(June 21, 2015 at 3:55 pm)Metis Wrote:(June 21, 2015 at 2:11 pm)Pandæmonium Wrote: Like the matrix, some people are not ready to wake up.
While I personally do not accept the stories, I do aknowledge the power they have in keeping a social order together for a considerable number of people.
I dislike what many of them teach as "good", but I also suspect that given a free reign without fear of consequences we'd see a far more chaotic world, at least now. I don't think the world is ready for Athiesm, nor will it come when Africa and the middle east are so caught up in poverty and strife. In that light I'm not sure it will ever come.
I think Voltaire said something to the effect that while he doesn't accept Christianity he'd much rather his servants were Christians since he'd be cheated and robbed far less often. Clearly it doesn't work in every circumstance but I do think there is a grain of truth to that. If possible, I think redirecting religion to a morality that wasn't so amoral might lead to a better world than an Athiest one. Some people are good for the sake of being good, but many who aren't may become good with the prospect of divine reward (I think late Roman Platonism is the best example of this in practice, had Christianity not swung by this may have been the religion of the middle classes).
Sounds a bit big brother ish I know, and I don't expect many to agree with me.
From my admittedly unscientific observations of comments, I think you are in the majority opinion on that at this site. I am one of the ones who disagrees, and although I do not relish disagreeing with Voltaire, if he said that, he was being stupid. Where is the evidence that Christians have greater honesty than anyone else? Indeed, with the many "pious frauds," it seems that Christianity gives a motive to lie and be deceitful.
Many times, Christians say that they would run amok if they did not believe. The thing is, for those who do end up rejecting their religion, they do not seem to do so. Where are these former Christians who break free from all restraint and rape and pillage? It seems that their prediction of their behavior in the absence of religion is as wrong as their other religious beliefs.
I think people are too apt to accept such claims at face value, and do not view them as critically as they deserve. I think the idea is total bullshit.
"A wise man ... proportions his belief to the evidence."
— David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Section X, Part I.
