Revelation In Space
Registered Senior Member
Religion, in it's most basic sense, is the adherence to a specific set of beliefs. As Penn Jillette has said: "Everybody got a gris gris." As a young atheist I saw everything religious as a medium for ignorance, hypocrisy and intolerance. The bloody history of organized religion can't be denied, but it can be misunderstood. I suppose it has something to do with how you look at it. If you look at the ignorant narrow minded religious bigots who represented organized religion when I was growing up you could hardly blame religion, only a tool tragically misused by imperfect people. This potential for abuse misuse isn't exclusive to religion because it is inherently a human weakness. You only have to ask yourself what from religion empowered those hypocrites and bigots who made such an impression on me in my youth? Teachings of love, peace and forgiveness? No. It was their tradition, culture and xenophobia. The horrors of religion past are due to the masses empowering their leaders. Greed, lust and sociopolitical domination. These are not exclusive to religion. They are human weaknesses.
I loath organized religion because of what it does to it's own original teachings. They are corrupted through syncretism, and transmogrified for the amusement of the adherents. No religion has ever remained true, even unto itself. But these human imperfections can be found in all of mankind's endeavors. Politics, for example. Where would the abominations of religion's bloody past have been without politics? Religion was simply a tool misused there as well. Look at the lone ex patent clerk who rejected the Nazi power that all of his later colleagues of science would so readily embraced. Look at what greed and power has done to science in the case of thermonuclear and chemical warfare, the pharmaceutical, genetically modified foods.
The religion of the future must evaluate this in order to continue, but, if they survive, so must politics, science and most importantly, all people. Pitting one against the other is just the inflation of the cost of history repeating itself.
I loath organized religion because of what it does to it's own original teachings. They are corrupted through syncretism, and transmogrified for the amusement of the adherents. No religion has ever remained true, even unto itself. But these human imperfections can be found in all of mankind's endeavors. Politics, for example. Where would the abominations of religion's bloody past have been without politics? Religion was simply a tool misused there as well. Look at the lone ex patent clerk who rejected the Nazi power that all of his later colleagues of science would so readily embraced. Look at what greed and power has done to science in the case of thermonuclear and chemical warfare, the pharmaceutical, genetically modified foods.
The religion of the future must evaluate this in order to continue, but, if they survive, so must politics, science and most importantly, all people. Pitting one against the other is just the inflation of the cost of history repeating itself.
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