Quote:
Originally Posted by Gozer
Religion exacerbates these 'evil' traits because it's core dogma commands obedience-of-authority.
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This could be so according to one definition of "religion", but I also think that we need to consider carefully how we use this term. Our understanding of what "religion" is is not universally agreed upon, and it actually appears deeply at odds with how it would be defined in middle and far Eastern cultures, as well as how it functioned in the ancient world.
I think it is fair to say that you and a number of the other posters in this thread find religion to be absurd because you have dismissed the possibility that it satisfies any single component of our anthropological identity. For those of us who reject this sort of anthropological dualism, religion is not only necessary, but actually entirely satisfactory and fruitful. This harks back to my comments above regarding community and individualism: In my own experience, the most clearly beneficial component of religion is in the formation of an altruistic, noble community that promotes solidarity, fulfillment and inclusive well-being. I have been a part of some communities that work and others that do not: it is a delicate and fragile enterprise in the same sense that politics and education are prone to similar fits and starts of goodness and harm.
If you take the time to read my posting history you should see that I not an apologist for modern, organized religion. I am categorically opposed to the misuse and abuse of religious institutions for illicit and inhumane purposes, and I reject the conclusion that for all its flaws it needs to be abandoned, or that it is in any way "absurd" as a result. Analogously speaking, the abandonment of religion in principle for the egregious effects of its misapplication is no different than the abandonment of an evolutionary explanation for biological diversity because of the exceptionally damaging effects of social darwinism or "casino capitalism".
...moe later.