RE: Religion: a tool for the ruling class to keep the population under control?
June 30, 2016 at 7:43 am
(This post was last modified: June 30, 2016 at 7:49 am by Anomalocaris.)
(June 17, 2016 at 1:17 pm)abaris Wrote:(June 17, 2016 at 12:13 pm)Veritas_Vincit Wrote: Whenever I debate religion or hear it debated, it is always at the back of my mind the the person arguing in favour of religion is actually defending the very system that is controlling their mind in favour of the ruling class.
You can make that argument for many middle eastern states and to a lesser degree for the USA. You can't make that argument for the largest parts of Europe. We've moved beyond that point, thanks to two world wars. Religion isn't what's keeping the masses in check, as Marx used to argue - very losely paraphrased. Not anymore.
How about Poland, which lost a greater part of its population to the two world wars than perhaps any other state in Europe or elsewhere?
Also, that organized religion is a tool for control does not mean it is necessarily always successfully so employed, or that its past failures reduces its potential for being used successfully for the same purpose in the future, or that it is not being kept alive partially with an eye towards its possible future use for this purpose.
