(May 11, 2015 at 11:14 am)Dystopia Wrote: ...
Religious people have it wrong in one belief, that's it...
No, there is a whole set of beliefs that are wrong. One does not handle snakes or speak in tongues or even just attend church from the bare belief that there exists at least one god.
Think how people would react to someone who had an invisible friend, who he claimed would magically protect him from poisonous snakes, and so he handled poisonous snakes in ways that do not prevent the snakes from biting, if it were not connected to Christianity. Is that something a sane person would do?
Think about someone who ritually eats the body and blood of another man. And who believes this to be of profound importance. And imagine him actually believing it is really the body and blood that he is eating, that was magically transformed from bread and wine (see the Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation, which is official doctrine today). Imagine how people would react, if that were not a part of mainstream religion.
The ONLY reason such people are not thought of as crazy is because they are a part of a huge group of people who have related beliefs and practices. If there were only one Christian in the world (and to keep us from going to any extremes, let us say a mainstream Catholic who believes all official church doctrine), and if there were no history of millions of Christians, it is hard to see how anyone would not suppose the person was completely mad.
By comparison, a person who believes the CIA is trying to read his mind and so he wears a tinfoil hat, is believing something less inherently ridiculous than mainstream religion. At least the CIA actually exists, and they do try to find out what people are up to.
Religion is not merely one belief that is in error, it is thinking going terribly, terribly wrong. One false belief does not create a religion.
"A wise man ... proportions his belief to the evidence."
— David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Section X, Part I.
