Does religion still serve a purpose in our modern world?

Onjit · 2015-12-25 10:18:29

In ancient times, gods were used as an explanation of the world's mysteries. Now that we now know why many of the things that happen in the world, with science, is religion still useful?

Do fables taken as truth provide a valuable moral and spiritual position, or is it more important to be realistic?

Tako · 2015-12-25 12:11:48

I kind of talked about this in the "Does god exist?" topic, and after much jibberish I ended up saying we will never have a complete understanding of the universe, so the need for a god will always exist. "God" in this sense isn't really an explanation, but a symbol for everything we don't know.

Realism dashes hope and accelerates our probable doom. We all need a little mystery in our lives.

Onjit, Koto, TaskManager, mutantdevle

Zumza · 2015-12-25 12:38:05

Yeah... To rise conflicts of course. You don't watch news?

Creature · 2015-12-25 13:56:49

Only to give fake hopes to people's heads.

Slushie · 2015-12-25 15:33:30

It doesn't really have a purpose, but it's here to stay for a while longer. Eventually we will reach a point where the vast majority of the population doesn't believe in a god. Even now, at least where I live, the majority of people either aren't religious or their faith is weak.

Most religious people I meet are only religious because they don't want to accept that life doesn't have a purpose, or that there's no god waiting for them at the end of the tunnel to reward them for their efforts and punish those who did them wrong. The justification is rarely "I believe in God because I don't understand the world".

Onjit

Schlog · 2015-12-25 17:54:39

it's around to be annoying in my opinion

Hostage

shadowda · 2015-12-25 18:07:07

i'm honestly surprised people still believe in that stuff. i thought we were smarter that that.

its about fear. the fear of death and the unknown. the only* reason people still believe in, lets say Christianity, is so that they feel ok about death and so they have justification to do bad things. "as long as i believe in Jesus, i can do what ever i want."

* yea... its not the ONLY reason. that was hyperbole, exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally. there are plenty of good people who believe in Christianity who don't go to far.

ZeldaXD · 2015-12-25 18:14:04

Weak people needs something to tell them what to do.

shadowda, Hostage

Processor · 2015-12-25 18:20:38

I see it is part of the culture, but it is taken way more seriously than it should be.
I personally don't need to have all my questions answered in order to live.

Onjit

Hostage · 2015-12-25 18:26:17

ZeldaXD wrote:

Weak people needs something to tell them what to do.

need*
grammar nazi
on a related note,
i agree.

now for my opinion:
Jesus.
I don't think he was religion-y at all.
He was sick of all those gods,and crap.
He knew he couldn't stop people from believing,so he made up one god,and sacrificed himself to get rid of paganism.

Yandax · 2015-12-25 18:52:35

Yes, because science can't explain everything. And if they can, sometimes they don't explain it right.

Abelysk · 2015-12-25 18:54:04

Religion stays as long as Christmas stays.

Yandax, blizzard

AmdS · 2015-12-25 19:35:49

Creature wrote:

Only to give fake hopes to people's heads.

Why would someone do that?

That's completely pointless. You will get nothing doing it. This isn't fun

Calicara · 2015-12-26 02:02:03

So many skeptics...

Well I am not overly religious myself, but I will say this. I don't believe choosing to participate in a religion makes anyone superior/inferior to anyone else. It's only natural to want to provide an explanation for the universe, and our purpose in life. Religion can help provide answers and life advice (regardless of whether we believe it's true), and for the most part can work to harbor communities of peace.

I am not denying that religion can also lead to violence, but so too can scientific advancements (guns/the atomic bomb/the internet etc....) It's not whether you participate in the things that matter, it's how you do it. I have some Christian/Catholic friends who are upstanding people. Their church works to provide a safe community for them, and they work toward doing community service for their communities. I don't think it's the religion that's inherently bad, it's how people celebrate it.

blizzard, Onjit, Pyromaniac

hummerz5 · 2015-12-26 02:09:20

^superior/inferior is bad. Probably leads to wars in itself. I agree: religion supplies to some people morals that they might not have found otherwise.

