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Is religion just a story for adults?

Canell

Canell

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Howdy!

I was walking the other day on an very quite street (cars seldom pass there) and there were a woman and her small ~3-4 years old child. The child was trying to run around and I guess the woman didn't want to bother, so she said: "Stay calm or the Boogie man will come and take you away!".
I thought: "Hm, may be religion is just like that - it scares the **** out of us with fake Boogie men (devil, hell, etc) to make us compliant and controllable".

So, what say you? :rolleyes:
 
A lot of kids are raised to be afraid of violating religious taboos imposed by their parents because of fear of hell and punishment. So, it looks more like a story for kids that they don't get over when they grow up.
 
Some knuckleheads need strong bosses and threats to keep them in line. Most adults don't, and religion to them is a practice of faith, which comes from a realization inside yourself that there is something more to the world than material existence. You don't know exactly what it is, but you feel it, and you seek to understand it. That search keeps you in touch with your conscience, which is the wellspring of morality. One needs no threats of hell or damnation if they are in perfect accord with their conscience, because if they are they are then immoral action is abhorrent in and of itself, and not desirable at all.
 
Is this thread going to be another of the endless invitational threads for eternally angry and unhappy atheists and homosexuals to attack the faith of complete strangers?
 
Religion has always been about authority, control, intimidation, money and land.
 
Canell said:
Howdy!

I was walking the other day on an very quite street (cars seldom pass there) and there were a woman and her small ~3-4 years old child. The child was trying to run around and I guess the woman didn't want to bother, so she said: "Stay calm or the Boogie man will come and take you away!".
I thought: "Hm, may be religion is just like that - it scares the **** out of us with fake Boogie men (devil, hell, etc) to make us compliant and controllable".

So, what say you? :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

If I were God I'd rather scare you into correct behavior than whip you like a dirty mop.

But we tell kids that there's a Santa Claus and tooth fairy as much for ourselves as them. We want them to have those magical young years like we did before they have to grow up learn how tough life really is.
 
Canell said:
Howdy!

I was walking the other day on an very quite street (cars seldom pass there) and there were a woman and her small ~3-4 years old child. The child was trying to run around and I guess the woman didn't want to bother, so she said: "Stay calm or the Boogie man will come and take you away!".
I thought: "Hm, may be religion is just like that - it scares the **** out of us with fake Boogie men (devil, hell, etc) to make us compliant and controllable".

So, what say you? :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Hmmm, my parents never threatened me with the bogeyman, nor hell or the devil. All I needed to know is that my parents would deal with me directly, in order to keep me in line. ;)

As for your question, the answer varies widely from one individual to the other. I have never "behaved" based on my fear of hell, but because my parents instilled strong basic values into me. Undoubtedly, religion played a part, as they took me to church, but both my parents were already highly moral and principled individuals, without having, themselves, been raised in church.
 
spanky said:
Religion has always been about authority, control, intimidation, money and land.
Click to expand...

I completely agree with you... and I am a Christian. But I am not your typical Christian. I believe that Jesus Christ came here to destroy religion and restore our relationship with God the Father, not start a new religion. Man, in his quest to control other men, has high jacked true Christianity and made it a religion.
 
Religion is whatever each individual makes of it. For some it's an excuse to socialize with people on Sundays, for others it's a genuine desire to make oneself a better person, and for others it's used as justification for violence. It's all in the eye of the beholder.
 
lizzie said:
bogeyman
Click to expand...

Oops, yes, that's the word. :)

lizzie said:
As for your question, the answer varies widely from one individual to the other. I have never "behaved" based on my fear of hell, but because my parents instilled strong basic values into me. Undoubtedly, religion played a part, as they took me to church, but both my parents were already highly moral and principled individuals, without having, themselves, been raised in church.
Click to expand...

That sounds great. :)
 
Ray410 said:
Is this thread going to be another of the endless invitational threads for eternally angry and unhappy atheists and homosexuals to attack the faith of complete strangers?
Click to expand...

Because someone doesn't agree on a subject, doesn't mean it's being attacked.

Though I'm sure some will attack, I'd like to see what intelligent people have to say about the use of 'fear' as a controlling agent.
 
Tetelestai said:
I completely agree with you... and I am a Christian. But I am not your typical Christian. I believe that Jesus Christ came here to destroy religion and restore our relationship with God the Father, not start a new religion. Man, in his quest to control other men, has high jacked true Christianity and made it a religion.
Click to expand...


Maybe modern christianity is Revelations "Whore of Babylon".
 
Ooops, I just realized this was in the "no tap" forum. If my comment crossed the line, please advise and I will remove it.
 
grip said:
If I were God I'd rather scare you into correct behavior than whip you like a dirty mop.
Click to expand...

