God is simply a focal point that people use to do good for each other. In the end, it is the people doing things, not God. God is just a figurehead.
Religion is an opium
by alecholmesthedetective 49 Replies latest members adult
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jgnat
Nothing wrong with an inspiring figurehead.
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sammielee24
Perhaps religion or its equivalent is needed for collective action/survival of our species. I think it is premature to declare religion obsolete.
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I agree jgnat.
I can't solve all the evils of the world - neither can science unless they want to install chips in everyone and control them that way. I do think that for some people, religion provides many good things and that includes socialization, community and yes, parameters for them to live within, something that some people most definitely need. Additionally, it gives a great many people hope. It gives them a belief and faith in something greater when man has shown all the ugliness they have and little of the light they profess to have. This is true of a great many people who live through war, starvation, degradation, abuse - sometimes the weariness and darkness of watching mankind destroy each other requires a balance of lightness and for them religion gives them that.
A militant atheist friend of mine is forever going on about mental slavery and all those things he hates about religion, he is disgusted about the fact that people in Ghana took to the streets to touch the robe of a Jesus lookalike who was making a movie. He was angry at what he saw as deception. I disagreed with him in part. Perhaps touching that robe meant the world to that person in that space and time, perhaps it gave that person the momentum and energy to make it through another day - who am I to say? On the other hand, I pointed out that while he despises this god worship and faith - is it really any diferent than 5 million people that gather in the square to see a politician speak out of a blind faith that they will be their greatest leader. Any different than all those people who stand outside trying to get close to an actor, scream, cry and faint? To try and touch that athlete and sports star and shiver with the emotion of it all? How much money is made off sports memorabilia - kids dreaming and believing that the signed picture they have really came from their sports hero and one day, they too can? Many people have all sorts of god worship - without god in it.
sammieswife
sammieswife
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sammielee24
Religion, as in the man-made construct that is used to control people as the OP shows
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As is the political system.
Decisions made to control the masses is not necessarily all down to a bible - the bible can be used effectively as a political tool but the politician using it may not be religious. Even in a democratic system of governance, if the politician trying to win a post within that system, chooses to use religion as a way to further his own end - it will be done and so even in a democratic system, nobody is free of any influence of anything. That being said, I would rather live in a democracy - however, I fully understand that in most democracies, the leadership is part of a greater theocratic system. sammieswife
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alecholmesthedetective
As I said, my personal preference, and that of many around the world is a democratic rather than a theocratic construct. I do not believe in revelation, I believe in empiricism and thinking for oneself. We need the intellectual freedom to stop believing gods made in our image for whom there is no evidence at all, to grow and mature as a species, not a theocratic heavenly dictator standing in the way demanding eternal praise or convicting us of thoughtcrime, in case we just think of something not in accord with his capricious will. Who can create us sick and then order us, under pain of eternal torture to be well again.
We need the freedom of speech, of thought, of debate required in a democracy to fight for our rights and it's invariably religion which stands in the way, which wants power in the real world to run your life, which takes too long to catch up to what is morally acceptable, when it does, which wants to drag us back to subjection and abjection. The Enlightenment, philosophy, and science are the best way to learn about our world and to decide how to live one's life.
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LisaRose
I was attending a liberal church for a while, the church had no doctrine, they were accepting no matter what your belief, even atheism. This denomination made a conscience decision to make this change. They have no problems with gays, even as ministers. They are about mutual support and charitable works. It was refreshing, especially after my JW experience. In the end I decided not to join, as it was a bit too far to go, but I am not against the idea, it would be nice to be part of a community like that, even though I am not a believer.
I think many authoritative religions will struggle and loose members, people are just not willing to be told what to think, do and say anymore. Religion will either change and adapt or go under. Many churches have changed radically in the last fifty years and I think that will continue. I do think there is a place for religions that are not abusive and controlling. I think many ex JWs miss parts of the JW experience, the sense of purpose and being in a community. I am not against religions that do that, I think some people need it.
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Band on the Run
Banning religion is not enlightened. I would love to know all these countries without religion that are such good citizen nations. The name of any escapes me. The Soviet Union and China were powerful examples of how atheism does not bring morality. Many ills you blame on religion are social ills with a religious label. This maniacal focus on how bad religion is not sophisticated.
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Gypsy Sam
Marked
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cofty
Religious distress is at the same time the expression of real distress and the protest against real distress. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, just as it is the spirit of a spiritless situation. It is the opium of the people. The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is required for their real happiness. The demand to give up the illusion about its condition is the demand to give up a condition which needs illusions. - Karl Marx - Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right
As prosperity and feedom expands, people will increasingly kick the habit.
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alecholmesthedetective
No one is talking about banning religion, BOTR. Read the OP again please.
I'm talking about how once you grant that there's been a revelation, somewhere, some time, to some humans, it's not long before you are being told what to do, what you can read, what you can eat, in what days, who you can sleep with and in what position. That it claims the right to run your life, and I won't have it, I can't be spoken to in that tone and neither should any of you.
To those who want this, you're welcome to it. Just keep it out of our schools, out of our laws, out of our secular states, stop the sexism, stop the homophobia, stop the rape and torture of children, stop preventing people from receiving proper medical attention because of it (my sister had problems at a surgery recently for not taking blood), stop with the suicide bombs, stop deceiving people. By all means people should have the freedom to have their religion, but religion has to stop harming people, stop fleecing their sheep and killing them.
