(February 2, 2016 at 12:01 am)God of Mr. Hanky Wrote:(February 1, 2016 at 10:21 pm)Excited Penguin Wrote: You have to keep in mind that no one is to blame here. It is what it is. We have to get rid of it though. I'm so sick of fucking people thinking religion will stick around forever. That is precisely why it might.
I hope it won't, and I will oppose anything that may help it stick around forever, but it must be understood that religiosity began as an unavoidable (or avoid-and-die) force of nature in our species. It may be an important reason why Homo Sapiens managed to out-live, or (more probably) kill off competing species of human such as Neanderthalensis, who you probably would not want as your neighbors today. People evolved to consider and voice questions regarding their existence and their place in the universe, and some among them evolved (some by hook and by crook, but they evolved) to be the sort who provide answers. It probably wasn't Terry Pratchett who first observed that a lie can go around the world before the truth can get its boots on, which couldn't be more the truth, just as it was with the answers which the first religious generations got for their questions. The problem is that most people prefer being lied to, when they are lies which simplify their lives.
As atheists and anti-theists on this site, there's very little in terms of action which we could be united to work together on, and building stable kingdoms at the expense of non-sequitors and other, smaller groups is what eventually made it possible for humanity to re-evaluate the earlier answers which they were given, seek better ones, bring about inevitable civil wars and political terror over them, and all that was before anybody once even considered p-u-b-l-i-c-l-y evaluating the questions scientifically! The mobilization of minds which were made alike through religion is what built the foundations which eventually led to our ability to sip coffee and communicate via laptop or smaller, wireless devices today. Now here we are, awakened, but we don't even agree enough on whether theism should be actively opposed. We have traded the power of easy group rallying power which religious leaders and ideological leaders have for our intellectual honesty, and although this makes us better people, it puts us in a position which has not yet come to be politically advantageous with our species.
It is only now that the population has swelled to overwhelming numbers that our world is much too small for our lives to remain sustainable with continued discord over nonsensical religious ideas, and that our only chance that the majority of our species has of surviving for more than another decade or two into the future is through scientific progress, which we all need to collaborate on. This is why I am anti-theist. The ideas of theists can be quite dumb, but religion as a force which may be etched in our very biology is an idea to be considered with respect. Just because its wrong, which it is, does not make it an issue to be dismissed lightly, nor to be expected to vanish overnight - know your enemy, and be patient in dealing with it!
Whatever, dude.