So, I guess religion is justified in that case. :liar
 
Canell said:
So, I guess religion is justified in that case. :liar
Click to expand...

I don't think God invented religion, I think humans did? And freewill justifies people telling stories, whether you like them or not. If not don't listen.
 
GottaGo said:
Because someone doesn't agree on a subject, doesn't mean it's being attacked.

Though I'm sure some will attack, I'd like to see what intelligent people have to say about the use of 'fear' as a controlling agent.
Click to expand...

Fear undoubtedly works, as we see evidence of it in jihadist actions, and other small groups of people who insist on strict religious adherence as a basis for all of their respective societies. It's also pretty prevalent in prison populations at the secular "might makes right" level, where gangs are the norm. It would be nice to live in a world where there is mutual respect for each other without fear being a necessary motivator, but much of the human race just isn't there yet. This is one of the primary reasons why I don't mind people being religious. I'd much rather they fear God, than to live in fear of their fellow man.
 
Ray410 said:
Is this thread going to be another of the endless invitational threads for eternally angry and unhappy atheists and homosexuals to attack the faith of complete strangers?
Click to expand...
No, it's going to be another thread where people who believe in fairy tales condescend those who don't (like, for example, calling them "eternally angry and unhappy").
 
spanky said:
Maybe modern christianity is Revelations "Whore of Babylon".
Click to expand...

Could very well be, but I'm not going to make the judgment. I just know that modern Christianity looks NOTHING like what Jesus and His Apostles started in the first century. It has become unloving, cold, calculated and greedy. It's been highly institutionalized, elitist and ineffective. People are running from Christianity due to their doctrines and demands. The first century Church had no official clergy. Not even the Apostles considered themselves clergy. They simply started Churches, taught them how to rely on and live by the Holy Spirit and then left them to function under Gods own headship through Jesus Christ... without any actual "pastor" in between them and God. I am not saying all Christians today are bad people. We just have very few examples of a true Church that functions as a body under Jesus Christ's own headship and has become the Bride of Christ.
 
Canell said:
So, I guess religion is justified in that case. :liar
Click to expand...

Sure it's justified. Religion has probably played a huge role in the general "civilizing" of the human population as a whole.
 
quantumechanic said:
No, it's going to be another thread where people who believe in fairy tales condescend those who don't (like, for example, calling them "eternally angry and unhappy").
Click to expand...

Both parties are wrong to degrade one another. But I would say the Christians who degrade people who don't believe need to understand what love is and why Paul refused to judge the world (people who don't believe). Christ did not come to judge, but to save. He died for everyone's sins, including yours, whether you want to believe it or not. Today is the day of salvation through Jesus Christ for the entire human race. But the only way to experience that forgiveness is to have the Son of God revealed to you. I can tell you about Him, but the Holy Spirit is the one who reveals.
 
lizzie said:
Sure it's justified. Religion has probably played a huge role in the general "civilizing" of the human population as a whole.
Click to expand...

So I guess it's OK - we lie to out kids, God lies to us. Hopefully for a good reason. :)
 
Canell said:
So I guess it's OK - we lie to out kids, God lies to us. Hopefully for a good reason. :)
Click to expand...

We don't know for certain that it's a lie. If the human race didn't need religion, we would never have adopted it as a part of our lives. Just because one person doesn't need religion, doesn't make religion invalid as a human need.
 
lizzie said:
We don't know for certain that it's a lie. If the human race didn't need religion, we would never have adopted it as a part of our lives. Just because one person doesn't need religion, doesn't make religion invalid as a human need.
Click to expand...

You mean like crack?
 
Canell said:
Howdy!

I was walking the other day on an very quite street (cars seldom pass there) and there were a woman and her small ~3-4 years old child. The child was trying to run around and I guess the woman didn't want to bother, so she said: "Stay calm or the Boogie man will come and take you away!".
I thought: "Hm, may be religion is just like that - it scares the **** out of us with fake Boogie men (devil, hell, etc) to make us compliant and controllable".

So, what say you? :rolleyes:
Click to expand...
Though it would seem to a number of people that Satan and Hell are "fake", as you say ..

.. I still have to ask the ultimate epistemological question: how do you know?

Just because a threatening reference is a utilitarian attempt to control, doesn't mean the reference itself is false.

Concluding that a reference is false merely because of its utilization implies a bias, that one may have experienced being controlled in the past, like in childhood, by a family of origin member, and one later learned that that controlling criteria was questionable in its factuality, one can irrationally then apply the form of that past experience to this one, which, of course, does not "prove" that the topical situation is also not fact-based.
 
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