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I don't doubt that religion has important social functions that propagated it and the societies that believed in them (memetic evolution in addition to genetic
by silverquiet 3y ago
I don't doubt that religion has important social functions that propagated it and the societies that believed in them (memetic evolution in addition to genetic evolution). The problem is there's a lot of unbelievable stuff (as in I'm literally unable to believe in them) that seems required to tie the whole thing together. For instance, that I don't believe in L Ron Hubbard's idea of Thetans which seems like a core tenant of the Scientology religion.
- xyzelement 3y agoNot re Scientology specifically but have you tried to go deep to understand, or is the inability to believe based on superficial secular knowledge?
- silverquiet 3y agoI'd say it's based on a childhood of attempted indoctrination into a few Christian denominations, primarily by my Catholic parents. Comically enough, I told them I was an atheist when I was 7 years old, but either they think I forgot, or they forgot it themselves. Either way I went to the church and Sunday school for the required 18 years and did the rituals I was supposed to. Nowadays I just go with them once in awhile to keep them happy and I don't talk about it with them. I think mainly it was the science denial that other Christian denominations engage in that put me off the whole thing as a child, but as I learned more about the religion as I grew up, I also stopped believing that (almost) anyone really believes in them; few of the followers of Jesus seem to want to replicate his radical love and compassion. Scientology just seems like one most people agree is unbelievable.