Quote:
Originally Posted by CliffFletcher
The fact religious or spiritual beliefs are a human universal that developed independently in virtually every society, they pretty clearly meet a fundamental human need.
You can call it indoctrination, but if you believe communal rituals have efficacy, how is teaching them to your children any different from teaching them how to hunt rabbits, weave mats, or thresh wheat?
|
No problem with that if at the same time you inform them they are only stories, and not to be taken literally. Something many many religions do the opposite of. By deceiving people of reality you do them no favours, and set them up to struggle with cognitive paradoxes for the rest of their lives. Unfortunately this means many default to belief over fact, because it's so much easier to just believe, to take it on faith, than to actually understand.
In the past religions existed to provide structure and control. We have no need for that now, and the reality is it's become an impediment to peaceful society so long as more than one differing group exists in the same place and imbued with fundamentally different "truths" they have been convinced through indoctrination that that is the proper way to live. And they fight for that way of living, to the death. Or impose it on others.