Indeed, people fight over their beliefs, religion included. I'd say guns/atomic bomb/internet intensified violence, but did not cause it. That saying "guns don't kill people, people kill people" although slightly crass and shortsighted, does fit this bill. If we didn't have an atomic bomb or the internet, we'd be out there stabbing out our beliefs.

Pyromaniac · 2015-12-26 02:14:41

Wow a lot of you guys are undeniably pleasant person to be around. Just let people be. Damn. Looking at you zelda.

EDIT: wow, nothing like a censor to take the poignancy out of my post. Just to be clear, Im calling you a$$holes.

blizzard, Onjit

Anak · 2015-12-26 02:34:59

I think religion is very culturally significant, and grounding for some people. In a seemingly purposeless atheist world, theism provides purpose for those who need/want it. Of course, some people remain purposeless without religion but will also find that religion is not the answer for them.
Maybe that begs the question that if the world had been atheist since the dawn of time, would world culture still be the same, but just use something else in the place of religion?
I think another question that is important to ask is that, if parents didn't "force" (for lack of better word) religion onto their kids but their kid still learned about various religions, would there be as much religious people on Earth as there is?

Calicara · 2015-12-26 02:36:07

I do believe in the "Guns don't kill people, people kill people argument." I mean in America people think giving more guns to people is going to prevent mass shootings, even though as we make it easier to get guns mass shootings go up, and statistically speaking, very few 'vigilantes' are able to really help anyone at all. Guns are only part of the problem.

That being said my the point is, I think religion, like technology, can be used for both good and evil.

Going back to Onjit's question: Is religion still useful? Do fables taken as truth provide a valuable moral and spiritual position, or is it more important to be realistic?

Think of it this way. We might lie to children all the time. We say Santa puts the gifts under the tree, he rides around with flying reindeer, and has workers called elves. Is filling their heads with hopes and dreams necessarily a bad thing? You can explain Santa's not real, but what would be the point? You can reason all the scientific improbabilities of why reindeer can't fly, and maybe prove that elves don't exist. But even when you realize it can't possibly be real, is the belief that they might be such a bad thing? It's when you use those beliefs to hurt others I think is the problem.

P.S. Even when we argue whether something 'exists', remember existence is not all about tangibility. Just because we can't see something, doesn't mean it isn't real.

hummerz5 · 2015-12-26 05:04:13

^Beliefs shelter us from reality, which might not be kind. As children we're given many tales to satisfy the mind. Perhaps religion is that grand humdinger... it satisfies those who don't want to face a purposeless void.

* This is assuming no god exists, otherwise comparing religion to a childhood story isn't valid. I realize we can't be certain one way or the other, but shh already

Calicara · 2015-12-26 05:32:08

https://scontent-lga3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hp … e=5709A057

This meme makes me think of all the skeptics in the world. I do not like think of religion as a shelter from reality, but a relatively humane way of coping with existence. We are all born and we will all die someday. We do not know what happens after we die, we can only speculate.

We can deal with this in three ways:

1. Deny that there is any universal order and accept that everything is chaos
2. Accept there is some sort of order, but we're all doomed to be miserable
3. Accept there is some sort of order, and some people are miserable, and we can help to fix that

Mystery and belief enriches our lives and adds purpose to our otherwise void existence...

I mean. I'm a pretty cynical person, but this past year my grandma passed away. And I don't know if heaven is real, but I'm going to keep believing she is there. Because that belief is what helps me cope with the loss of a person I loved. The reality is cruel, and I don't deny that. But, when something hurts so bad the only way to deal with it is to pretend it's going to be ok, I think we can grant some liberties in denying what might be true.

Yandax · 2015-12-28 00:57:45

ZeldaXD wrote:

Weak people needs something to tell them what to do.

Seriously? Weren't you ever taught to respect the regions of others? I have a couple things to say about this statement.
First, good job insulting yourself. A blanket statement like that means that anyone who listens to people telling what to do is weak. For the rest of your life you will listen and hopefully obey someone. Whether it's your parents, boss, spouse, or physician, it'll happen.
Second, you just insulted about 80% if the world. I did a quick google search on that so that should be reasonably correct.
Third, many of the world's greatest mind have a religion.
Fourth, religion helps people. I've never seen atheism or evolutionists turn druggies and alcoholics turn into normal, nice, sober people.

