Of course religion does NOT keep people moral, nor to be honest does the lack of it. Essentially quite a number of us are herd animals waiting top be led, and when a charismatic leader emerges, especially one who shrouds himself in the cloak of religion, too many of us follow without question.
Often to disastrous result.
(Source)
It's terrifying that so many people would be murderers, rapists and Luna knows what else if not for the threat of an invisible sky daddy leaving them to eternal torment.
ReplyDeleteBut Atheists and other non-believers are supposedly the immoral ones. Someone explain that to me.
It's all based on the "non-believers" crap in the bible. You know, "Suffer not the heathen to survive" garbage. It's part of all three middle-eastern monotheistic religions.
DeleteActually, we are in big company from the angle of "immoral ones" - it covers the overwhelming majority of the world's population.
Along the same lines...
ReplyDeleteOne of the nice things about being a liberal is that you never need to pretend that you’re actually a barbaric hoodlum who only behaves civilly due to fear of punishment from the 101st Airborne.
(Or from someone else's vengeful invisible friend.)
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/2013/02/28/5-years-ago-the-barrel-of-a-gun/
I often encounter persons that use their "faith" as an excuse to be an asshole.
ReplyDeleteThey treat the Bible as though it were a smorgasbord from which they can pick and choose the passages that fit into their preconceived assholery.
Hmmmmmm...
Now that I think about it - perhaps that is what explains all the different denominations of "Christianity"?
Of course!
DeleteRandall, you know this applies to all religions just as it applies to all individual brains. The problem with all of this is that most do not have the vaguest understanding of mental functions and thus are permitting dominant others to lead them into whatever direction they choose. That will probably never change and there will always be more wars fought over variances in ritual than over territorial domain.
When I see the pope, I always remember reading in the bible about "Thou shalt not worship false idols" People kiss his hand and bow to him, yet he is a mortal being. Now he is one step ahead of the law, nobody can touch him where he has gone to live. His handsome trusted assistant is also moving with him to live with him!!! What a FARCE. He allowed kids to be molested for YEARS, doing nothing to help except to cover it all up. I read that the Vatican Bank is under investigation for fraud, misuse of funds, laundering mob and drug money. The church would take the last dime from a poor family, for these crooks in the top level of the church to live a lavish lifestyle. I am disgusted seeing the robes and the jewellery these men wear.What does THIS dressing like this, have to do with religion? It is a very successful SCAM.
ReplyDeleteI had never seen that. Thanks.
ReplyDelete"Often to disastrous result."
ReplyDeleteYes, just ask the Jews, liberals, intellectuals and all those not enamored by Hitler.
It was not a good war for them
Unfortunately, it didn't "stick" to the Catholic Church. Their agreement with Hitler should have made the world TOTALLY pissed at them forever.
DeleteReligion is the opium of many people. (Marx paraphrased).
ReplyDeleteGod is the answer to childhood insecurities we haven't dealt with - (Freud also paraphrased.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZ8hefESt7c
Carlin - watch it for yourself.
Once you bring Nazis and Hitler into a blog, watch out, Gryphen!
ReplyDeleteReligion is the worst thing human beings have inflicted on themselves - not torture, not poverty, not even Republicans. This belief in a fictitious superior being/creator/bearded guy who obviously doesn't give a shit about his creations is, as Spock would say, illogical.
The god of the three middle eastern religions should be brought up on charges of child abuse! The number of people slaughtered AS A DIRECT ORDER of that god is in the millions - at least, according to the bible. Has anyone counted them in the Qu'ran?
DeleteAnd, discounting disease and accidental deaths, organized religion is the single biggest CAUSE of death and destruction and misery in history. Just referring to Hitler alone, we are talking over SIX MILLION JEWS!!!!!!
Great post! Very timely.
ReplyDeleteAn even greater absurdity is the fringe right's claim that Nazism was somehow inspired by Darwin, when the Nazis actually banned Darwin's works.
ReplyDeleteAnd it's funny that to them Obama is a "nazi", too- yet he is "Muslim".
DeleteAgain they prove that they have no idea what they are talking about.
I always thought that the big mistake of Russian Communism was their banning religious practice and insisting on atheism. It would have gone a lot better for them if they had insisted that everyone bow to their state sanctioned god. The easiest way to keep people in line and do what you tell them to do is to insist that it is what god wants and threaten them with god's disproval if they don't. That's how you keep Mormon women trapped in abusive, polygamous marriages, convince young Muslim men with their whole life ahead of them to blow themselves up, Catholics to refuse women to have any say over their own bodies and cult followers to commit mass suicide.
ReplyDeleteReligion truly is the opiate of the masses. That's why it works so well.
"Hey, it's not me saying it - it's the word of GOD telling you this! You don't want to disobey GOD do you?"
Lol! Touche bible thumpers!
ReplyDeleteYa what is up with this recent trend? Been in a two day facebook battle on this stuff with a born again fundamentalist. They must have gotten their marching orders on this stuff this past Sunday or something. The American Taliban indeed.
ReplyDelete