My only real argument against it is that religion often isn’t the reason for the views; It’s simply the cudgel being used to attack the “others”. People who aren’t already predisposed to racism, sexism, classism, etc likely won’t embrace those parts of religion. If they do end up being religious, they’ll land in the more liberal sects, like Unitarians/universalists…
But if someone is already predisposed to that bigoted mindset, religion will absolutely be used to justify it. Because the views of some 3000 year old goat herders is apparently meant to apply to modern society.
It’s a sort of chicken and egg situation, where it’s hard to say whether or not religion is causing the fucked up worldviews, or if it’s simply a phenomenon of people seeking out a religion that confirms their own worldviews.
Religion blind hatred for anyone not in your spiritual fraternity and hypocritical self interest is a cancer on society.
ftfy
People are afraid of dying and what may or may not come after, so we make up comforting narratives to ease the existential dread. And those narratives double as a cultural identity marker to make people feel special and in a community. I would be okay if it just stopped there. Where most religions here in the west go wrong for me is the constant threats of eternal damnation if you aren’t part of the club, like the concept of hell and eternal punishment for finite usually-not-that-bad crime is just so awful on a practical and philosophical level it must have originated from the human mind and our deep seeded desire for the ultimate form of vengeance. Imagining the people who wronged you burning in hell forever really does bring some people a fucked up sense of comfort I guess. That and most versions of God being kind of a overly controlling petty dick who despite being benevolent and all loving will absolutely torch your ass for all eternity if you don’t constantly ask for forgiveness over every little thing. Like im pretty sure an all powerful benevolent god that truly loves every being in existence wouldn’t have such a fragile and temperamental ego, nor would they expect constant groveling every time you bust a nut.
I used to be a hardcore athiest since I disliked those aspects of my countries popular religions so much. Taking heroic doses of mushrooms and learning eastern ideas of religion like daoism and the idea of the godhead through Alan Watts helped me tremendously with coming around to the spiritual nature of realty. Im much happier with actually being able to experience subjective experiences my edgelord athiest past self never would have imagined while feeling relatively comfortable with the concept of my own mortality.
Not sure what point I was trying to make. sorry for the ramble.
“What is the most basic article of faith? This is not all that we are.” - for me that doesn’t even require the belief in the supernatural (unlike Leoben) but simply that we are not just individuals but exist in a continuum as descendants of the past and ancestors of the future and strive towards some higher purpose.
I believe an idea of a religious utopia, where everyone follows the tenets and then everything works just fabulous is what drives people to religion, not the fear of death. That is why religion evolved alongside humans, for social cohesion. The main problem in this are the simplistic solutions and the slow adoption of “new revelation” through science. And that blind faith trains people to be narrow-minded.
Basically I believe we need a better class of religion if we ever want to get rid of the medieval stuff @[email protected]
Well it probably happened to you because you are a sinner or smth. That is how they think.
Religion is a cancer on society. All religion. You cannot changemty mind.
My only real argument against it is that religion often isn’t the reason for the views; It’s simply the cudgel being used to attack the “others”. People who aren’t already predisposed to racism, sexism, classism, etc likely won’t embrace those parts of religion. If they do end up being religious, they’ll land in the more liberal sects, like Unitarians/universalists…
But if someone is already predisposed to that bigoted mindset, religion will absolutely be used to justify it. Because the views of some 3000 year old goat herders is apparently meant to apply to modern society.
It’s a sort of chicken and egg situation, where it’s hard to say whether or not religion is causing the fucked up worldviews, or if it’s simply a phenomenon of people seeking out a religion that confirms their own worldviews.
Religionblind hatred for anyone not in your spiritual fraternity and hypocritical self interest is a cancer on society. ftfyPeople are afraid of dying and what may or may not come after, so we make up comforting narratives to ease the existential dread. And those narratives double as a cultural identity marker to make people feel special and in a community. I would be okay if it just stopped there. Where most religions here in the west go wrong for me is the constant threats of eternal damnation if you aren’t part of the club, like the concept of hell and eternal punishment for finite usually-not-that-bad crime is just so awful on a practical and philosophical level it must have originated from the human mind and our deep seeded desire for the ultimate form of vengeance. Imagining the people who wronged you burning in hell forever really does bring some people a fucked up sense of comfort I guess. That and most versions of God being kind of a overly controlling petty dick who despite being benevolent and all loving will absolutely torch your ass for all eternity if you don’t constantly ask for forgiveness over every little thing. Like im pretty sure an all powerful benevolent god that truly loves every being in existence wouldn’t have such a fragile and temperamental ego, nor would they expect constant groveling every time you bust a nut.
I used to be a hardcore athiest since I disliked those aspects of my countries popular religions so much. Taking heroic doses of mushrooms and learning eastern ideas of religion like daoism and the idea of the godhead through Alan Watts helped me tremendously with coming around to the spiritual nature of realty. Im much happier with actually being able to experience subjective experiences my edgelord athiest past self never would have imagined while feeling relatively comfortable with the concept of my own mortality.
Not sure what point I was trying to make. sorry for the ramble.
No it’s, religion.
“What is the most basic article of faith? This is not all that we are.” - for me that doesn’t even require the belief in the supernatural (unlike Leoben) but simply that we are not just individuals but exist in a continuum as descendants of the past and ancestors of the future and strive towards some higher purpose.
I believe an idea of a religious utopia, where everyone follows the tenets and then everything works just fabulous is what drives people to religion, not the fear of death. That is why religion evolved alongside humans, for social cohesion. The main problem in this are the simplistic solutions and the slow adoption of “new revelation” through science. And that blind faith trains people to be narrow-minded.
Basically I believe we need a better class of religion if we ever want to get rid of the medieval stuff @[email protected]