RE: What Is The True Purpose Of Religion?
April 19, 2011 at 7:21 pm
(This post was last modified: April 19, 2011 at 7:24 pm by Zenith.)
(April 15, 2011 at 4:28 am)JohnDG Wrote: This will be my first thread and i want to limit the discussion to a certain criteria. This is not a debate on god so any thiest that chooses to post please do so in the same manner as the rest.
What i want to talk about are the true and actual uses of religion in a society, a government, and country.
I belive that religion isnt really meant to save people or their souls, but to help establish control over a people, limiting the amount of crime, violence, and freedom of thought. Also it can help to unite people by giving them a comman purpose in life to work for. It may also help run armies as zelous soldiers would fight longer and harder possibly till death, with belief of rewards in the afterlife.
These are just off the top of my head but what other applacable purposes of religion could there be?
Purpose... I don't know (you ask that when one is invented), but effects...
well, I'll start with the good ones:
- it may (depends on the religion) keep people from fucking with goats;
- it may influence people to try to do good (though the clergy is usually not involved here)
- you have a unity (though this has the disadvantage of causing hatred and despise towards those not being part of it)
the bad effects:
- it causes the "following the crowd" effect (people don't think for themselves, but are eyes and ears to what their priests/preachers tell, and expect them (the clergy) to think for them);
- it's very manipulative (well, once you have a unity, it's very manipulative; once you have the people following the crowd, they're on the clergy's hand);
Anyway, if all religions would cease to exist (religion = philosophy in which people believe in one or more god), then other philosophy would take its place. if the "religion" has priests/pastors/etc. the philosophies would get other titles (or they would be called "philosophers" or something, and there would be a great philosopher that would be admired as 100% trustworthy and most-wise, that people would fear to contradict or to believe that he may be wrong in something, because they would be called "idiots" by all the others that blindly believe him - because he is called by them "the wisest one", or something alike). And the bad effects of the "religion" would be preserved, and people would continue to believe in all kinds of fairytales, and there would be no end to them.
