@hamburglar - I think I relate with you because I have been where you are and in truth I feel your frustrations and I continue to feel some of them till today.Right or wrong,who knows.I understand or believe that all religions are based on faith and faith is a personal matter.For that reason I don't care about what religion people profess but how that religion works through them.It took me awhile but I figured if I don't care about other religions why should I care about your views.Honestly I am glad and even grateful you're doing good.This world needs it! I will only tell you this,don't tire to look for answers even though you might be going round and round in circles.

@Tokyo & @Hamburglar,please take time to digest this!
The fear of the Lord(doing good) is the beginning of wisdom(heaven)
@Hamburglar, I have a feeling that you could actually be in heaven and know not.
And while there,how about you stretching your hand to the ones on earth & lift them up to where you are? A lil courtesy though in your language will help while at it. Much love!

@Tokyo & @Hamburglar,please take time to digest this!
The fear of the Lord(doing good) is the beginning of wisdom(heaven)
@Hamburglar, I have a feeling that you could actually be in heaven and know not.
And while there,how about you stretching your hand to the ones on earth & lift them up to where you are? A lil courtesy though in your language will help while at it. Much love!

And neither is it true to say that religion is the main reason behind war and strife amongst humanity. For example, the middle East conflict, which is a major conflict is far from religious. So is the conflict between China and Tibet.

Whether you choose to admit it or not, religion is the main reason for most of the war and strife in this world....It's a fact...Ideological differences are a distant second...It's a fact, almost all the wars that are being fought around the world right now are propagated by religious differences. The Middle east conflict is an ostensible RELIGIOUS conflict...You and I both know that the Hamas are a muslim fundamentalist group that is embroiled in a never ending war with the Israeli Jews.....

Moreover, we must admit that Man is essentially religious (I'll touch on the reasons for this later) and that it is inevitable for him to use religion and its symbols to further his pursuit of power, fame, wealth, and even the 'Kingdom of God'.

Man is not essentially religious, everybody is born without the knowledge of a god thereby an atheist and is then indocrinated into religion by their parents and society. So no, man is not essentially religious, man is taught to be religious.

So far, you have never told us where your ideas of goodness come from, though you have always claimed that this faculty is innate. But ideas of innate knowledge are rooted on theism and the perfectibility of the soul via reincarnation.

Goodness doesn't have to have a source, goodness should be something you decide to deliberately do...It's a conscientous to be good, not some sort of acquired philosophy where you need ideas to derive the source.....It's really a simple issue, you choose to be good, anything else is just complicating an issue that doesn't need complication...I am not sure why you tycho try to make things more complex that they are.....Why do you need a reason to be good? Just be good, period, end of conversation....Anything else is secondary.

Otherwise one is born with a 'tabula- rassa' which is filled with ideas from without. Such that all these things you say were acquired from your teachers.

Yes, those ideas were acquired from teachers, parents and society as a whole.

In any case, your posts on theism and atheism leave me with the conviction that you have refused to grow beyond your Sunday school lessons. Hence, the tendency to over simplify matters.

I over simplify matters because they really are just that...simple matters....these issues are black and white, when you try to make them gray then you end up in an abyss and end going going round and round in circles when there really isn't a reason for the vicious cycle on a really simplistic issue..It's really simple, sunday school lessons or not, it's not rocket science when deciding to do good and to live a righteous life....It's really that simple tycho, don't try to put a spin on everything with word puzzles that distract from the real subject....You tycho always go for the sensational, the dramatic, always trying to kill a housefly with a sledge hammer, when all you need is just a simple answer.....it's not neccessary, it's not that complicated.

For example, to say that one should do good in an evil world without expecting anything beats the logic of goodness. Also, it is false to believe that your innate goodness is enough to create a perfect world even without others being transformed from evil to goodness.

Dude, you really need to get serious...Are you telling me that one cannot do good out of the goodness of his heart without expecting anything in return? I hope I misunderstood you because if that's how you view life, then there is definitely a problem....I am a perfect example of somebody who does some good in this world and I don't expect anything AT ALL in retur.....And even if I were to be offered something in return, I would not acept it...It's called INTEGRITY, it's a rewarding feeling, very liberating, it doesn't matter how evil this world is, but if you do good, do good because it's the right thing to do, period......I am not sure why you are always looking for some sort of explanation to everything even something that doesn't need explanation, some of us really just do good because it's the right thing to do, we don't expect anything back....get real dude..And it's not false to believe that innate goodness can transform this world into a better place..It might not make the world perfect but if everybody tried hard to be a good person, that innate goodness you are talking about can immensely transform this world into a much much better place....Unfortunately it sounds like you are a skeptic and a glass half empty kind of guy...That is a defeatist attitude.....I am not gullible, I know we are never going to have an ideal world, but we can make this place a better place for our children if people summoned and corraled that innate goodness inside them...

The individual cannot be accountable to other humans who are mainly selfish and evil, only. In such a case, ethics and morality would cease to exist as there'd be no ethical frame of reference. This is why Man seeks God.

Not having an ethical frame of reference would actually be a good thing because it will signify that people have the capability of living life the right way without the need to reference a code of ethics and morality for guidance.......That would be a major achievement and a good thing for humanity.....Anytime you don't have a need to refer back to some codes to rid yourself of a detrimental lifestyle means that you have made positive strides forward into achieving a place where goodness is inherent and doesn't need to be referenced or instilled anymore....If only we could have that...........