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I've been saying for a while that "Religion is a social technology". Thou Shalt Not Kill is not as universal a moral as you'd like to believe, and the other com

I've been saying for a while that "Religion is a social technology". Thou Shalt Not Kill is not as universal a moral as you'd like to believe, and the other commandments are also good life advice. Even "Thou shalt have no other gods before me" serves an important purpose in keeping everyone on the same page. Nearly every culture has a tradition of parables; Tales that reveal important truths by metaphor. Whether they be about how to interact with others, how to motivate and treat yourself, or of outside dangers. Religion serves an important teaching purpose. Most have converged a lot; There's a lot of truths that are universal. Still, they're not all created equal. You probably shouldn't hate someone just because of their religion... Unless they're part of a death cult.

watwut 1y ago
Atheists are no more murderous the Christians. Religion is not necessary for that. Or even helpful.
- ctack 1y ago
  Useful anymore, it’s not. We have education now which tells us how to society.
- wqaatwt 1y ago
  Yet pre Christian societies in Europe were arguably significantly more brutal. Establishing at least some basic principals of universal equality was a big deal (something modern atheists inherited directly from Christianity) e.g. even amongst the civilized Greeks and and Romans foreigners who had no legal ties to their city states (some form of citizenship or diplomatic treaties with their home city) were basically treated as subhuman and could be enslaved and murdered with little to no repercussions. Universalist religions extended that to vast geographic areas and established some basic shared principles and trust between strangers e.g. in the middle ages somebody from Scandinavia could travel to Rome on their own with relatively (of course still significant) little risk of being robbed, enslaved or murdered while being able to rely on hospitality from complete strangers/foreigners during his trip. Of course the Romans already had something similar by the 100s AD (non citizens and slaves were of course excluded) but political systems are much more fragile than religions.
- ashoeafoot 1y ago
  We ran the experiment the ussr and china where thoroughly atheistified and decultured. And the results are in. Both societies are thoroughly amoral and horrifying. There are murderous religions, but christianity got tamed pretty well.And i say that and i hate the jesuszombies with a passion.

watwut 1y ago

Atheists are no more murderous the Christians. Religion is not necessary for that. Or even helpful.

ctack 1y ago
Useful anymore, it’s not. We have education now which tells us how to society.
wqaatwt 1y ago
Yet pre Christian societies in Europe were arguably significantly more brutal. Establishing at least some basic principals of universal equality was a big deal (something modern atheists inherited directly from Christianity) e.g. even amongst the civilized Greeks and and Romans foreigners who had no legal ties to their city states (some form of citizenship or diplomatic treaties with their home city) were basically treated as subhuman and could be enslaved and murdered with little to no repercussions. Universalist religions extended that to vast geographic areas and established some basic shared principles and trust between strangers e.g. in the middle ages somebody from Scandinavia could travel to Rome on their own with relatively (of course still significant) little risk of being robbed, enslaved or murdered while being able to rely on hospitality from complete strangers/foreigners during his trip. Of course the Romans already had something similar by the 100s AD (non citizens and slaves were of course excluded) but political systems are much more fragile than religions.
ashoeafoot 1y ago
We ran the experiment the ussr and china where thoroughly atheistified and decultured. And the results are in. Both societies are thoroughly amoral and horrifying. There are murderous religions, but christianity got tamed pretty well.And i say that and i hate the jesuszombies with a passion.