Ceremoneys, costumes, spending time in church listenning the same thing again and again, forced to believe in things that cannot be proven. code or mindset that seperates you from others, wars, violence,....
Does Religion have any place in the modern world?
by Fisherman 12 Replies latest jw friends
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John Doe
Like it or not, religion is part of a person's identity, and there are some good things associated with religion. Picking out only the negative and voicing the rather arrogant view that yours is the only view that has a place in the modern world is rather hypocritical, given the argument you're trying to make.
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WTWizard
Personally, I would like to see it down to two religions: Atheism, and Devil worship. Atheism ignores God and denies Him any power to stifle human fulfillment with His guilt. And Devil worship embraces the opposite of God's stifling people, giving people freedom to create value and have a better society.
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John Doe
Wizard, you want to dictate beliefs, or you want everyone to intrinsically share yours?
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fjtoth
A few years ago the Chicago Sun-Times reported the findings of two separate studies. Researchers in both studies concluded that church attendance and belief in God tend to reduce the severity of Alzheimer's disease and to reduce feelings of depression among minority populations. Other research has shown that elderly adults who attend church regularly tend to live longer. Adults active in church life spend less time in hospitals and have healthier immune systems. They are also less likely to suffer from alcoholism or depression or high blood pressure.
The Child Trends Data Bank has researched the effect of religious participation on children. They found that teenagers active in church life are less likely to enjoy danger, get in trouble with the police, skip school, be suspended, expelled or sent to detention, engage in violent behaviors, use illicit drugs or abuse alcohol, or have high levels of sexual experience. Children who regularly attend church services are more likely to be physically active, volunteer and participate in student government.
There is no end to such studies. In Bowling Alone, a widely acclaimed book by Harvard professor and sociologist Robert Putnam, he argues that church attendance is a powerful inducement to social participation. He wrote that participation in religious activities is closely linked to participation in community projects and to the giving of time and money to charity. "Religiosity," he said, "rivals education as a powerful correlate of most forms of civic engagement."
Religion won't disappear easily. It's a universal part of human life. In almost every century it's been opposed by outspoken enemies, but a large percentage of the population never abandon it completely. People devote untold time and wealth to religion. Some of the most beautiful buildings in the world are sacred places. People are often ready to suffer torture and to die for their religion. They fast, deny themselves pleasures and comforts, go on expensive pilgrimages, and cross national boundaries and oceans in order to bring their message to other people.
Most governments of the world provide for religious freedom and make it part of their constitutions. Life is generally unpleasant and cruel in countries where there is no freedom of religion. Let's never forget what a disaster the Soviet Union turned out to be, a land with an abundance of resources but that banned religion.
Perhaps the biggest reason religion won't go away is that there is something to it. Without it, there is no explanation for answered prayers, for the consolation that comes from knowing accurately that we are not alone in this expansive universe, and for the solid answer to why we are here. -
rmt1
As far as I can tell from what I've researched, religion is a hard-wired capacity of the homo sapiens who have been most fit so as to kick other homo sapiens' asses, taken their women and oil (or food), and survive. So if someone is alive today, the strongest odds are that they have the hard-wiring of religious capacity. The fact that people in this era of free energy are able to stand up, think for a second, take some measurements and discover, HAY! There might not in fact be a cumulonimbus herm in the heavens! does not negate the fact that most people operate on their hardwiring, a capacity (filled invariably by social conditioning) to subscribe to a divine rather than agnostic authorship of reality. To be agnostic or atheistic is merely to graduate from religion but it does not by itself grant superior fitness. Fitness goes to those who are morally empowered to take what does not belong to them because they are in fact entitled to it of unique divine mandate. This phenomenon of homo sapiens will not be going away in the 21st century, 22nd, 23rd or 24th.
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doofdaddy
As far as religion being good for your mental/physical health, so is owning a cat.
My old man was a committed athiest and lived to 94, smoked all his life, had a mind completely free of depression or the debilitating effects of old age.
Religion divides but spirituality and inquisitiveness opens the mind.
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Bring_the_Light
People will always seek ways to control eachother and enforce their own delusions. If we got rid of religion I would fear what would take its place.
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Disillusioned JW
The good which some religions do (such as promoting sensible moral values and by helping the needy) could also be dome by purely secular organizations, however without organized religion it probably would be much harder to unite people into having a common set of values in a non-totalitarian way. It would probably also be hard to create secular institutions which would have enough power to effectively resist tyranny and organized evil.
Democracies are fragile. The January 6, 2021 attack at and on the USA Capitol, and the collapse of a number of Democratic Republics around the world show that. Hopefully a lasting secular solution will created which will enable human society to flourish without the existence of organized religion.
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Diogenesister
This is a very interesting thread and I have enjoyed reading all the posts.
The good which some religions do (such as promoting sensible moral values and by helping the needy) could also be dome by purely secular organizations, however without organized religion it probably would be much harder to unite people into having a common set of values in a non-totalitarian way. It would probably also be hard to create secular institutions which would have enough power to effectively resist tyranny and organized evil.
I agree. However I think the Jan 6th event in the US merely demonstrates “entitlement” (as the kids would say) rather than the collapse of democracy, in that particular case.