Just want to say I admire your avatar, slimboyfat. Both Karsh and Grey Owl are high on my list of respected men in history and your avatar speaks to the personality you wish to convey.
"Religion...is the Opium of the People" - What did Marx Mean?
by cofty 82 Replies latest social current
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PSacramento
Yes, but making this world a better place is not at the top of their agenda, PSac. I donate often to secular charities but steadfastly refuse to support Christian organisations because I know my dollars will be used to keep some kid from starving or to cure a miserable leper and then the real purpose of the charitable work takes place, conversion of those made to feel obliged to whatever flavour of Christianity accompanies the food or the medicines. For those who take offense, consider how much you contribute to Muslim organisations.
What would really make this world a better place is the dawning of worldwide secularism. But I'm not holding my breath.
I have been to and part of a few local Christian charities and have YET to have seen an attempted conversion.
There are many that their main focus is that, this is true, but to be honest it is because "saving the soul" is as important as saving the life for Christians so it is very hard to do one without trying to do the other and in that, they are "guilty as charged".
Christians created hospitals, hospices, homeless shelters and shelters for runaways, they have always been "in deep" where there is a need for love, compassion and charity and, to be honest with you, of all the people I know that are involves in that stuff, NONE of them do it to convert.
Now, are there those that do it (try to convert)? Yes, 100% no denying that.
There was an MRI and some neonatal intensives care units donated to a local hospital by a Christian family and the donation was NOT made to convert anyone, it was done out of pure love and the only reason I know that the family was Christian is because I knwo the family.
The Plaque simply says "donated out of Love by...".
Christian are taught to give out of love, to care out of love, to love out of love with NO NOTION of any recompense or with any ulteriour motive, that is TRUE Christian giving.
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PSacramento
MLK Jr is a fine example of religious belief that is NOT fatalistic or the "opium" of the people, as is Ghandi, Mother Teresa and so many others.
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cofty
PSacremento - You could not have hoped to identify a person who typifies exactly what Marx meant by the opium of religion than mother Teresa. (food incoming, be back later)
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PSacramento
PSacremento - You could not have hoped to identify a person who typifies exactly what Marx meant by the opium of religion than mother Teresa. (food incoming, be back later)
I am curious to see what you mean :)
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Nickolas
There are many that their main focus is that, this is true, but to be honest it is because "saving the soul" is as important as saving the life for Christians so it is very hard to do one without trying to do the other and in that, they are "guilty as charged".
This is, of course, my point. It is why Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses go door to door, in an attempt to convince people to think as they do. Mormons will maintain that all the other Christian sects have it wrong and if you don't want to burn in hell you'd better wake up to their version of truth. Jehovah's Witnesses do the same thing, as do the Roman Catholics and Baptists etc. etc. If you are not one of them, you are inferior and you will be destroyed because of it. Saving your soul is synonymous with surrendering your mind to one particular flavour of belief. That someone is absolutely convinced that his particular flavour of belief is the only true one only puts him into the company of billions saying a thousand different versions of the same thing. There's no way they're all right, so the only logical position to take is none of them are.
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Nickolas
Mother Teresa, like other Roman Catholic notables, campaigned hard and successfully against the use of condoms, citing them as the moral equivalent of abortion. There are those who consider her among those in the RC church who are responsible for the deaths of thousands to AIDS, all because she was convinced that hers was the only real truth. Yes, she did a lot of selfless work, too, but she was one of those people you alluded to earlier, whose agenda puts God and Faith (her God and her faith) first and foremost, even to the physical detriment of others.
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PSacramento
Mother Teresa, like other Roman Catholic notables, campaigned hard and successfully against the use of condoms, citing them as the moral equivalent of abortion. There are those who consider her among those in the RC church who are responsible for the deaths of thousands to AIDS, all because she was convinced that hers was the only real truth. Yes, she did a lot of selfless work, too, but she was one of those people you alluded to earlier, whose agenda puts God and Faith (her God and her faith) first and foremost, even to the physical detriment of others.
You make a valid point, one that I won't argue since I agree.
But there was nothing fatalistic about Her, nor was there the view of NOT making this world a better place.
While misguided (perhaps) in her world views about protective sex and such, She cared more about humanities outcasts then most of us can even bgin to contemplate.
She believes that only abstenaince would 100% guarantee being safe and she is right, albeit unrealistic.
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trevor
Nickolas Your comments and observations are spot on, in my humble opinion. Supermarkets are always offering something free or at half price in order to promote their particular agenda. It may appear unkind to compare supermarkets to religion but look at the facts.
The Mormons have Salt Lake City. The Catholics have Vatican city. The JWs a publishing empire. The Church of England is not hard up. The Jews - well if you insult them you will never work again - they own America.
The Muslims are the biggest competition these religious groups have. There are individual people who talk directly to their god and claim no affiliation to any organized religion. In the world of religion, this is called the wilderness.
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cofty
Mother Teresa was the very epitome of everything that is bad about religion, she was an odious woman. Despite generous financial support from the wealthy pious her "clinics" remained nothing more than dirty waiting rooms for the dying who received practically nothing in care, comfort or pain relief. (Curiously when she became ill herself she preferred to jet off to state of the art clinics in USA.)
Her focus was entirely on preparing the destitute for the after-life.
"Mother Teresa was not a friend of the poor. She was a friend of poverty. She said that suffering was a gift from God. She spent her life opposing the only known cure for poverty, which is the empowerment of women and the emancipation of them from a livestock version of compulsory reproduction. And she was a friend to the worst of the rich,"... Christopher Hitchens writing in Slade Magazine in 2003.
This is precisely what Marx was talking about. Nothing changes; the wealthy and powerful are never challenged and the poor are taught to accept their lot. This is wicked.
Please have a look at this three part video that will explain further why I share Hitchen's contempt for Mother Teresa and her ilk