[W: 330] Why People Hate Religion

Somerville · Sep 4, 2019

I don't fully agree with the title of this Opinion piece but I do agree with much of what the author writes.

Why People Hate Religion

The charlatans and phonies preen and punish, while those of real faith do Christ’s work among refugees.

You don’t hear much about Sister Norma Pimentel in the secular press. She’s not a wacko, a hypocrite, a sexual predator or a political operative. Her life’s work, she says, is guided by seeing “the presence of God” in migrant children in the shelter she oversees in the Rio Grande Valley — vulnerable souls that her president would otherwise put in cages.

What you hear about is the phonies, the charlatans who wave Bibles, the theatrically pious, and they are legion. Vice President Mike Pence wears his faith like a fluorescent orange vest. But when he visited the border this summer and saw human beings crammed like cordwood in the Texas heat, that faith was invisible.
(. . .)
Pence is the chief bootlicker to a president who now sees himself in messianic terms, a president who tweets a description of himself as “the second coming of God.” As hard as it is to see God Part II boasting about grabbing a woman’s genitals, paying hush money to a porn actress, or calling neo-Nazis “very fine people,” millions of overtly religious Americans believe in some version of Jesus Trump, Superstar.
(. . .)
White evangelical Christians, the rotting core of Trump’s base, profess to be guided by biblical imperatives. They’re not. Their religion is Play-Doh. They have become more like Trump, not the other way around. It’s a devil’s pact, to use words they would understand.

In one of the most explicit passages of the New Testament, Christ says people will be judged by how they treat the hungry, the poor, the least among us. And yet, only 25 percent of white evangelicals say their country has some responsibility to take in refugees.

Evangelicals give cover to an amoral president because they believe God is using him to advance their causes. “There has never been anyone who has defended us and who has fought for us, who we have loved more than Donald J. Trump,” said Ralph Reed at a meeting of professed Christian activists earlier this summer.

I don't think young Americans "Hate Religion" as much as they hate the hypocrisy of some who while they call themselves Christian are acting in most un-Christ like ways. Support for this idea is found when younger Americans are asked about their religious beliefs - many now say they have no religion yet still believe in a god.

Why millennials are really leaving religion (it’s not just politics, folks)

A couple of decades ago, when young adults began showing their dissatisfaction with organized religion by voting with their feet, it was fashionable for pundits to say this was happening because those religions weren’t conservative or demanding enough.

Because the exodus was initially most pronounced among liberal, “mainline” Protestants like Episcopalians and Presbyterians, it was easy to point at liberalism as the root of the problem.
(. . .)
But now the “strict churches” theory is crumbling because some strict denominations are themselves charting losses, or at least slower growth. The Southern Baptists have lost more than a million members over the last decade, according to LifeWay. Giving and attendance are down, and Southern Baptists are seeing more gray and silver heads in the pews.
(. . .)
Young adults are leaving religion in droves, . . . They’re not all atheists. About one-third of U.S. nones say religion is somewhat or very important in their lives and most say they believe in God

Daisy · Sep 4, 2019

Re: Why People Hate Religion

I hate religion for all those reasons and more...

Rich2018 · Sep 4, 2019

Re: Why People Hate Religion

That it's false and poisons people's minds.

Richard Dawkins tries to explain the power that religion has by exploring how we're programmed that way.

From birth we're programmed to obey authority figures to not eat colorful berries, don't touch hot things etc until we do things from a Classical Conditioning reaction ... often contrary to the evidence.

There's an example of a school on fire and kids running past a fire exit because it had been drilled into them not to use it as a convenient exit over the years.

ttwtt78640 · Sep 4, 2019

Re: Why People Hate Religion

Hmm... how many refugees or homeless have you taken in or fed? Far too many use the "I gave at the office/church" or "I paid my taxes" excuse to cover for their personal inaction. There is a huge difference between charitable giving/volunteering and forced taxation of others to give in your name or to support your pet causes of the day.

tosca1 · Sep 4, 2019