I kinda added that last point to make a point for this entire topic.

Pyromaniac, blizzard

SirJosh3917 · 2015-12-29 04:26:43

shadowda wrote:

i'm honestly surprised people still believe in that stuff. i thought we were smarter that that.
its about fear. the fear of death and the unknown. the only reason people still believe in, lets say Christianity, is so that they feel ok about death and so they have justification to do bad things. "as long as i believe in Jesus, i can do what ever i want."

I'm offended.
People who don't understand the religion do that.

N1KF · 2015-12-29 05:02:57

ZeldaXD wrote:

Weak people needs something to tell them what to do.

You indeed described me correctly. Why else would I pray for help and apologize to God if I thought I were so powerful through life myself?

Yandax

shadowda · 2015-12-29 16:44:06

ninjasupeatsninja wrote:

shadowda wrote:
i'm honestly surprised people still believe in that stuff. i thought we were smarter that that.
its about fear. the fear of death and the unknown. the only reason people still believe in, lets say Christianity, is so that they feel ok about death and so they have justification to do bad things. "as long as i believe in Jesus, i can do what ever i want."
I'm offended.
People who don't understand the religion do that.

ok then. educate me. and what is "the religion". last time i checked there was more than one.

shadowda · 2015-12-29 16:50:41

Yandax wrote:

ZeldaXD wrote:
Weak people needs something to tell them what to do.
Seriously? Weren't you ever taught to respect the regions of others? I have a couple things to say about this statement.
First, good job insulting yourself. A blanket statement like that means that anyone who listens to people telling what to do is weak. For the rest of your life you will listen and hopefully obey someone. Weather it's your parents, boss, spouse, or physician, it'll happen.
Second, you just insulted about 80% if the world. I did a quick google search on that so that should be reasonably correct.
Third, many of the world's greatest mind have a religion.
Fourth, religion helps people. I've never seen atheism or evolutionists turn druggies and alcoholics turn into normal, nice, sober people.
I kinda added that last point to make a point for this entire topic.

its been shown atheists are actually nicer people on average then religions people. becasue we dont need a god to tell us to be good people. and we don't expect everlasting happiness is we are nice.

When religious people do "good things" they are often doing so in conditioned response to an ethereal reward/punishment set of beliefs. When non-believers do "good things" its because they want to do them.

the article

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#1 2015-12-25 10:18:29

Does religion still serve a purpose in our modern world?

#2 2015-12-25 12:11:48, last edited by Tako (2015-12-25 12:12:37)

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#3 2015-12-25 12:38:05

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#4 2015-12-25 13:56:49, last edited by Creature (2015-12-25 13:57:09)

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#5 2015-12-25 15:33:30

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#6 2015-12-25 17:54:39

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#7 2015-12-25 18:07:07, last edited by shadowda (2015-12-29 19:07:30)

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#8 2015-12-25 18:14:04

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#9 2015-12-25 18:20:38

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#10 2015-12-25 18:26:17

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#11 2015-12-25 18:52:35

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#12 2015-12-25 18:54:04

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#13 2015-12-25 19:35:49

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#14 2015-12-26 02:02:03, last edited by Calicara (2015-12-26 02:02:59)

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#15 2015-12-26 02:09:20

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#16 2015-12-26 02:14:41, last edited by Pyromaniac (2015-12-26 04:20:02)

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#17 2015-12-26 02:34:59

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#18 2015-12-26 02:36:07, last edited by Calicara (2015-12-26 02:38:19)

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#19 2015-12-26 05:04:13

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#20 2015-12-26 05:32:08, last edited by Calicara (2015-12-26 05:33:05)

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#21 2015-12-28 00:57:45, last edited by Yandax (2016-11-27 21:17:39)

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#22 2015-12-29 04:26:43

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#23 2015-12-29 05:02:57

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#24 2015-12-29 16:44:06

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#25 2015-12-29 16:50:41

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