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Religion is one of this weird things that seems to be deeply "built in" into our mind, some kind of atavism. It is much more prevalent than a rational, scienti
by BrandoElFollito 6y ago
Religion is one of this weird things that seems to be deeply "built in" into our mind, some kind of atavism.
It is much more prevalent than a rational, scientific approach and I can understand people want to defend something they deeply believe in. We are not a tolerant species.
Now, as a pure atheist, I am all in favor to ban these laws and pus religion somewhere n the side, together with fairy tales (or psychiatric studies). I also know that this will not happen.
- clairity 6y agothe desire to explain the world is a built-in survival/thrival mechanism. it's not weird so much as fascinating what our brains can conjure.
- chrischen 6y agoThe desire to explain and justify our sins is evil masked as religion.
- f6v 6y agoThe benefits which come from scientific advances aren't distributed equally. My take on this is that for many people religion offers the only justification of suffering on Earth. Otherwise people with low education level and socioeconomic status don't understand why they have to live on 1$ a day.
- auggierose 6y agoSo why are there so many religious people in the US? Are they all living on $1 a day? It probably also explains the current state of the US, as reason and religion usually don't cohabitate too well.
- heavenlyblue 6y agoThe question is “what does religion give them that isn’t given by a more progressive social structure?”
- skinkestek 6y agoProbably because: - tradition - because it worked for previous generations: America became one of the best countries to live in while being religious - I guess some people also shared my experience that it worked, despite how unreasonable it seems. (Yes, this means I am an engineer who discuss evolution with you guys and have studied a tiny bit of astrophysics, but still pray to God and is heavily influenced by what I read. It kind of works like wave particle dualism: I use the model that works for the situation.)
- austincheney 6y agoThat sounds like ethnocentricity: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnocentrism https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnocentrism Religion is a codified belief system while science is a codified knowledge discovery system. They cohabitate just fine until one is mistaken for the other.
- ant6n 6y agoQuality of life is a concern in the us, as is wealth disparity. I’m not sure whether it’s the ones who are poor who are the religious zealots. Maybe some in the us use religion to explain why they should be in a privileged position compared to others?
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- Nesco 6y agoGulf Arabs are loaded and still deeply religious. I don’t really see your point here...
- gmanley 6y agoA small percentage are loaded. That wealth isn't distributed evenly.
- dariosalvi78 6y ago"Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people"
- blfr 6y agoYou know that psychiatric studies often belong next to fairy tales but want to use a "rational, scientific approach" over thousands of years of evolved tradition. How much better is sociology or management science than psychiatry?
- throwaway894345 6y agoWhy impugn all religions when this sort of extremism is unique to one religion in the last many centuries? Even then, there are presumably many Muslims who do behave peacefully and tolerantly. Moreover, in the west were seeing a significant spike in secular political violence (namely riots), and of course political violence has been far more common and severe than religious violence in the last several centuries. Perhaps the key factor is neither religion nor secularism, but something else altogether (I propose “tribalism”). EDIT: I began drafting this comment before others posted their flame comments. My bad for bringing nuance to a “flame religion” thread.
- js2 6y agoHey, I'm a Jew and an atheist. I pray to a God I don't believe exists. My wife was raised as a Christian and she hates organized religion but still has me put an evergreen up in our house every December. The Nazis and Soviets were atheists. Which is all to say, people are complicated and if they want to find a way to demonize each other, they'll find one, religion or not, God or not. I'm ambivalent whether religion has done humanity more harm than good, but I think that it probably on balance is too humanity's benefit. In any case, what we have here is a case of extremism. Let's call that out instead of using it as an example to bash all religion.
- AlexTWithBeard 6y ago> The Nazis and Soviets were atheists. The Soviets yes. Communism was the religion and Lenin its' prophet. Nazis had "gott mit uns" though.