(August 21, 2014 at 9:58 am)bladevalant546 Wrote:(August 21, 2014 at 9:48 am)Michael Wrote: I think it's very hard to say bladevalant. History has a way of surprising people. I'm sure religions do get shaped by factors external to themselves. I'd love science to be one of the major influences, but I fear politics and nationalism seem to be having the greater impact.
That is a fair assessment. Historically nationalism and politics is showing to be more deadly than religion. Which a lot of those nationalistic or political regimes can be called a religion in and of itself as we have seen with the Nazis and USSR authoritarian concepts follow nearly identical psychological traits as those whom belong to cults or organized religions.
Also, in the US religious extremism is being used as a political ploy to maintain ignorance with in the voter population to fuel political careers. With that said, I think it is important to speculate how this will play out. As we have seen the impact both ideals can have on the social policy and psychological norms.
I still remain pretty optimistic that the ignorance in the voter base cultivated by the Christian right will decline pretty severely over time, with how much information and opposing viewpoints to which people have access nowadays thanks to mass communications. We've already seen a massive shift on topics that 20 years ago seemed like they were pipe dreams (gay rights, pot legalziation, etc). I think it's more a matter of waiting until the current, older generations in politics are out of office.
In every country and every age, the priest had been hostile to Liberty.
- Thomas Jefferson
- Thomas Jefferson
