|  cYBERwOLF2 | Jan 18, 1:03pm | Religion exists so that some people can be smart, and everyone else can be brainwashed.
The "Vatican Shmatican" knew this, and for a few hundred years, they were able to use it to their advantage.
Then, of course, smarter people came along and threatend to overthrown the "Shmatican's" totalitarianist regime; which they eventually did. |
|
| 
Sponsor |  kapka | Jan 18, 5:28pm | | Fear of the unknown--death. |
|
| 
| |
|
Sponsor | | kapka | Mar 7, 6:19am | More thoughts;
Let say that religion is a symptom and the individual is a disease. That sounds very bad so I will explain: Religion provides an easy answer to the most difficult of questions; "what is the purpose of life", "how did existence begin", what happens after we die"?, etc. People who do not have the ability or more so the motivation to self reflect and discern their own answers are attracted by the easy answer. People who do not have the discipline or wealth to attain an adequate education tend to prefer readily available answers. People who are in deep need for comfort find more in the promise of heaven than the trial and error of the scientific method. Many people just accept the creation story for similar reasons as mentioned above, it is a unexceptional extension, a natural symptom of their disease.
The human mind is finite and resides within a conditioned reality, because of it has tremendous difficulty comprehending the vastness of time and variables which superseded our existence. Most humans can not even conceive of the 1.5 million years in which humans developed, let alone grasp the 4.6 billion years of our earth or the 16 billion of the universe. The human brain has evolved to recognize patterns, to utilize reason in attaining its goal. But we are dealing with concepts beyond a distinguishable pattern, concepts beyond reason. Things such as the static of the big bang, radio metric isotopes, what happens in a black hole, etc. Its only understandable for a human to be bewildered and have his brain simply rejecting the complexity of what it can not comprehend.
Many religionists derive their self esteem from the idea that they are creations of a divine being. To think they were born of non divine primates is an assault to their very self worth. |
|
| 
|  LuridHope | Mar 7, 7:24am | "Explaining" unknowns. (The volcano is angry, Emotion comes from the soul, Bumps in the night etc.)
Enforcing moral, political, and social law.
Enforcing familial and community creeds and bonds.
Manipulation and control
Financial gain, social power
Self and group validation and justification |
|
| 
| | JRyanStevens | Mar 7, 8:44am | | I say it was all an elaborate Neanderthal prank. |
|
|
| |
| 
Sponsor | | Jung | Mar 8, 11:12pm | | not a very funny one. |
|
| 
| | mrstarstuff | Mar 9, 1:17am | 84 - You have summed it up so succinctly, I'm going to reproduce your words on my blog. Incidentally, these things all occurred to me 46 years ago while taking a "Bible Survey" course. :)
John |
|
| 
| | Healyhatman | Mar 9, 5:11am | Without reading everything else and knowing it'll have probably been stated already:
Fear. People are afraid that their life doesn't mean anything, that there isn't someone who really really loves them. They're afraid that when they die there'll be nothing. they're terrified, although they won't usually admit it - terrified that they're NOT special, NOT loved unconditionally, NOT going somewhere with fluffy clouds and unicorns and kittens.
In steps religion, telling them everything is going to be okay and offering eternal cuddles and cookies. |
| |
| |
Atheist/Agnostic → Discussion