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Is religion just another method to resolve cognitive dissonance?

exchemist

Veteran Member
Catholicism has made good use of that trait with confession.
I don't think it to be the main reason for religions to exist but it is how I understood @Wandering Monk's question.
Well, not just Catholicism but most mainstream Christianity - and I rather think Judaism - encourages people to recognise their imperfections and work on them rather than deny that they exist.

But maybe the OP has other types of religion in mind.
 

ecco

Veteran Member
For those that believe in a religion, it serves as a beacon and guide about how to live their lives. Those that don't believe, of course, think it's a bunch of hooey.

Those who don't believe look at the actions of those who do believe and know "it's a bunch of hooey".
 

ecco

Veteran Member
Well, not just Catholicism but most mainstream Christianity - and I rather think Judaism - encourages people to recognise their imperfections and work on them rather than deny that they exist.

Catholics go to confession, get three Hail Marys and all is forgiven.

People like Jimmy Swaggart, Kent Hovind, and Jim Bakker don't admit or change until the Press (or the Feds) show their sinning ways. Then they ask for forgiveness ;) and walk away with millions.

Does this sound like encouraging people to recognize their imperfections and work on them rather than denying that they exist?

Swaggart Blames "Demon Spirits" For His Woes
Swaggart Blames “Demon Spirits” For His Woes
October 20, 1991


BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) _ Evangelist Jimmy Swaggart, recently found associating with a prostitute, told his followers Sunday that ″demon spirits″ were responsible for his woes.

″In my mind I knew it was demon spirits ... without warning, without any stimulation. Psychology says something has to trigger it ... but when demon spirits function, they don’t have to have any stimulation or triggering devices.

Here we clearly see a con man, liar, and adulterer using religion as an excuse for his problems: "The Debble Made Me Do It"

Atheists don't have such easy copouts.
 

Fool

ALL in all
Premium Member
The piety is mostly in one's mind, not some higher power !
I really hope that there is a heaven out there for you, really !
there is no heaven out there anymore than there is a hell out there. The Absolute is NOW..
 

exchemist

Veteran Member
Catholics go to confession, get three Hail Marys and all is forgiven.

People like Jimmy Swaggart, Kent Hovind, and Jim Bakker don't admit or change until the Press (or the Feds) show their sinning ways. Then they ask for forgiveness ;) and walk away with millions.

Does this sound like encouraging people to recognize their imperfections and work on them rather than denying that they exist?

Swaggart Blames "Demon Spirits" For His Woes
Swaggart Blames “Demon Spirits” For His Woes
October 20, 1991


BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) _ Evangelist Jimmy Swaggart, recently found associating with a prostitute, told his followers Sunday that ″demon spirits″ were responsible for his woes.

″In my mind I knew it was demon spirits ... without warning, without any stimulation. Psychology says something has to trigger it ... but when demon spirits function, they don’t have to have any stimulation or triggering devices.

Here we clearly see a con man, liar, and adulterer using religion as an excuse for his problems: "The Debble Made Me Do It"

Atheists don't have such easy copouts.
The important difference is not confession, but the mindset that recognises we are all sinners, i.e. imperfect people with a tendency to do wrong, and thus in need of forgiveness. This is standard, not only in Catholicism but in most mainstream Christian denominations.

I don’t think the people you mention are mainstream Christians. This ‘born again’ stuff has always struck me as bad theology and liable to lead to arrogance. But one can have charlatans and crooks in any branch of any religion.
 

exchemist

Veteran Member
Is your "mainstream" comment anything like "But, they aren't real Christians. Real Christians wouldn't do anything like that"?
You mean, am I trying to pull the No True Scotsman trick? No, I’m not. There are many forms of almost all the religions. Some strands of Christianity I find extremely uncongenial. My grandfather was a Methodist minister, but living in Scotland so being largely a guest preacher in Presbyterian churches, my mother was a lifelong Anglican and my father was converted to Catholicism. These are all mainstream denominations, with a coherent body of doctrine and theology. But there are also a lot of splinter groups, in some of which any old fool can wake up one morning and decide to be a pastor and found his own church. One of my brothers did exactly that, in fact.

Chacun a son goût, I suppose.
 
I don’t think the people you mention are mainstream Christians. This ‘born again’ stuff has always struck me as bad theology and liable to lead to arrogance. But one can have charlatans and crooks in any branch of any religion.

They are mainstream, but only in America (although they are becoming a sort of Saudi Arabia for weird Protestantism and trying to spread it around the world).

American Christianity developed its own distinct flavours over the past century or so, but due to media coverage many people, particularly Americans, seem to think it is representative of the broader traditions.
 

Samantha Rinne

Resident Genderfluid Writer/Artist
It occurred to me the other day that some of the Bible's most revered figures were pretty bad people at one point.

Abraham nearly murdered his son. Some Jewish sages say he actually killed Isaac or that Isaac's soul fled as the knife was raised.

Moses murdered a task master.

David murdered Uriah by proxy.

One way for people to resolve the conflict between the kind of person they are and they kind of person they should be is to find forgiveness from a higher power. Usually this results in a high level of piety. As the saying goes, 'he who is forgiven much, loves much.'

Watch this video.

