What practical measures can be taken to gently free people from religious beliefs?

Answer 1

I suspect that the most effective thing to free people from religious believe is the wild ranting of the religious extremists.

Answer 2

I assume you are only concerned about the beliefs that are dangerous and antisocial. Most religions have basic beliefs in common that are not harmful, like not judging, love, tolerance, kindness and so forth. If you could just get them back to basics that would be a good compromise and gentle enough. For example, if Christians only believed in the teachings of Jesus, instead of all the variations and denominations, they and the world would be better for it. Really the problem in the world is people's thinking is the problem. With an ill person and you don't have to eliminate the person to cure the disease, wrong thinking. It really is an ideological issue with sane thoughts the goal. There are deprogramming techniques a plenty. Focusing on the negatives, though, only makes it worse, Focusing on the solutions to being civil and social are the answers. A negative approach does more harm than good and adds to the ills of the world.

Answer 3

That will never happen. no matter the method applied. However is that the real problem?

Is not the problem Man made religions organizations rather than religion itself?

Since most of the people want to be fools and fooled most of the time that again is truly an impossible task. Thus just let it be and go on with what is as if it is just a random chance happening that is in place during this time. Evolution will eventually solve the problem in the view of many.

Answer 4

I think that there will be some people who need religion for a long while if not forever. I think that with time, education, and teaching critical thinking skills the stranglehold of religion and particularly fundamentalist, literalistic religion will loosen as people who aren't prone to need will see through it. I know that some people disagree with vocal atheism but if religious people are out there peddling their ideas I think the other side and facts against religion need to be presented as well. This needs to be done in a nonapologetic but tactful and skillful way. More people leading productive, happy lives, relatively well adjusted lives as out of the closet atheists would help. Many people today in the U.S. seem to think all atheists are drugged up, hedonistic sex fiends or depressed social outcasts.

It is important also to remember some of the very real psychological needs religions fills for some people. If those needs aren't met or dealt with in another way people will continue to cling to religion. Things like facing our mortality, finding meaning, community, dealing with occasionally feelings of lack of control over life and misfortunes, teaching ethical values and respect based on common sense and reason outside authoritarian dictates, etc.. All these things need to be address in other ways than they traditionally have been in religious terms. There will probably still be some people who need to feel there is a big, all-powerful watcher looking out for them and promising them eternal life. I believe in personal freedom and that we have to allow the right of people to have different beliefs but the oppressive and destructive power religion sometimes has in persecuting those who are don't share their belief and forcing their beliefs on others will be lessened. This trend is possible and evident in the UK and many European countries.

I think if you are open about being non religious and living a productive life as a relatively happy person you will be doing something by showing the person who is inclined to not believe it is entirely possible. Be happy!

Answer 5

Exposure to other ways of thinking in coordination with separation from the group.

Christians, please don't get upset at this analogy, it is only an analogy and NOT a literal representation of you:

Basically, if you want a drug addict to get better, they have to be removed from other druggies and surrounded by people that don't do drugs. The addiction is powerful, and being around other druggies that have access to drugs makes reform next to impossible. They have to want to be cured, and willing to take the steps to be cured. If they stay with the group, the group won't let them leave. They'll say things like "you're a junkie, and you'll never be anything but a junkie" or other things meant to degrade the person's self-esteem and convince them to stay in that lifestyle with them.

Same theory applies to certain religions. As long as they're a member of the group it will be next to impossible to leave the group, as they support the religious beliefs and discourage leaving the group. They say things like "you'll go to hell" and "that's the devil talking" or other negative comments that scare a person out of leaving. In some cases, they'll even threaten to disown the person if they're a family member.

They need to find self-confidence outside of the group, and that starts with exposure to the world outside the group.

Answer 6

Model being free. When you provide a model that others, can see, keeps your life working at a high level, and doing it free of gods, you might catch someone's attention. Always move independent of magical beliefs and magical thinking. Refuse Angel cards and ignore horoscopes. Keep your friendship circle free of intrusive religious nuts.

It is just like being on the airplane. When the oxygen mask drops down, you put your own on first, before trying to help anyone else.
Get yourself free to free others.

Answer 7

Quite obviously this is the question of the decade...

Persuasion is a difficult thing to manage for any change of attitude but when the question is one that has it in mind to alter the core beliefs of millions, even one at a time, the hill is going to be steep. Nonetheless, I can see the reasons for needing to attempt it as our world becomes smaller and smaller by the day.

I suppose that alternative churches and belief are the most logical step we could take... Amalgamations of differing beliefs, though belief will still remain, will reduce each belief to it's simplest form and from there it may be possible to introduce that change is less difficult than was originally expected. I'm particularly fond of the new style of community church like Willow Springs in Barrington Illinois, one of the fastest growing churches in the nation and indeed one of the largest. There is a website to offer some details about what it offers but suffice it to say that it's approach to belief is as humanist as it is god-based. The services are very entertaining.

On the individual level... I truly think that this forum is having an impact and I hope it will continue to grow in popularity. In spite of the entrenchments that appear on the surface, there seems to be a greater sharing of ideas between differing individuals here than anywhere else - that's a good thing.

I've been talking around this subject for a while and it's a pleasure to speak to it directly. There truly is a need for psychiatric medicine to become interested in the phenomenon of human spiritualism since it is a no-brainer that there are certainly a good number of cases where individuals are more than a little over the edge. Additionally psychiatry and counseling are areas that ought to begin to study the problem in earnest in order to hone their skills of deprogramming those people who are otherwise capable of living rationally according to their intellect rather than reacting irrationally according to their emotions. The importance here is, of course, to stem the risk of increased radicalism in the name of gods.

My greatest concern and the one area that I see as a very big stumbling block is on the question of individual honesty. It is one thing to identify the difference between truth and fallacy and another to prompt an honest recognition of it and an appropriate surrender to that which is reasonable. I have no solution but to say that at least recognizing the problem is a beginning step to solving it.... and hence, my conclusion...

http://i209.photobucket.com/albums/bb62/Randall_Fleck/Solve_DishonestyGIF.gif
http://i209.photobucket.com/albums/bb62/Randall_Fleck/skeptic_wife_GIF.gif

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Answer 8

Grace unto you, and peace,
from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Bible suggests they need to be shaken awaken.
I think the BIG Meltdown is gonna do just that.

I find many asleep are awakening to awareness,
that the world has always been round: Globe-All.

Mean-while, as 2Tim 3 says: "from such turn away",
for I hear new F5 law harvestors of new and dead way
cut a mile wide swath of "destruction" 20 miles l-o-n-g,
for those crying to law: how l-o-n-g is a short end of days,
longing for one like Son of man to return with a vengeance.

Thank God the word "worst" does not occur in the NT,
and Revelation: "worse" case scenario, ends grace us:

The GRACE of our Lord Jesus Christ with you all. Amen.

Answer 9

I just wonder if all the decent Christians on this site are happy to claim pissdownsatan'sback as one of their own or do they wish he would go away and quit being a bad representative?

Answer 10

Those that have religious beliefs ARE free- just as you are-
Why does it bother your type so much? What makes you think you are so much wiser? If not driven by satan- WHY would you want to destroy the hope of others? If not driven by satan WHY would you even think it was any kind of bondage we need to be freed from??