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BITE = Behavior Information Thought Emotional Control All cults use that but all religions do too to a certain degree. No sane religion will allow members tha
by sjbr 5y ago
BITE = Behavior Information Thought Emotional Control
All cults use that but all religions do too to a certain degree.
No sane religion will allow members that can think for themselves to do an independent research and decide if they want to join or not. That would remove the easiest prey, children. Children have an implicit trust in his parents so religion will hijack that and insert themselves at the center of their lives. As Paine said:
All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit.
- swayvil 5y agoMost of us don't independently research the science either. Trash epistemology is the norm. Also, every ideology seems to be enemies with the others. No seeking of common ground. Each painting the other as pure crazy evil. That's an interesting constant.
- xabotage 5y agoTrash epistemology is the norm. But it would be nice at the very least to normalize evidence-based knowledge as the default instead of religious mythology. Just because the ideologies are enemies, doesn't mean one of them isn't significantly less wrong than the other.
- jimmaswell 5y agoThere are certainly exceptions like Buddhism, if you consider that a religion.
- m0llusk 5y agoIn theory that is true, but in practice Buddhism breaks down into the usual behaviors with reverence for the central figure and tenets and tribalism for the followers.
- denton-scratch 5y agoActually, what's true in practice is true in theory as well; reverence for the sangha ("buddhist community") is baked in as one of the three precious jewels. Buddhist prostrations are a gesture of submission to the three jewels. Tantric buddhism adds a fourth target of reverence: the guru. And reverence for the guru in tantra extends to absolute obedience to your personal teacher. Buddhism is very culty.
- rsyring 5y agoI can't speak for other religions or even Christianity as a whole due to its breadth and differences of practice, but there were and are certainly those in the Christian church who independently reasoned their way to an understanding of the existence of God and a corresponding faith in Christ and encouraged others to do the same. See, for example, the history and works of Francis Schaeffer and C.S. Lewis. I also think the work of John Frame on epistemology might reveal some of the underlying presuppositions seemingly evident in the above comment. I'm not making any other assertion about their works or perspectives on religion, faith, or lack thereof. I point it out solely as a counter to the above perspective, which is a bad caricature at best.
- xabotage 5y agoFaith is belief without evidence or belief in the presence of contradicting evidence - people don't "reason their way" into faith, they rationalize. C.S. Lewis is popular because he uses humanist principles to spin a fundamentally authoritarian, controlling religion into something easier for the modern mindset to rationalize. The GP's perspective is extremely accurate - child indoctrination is religion's primary mechanism to maintain it's power and control.
- Alenycus 5y agoTo be blunt, you either haven't read cs Lewis or are being intentionally deceitful. Cs Lewis's arguments are explicitly anti-humanist. Dostoesvsky and lewis changed my life and brought my from a mild agnosticism to traditional Catholicism and my life has never been better.
- xabotage 5y agoOf course Lewis isn't explicitly humanist - Humanism is a "worldly" movement, and we can't let the "evil", "fallen" world take credit for anything good. I would be more inclined to buy Lewis' depiction of the Christian god if it didn't clash with all of Christian history up until, serendipitously, humanistic principles gained traction. Testimonials are not evidence.
- 5y ago
- elefanten 5y agoAlternate possibility: religion is a pre-modern adaptation to encourage co-operation / unity / pro-social behavior and it likely correlated with fitness of societies for a long time. To the extent it played that function, indoctrinating children was no different than teaching them to hunt or gather.
- MattPalmer1086 5y agoIn practise, both are probably true. I fundamentally dislike religion and the tribal, irrational cult like mind control they seem to all exhibit. But I have seen it in a different light after reading "Sapiens" by Yuval Harari. So I now acknowledge that it has probably played a useful role in human society, despite its large negative traits.
- elefanten 5y agoYeah, I've been against religion most of my life, but softened the stance a bit. There's good and bad. We need a modern social construct that fulfills and replaces some of what religion provided. I don't think we've nailed that yet.
- inkblotuniverse 5y agoIt's not that easy to replace something that arose semi-organically across large swaths of space and time. The whale is dead, and we've been living in its carcass for the last 200 years. Can you build a replacement whale whole cloth? Do you understand what all the little fiddly bits do, and why they're there? It sounds hard
- MattPalmer1086 5y agoAlain De Botton makes this argument in Religion for Athiests. https://www.alaindebotton.com/religion/ https://www.alaindebotton.com/religion/