Religion a means to control the masses?

[BalanceFx]

A powerful and to most an offensive statement.

Religious people are the majority of america. (Amerika if the bail out passes*) Some views that the religious have are majority views. (Here comes my middle aged Adolescent rage and disgust)

• Marriage is sacred and between a man and a woman.
• Gay people are confused and need our support. (Cause we cant stone them people!)
• Atheists are entitled to their views unless they express them.
• Evolution is fine so long as it doesnt discount our creation by the all mighty.

Phew... That was very 1994 of me. (The last year I was a teenager) That is just a sampling... I could go on and on for more specific issues but lets keep it general. If your religious you likely support those bulleted items. Lets be clear. I am not arguing that Religion or your beliefs control society or even you. I am arguing religion can be used to control or influence society. A gun does not kill people, many people use one exclusively for target practice. However a gun is very powerful against our mortal fleshy forms and if used it can kill us. As could a club or even tweezers. (Girl murders best mate with tweezers | Herald Sun) Yes... Tweezers...

Tweezers are a tool... so is religion. You have no idea how some may choose to employ a tool. So if you want to argue this point please argue with yourself in notepad for a while before you post a response.

I don't think it is religion's fault nor do I think religion or even a state or habit of mind in which trust or confidence is placed in some person or thing greater then yourself is bad. I feel Religion is not meant to overpower the individual's will but to expand it. Unfortunately that does not seem to be true today.

What is your view of religion? Do you attend church weekly? Do the views of the reverend, pastor or whatever infulence your decisions on a day to day basis? What about important issues?


*I'm not even sure I would say that. Socialism is more about government helping and supporting the people. This is the government helping and supporting companies as they see fit and heres some things that will also pass and we will repeal later if you pass it... (Obviously I'm completely against the bail out and think most people could not even accurately defend their decision to be either for or against it.) The support in the revised bail out is not even restricted to the USA!

[whereismynotecard]

Am I allowed to respond to this?
If not, you can delete my post, moderators.

Not to sound mean, but it is my belief that religion was first established for two reasons:
1. to answer all of the questions that no one knows the answers to
2. to keep everyone in check; if you think you're going to go to hell for being bad, you'd be less likely to be bad than if you are an atheist and think nothing will happen if you do something "bad" or "wrong"...

I think Religion and Government are very similar in that reguard: You can do whatever you want, as long as you don't do these certain things, you pay your taxes and church fees, and do what the law/holy book tells you to in order to be considered a good person.

[UltraViolet]

Originally Posted by whereismynotecard

Am I allowed to respond to this?
If not, you can delete my post, moderators.

Not to sound mean, but it is my belief that religion was first established for two reasons:
1. to answer all of the questions that no one knows the answers to
2. to keep everyone in check; if you think you're going to go to hell for being bad, you'd be less likely to be bad than if you are an atheist and think nothing will happen if you do something "bad" or "wrong"...

I think Religion and Government are very similar in that reguard: You can do whatever you want, as long as you don't do these certain things, you pay your taxes and church fees, and do what the law/holy book tells you to in order to be considered a good person.

Very very astute comparison.
I agree completely.
frubals.

[MoonWater]

Originally Posted by BalanceFx

A powerful and to most an offensive statement.

Religious people are the majority of america. (Amerika if the bail out passes*) Some views that the religious have are majority views. (Here comes my middle aged Adolescent rage and disgust)

• Marriage is sacred and between a man and a woman.
• Gay people are confused and need our support. (Cause we cant stone them people!)
• Atheists are entitled to their views unless they express them.
• Evolution is fine so long as it doesnt discount our creation by the all mighty.

Phew... That was very 1994 of me. (The last year I was a teenager) That is just a sampling... I could go on and on for more specific issues but lets keep it general. If your religious you likely support those bulleted items. Lets be clear. I am not arguing that Religion or your beliefs control society or even you. I am arguing religion can be used to control or influence society. A gun does not kill people, many people use one exclusively for target practice. However a gun is very powerful against our mortal fleshy forms and if used it can kill us. As could a club or even tweezers. (Girl murders best mate with tweezers | Herald Sun) Yes... Tweezers...

Tweezers are a tool... so is religion. You have no idea how some may choose to employ a tool. So if you want to argue this point please argue with yourself in notepad for a while before you post a response.

I don't think it is religion's fault nor do I think religion or even a state or habit of mind in which trust or confidence is placed in some person or thing greater then yourself is bad. I feel Religion is not meant to overpower the individual's will but to expand it. Unfortunately that does not seem to be true today.

What is your view of religion? Do you attend church weekly? Do the views of the reverend, pastor or whatever infulence your decisions on a day to day basis? What about important issues?


*I'm not even sure I would say that. Socialism is more about government helping and supporting the people. This is the government helping and supporting companies as they see fit and heres some things that will also pass and we will repeal later if you pass it... (Obviously I'm completely against the bail out and think most people could not even accurately defend their decision to be either for or against it.) The support in the revised bail out is not even restricted to the USA!

Uh, first off those views you have bulleted are views held by people of CERTAIN religions(particularly Christianity) not all religions in general. So please don't generalize like that. It is actually only a small minority of the worlds religions that could be said to support such views. The only reason it seems like the majority is because the majority of people who follow a particular religion follow one of those "small minority of the world's religions". I'm also sure that you'll find that even among those people a large portion of them don't hold those views as they have a different interpretation of there scripture/religious teachings. The only reason it seems like most of them DO hold those views is simply because those who do tend to talk the loudest and thus get most of the attention. So please try to avoid generalizations because as you can see they're not always true and besides isn't generalizing a logical fallacy of some sort? My view of religion is that everyone should be allowed to develope their own views. I don't attend church weekly, I don't even have a church... or a reverend or pastor or whatever. My decisions are my own to make. I don't hold any of the bulleted views, and yes I do consider myself "religious". But please try to remember that "religious" does not equal "extremeist Christian". Far too many people make that assumption and it's probably the reason as to why there is such a rift between Atheists and theists. Each side takes the extreme of the other side and applies it to the whole when in fact that extreme really only applies to a minority of the group.

[UltraViolet]

That's true what MoonWater said.

I just kinda assumed Fx was talking about large mainstream religious institutions,
as they are the ones who influence the masses with set doctrines and dogmas.
(and threaten punishment for not following said doctrines & dogmas)

People who do their own personal religious thing are neither being led,
nor are they leading. (or influencing anyone)
So that doesn't really speak to this scenario.

[Mister Emu]

Marriage is sacred and between a man and a woman.
Gay people are confused and need our support. (Cause we cant stone them people!)
Atheists are entitled to their views unless they express them.
Evolution is fine so long as it doesnt discount our creation by the all mighty.

If your religious you likely support those bulleted items

I think this statement needs to be supported...

Tweezers are a tool... so is religion.

Though I could agree that religion can be seen as a tool by those would use it for their purposes, I'd hardly say that the believer would consider it such, as I do not...

[Sunstone]

Organized religion began several thousand years ago as a tool for controlling the masses, and it does not seem to have changed its spots since then.

[Jayhawker Soule]

Originally Posted by Sunstone

Organized religion began several thousand years ago as a tool for controlling the masses, ...

And your evidence for this is what?