....we still have a conscience...

Hello Sanjana_aslam!!! Well I agree with you. We don't really need any religion to choose what is right and what is wrong. Without religion too, a person can live a very much compassionate and rightful life. The teachings of the spiritual leaders can be taken as the guidance to live the life. And we should realize the teachings of the these leaders by our conscious mind and realize why did they really told so. It is not necessary that we bound ourselves to the one specific religion or the teaching of one specific leader. We can always learn from many spiritual leaders. If their teachings conflict, then it is on us to experiment which one is really right. So, we can learn from many religions in the life and instead of binding totally to one religion, we can take the good things from all of them and lead the better and meaningful life... happy mylotting...

if we are sure of the religion, we will not do things that hurt other people. Religion is not possible to invite people to kill and hurt other people.

You know Sanjana, I believe that people who kill others in the name of religion, have been brainwashed into believing that what they are doing is correct…so even their conscience tells them so. Similarly, people who are thieves or other types of criminals, their conscience has been conditioned into condoning their heinous acts, by the circumstances. The first time a person steals, his/her conscience tell him/her that it was not the right thing to do…next time that person hesitates but circumstances and other priorities (hunger mainly) numbs that conscience into accepting the crime…even supporting it. similarly for religious zealots who spread hatred in the name of religion…even they are not comfortable doing it for the first time, but repeated classes and influences make their conscience accept it as the most perfect and moral way of conduct. So you see, our conscience can act only if we have been brought up and live in a somewhat neutral or open environment and we have been taught the rights and wrongs of a secular society, not a religious one. Also the atmosphere in which a child is brought up, affects the conscience of the adult, a lot.

While it is true that we all have a conscience, the problem is that it doesn't function properly in many people. And in some people it doesn't function at all. That is why, mothers abort their children, that is why we have wars, that is why we have crimes.

That's not exactly true. Conscience really only goes off like an alarm when we do something that violates our pre-conceived notions of right and wrong. There are many people that can do things that harm others in many ways, and never have a second thought about it. Generally this is because they were never taught, or ever taught themselves, that doing so is wrong. So they never thought they shouldn't do those things. Further, there are people who do say killing is not wrong, regardless of religion. Stalin in Soviet Russia was anti-religious, yet had no problem killing people with or without cause.

Agreed to that, we all have some one who is whispering us to do the right..or the wrong thing. Religion, isn't really that bad, but it can be to those who represents it and becoming more literate in their principles. some are even misguided in their religion....