Religion! Is it the Opium of the masses? (page 2)

DJK

Not sorry I am an Atheist. Sorry that my need to know would require me to ask. From the four hundred people I have interviewed on a personal basis, 367 have sought religion as a way to defeat drug and alchohol addictions as well as other tramas in their lives. The remaining 33 chose a faith based on one question "What happens to me when I die?".

jaguarbass

Why do you feel you need religion? Sorry, I am an Atheist and I had to ask this question.

I dont need religion. My mother needed it and dragged me along and gave me her baggage to carry. For the years 1968-1975 I needed the watertower to ensure passage into this new parradise that were living in today, That began in the fall of 1975 after that dirty battle of armegeddon.

I suggest that people who need religion have an immature thought process. Henry Ford said that "thinking is the hardest thing for a person to do." People that need religion have a hard time thinking.They are good at vegitating. But critical thinking is beyond them. They are kind of like dogs or cats or as they themselves put it, sheep.

It would be nice if we could maintain our conciousness. Religion offers that reward. If you believe as we say you will have eternal conciousness. It's a the worlds oldest scam. But its also part of the journey of life. For some its the dock they never get off of. They live their entire short life at the terminal. They like to tell others don't go there, dont do this, dont eat that, while never experiencing life, just hanging out at the terminal. Watch out for the ticket sellers who are selling the religion trip. I recommend the sex and drugs and rock and roll tour.

DanTheMan

I could never believe in an all-powerful big daddy in the sky again, and so this pretty much rules me out from ever taking part in organized religion again, and now, as an outsider looking in I am pretty mystified both at current believers and at myself for ever having been among them.

I'm reading Under the Banner of Heaven right now. If you don't know already, it's about fundamentalist Mormons, and I'm currently reading the chapters that give an overview of the history of the Mormon church. On one hand, of course I feel like, are you kidding me? Unearthed golden plates with Egyptian-like hieroglyphs? Seer stones? An ancient Hebrew civilization in America that Jesus visited? People believe this??

But at the same time, I know how an extremely charismatic and intensely devoted religious person such as Joseph Smith was can have a hypnotic, enlivening effect on the people around him, giving them a sense that their life is of cosmic importance.

Abandoned

I don't know if I needed religion, but I believed in it because I was taught it was the right thing to do. I now question that.

I believe that kindness trumps badness but only because it takes more fiber and more discipline to do something nice than something mean. It's impossible to be nice by accident, but hurting someone without intending to happens all the time. People have to decide to take part in charity, to give blood, to donate time or money to a worthy cause, but words can cut someone in two without either party realizing that what happened was merely a coincidence. Positivism takes work. Callousness only requires a momentary lack of awareness.

free2beme

If you do not need religion, then don't worry about people who do. Often people who do not like religion, discredit those who do, because of their own doubts of wondering if they are making the right decision. If you are comfortable with your own thoughts on religion, and at ease with them, you wont see a need to attack those in. Although, you might get a chuckle or two from Catholics on ash Wednesday with ash on their foreheads.

rassillon

I do have faith and I believe.

But I do not need a religion.

Religion is manufactured by man, man is flawed, thus religion is flawed.

-r

Badger

Religion should be a list of "You Should" instead of a list of "You Must." That's were the problems got started.

troucul

Marx was an idiot. Him and his brothers, Groucho, Harpo, and that other knucklehead. I'd follow Bear Grylls to the end of the earth, though.

Borgia

When that line was written 1843, a certain type of war had been fought: the opium war, a war that covered 9 years. (Another one was to follow, though)Back then it was considered a worthwhile venture to trade opium and to control that trade. ....And to go to war over it in order to use at a disruptive force in other countries.

How different the current western governments look at this type of trade.......however, they still go to war over it.....war on drugs.

So, when saying: religion is opium for the masses, it really fits. Religion has it to fire up huge amounts of people, to simultaneously unite and divide, to call good what is evil, and to call evil what is good. Religion has many faces and it sure is considered something worthwhile to controle and to go to war over it.....and use it as a disruptive force in other coutries.

Cheers

Borgia

candidlynuts

i recall recently a report on cnn that was showing a study on religion and how religious ferver effects the brain in the same way as opiates.

thats the jw spiritual paradise... high on jehovah! lol

Religion! Is it the Opium of the masses?

Share this