RE: The Purpose Of Religion
April 9, 2014 at 8:12 pm
(This post was last modified: April 9, 2014 at 8:12 pm by ManMachine.)
(April 9, 2014 at 4:54 pm)Severan Wrote: Believe it or not, religion has a real purpose in our every-day lives. I'm going to talk about this after a theory of mine.
First of all, my theory. With my idea of the purpose religion, it seems as it could have been something created by people of power to calm the masses. As we see mostly in history, the powerful and intelligent have created religion for the "peasants". For instance, the Pharaoh of Egypt would always be considered himself a god. This was a way to suppress his people and his slaves. Nobody wants to fuck with a god. Again, another example of this "calming of the masses" appears in the new testament of the christian bible. Jesus called for slaves to be "good slaves" and obey their masters, and they will enter heaven.
What connection can we make from this? This all ties back to what I feel is the purpose of religion. The purpose of religion is to suppress the lower class of society. Why do we see a correlation with wealth and atheism? Why is there a connection between atheism and intelligence, and a correlation between being poor and being religious? Consider the janitors that work at McDonalds or gas stations. What do you use to satisfy them and ensure that they don't rise up? Religion. What do you use to ensure that they don't grab power from you? Religion. However, it's important. This might be a rather "cold" statement, but we need those janitors. We need the lower classes of society to help us with things like cleaning up, and religion is the way to keep it like that.
How do you explain Buddhism or Australian Aboriginal Dreamtime or many other primal-indigenous religions that are not 'power' based. Many pre-date modern religions and they don't fit your theory at all.
While the Abrahamic religions certainly have become vehicles for authority we don't really know enough about older religions to make that kind of statement.
It is far more likely religion came about as a gradual process, evolving in complexity as our brains evolved and our cognitive processes became more complex. You are far more likely to find the roots (because there is in all probability more than one root) of religion using tools like Evolutionary Psychology than Social History.
MM
"The greatest deception men suffer is from their own opinions" - Leonardo da Vinci
"I think I use the term “radical” rather loosely, just for emphasis. If you describe yourself as “atheist,” some people will say, “Don’t you mean ‘agnostic’?” I have to reply that I really do mean atheist, I really do not believe that there is a god; in fact, I am convinced that there is not a god (a subtle difference). I see not a shred of evidence to suggest that there is one ... etc., etc. It’s easier to say that I am a radical atheist, just to signal that I really mean it, have thought about it a great deal, and that it’s an opinion I hold seriously." - Douglas Adams (and I echo the sentiment)
"I think I use the term “radical” rather loosely, just for emphasis. If you describe yourself as “atheist,” some people will say, “Don’t you mean ‘agnostic’?” I have to reply that I really do mean atheist, I really do not believe that there is a god; in fact, I am convinced that there is not a god (a subtle difference). I see not a shred of evidence to suggest that there is one ... etc., etc. It’s easier to say that I am a radical atheist, just to signal that I really mean it, have thought about it a great deal, and that it’s an opinion I hold seriously." - Douglas Adams (and I echo the sentiment)
