RE: Religion should be encouraged if it has positive effects on people.What do you think?
December 25, 2016 at 2:15 pm
(This post was last modified: December 25, 2016 at 2:16 pm by BrianSoddingBoru4.)
If all religion ever accomplished was to make believers into better people (and yes, 'better' is a question-begging term, I'm aware), I'd be all for it.
Unfortunately, religion also causes massive restriction, oppression, violence, and frequently institutionalizes and rewards ignorance. Further, the notion that religion brings 'inner peace', while certainly true in some cases, frequently does just the opposite. Muslim, Christian, Jewish, and Hindu terrorists don't really evince inner peace. The Buddhist monks who set themselves alight as an admittedly dedicated form of protest seem to be displaying at least some inner turmoil. Millions of people every day, all faiths, all cultures, feel cripplingly inadequate because they can't live up to the religious strictures placed on them - tell the 14 year old boy that he's going to hell because he rubs one out now and then, or the pubescent girl that she is 'unclean' during and after her menses. Far from inculcating a sense if 'inner peace', religion saddles people with guilt over events and feelings they can't control.
No, I wouldn't encourage anyone to be religious.
Boru
Unfortunately, religion also causes massive restriction, oppression, violence, and frequently institutionalizes and rewards ignorance. Further, the notion that religion brings 'inner peace', while certainly true in some cases, frequently does just the opposite. Muslim, Christian, Jewish, and Hindu terrorists don't really evince inner peace. The Buddhist monks who set themselves alight as an admittedly dedicated form of protest seem to be displaying at least some inner turmoil. Millions of people every day, all faiths, all cultures, feel cripplingly inadequate because they can't live up to the religious strictures placed on them - tell the 14 year old boy that he's going to hell because he rubs one out now and then, or the pubescent girl that she is 'unclean' during and after her menses. Far from inculcating a sense if 'inner peace', religion saddles people with guilt over events and feelings they can't control.
No, I wouldn't encourage anyone to be religious.
Boru
‘But it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods or no gods. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.’ - Thomas Jefferson
