4 ms·

I feel the same way about religion in general. It doesn't seem any different. I find that it causes way more harm to society and peoples minds than any good it

I feel the same way about religion in general. It doesn't seem any different. I find that it causes way more harm to society and peoples minds than any good it does. Religious upbringing or being indoctrinated into not thinking for yourself as a child is probably a likely reason people turn to things such as psychics.

ARandomerDude 7y ago
> Religious upbringing or being indoctrinated into not thinking for yourself This is a pretty strange claim to me. I definitely agree there are some religious strands that are anti-intellectual. But then there are Augustine, Ambrose, Thomas Aquinas, John Calvin, Francis Turretin, John Owen, etc., whose works most people are simply incapable of grasping, and fewer still can equal. Many of us are trained with these intellectual giants to show us not what, but how, to think. Are you aware of these great thinkers and their contributions to your thought life? To pick a random example among many, our concept of personhood relies heavily on a theologian named Turtullian, before whom person (Latin, "persona") merely meant an actor's mask (i.e, the role one plays). Tertullian explored the enduring "substance" of a person, regardless of what role they play in life -- concepts we now assume as a given, but were hotly contested at the time.
- LessDmesg 7y ago
  Religion is just paleolithic thinking, a primitive mental and emotional representation of authority. The chieftain of the tribe, and later the state, is the mediating and ordering force in human society. But since a chieftain or a king is just a man, the simplest way to justify his superior position is to imagine supernatural beings above him... The fact that some smart people lived at a time when science and technology weren't well developed, and hence fell for this mental trap, doesn't mean that we should resort to caveman thinking now.
- izzydata 7y ago
  People are still intelligent creatures after all. It doesn't surprise me that eventually over hundreds or thousands of years people managed to have some critical thoughts.
  - ARandomerDude 7y ago
    Agree, but your previous claim was stronger than that -- that religious upbringing causes people not to think for themselves, which isn't an accurate claim. Critically, in the example I used, Tertullian's expression of personhood was explicitly counter-cultural, i.e., only something an independent thinker would come up with.

ARandomerDude 7y ago

> Religious upbringing or being indoctrinated into not thinking for yourself This is a pretty strange claim to me. I definitely agree there are some religious strands that are anti-intellectual. But then there are Augustine, Ambrose, Thomas Aquinas, John Calvin, Francis Turretin, John Owen, etc., whose works most people are simply incapable of grasping, and fewer still can equal. Many of us are trained with these intellectual giants to show us not what, but how, to think. Are you aware of these great thinkers and their contributions to your thought life? To pick a random example among many, our concept of personhood relies heavily on a theologian named Turtullian, before whom person (Latin, "persona") merely meant an actor's mask (i.e, the role one plays). Tertullian explored the enduring "substance" of a person, regardless of what role they play in life -- concepts we now assume as a given, but were hotly contested at the time.

LessDmesg 7y ago
Religion is just paleolithic thinking, a primitive mental and emotional representation of authority. The chieftain of the tribe, and later the state, is the mediating and ordering force in human society. But since a chieftain or a king is just a man, the simplest way to justify his superior position is to imagine supernatural beings above him... The fact that some smart people lived at a time when science and technology weren't well developed, and hence fell for this mental trap, doesn't mean that we should resort to caveman thinking now.
izzydata 7y ago
People are still intelligent creatures after all. It doesn't surprise me that eventually over hundreds or thousands of years people managed to have some critical thoughts.
- ARandomerDude 7y ago
  Agree, but your previous claim was stronger than that -- that religious upbringing causes people not to think for themselves, which isn't an accurate claim. Critically, in the example I used, Tertullian's expression of personhood was explicitly counter-cultural, i.e., only something an independent thinker would come up with.