CCCToad on 15/9/2013 at 04:22
Quote Posted by Robert4222
Woaw, now that's a way of smashing the future of your daughters into pieces. I can't believe there are people who still fall in these religious arguments.
Anyway, what was even the real point of religions, To find inner peace ? To morally guide people ? To give an answer about what happens in the afterlife, if it assumes that it does exist ?
FUCK NO, it's all about using it as a pretext to argue things and manipulate people.
Yes.....somebody makes a stupid, religious argument that directly contradicts what said religion actually teaches and that's proof that all religion does is evil.
If you think that it's just the fault of "Religion" that takes away everything good I'd say think again.
I long time ago I posted a link to an article that effectively debunked a lot of the myths about religion in the context of history. For example: the idea that women in the middle ages had no rights is absolute bunk. It was only after the church's influence in making law was supplanted by that of secular nobility that women lost the rights to do things like own property, deny consent for a marriage, and be the legal inheritor named on a will.
Generally speaking, when you run into a problem with religion it is when the interests of the state and religion converge that you have a problem. When they are divergent the churches can be a valuable check on the nobility's excesses.
june gloom on 15/9/2013 at 05:13
Quote Posted by Robert4222
Woaw, now that's a way of smashing the future of your daughters into pieces. I can't believe there are people who still fall in these religious arguments.
Anyway, what was even the real point of religions, To find inner peace ? To morally guide people ? To give an answer about what happens in the afterlife, if it assumes that it does exist ?
FUCK NO, it's all about using it as a pretext to argue things and manipulate people.
Actually the point of religion was to explain things that couldn't be explained by the science of the day, endow the worshiper with a sense of purpose, and perhaps most importantly, provide structure in times where secular government did not exist, was primitive, or ineffectual. "God was a dream of good government," after all.
But don't let that get in the way of your teenage rhetoric.
SubJeff on 15/9/2013 at 07:32
A very good summary of religion, which you'd do well to pay attention to Robert, marred by a dick move final sentence.
june gloom on 15/9/2013 at 07:34
What? It's completely true. Hell, I almost name-dropped Azaran but thought that'd be too mean. I know what you're trying to do though and it won't work.
CCCToad on 15/9/2013 at 07:49
Dethtoll's just cranky because the maintenance man knows he likes orange fanta and is screwing with him.
Renzatic on 15/9/2013 at 07:49
Quote Posted by dethtoll
Actually the point of religion was to explain things that couldn't be explained by the science of the day, endow the worshiper with a sense of purpose, and perhaps most importantly, provide structure in times where secular government did not exist, was primitive, or ineffectual. "God was a dream of good government," after all.
That's the root of all religion from a socio-economic perspective. Try to explain it philosophically. As in "why is the human mind wired towards inventing religions, seeking out something it assumes is greater than itself". The best explanation I've heard is that we all seek out a mother/father figure, but that doesn't explain the deeper weirdness inherent in the whole concept of religion. There's something about the brains in higher primates that shortwires and going off in weird tangents when it sees something awe inspiring. The reason I say higher primates is because chimps and bonobos do this weird thing that can be construed as proto-worshipping when they see something they think is interesting. Like if they see a particularly beautiful waterfall, they'll just start doing these weird dancing motions around it, doing who knows what for what the fuck reasons.
Then explain to me why the minds of higher primates are wired to experience awe and wonder, and express it in such weird ways. What evolutionary advantage does it give us as a species? Why would a brain develop in such a way?
SubJeff on 15/9/2013 at 07:55
Quote Posted by dethtoll
What? It's completely true. Hell, I almost name-dropped Azaran but thought that'd be too mean. I know what you're trying to do though and it won't work.
I'm not trying to "do" anything apart from point out that your last sentence was unnecessary.
You gave a perfectly good reply that fulfilled its purpose more than adequately. Why add the inflammatory statement?
Renz, I have a theory on that. When I'm not on a tablet.
Renzatic on 15/9/2013 at 08:26
Quote Posted by NuEffect
Renz, I have a theory on that. When I'm not on a tablet.
K. Hurry though, I never stay philosophical for long. :mad:
Though I'll add the one thing that's weird about the human mind from an evolutionary perspective before I wait. See, it doesn't make any sense by itself. Evolution is action and reaction to an environment, both shaped in response to it, influened by it, influencing it, all mixed with a bunch of random chance mutations that makes some species better at adapting to it.
When you consider that, the human mind is complete and total overkill. It's like a squirrel adapts to avoiding prey by evolving into Bagger 288. There's no real advantage to having a brain as large as ours, or even a way to easily explain why it evolved at all. You can explain it perfect up to a point. We became smarter to take advantage of our environment in the best possible manner. Our body shapes and opposable thumbs made it that much more likely we would become smarter than just about any other animals in the jungle. But that would only take us so far. After awhile, there are no environmental stressors to explain why we'd need to become smarter, and smarter, and smarter. After a certain point, the evolution of the brain was driven by itself. A bigger brain analyzes more, seeks more answers, wonders about more. The more it does this, the smarter we become. The smarter we become, the bigger brains we need. It becomes the evolutionary equivalent of a haywire feedback loop.
...and hell, just like space, that's weird too.
Vasquez on 15/9/2013 at 08:55
Yeah, and on the surface it seems crazy we're still clinging so hard to superstitious beliefs. But I guess that's another way our compulsively-pattern-seeking brain tries to find meaning in things that are random and chaotic.
SubJeff on 15/9/2013 at 09:06
But it's not random and chaotic - it all fits together and works like a charm.
