Churches should pay taxes.
Churches should either pay Taxes or mind there own business!
Why should any entity that pays NO TAXES have so much power in politics and business, if you dont pay taxes you should not have a voice in how businesses that do pay taxes are run or what they can oor cant do
Gandhi said, those who think religion has no place in politics understand neither religion nor politics.
i agree. Religion and politics, to the dismany of many, are pretty much inseperable. People have to run a country based on what they think is right, and that crosses the border in to ethics, which are firmly based in religion. Example: Terrorism is a sort of politics, but most western cultures see it as wrong…but why is it wrong? it all has to do with what you believe, which is basically what religion is.
Are you saying if someone is not Religious that they are then unethical.
Power in every manifestation is political. In society, the state holds a monopoly on the use of force and this is something that has never fit religion very well. But if the two should meet, churches should pay taxes to enter the public sphere.
To dust off a quote by Clausewitz:
“War is nothing more than the continuation of politics by other means”
no, i’m saying every one is religious. Maybe you are atheist, but that is a religion. Of course my defenition of religion is a set of beliefs. So every one believes something, and what you believe depicts what you do (or would do ) if in politics.
Just for the record, the you in this post is a general you, not like you, but like, a person.
Your Mom should pay taxes.
I think he’s saying that if someone is unethical they are not religious…
well, yeah, sort of…i think people who are unethical, see their lack of ethics as right, therefore, for the most part, everyone thinks they’re ethical.
How about those Communists, like the USSR or China under Mao? No religion allowed.
I think I see what you’re saying here, but I also think lots of atheists (myself included) would disagree here.
As you observed, people usually see a religion as being associated with (to a greater or lesser extent) some common set of beliefs, rituals and moral teachings. Some of these are common between religions, and some of them vary.
Atheism doesn’t really have any of these characteristics. It’s just a lack of belief in something. Two atheists don’t necessarily have any more in common than a lack of belief in a god, just as two people with yellow shoes don’t necessarily have any common ground.
I guess what I’m trying to point out is that whilst belief in a particular god typically mandates a certain set of core beliefs and ethical principles, being an atheist doesn’t tell you anything about these things - an atheist has the choice of any morals he wants.
I guess you could argue that every atheist has his own private religion, based on his personal beliefs. But that does lack the typical expectation of religion to involve more than one person somehow - otherwise you could equally argue that each Christian is leader of their own separate one person denomination…
We settled this a long time ago.
Agnosticism is maybe what you are talking about, but Atheist are strong in the FAITH there is no GOD. Look it up in Wikipedia or anywhere else. It’s a religion.
You’re one of thse people who doesn’t like our religion, and you don’t want us to have the same rights you Christians have. Well, buddy, Atheism IS a religion, and as such, we are entitled to the same rights and priveleges as you are.
Agnostics, however, are not.
Is there a difference between fact and faith Billy?
Anyways, atheist do pay taxes.
Yeah, no religion in their government, and look what happened!
Thats an interesting idea, because if you ask someone about their own faith, they’ll call it fact, but if you ask someone about someone else’s faith, they might say its not fact. Weird, huh?
Gandhi also once said, “As soon as we lose the moral basis, we cease to be religious. There is no such thing as religion over-riding morality. Man, for instance, cannot be untruthful, cruel or incontinent and claim to have God on his side.”
It’s my understanding that most European states are secular: There is no prayer offered before parliamentary sessions and there is no mention of god in their constitutions or other legal documents. To pull from a seperate post, they have lower infant mortality rates than the US. I don’t see a correlation.
*A degenerated worker state is a whole argument to itself.
True, but to me, rituals aren’t the most important thing in religion. Silly social things such as gay marriage aren’t the most important thing either. Compassion and love for fellow man is what’s most important. Well, I guess a lot of people would say that includes gay marriage, I say, whatever…
I htink Mexico is also a secular state: the president is not allowed to attend publicly a church service.
BTW it looks like that in the U.S if you want to run a business and pay no taxes, if you want your employees to have no rights, etc. just register it as a church! (opinion based on recent legal rulings! hope I am wrong! please correct me!)
My, Mr Potter, did you stumble over a Gandhi quote generator?
I see no point in discussing such matter, this can be ummed and arrred and agued over untill everyone is blue in the face (red on the fingertips) It is all still going to be the way it is.
There is to many rich powerful men at the top, who like it that way and to many ignorant people who dont know any different.