How religion works

Philosophy Forums Religion and Spirituality
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Religion in the end works through fascination. We read scriptures which can have many meanings, which are somewhat poetic, which sound deep and seem deep and we then associate all this with some supernatural-absolute-transcendental truth.
So any debate on religion ends up being a debate on art in a sense, on the aesthetic power of scriptures, on how many meanings it could have and how we can associate meanings to it.

For example the sentence “Ask, and you shall receive. Knock, and the door will be opened. Seek, and you shall find.” can really mean anything. What are you supposed to ask for ? not giving any precise answer makes it more ambiguous and therefore makes it “feel” deeper. Who are you asking ? which door ? what are you supposed to find ? This is just one of many examples in scripture where the fact that a precise meaning isn’t provided creates a poetic-aesthetic fascination because it can’t be fully understood. So it is mostly these mechanisms that convince people to believe, and the less precise and logical the mind of the person, the more he is impressed and conditioned by all this mystery.

So it is when the pastor says “Jesus speaks to little children”. Who knows what he tells them ? why are we so corrupt that we can’t understand it ? It must really be deep and true and mysterious! All religion is based on this. After, your local pastor - priest can create all and any reasons, justifications and concepts to “prove” and convince the poor believer in believing his religion. It is easy to work on words and create sentences that are convincing like “god is love” whatever on earth that can mean.

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Old6598 quote - After, your local pastor - priest can create all and any reasons, justifications and concepts to “prove” and convince the poor believer in believing his religion

You need a pastor and Organised Religion to do your thinking for you mate? Haven’t you got a mind of your own?
We don’t need such middlemen to get to Jesus, just bypass them and go straight to him :wink:
Jesus said:-“You have one teacher, me” (Matt 23:10)
And people quickly cottoned on that the snooty priests were excess baggage -“There is one mediator between God and men,- the man Jesus Christ” (1 Tim 2:5)
.

3

Jesus was also known as “the prince of peace”.
Peace and love are deep emotional conditions which the mind must pass through before it can find the meaning of creation/creator.

4

Here’s an interesting quote I found:

“I would no more quarrel with a man because of his religion than I would because of his art.”

-Mary Baker Eddy (whoever she is, I just found the quote in a book of quotes, and thought it was interesting and relevant).

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Theonefroberg quote - Here’s an interesting quote I found:
“I would no more quarrel with a man because of his religion than I would because of his art.”
-Mary Baker Eddy

I’d go one step further and say that not only would I not quarrel with a nonchristian (or atheist), but I wouldn’t talk to him in the first place because Jesus-rejecters don’t interest me in the least and can all go up the spout for all I care… :wink:
After all what kind of mentality must they have to reject somebody who said stuff like -
“Hungry and you fed me,
Thirsty and you gave me drink,
A stranger and you took me in,
Naked and you clothed me,
ill and you tended me,
In prison and you visited me.
When you did this to others,
you did it to me”
(Matt ch 25)

6

You’re in the wrong forum, man.

7

Another technique used by religions is to create impossibly high standards of morality. Who on earth could furnish the above to about one billion people on earth who need all the above ? No one and when they tried with for example that other crappy religion called communism they killed a million people in cambodia an unknown number with Stalin in russia and many others all over the world. And they created millions of poor people who lost even that little that they had. What a total failure!

The above is also an example of poetic manipulation, it is so good that it sounds that it came from the supernatural. No one will ever get close to something like that and to the idea of giving all your posessions to the poor. Give everything to the needy, love your enemy, never fight, love everyone. Impossible to achieve therefore you are a wretched sinner, an object of god’s wrath, you deserve to burn and suffer. Religion and its sister ideology are very harmful.

8

Interesting also to see how the far left (no globals, communists, anarchists, alternatives) never criticize Iran or Islam or anything that goes against the evil west. All the worst Fascist Islam dictators are OK for them, the terrorists are OK, they are fighting for God, they are fighting against the injustice of the world.

It seems like the left forgot that it was supposed to be against religions and dictators. This is because the left is a religion, has the same ideology, the same need for absolutes, that is why they love all the Castros of the world. I never heard the left talk badly about North Korea. The west and evil US is always the great Satan, the great enemy, all the others are poor victims. The left is just another totally crappy religion-ideology that will never solve a problem in this world. In fact many left wing leaders in the world are now allies of crappy Iran.

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Correct. But we also have the crazy christian right wingers like Bush that are also war mongers and are fighting against the wrongs of the world. The problem is religions-ideology both left and right create wars, create problems, don’t solve them. We need good pragmatic politically center wing to get something done. But we have all these crazy ideological hotheads like Bush and Islam that just want to fight wars. I don’t buy into the economic motive of wars, the US lost greatly economically and politically in the last wars and has increased the number of its enemies greatly. Of course its enemies are just a bunch of other idiotic ideological fools. Maybe they are right, we are all sinners.

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Well you’re not making the job any easier by being stubborn and not listening. And they say we're like that. Sheesh.

Anyway, are you saying that because it is impossible, we shouldn’t even try?

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But the problem with christianity and Islam and these type of religions, is that you never know how much you should try. How much is enough ? Should you give just a dollar to the poor? Why not 100 or 100,000 ? why not everything ? Jesus said to leave everything behind. Who can do this ? Then you feel guilty because you didn’t do enough. So religion is always a mental trap in the end.

12

Way to completely miss the point of the Mary Baker Eddy quote.

13

whoa, whoa, slow down there. you asked a question, then assumed a response and skipped ahead. I’ll have you know, I would be more than willing to give everything I have to the poor, it’s just that I don’t have enough TO give. those that do, either give generously, or are selfish, and therefore opposed to Christ’s teachings.

I would give 1,000,000,000 dollars to the poor if I had the resources, but I give what I can give. and in a sense, one does “leave everything behind” to even TALK about Jesus. it takes a lot of doing to bring subjects around to religious matters these days, leaving behind social, political, and any other burdens or issues at that time. but that’s just to talk about Him.

finally, the whole deal about feeling guilty and it being a “mental trap” or whatever - no. what we do is bring everyone to a level surface, where the proud, etc, are humbled, and the poor and meek, etc, are lifted up. it doesn’t destroy people, but rather gives hope. don’t make Christianity look bad because of something like that - our intentions and mission is a pure and honest one. anyone can tell you that. sure, some of us get the wrong idea, but it’s not like we’re perfect. we just know what our purpose is, and we’re carrying it out. if anything, we’re here to serve and love each other. yeah, there i said it, LOVE one another. the dreaded “L” word when it comes to philosophy and religion.

sure, it’s cliched or whatever, but it’s true. anyway, God bless.