(November 24, 2021 at 5:43 pm)Brian37 Wrote:(November 21, 2021 at 7:04 pm)Agnostic1 Wrote: Religion, sadly, will never go away. No matter how much science you put forward, religious followers want to control people with their beliefs. I often wonder how many religious people would pass a lie detector test that they DO, in fact, BELIEVE and that religion isn't just a handy label to put on yourself to have (imagined) moral hierarchy. Every religious person I have ever known is a hypocrite and goes against their own beliefs and they always have some lame excuse or they just throw dirt over the problem. I am so tired of people saying they are going to pray for me when it is ALWAYS said in retaliatory sarcasm. If you're going to REALLY pray FOR me then great! I could use a LOT more money, thank you. I want to live to be 125. I want to have a huge birthday party, every year attended by celebrities, I want my kids to have their every dream and wish come true and I will keep you updated so you can make sure when you 'pray' for me that you don't miss anything.
I feel like religious people have all the rights in this country. They can start churches and don't have to pay taxes. The closest thing we have to an Atheist "church" is the Universal Unitarian church that STILL has sermons based on cult or sect spiritual beliefs. AND, of course, all religions are welcome to attend a UU church. Where is the church of science? Or maybe not a "church" since religious folks have coined that term but maybe a gathering place for atheists? I would go every week if I could find one.
I recently joined a MeetUp for Atheists. I am waiting for them to approve me!
If you accept that religion won't go away, and I agree, then why are you "astonished"?
I'd only use the word "astonished" in the context that people cling to the past so much. But I've always accepted to greater or lesser degrees, humans are tribal and superstitious.
I'm neither astonished nor do I especially want religion to go away. I remind myself that the religion of Ancient Egypt lasted over three thousand years. The boils on the arse of society and parasitic priestly castes which the make up the present organised religion, will eventually fade away, though atrophy or revolution.
Religion will continue to exist as long as it meets important human needs. It tends to be reduced when people are educated and affluent. Then it tends to be replaced by pragmatic philosophies such as secular humanism.
When people remain poor and ignorant, religion can be replaced by dictatorships and personality cults. EG Stalinist Russia, China's Mao, Franco, Castro, Pol Pot and that rotund little specimen in North Korea, to mention a few. (there's something truly disgusting about a leader being fat while his people starve to death)
So, I'm not in a hurry to abolish religion, until I know what will replace it. Popularist leaders such as Donald Trump aren't far from dictatorship.
A lesson from which America Failed to earn was Governor Huey P "The Kingfisher" Long of Louisiana. Some one shot him.
Huey Pierce Long Jr. (August 30, 1893 – September 10, 1935), nicknamed "the Kingfish", was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 40th governor of Louisiana from 1928 to 1932 and as a United States Senator from 1932 until his assassination in 1935. He was a populist member of the Democratic Party and rose to national prominence during the Great Depression for his vocal criticism of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his New Deal, which Long deemed insufficiently radical. As the political leader of Louisiana, he commanded wide networks of supporters and often took forceful action. A controversial figure, Long is celebrated as a populist champion of the poor or, conversely, denounced as a fascistic .
Huey Long - Wikipedia
