2006-09-05 08:21:00 · 11 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
The same thing religion has always served to do, give us hope.
2006-09-05 08:43:42 · answer #1 · answered by Stephen 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Religion is the opiate of the masses. Karl Marx quotation.
To begin answering this question it seems important to recognize the difference between religion and faith, for lack of a better term. For religion, it might be argued, is a substitute for faith; its what happens when we lose our faith; when we can no longer trust the voices of our dead ancestors, or the voices of the gods, or the voices of our scientists and inventors. In the strictest sense, religion comes from the word religare, which means "to restrain" or "tie back." It’s the same word from which we get the word legislation. Religion, then, is a code of thought and behavior that instructs us how to behave when we have lost our way—something that re-binds us, or ties us back once our fetters have been broken. This seems to be the definition Marx had in mind when he compared religion to a pain killer, because religion can numb us to our suffering, which, according to the age we happen to live in, is that task God or human reason has failed to accomplish.
Just as a god could represent various natural phenomena, so could a single phenomenon be given different explanations. The ancient Egyptian conceived of the earth as a disk, with the flat plains of Egypt as the center and the mountainous foreign lands as the rim surrounding and supporting the disk. Below were the deep waters of the underworld, and above was the plain of the sky. Several systems of cosmic deities arose to explain this natural phenomenon. Some attributed the creation of the world to the ram-god Khnum, who styled the universe on his potter’s wheel. Others said that creation was a spiritual and not a physical act, and that the divine thought of Ptah shaped the universe.
Human beings in every culture, and every century have turned to religion to answer questions that are not answered by science and rational thought alone.
2006-09-05 15:43:04 · answer #2 · answered by Orditz 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Religion played an important role in the development of various civiliaztions around the world. But yea....... religion serves no purpose for the twisted minds who just can't ever view things straight.
2006-09-05 15:27:11 · answer #3 · answered by skepty 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
There is no terror in my world. Well no religion either but maybe the terror you refer to is called responsibility and yes it frightens people terribly!
2006-09-05 15:32:52 · answer #4 · answered by Corey 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
To provide terror of what is after this world is about.
2006-09-05 15:23:45 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
If it is a terror knowing what this world is about=
NOPE!
Satisfying to know enough of the OUTCOME!
2006-09-05 15:24:34 · answer #6 · answered by whynotaskdon 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
"religion is the opiate of the masses"
you can never know what the world is about through religion, it only diverts your attention from the truth.
2006-09-05 15:22:45 · answer #7 · answered by phalsephasod 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Because Knowing is half the battle. GO... JOE!!!
2006-09-05 15:28:09 · answer #8 · answered by x0zx 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Salvation after this life.
2006-09-05 15:22:17 · answer #9 · answered by MD 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Because not knowing is even more terrifying.
2006-09-05 15:25:22 · answer #10 · answered by Mad Scientist Matt 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