 

URAVIP2ME

Veteran Member
It occurred to me the other day that some of the Bible's most revered figures were pretty bad people at one point.
Abraham nearly murdered his son. Some Jewish sages say he actually killed Isaac or that Isaac's soul fled as the knife was raised.
Moses murdered a task master.
David murdered Uriah by proxy.
One way for people to resolve the conflict between the kind of person they are and they kind of person they should be is to find forgiveness from a higher power. Usually this results in a high level of piety. As the saying goes, 'he who is forgiven much, loves much.'

I find 'pretty bad' and 'Not being repentant' are two different matters.
Moses was raised by Egyptians and when he saw a Egyptian mistreating a Hebrew he took matters into his own hands at that earlier time.
David did plot Uriah's murder, but David did repent and thus was forgiven.
Abraham and Isaac were showing their confidence in the Resurrection promise.
They were so confident that Isaac would be returned to life 'at that time frame', and is why Abraham said the words found at Genesis 22:5.
That he ( Abraham) and the lad (Isaac) would come again ( come back to the people after worship )
This account is recorded for us because they knew about the physical earthly resurrection.
Showing confidence in that resurrection is what was needed and why God stopped them from going through with killing Isaac.
Only a physical earthly resurrection was offered to people up to the time of Christ - John 3:13.
This is why Abraham and Isaac are part of the list found at Hebrews 11:17-19. They are awaiting that future earthly resurrection - Acts of the Apostles 24:15.
 

URAVIP2ME

Veteran Member
there is no heaven out there anymore than there is a hell out there. The Absolute is NOW..
There is a BIG difference I find between biblical hell ( the grave for the sleeping dead ) and the religious-myth hell of conscious burning forever.
False clergy often teach a hell of fire but the Bible's hell is simply mankind's temporary stone-cold grave for the sleeping dead.
Heaven is God's home for Himself and angelic life.
Adam and his descendants were created to live on Earth. No earthly stepping stone to a heavenly realm.
When Jesus entered the picture a heavenly hope was only offered to some people like those of Luke 22:28-30; Daniel 7:18.
ALL the rest still sleep in death ( John 11:11-4; Psalms 115:17; Isaiah 38:18; Ecclesiastes 9:5 )
This is why the future tense is used at Acts 24:15 that there ' is going to be ' a resurrection.......
 

Fool

ALL in all
Premium Member
There is a BIG difference I find between biblical hell ( the grave for the sleeping dead ) and the religious-myth hell of conscious burning forever.
False clergy often teach a hell of fire but the Bible's hell is simply mankind's temporary stone-cold grave for the sleeping dead.
Heaven is God's home for Himself and angelic life.
Adam and his descendants were created to live on Earth. No earthly stepping stone to a heavenly realm.
When Jesus entered the picture a heavenly hope was only offered to some people like those of Luke 22:28-30; Daniel 7:18.
ALL the rest still sleep in death ( John 11:11-4; Psalms 115:17; Isaiah 38:18; Ecclesiastes 9:5 )
This is why the future tense is used at Acts 24:15 that there ' is going to be ' a resurrection.......
enlightenment is heaven, the resurrection to eternal life at which time the end of time has come. Time is irrelevant in eternity. Hell is not waking up. Going to the grave in the grave
 

Wandering Monk

Well-Known Member
I find 'pretty bad' and 'Not being repentant' are two different matters.
Moses was raised by Egyptians and when he saw a Egyptian mistreating a Hebrew he took matters into his own hands at that earlier time.
David did plot Uriah's murder, but David did repent and thus was forgiven.
Abraham and Isaac were showing their confidence in the Resurrection promise.
They were so confident that Isaac would be returned to life 'at that time frame', and is why Abraham said the words found at Genesis 22:5.
That he ( Abraham) and the lad (Isaac) would come again ( come back to the people after worship )
This account is recorded for us because they knew about the physical earthly resurrection.
Showing confidence in that resurrection is what was needed and why God stopped them from going through with killing Isaac.
Only a physical earthly resurrection was offered to people up to the time of Christ - John 3:13.
This is why Abraham and Isaac are part of the list found at Hebrews 11:17-19. They are awaiting that future earthly resurrection - Acts of the Apostles 24:15.

Repentance is the means of resolving the dissonance between 'what I did' and 'what I should be'. A little like regaining your virginity, a delusion.
 
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URAVIP2ME

Veteran Member
enlightenment is heaven, the resurrection to eternal life at which time the end of time has come. Time is irrelevant in eternity. Hell is not waking up. Going to the grave in the grave
I find that dead Jesus was awakened from biblical hell - Acts of the Apostles 2:27
Jesus did Not resurrect himself out of the grave (biblical hell ) but his God resurrected Jesus.
There is a difference between the Bible's hell and the religious-myth hell teaching of eternity in flames.
For in the grave (biblical hell) the dead know nothing, nothing but sleep (RIP) - John 11:11-14; Psalms 115:17; Isaiah 38:18; Ecclesiastes 9:5.
As God is from everlasting to everlasting (Psalms 90:2) then time will have No end.
Everlastingly we can count time both forwards and backwards forever and ever.
As there was No end of time offered for Adam, then there is No end of time for anyone else who will choose to love and obey God.
 

URAVIP2ME

Veteran Member
Repentance is the means of resolving the dissonance between 'what I did' and 'what I should be'. A little like regaining your virginity, a delusion.
I think we should consider repenting over perishing ( being destroyed ) - 2 Peter 3:9.
If one chooses Not to repent he could end up being destroyed forever, for the wicked will be destroyed forever ( perish forever ) - Psalms 92:7
 
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