Yeah.

I'm going to bring up RELIGION in philosophy. If you think about it, religion IS philosophy--it's just a little twisted up sometimes. And it's not really the religion's fault in itself, for all practicality's sake; it's just the people who say they follow it and, like all humans and their faulty nature, make it go awry, right?

I somewhat agree. Some religions are a philiosophu lik Buddhism. While others are a way of life (Islam, Judaism, Christiniaty, Hindusim, and some others). I do not find it twisted up at all actually, without it man kind would be lost.

twisted in a sense that people twist it for their own purposes. You know? Look at Christianity for example, (btw, I'm christian, I'm not slamming it or anything) they started witch hunts, the Crusades, etc. all because some person or group of persons thought that the religion was this, or that.

I see where you are coming from. The benefits far outweigh the negative results that sometimes occur.

I find that religion is used as almost sort of a metaphorical safety blanket. I am not religious myself, but I find that many people turn to religion as a means of psychologically helping them in their life. To someone who has lost their family, lost their reason to live, or whatever else it may be, it is very comforting to believe in a greater being who is watching over them. It gives them the strength to move forward in their life, knowing they are not alone in the world. Even in terms of their actions, religion can guide their behaviour and ethics to do good instead of bad. In my eyes, religion itself is a great belief.

In my opinion religion is most definitely a philosophy based upon one person or group's theories on moral living, the start of the universe, after-life etc. Since no person is perfect a religion can't be either. But it is not the belief that goes wrong it is radicals who take things to extremes. The bible for example, a collaboration of written pieces, outlines the basic foundations of Christianity. Christian law is established upon what is written in the bible, much of which was influenced by cultural "norms" in the time of Christ. When considered literally and these "norms" are not looked at from a historical and critical eye, religion can be made a bad thing by those who follow it.

I agree with Jordan - I have been reading the Bible, mainly out of curiosity, and have discovered many beautiful things written there, but also many things that would be barbaric if taken literally in today's society. However, if these parts were taken metaphorically (as I have been led to believe they ought to) there is much written there that outlines quite a good and fair philosophy for living daily life.

I agree with Jordan. Religion is not the problem but rather the power hungry adherents to religion who twist its tenets for their own aims. Anything fundamentalist is scary when some believe that only their way of doing things is correct and all others are wrong. They are especially scary when they justify persecuting and killing others for "religious" purposes, as has happened throughout history.

What do you mean by cultural ""norms"" as you call them? I dont get it because I cant think of specific examples where the things written that Christians specifically adhere to being particularly "normal" to the prevailing Jewish and Roman-Pagan majority of the time of Christ. I think the writing and ideas were so NOT "normal" that Christians were hunted and persecuted for centuries thereafter.

I have definitely seen the religious influence of certain philosophers and political philosophers bleed over into their work Jordan, cheapening them significantly. Thomas Moore for example, Utopia is a revolutionary little book but the most obviously objectionable aspects of it are the ones tied to religion. Moore makes his Utopia accommodate his religion which, while understandable, is unfortunate.