiesm in practice. The same with Stalin. Many athiests have good intentions and mean well for their fellows, however base human nature will always leave them in the minority. It is very difficult to practice ulteristic motives in a society that does not value them. Religion gives society a reason to value those motives. To sacrafice one's own life for the good of others. Few would do that if they thought there was no after life. \n\nMost major religions promote harmony among citizens. Some are openly pacifistic. This can be a hinderance or a help to society depending on the context. In times of war pacifists are not a help to a nation and every nation finds itself at war or depends on a stronger nation to protect it. Where there no promise of punishment it would raise aggression levels in societies and between societies. Given that all of the major religions promote peace and discourage war as basic tennents I think a world without relgion would mean a world with more wars. \n\nYes there are many examples of religious wars. As often as not they have stronger and deeper roots. For example the Crusades were not a religious war to the leadership of either side. Religion was only a way to motivate the commoner to die in the power struggles between two cultures. \n\nEthnic cleansing comes in many forms and much of it is because of actions not actual religion. The strife in Northern Ireland is more a nationalistic (native Irish against English imigrants who never assimilated into or assimilated the natives into their culture). It was not just Christian against Muslim it was ancient invaders and people who sided with or against the Nazis and other invaders which caused the deep hatreds that bubbled into Bosnian ethnic cleansing. \n\nAll of the ills attribute
726257
It can be successfully argues that they are equally brave because the Christian is counting on his faith rather than a known truth. That places him in the same category with the atheist. Greater love hath no other man , than he who'd lay his life down for his friends.
310178
Because religion gives people a chance to still have a Santa Claus figure in adulthood without feeling too ridiculous, by renaming it 'god', and thus trying to make it sound like a more grown-up idea.  It's simply a character flaw in people who don't want to accept reality.
865944
Fanatics of any faith does not like liberal logical thinking.\nThey just want blinkered faith to fulfill their vested interest.
1180467
What makes a person fanatical is insecurity. They are scared to death because deep down they know their religion makes as much sense as worshipping monkey turds. So do they gather their courage and proclaim the preacher wears no clothes? No, they scream louder to drown out the doubts and recruit others to reinforce the decision they've made. \n\nIt's funny the pain some people will go through to avoid discomfort.