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Religion as a psychological tool is a very sad thing. But it's a very common thought, one I grew up with. In fact, I only started praying while still thinking i

Religion as a psychological tool is a very sad thing. But it's a very common thought, one I grew up with. In fact, I only started praying while still thinking it was all fake, but needing some kind of mental help past my problem in life at the time. So I understand that theory as well as anyone here. But not all religions are created equal. The Protestant religions are emasculated to some degree. Since they're based around rejecting the truth, their foundation is all wrong, and they can never get back to reality. Unfortunately, they turn many people away from Christianity. But that's not necessarily true. Those who keep looking for it will find it in Catholicism, just like John Henry Newman did. As he said, "to be deep in history is to cease to be Protestant." But more often, people don't really want to find out the truth. So they reject religion altogether. Except as a psychological tool.

kleer001 6y ago
Not just psychological, but also economic (halal mortages and hawala), sociological (their biggest strength is gathering people IMHO), parasocial (all the little morality plays/stories in them), interpersonal (various golden rules), historical (often muddled with myth), sometimes physical (yogas), and on and on with all the different dimensions of the human experience. As I'm sure you understand every religion is (among other things) an attempt at distillation of important perspectives and wisdom to help coming generations. So, I would not say "sad" by any means, well, except when misused. I don't know much about the Protestant / Catholicism schism, but it sounds pretty heated. Though, as an outsider, I'd peg them as sects rather than separate religions. Heck, I'd lump all the Abrahamic religions together into a single clade as they share some bits of the same holy books.
- sdegutis 6y ago
  That's not true of Christianity; this along with Judaism are historical religions. They exist not to pass on wisdom or ideas, but because of historical events, which they claim are the interventions of God in human history. In particular, Christianity exists as a result of the Resurrection, which it claims literally and historically happened. And there is significant proof that it really happened: https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12789a.htm https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12789a.htm

kleer001 6y ago

Not just psychological, but also economic (halal mortages and hawala), sociological (their biggest strength is gathering people IMHO), parasocial (all the little morality plays/stories in them), interpersonal (various golden rules), historical (often muddled with myth), sometimes physical (yogas), and on and on with all the different dimensions of the human experience. As I'm sure you understand every religion is (among other things) an attempt at distillation of important perspectives and wisdom to help coming generations. So, I would not say "sad" by any means, well, except when misused. I don't know much about the Protestant / Catholicism schism, but it sounds pretty heated. Though, as an outsider, I'd peg them as sects rather than separate religions. Heck, I'd lump all the Abrahamic religions together into a single clade as they share some bits of the same holy books.

sdegutis 6y ago
That's not true of Christianity; this along with Judaism are historical religions. They exist not to pass on wisdom or ideas, but because of historical events, which they claim are the interventions of God in human history. In particular, Christianity exists as a result of the Resurrection, which it claims literally and historically happened. And there is significant proof that it really happened: https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12789a.htm https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12789a.htm