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Originally Posted by SONIC GAIL
Jesus did say in the scriptures to follow the law of the land and give unto Ceasar what is Ceasar's to me this is saying that he was for the separation of earthly government and god's government over your faith.
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OK, thanks. I didn't know that and it's exactly the kind of explaination I was looking for.
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Originally Posted by hevusa
What I find even more interesting are the countries in the world that have figured out how to provide free health care and education to its citizens happen to be non-theist countries (Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Denmark, Finland, etc).
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To be fair, relative to the rest of the world those are very wealthy, stable and equal societies. But yeah, ultimately I agree. The idea that religion offers spritual comfort to the most downtrodden (while helpful) is (for me) a poor substitute for reasonable living conditions and accessible health care. I suppose a religious person may argue that we need both but, for me, caring for the well-being of people in this life takes priority over preparing them for another one that, I'm sure, would be far less appealing if life here was made a bit more bearable. Of course, religion is infinitely more complex than that, but its complexity seems more at the level of philosophy than it does on a practical day to day level. It's a way of thinking about the world in the same way that something like existentialism or postivism is. As a set of ideas I find Christianity (and all other religions) fascinating. I just find it hard to see what its real use is outside of that - except perhaps as a springboard to later broadly relateable ideas, most specifically socialism.