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At least in my experience, as a gen-X person in the US: For at least a generation now, organized religions have been doing a poor job of addressing people's pe
by mmagin 8y ago
At least in my experience, as a gen-X person in the US:
For at least a generation now, organized religions have been doing a poor job of addressing people's personal spiritual needs, while at the same time being the bastion of various sorts of social conservatism with justifications that often don't hold up in the context of modern scientific knowledge.
Now, I do think this is sometimes quite unfortunate, as it sometimes leaves these people easy prey to even less rationalistic religions and cults. (A certain amount of practice at various sorts of critical thinking may also immunize you against these things as well.)
- red75prime 8y ago> being the bastion of various sorts of social conservatism Aren't they conservative out of necessity? You cannot rapidly change interpretation of the holy texts, and keep the congregation assured that you are true to the hundreds/thousands years of tradition/the words of the prophet.
- danaris 8y agoSocial progressivism does not require willingness to change holy texts. If you look at the Christian New Testament, most (though possibly not all, I don't claim encyclopedic knowledge of it) of the teachings Jesus line up quite well with social progressive values in the US today—things like caring for the poor, the sick, and immigrants and refugees. The fact that the "religious right" is a thing in the US today doesn't particularly indicate that this is the natural order of things. While I'm no longer religious myself, much of my family still is, but identifies as part of the "Christian left," and pushes very strongly against the view that religious must necessarily equal Republican.