(May 11, 2011 at 6:01 am)tackattack Wrote: @darkblight - I don't think it's as hotly debated as you're making it out to be. I don't want religion taught in my public schools. I don't want literal young earth creation taught anywhere, even in my Church. I don't don't mind parents teaching their children whatever they want about what they "think" is the foundation of society, but I don't want their views put upon my children unless it has a seriously strong foundation in Science and reality.
there are actual states that are planning/trying/going to teach creationism alongside evolution.. i am glad you agree it is rubbish, but thinking it is not debated is ignoring that most of what I have watched w/ atheist and thiests debating seems to always turn into a creation vs evolution debate.
again back to the point of the thread.. the purpose of religion.. meaning why was it created originally. I can picture men back thousands and thousands of years ago seeing things they could not explain.. death.. fire.. the sun.. the moon, and needing to have some explanation for them so they could move on with their thoughts and get to plowing the field or hunting the meat for dinner. some have stepped outside the routine of daily existence and figured out some of these mysteries, but for this to happen you still need men plowing the fields, getting the meat, building the buildings.. and if their thought is always pushing towards figuring out the bigger questions as an individual then the human race as a whole will not move on. think of humans as one entity, part of that entity needs to support the basics of life in order for other parts of it to go into the abstract, it still happens today. religion is there for that portion. seriously.. if you are going to clean the floors all of your life, or be on the lower rung of society as most HAVE to be you need some incentive to do this.. the realization that death is the end is freeing and horrible at the same time. knowing there is no grand purpose, seeing you are just a cog in the machine and knowing it is almost torture.
it reminds me of the smug door in hitch hikers guide to the galaxy, so happy to open the door for he knows his purpose and cares not for anything else, then there is marvin. he knows his place, knows the big picture and is utterly miserable.
i still see this as explanation tho, in terms of religions purpose, explanation of purpose, law etc.. the things you mention are all answers to the big questions... i suppose i wish i had all the answers too, because sometimes thinking about these things is very well, depressing, even more so when being one who is on the lower end of the spectrum of wealth and indulgence.
