Quote (addone @ Jul 6 2023 01:57pm)

Spirituality is a personal quest for higher understanding of the unknown/supernatural religion is a canned version of someone else's experience. It's a pseudo scientific method which involves testing things through personal observation and feelings.
Religion is a cancerous tumor that relies on unquestioning acceptance of its supernatural claims.

The reason people like you who don't accept religion as utter nonsense is because it weaves many half truths. Like a good liar it makes you think what it says is true by stating practical wisdom and stories and real events. It heavy relies on people's trustworthiness. Combined with officious dress code and backing of high ranking leadership to enforce its tenets and not to mention the "proof by assertion and authority" what you get is a cult. People just repeat the same nonsense without questioning the validity and origins.

Yes there are unknowns out there, yes we don't know many things like origin of the universe or what happens when we die etc doesn't mean we need to abandon our mental faculties and run to the nearest wizard of Oz story. This is lazy.
I suppose some elements can be studied and researched in Take for example Noah's ark was rebuilt to scale by different companies and none of them are sea worthy. There are thousands of things which have been tested in the religious context and most of them turned out to be utter bullshit.

Religion had to be sold through supernatural and over exegeated stories, it tries to scare people with a boogieman (devil, Satan, demons etc) and it offers a cure (good guy jesus, God, saviour/hero) it's basically comfort food for people who are scared of after death.

Quote (addone @ 6 Jul 2023 14:57)

Spirituality is a personal quest for higher understanding of the unknown/supernatural religion is a canned version of someone else's experience. It's a pseudo scientific method which involves testing things through personal observation and feelings.
Religion is a cancerous tumor that relies on unquestioning acceptance of its supernatural claims.

The reason people like you who don't accept religion as utter nonsense is because it weaves many half truths. Like a good liar it makes you think what it says is true by stating practical wisdom and stories and real events. It heavy relies on people's trustworthiness. Combined with officious dress code and backing of high ranking leadership to enforce its tenets and not to mention the "proof by assertion and authority" what you get is a cult. People just repeat the same nonsense without questioning the validity and origins.

Yes there are unknowns out there, yes we don't know many things like origin of the universe or what happens when we die etc doesn't mean we need to abandon our mental faculties and run to the nearest wizard of Oz story. This is lazy.
I suppose some elements can be studied and researched in Take for example Noah's ark was rebuilt to scale by different companies and none of them are sea worthy. There are thousands of things which have been tested in the religious context and most of them turned out to be utter bullshit.

Religion had to be sold through supernatural and over exegeated stories, it tries to scare people with a boogieman (devil, Satan, demons etc) and it offers a cure (good guy jesus, God, saviour/hero) it's basically comfort food for people who are scared of after death.

Quote (death_knight @ Jul 7 2023 12:07pm)

All this may be true but I think you are overlooking a critical component to religious belief: It provides an evolutionary niche for society to thrive. Take the ten commandments, in modern day most if not all of these are still relevant so we can dispense that this specific list is useless. Rewind several thousand years ago when to when man was just starting to be come educated with writing and math; in other to form a stable society, firm rules must laid down. So even if you don't take religion seriously as epistemological truth, there was still great utility to our ancestors in building society. I think its easy to forget (or accept) that we have been tree dwelling prey animals for a very long time. It was only until recently that humans banded together with a bigger purpose. Whether you agree for not, the Judeo-Christian ideal paved the way for many democratic societies. It certainly is a major cornerstone in Canadian society even if it never was an empirical description of the universe.

Quote (addone @ Jul 6 2023 07:32pm)

All the "commandments" were realised many centuries prior to Christianity was conceived. It just took all the current school of thought and packaged it that was appealing to the masses. It's the Apple of religious silicon valley a middle eastern offshoot. There are virtually thousands of other religions out there who could of taken that spot.

I suppose you could look at religion as a useful tool. Certainly one for controlling the masses to be obedient sheep. But you are thinking in terms satisfying some deep, philosophical, spiritual yearning.

Well if you were to think of it like an electric shock therapy or a large stick to beat some mongoloid tribals into stop being cannibals or not try to rape and pillage each other then sure it's useful.

In today's day and age it's an intellectual torture mechanism or spiritual cheetos dipped in grease. To stop thinking and just believe...

Quote (addone @ 6 Jul 2023 20:32)

All the "commandments" were realised many centuries prior to Christianity was conceived. It just took all the current school of thought and packaged it that was appealing to the masses. It's the Apple of religious silicon valley a middle eastern offshoot. There are virtually thousands of other religions out there who could of taken that spot.

I suppose you could look at religion as a useful tool. Certainly one for controlling the masses to be obedient sheep. But you are thinking in terms satisfying some deep, philosophical, spiritual yearning.

Well if you were to think of it like an electric shock therapy or a large stick to beat some mongoloid tribals into stop being cannibals or not try to rape and pillage each other then sure it's useful.

In today's day and age it's an intellectual torture mechanism or spiritual cheetos dipped in grease. To stop thinking and just believe...

Quote (death_knight @ Jul 6 2023 09:52pm)

I've been agnostic all my life. If I had to place a bet, I would lean towards atheism. However, if you accept the proposition that religion served a primitive purpose, is it not clear if that purpose has been exhausted. For example, early people couldn't characterize the world mathematically but they could do it with language and art. The advent of precision technology is really quite new (< years ) so there is a strong possibility many people are simply not adapted to live without religious descriptors. You and I as philosophers are able to take the issue apart piece by piece but it is an error to assume everyone can do it. While my brother and I are rather technical people, both our sisters are not. It is much better to talk religiously to them because it actually makes sense as far as their perception is concerned. As I said before, it appears we have a separate class of knowledge. I am not arguing that this class is better or worse but rather that is it exists and is deeply embedded in our psyche.

Quote (TiStuff @ Jul 7 2023 04:59pm)

i spent most my life irreligious. when i started researching every thing i was shocked at the level of energy and effort 'un believers ('atheist) expend on the thing they dont believe.

Quote (Nirjan @ Jul 6 2023 11:53pm)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjuZJQdEcdg&t=3s

this is worth watching, almost made me cry