Delegates at the denomination’s convention voted overwhelmingly to finalize the ousters of one of its largest churches, Saddleback, and a small church in Kentucky, despite impassioned appeals from their leaders.
Yikes. There is quite a pattern developing in the religious right, in the US at least. We are turning back the clock folks.
This is why religion is indoctrinated. While I can accept, even while not believing, the argument that spirituality is innate, organized religion is entirely a human construct.
“Spirituality is innate” is such a copout for me. In my opinion, it just means people have an imagination and emotions, but I don’t want to admit magic isn’t real so I’ll call it spirituality.
Is it useful to view spirituality as makeshift philosophy and psychotherapy? When I pick out the good parts of religion, I see it’s not so different to what a stoic or my therapist might say. You can either pray for or visualize positive outcomes and either way it works to ease the mind. Hell, Nietzsche’s work has basically a religious conception (the Eternal Return) without claiming absolute authority of reality.
I ask because my Mom focuses on this aspect of her religion rather than dogma. I hope it gives her what she needs.
Yep, spirituality is an emergent property with respect to imagination and a lack of omniscience; if something happens that is not explainable by an individual’s knowledge they’ll find it easy to come up with an imagined explanation.
This is why earlier religions explained things like the seasons, weather, earthquakes, volcanos, stars, etc through imagined gods while those same, evolved, religions don’t attempt to do so anymore. We understand them scientifically now.
Young people need to understand, first and foremost, that (almost) everything you believe is wrong. Young people are inherently naive and inexperienced, and must look to their elders and the Bible to learn the proper way to think and behave. Know that God does not change and human nature does not change either. Ever. We all have a lot to learn. Humility is the key. I say this in all acknowledgement that despite my age, I still know next to nothing. If you feel hatred towards religion or anything else (or anyone else), first accept that you are wrong, and then ask God for His guidance.
Well that’s sort of condescending. Age doesn’t make people inherently wiser, and a lack of belief in religion doesn’t imply naivete or inexperience–just a shortage of believable evidence. It’s actually far more naive to believe something without strong evidence, isn’t it?
Yeah, otherwise young people might start to think that women are somehow equal to men and all sorts of other crazy things. Gotta nip that stuff in the bud, right?
what in the fuck. this is why younger people hate religion.
This is why religion is indoctrinated. While I can accept, even while not believing, the argument that spirituality is innate, organized religion is entirely a human construct.
“Spirituality is innate” is such a copout for me. In my opinion, it just means people have an imagination and emotions, but I don’t want to admit magic isn’t real so I’ll call it spirituality.
Is it useful to view spirituality as makeshift philosophy and psychotherapy? When I pick out the good parts of religion, I see it’s not so different to what a stoic or my therapist might say. You can either pray for or visualize positive outcomes and either way it works to ease the mind. Hell, Nietzsche’s work has basically a religious conception (the Eternal Return) without claiming absolute authority of reality.
I ask because my Mom focuses on this aspect of her religion rather than dogma. I hope it gives her what she needs.
Yep, spirituality is an emergent property with respect to imagination and a lack of omniscience; if something happens that is not explainable by an individual’s knowledge they’ll find it easy to come up with an imagined explanation.
This is why earlier religions explained things like the seasons, weather, earthquakes, volcanos, stars, etc through imagined gods while those same, evolved, religions don’t attempt to do so anymore. We understand them scientifically now.
Young people need to understand, first and foremost, that (almost) everything you believe is wrong. Young people are inherently naive and inexperienced, and must look to their elders and the Bible to learn the proper way to think and behave. Know that God does not change and human nature does not change either. Ever. We all have a lot to learn. Humility is the key. I say this in all acknowledgement that despite my age, I still know next to nothing. If you feel hatred towards religion or anything else (or anyone else), first accept that you are wrong, and then ask God for His guidance.
Well that’s sort of condescending. Age doesn’t make people inherently wiser, and a lack of belief in religion doesn’t imply naivete or inexperience–just a shortage of believable evidence. It’s actually far more naive to believe something without strong evidence, isn’t it?
Yeah, otherwise young people might start to think that women are somehow equal to men and all sorts of other crazy things. Gotta nip that stuff in the bud, right?