(January 8, 2016 at 4:29 pm)God of Mr. Hanky Wrote:Please understand that the misdirection and atrocities that resulted were because of manipulation by the ancient Roman Catholic church, and even before.(January 8, 2016 at 3:55 pm)Brian37 Wrote: Again, you need to learn the difference between what religion claims, and what it actually produces in reality. The kind motifs religions like to claim, in reality can be done without religion. The empathy as religion sells is not set up to be universal, although it does claim that. The empathy religion sets up in reality is tribal and at best "separate but equal" or is fine with others being a pet our house guest. That is empathy for the tribe, not empathy for all of humanity. The love for outsiders as depicted back then is conditional.
The God/s of Abraham are tribal characters because back when all three of those books were written, humans lived in feudal times and back then the mortality rate was much higher and it was extremely important for your own survival to tow the tribal line. So the love of others back then was for the tribe, those three holy books describe very violent revenge to anyone attacking the tribe. The obeying your parents were not because you were seen as an individual, you obeyed your parents because you were their property.
Those books put you down even before you are born, teach you to assume the worst and only the sky boss can save you from the game he didn't have to set up. He blames you for the conditions he didnt have to put in place. Those books teach you to kill for the tribe. No, that is not the way the religious in the civil west like to view it, but again, those books were not written with our modern values in mind.
Religious people don't claim those things no, but they are totally unaware of how their false perceptions lead to bad actions. "Sin" is the concept that you are a piece of shit and are doomed to fail even before you do anything wrong.
Robvalue is right. Religion convinces people they are nothing without it. The truth is if you have to live under promise of reward or threat of punishment, that is a very childlike and ignorant form of regulation. It is immoral to treat an adult as if they need a sky parent. As immoral as Kim Jong Un who will treat you well if you obey and "respect him". Doing the right thing is doing it even when nobody is watching and you don't get rewarded.
If someone needs bribes or threats to self regulate, by all means do it. But to expect others who do the same and do so without threats or bribes is vile. I am an adult and I don't need a sky parent watching me every second of my life or bullying me with threats of hell to do the right thing. And I don't need someone to dangle a cookie in front of me either.
Many fundy and mental Christians teach that they should love all humanity, but in practice, we know what they really do. They "love" them by despising, and when they can, by killing those who won't go with the tribe. It wasn't an act of hatred to kill "witches" through the horrifying, agonizing, and disgusting act of burning them at the stake, no - this was a loving kindness, because the complete incineration of the body was believed to be the only way by which they could separate the "demons" which were possessing these poor souls, so that they would still have hope of going on to heaven without the evil spirits still clinging to them.
Hello, theists out there! Did you read the above? Such executions actually happened in history, and yes it was done under the oversight of holy leaders who applied that frightful logic. It's a fine example of what rhetoric can do to a society when it allows itself to be controlled by those who spout it in place of logic based on empirical factors, and it also points out how far from anything good one can go and still be able to support his actions with a holy book which is believed to be perfectly good.
All things happen for a reason. I think those things in history are to be lessons, similar to what you are saying. The lesson isn't to abolish the freedom to practice religion freely, but that man is not God, and that hierarchy is flawed. Utter equality, equal value per human life, and a high general respect for all life is important.
Faith in selfless Unity for Good.