It seems like religion has served many purposes, some of which are becoming obsolete. For example they may purport to:
1. Explain the mysteries of the world.
2. Provide an action plan for desperate times (e.g. dance for rain).
3. Create community
4. Provide a ritualistic pulse that people find comforting
5. Provide a packaged set of values we can share (show us how to live).
6. Provide us with enemies against whom we can define ourselves.
7. Give us identity in a confusing and multifarious world.
8. Assuage our fears of death.
9. Church socials (cookies and punch :).
I'm sure there are more. It seems many of these are valuable even today, but packaged with the absurdity and arrogance of teachings about interventionist gods and creation myths, they are unpaletable. How can we get the best of what religion has to offer without having to suspend disbelief about the innanities?
2007-06-13 14:30:17 · 9 answers · asked by Thomas C 3 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Sorry to those who were offended by the question. If you are one of those highly religious people who believe the world is controlled by your own god (not the other guy's) and that if you don't believe all the right things about Jesus, his dad will torture you for eternity, well, this question is obviously not directed at you.
Just to be clear, the question is for those who accept the premise that there are many aspects of religion that are positive, but that are conflated with doctrines that are of another time. I'm interested in what we can do to avoid throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
2007-06-21 04:57:52 · update #1
Great question. My opinion is this. The best of what religion has to offer, as you put it, is nothing more than a grouping of good morals to live by. That's really all that's needed and necessary.
Having said that, I don't believe religion "invented" these morals. They've been with us, probably since the dawn of man. No religion, including the ones fostered by the bible can stake a claim. Imagine, if you will, Moses returning with 2 tablets containing the 10 commandments. Did the Israelites stare around at each other, open-mouthed, wondering why they never thought killing was bad? Was it really news to them?
2007-06-13 15:49:21 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Maybe you would get a better response if you had not made the following statement:
"but packaged with the absurdity and arrogance of teachings about interventionist gods and creation myths, they are unpaletable"
Their position is not anymore arrogant then yours since both are based upon opinions.
All religions I have been exposed to have this one thing in common, that somehow you have to appease the God(s). I have wondered if this dates back to when man lived more at the mercy of nature, which we all know is pretty fickle, so they developed God's that were just as fickle. Just a thought.
Personally for me I get community out of going to church {that is as long as I dont open my mouth to much to disagree with a lot of what I hear there}.
hope i didn't offend
- Inez
2007-06-21 15:57:56 · answer #2 · answered by Inez K 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Okay I like 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, &9. It seems so much easier in Ancient times, there were so many different cults, you never really heard of the Isis cult feuding with the Horus cult. You know what I mean?
I believe that there has always been a system set up in every socitey to attempt to explain the unexplain. There have always been rituals and symbols, in every type of civiliztion wether it be a band, tribe, chiefdom or city-state.
2007-06-21 14:26:31 · answer #3 · answered by Miss 6 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
The religious trait that will survive the longest is non-believers criticising the views of believers and dismissing them as absurd.
Santa Claus is ten times as absurd and I don't see many people telling their kids not to believe in him.
To get the best religion has to offer? It's not a smorgasbord, and if you cherry pick it's pointless.
Go wear a tinfoil hat and do as you please if you like. You can call it the Foil and Diletante Church if you like. Since you dismiss the views of others in a question there is no right answer for you.
2007-06-21 05:46:53 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
Mystical thinking will eventually die out, but it will be a LONG time. Religion has a nasty trait built into it and that is it is designed to be taught (sometimes force-fed) down our children's throat. It will take a while before this is washed away.
As science explains more mysteries, the need for fantasy explanations will fade
2007-06-20 23:36:59 · answer #5 · answered by BigCopyWriter 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
from your list, no. 8 is more likely.
we come to terms with the idea of dying because of what we believe.
but for the christian religion, regeneration or the new birth will take precedence over others.
2007-06-21 10:39:21 · answer #6 · answered by DannyLua 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
but packaged with the absurdity and arrogance of teachings about interventionist gods and creation myths
Hmm, who is it that sounds arrogant?
You are so confident in your belief that you are sounding like the Christian you are judging.
2007-06-20 21:35:27 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
What's the point? i dont want to be in a religion just for that.
You could try a nationalist or communist club.
2007-06-13 21:33:38 · answer #8 · answered by aznfanatic 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The reincarnation doctrine will last forever
2007-06-20 06:24:59 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