(July 31, 2019 at 8:48 am)BrianSoddingBoru4 Wrote:Quote:Religion has never invented or innovated anything
Witchcraft trials, various Inquisitions, the Crusades, genital mutilation, eternal punishment for transient offenses, cross burnings, church bombings, lots more.
Religion is nothing if not inventive and innovative.
Boru
That's like saying Trump invented racism, xenophobia and corruption. It's all old news. Those are just the things authoritarian regimes do because they don't have anything to actually offer people. It's the same with religion. Reigns of terror, threats of eternal perdition, learned helplessness, etc are just crude cudgels to keep people in line.
None of the things you're listing are non-derivative. Political strongmen put people on trial on trumped up charges, conduct purges, torture, have overbearing punishments and terror campaigns, just for slightly different excuses.
Terrorizing and robbing people is easy work in terms of it not requiring an original thought -- assuming you're part of the power structure. And you get to live in luxury at other's expense. The things that make the world a kinder, gentler place, like self awareness, empathy, sharing and compassion, are by comparison hard work and require thinking outside various boxes and taking actual personal responsibility for your actions.
Name me one time religion ever actually corrected an actual scientific error. "I'm sorry, but your equation is incorrect, because god".
Name me one time religion built something that increased freedom of thought and freely available information.
Religion didn't invent the internet, for example; it's forced to COPE with it. And sure they build their own propaganda machines on top of that system, but the best they can do is propagate bullshit that is easily seen through.
