Lurking among us...

[ardour]

But people like that guy, who interpret the Bible the same way as that guy, have full churches, and influence millions of people who agree with them and vote. Most rational Christians I know don't vote

Puritanism comes in other forms. Look no further than the left right now which seems to be preoccupied with who and what we’re thinking about; It isn’t the naked woman who is judged, it’s the straight male “gaze.”

 

[user 139760]

But people like that guy, who interpret the Bible the same way as that guy, have full churches, and influence millions of people who agree with them and vote. Most rational Christians I know don't vote

I agree.
But...people ARE free to believe in anything they want. And, you know as well as I do people WILL believe whatever they want, no matter how devoid of sense it may be. Only thing that can be done is showing them an alternative. But religion as a whole, is like the government; it's not the system, it's the people who run it.
Religion actually helped some folk individually, in the past, through some hardship.

Long as no one forces me, I don't think forcing them by doing away with it will lead to something good.

 

[beingnobody]

Puritanism comes in other forms. Look no further than the the left right now which seems to be preoccupied with who and what we’re thinking about; It isn’t the naked woman who is judged, it’s the straight male “gaze.”

You are funny

 

[TheSkaFish]

Honestly I think lack of religion (devout European based Christianity) is the primary cause of the downfall of the Western world.
And yeah, there are charlatans out there.
But still, I cannot agree with bashing religion altogether because of the few fakes.
More Charlemagnes, less charlatans. That's the formula.

I kind of agree. I think that religion used to hold Darwinism/base instinct, in check - it used to tell us there was a higher way. It kept us believing in good and evil.

Now that religion has kind of faded somewhat, good and evil seem to have faded with it. It seems like more people just believe in strong and weak now instead. These days, it's all about getting as much money as possible, to get as much power and status as possible, to have as much sex as possible, to climb the social hierarchy as high as possible and flex on as many people as possible. It's all about pulling genetic rank on others now. It feels like genes are the new aristocracy. People and society are getting more cynical. I think there's definitely a correlation between the rise of predatory capitalism, and all these businesses that need demand for their products/services to be created artificially because they don't actually create value, and the music industry getting more and more into vulgar songs about sex and violence - it's all different forms of society regressing from civilization to base instincts. There's nothing to counter Darwinism anymore, so people who for some reason can't/won't be competitive in a Darwinian way, are having a hard time in life. It's a shame.

It reminds me of growing up. It wasn't so much that I was excessively religious, I kind of just went through the motions on that. But I did feel like good and evil were real, and more important than strong and weak. The rich kid d-bags and "mean girls" around me though, only believed in strength and weakness, survival of the fittest, Darwinian competition. I looked at it and it was so cold, mean, and backwards. I felt like their way, just couldn't be THE way, the ONLY way. There just had to be something better, higher, more than that.

The problem is, there's a lack of evidence for the existence of a supernatural world.


On the other hand I know complaining about it is no use - all I feel we can do, is try to find people that don't have Darwinian personalities. I feel like there still have to be some left.