Christians are annoying

[THE W]

Glad I pulled myself away from that white supremacist cult of KKKristianity.

[Andy Warhov]

You see what it did to Kanye? He need a therapist

[b-dolo]

I am almost certain most christians don't even know what the bible contains. Only what the preacher preaches.

https://www.themonastery.org/blog/wh...n-utah-schools

[IrOnMaN]

Glad I pulled myself away from that white supremacist cult of KKKristianity.

I went to a Baptist church when I was a kid. Sort of forced. I never liked it. People are full of it.

[That Go 2 Massapequa]

I am a Christian. I would like to think that I am not annoying. But I can see how people think that some are. For sure.

[Mumm Ra]

But its not like a billion muslims are choosing Islam because they've explored all the options and they think its a better way of life. For the most part they're born into it and questioning it probably means getting decapitated or at least disowned.

they kind of are though, I believe Islam has been the fastest growing religion in the world for decades now

I used to be extremely cynical towards religion in general anyway. But if I exclude my feelings toward it I know it gives way too many people a basic moral scaffolding to get through life, plus its a natural by-product of being human as much as breathing is. If I snapped my fingers and all religion disappeared I'm certain the world would be waaaay worse off

[ShaDynasty]

they kind of are though, I believe Islam has been the fastest growing religion in the world for decades now

I used to be extremely cynical towards religion in general anyway. But if I exclude my feelings toward it I know it gives way too many people a basic moral scaffolding to get through life, plus its a natural by-product of being human as much as breathing is. If I snapped my fingers and all religion disappeared I'm certain the world would be waaaay worse off

I said for the most part. To clarify, I meant in countries that are already Islamic, its difficult to shun convention. Religion is in decline overall worldwide.

Its as natural as breathing? Its not. Its a collective hallucination. It has some value to societal cohesion and morality, but its also fraught with bad logic, outdated dogma, and often a clear misunderstanding of morality. Its about as natural as a political ideology or supporting a sports team. Its all just shit we've invented.

Last sentence is an absurd hypothetical. You can look at almost every western nation where religion is in decline and see that theres relatively less crime and political corruption than in any theocratic country.

[Mumm Ra]

Its as natural as breathing? Its not. Its a collective hallucination. It has some value to societal cohesion and morality, but its also fraught with bad logic, outdated dogma, and often a clear misunderstanding of morality. Its about as natural as a political ideology or supporting a sports team. Its all just shit we've invented.

I agree with the description to a large degree but I don't know of a recorded human period where it didn't exist. Completely separate civilizations all had religions since recorded history. You agree that it's something we invented but I'm saying that inventing things, such as religion, is as natural to humans as swimming is to fish - it's just something we will always do.

Last sentence is an absurd hypothetical. You can look at almost every western nation where religion is in decline and see that theres relatively less crime and political corruption than in any theocratic country.

it would be impossible to accurately correlate those two statistics though. It's literally as ridiculous as saying crime is decreasing in countries where electric cars are more popular lol. Crime and corruption are both subjective and cultural too. Dubai is almost 100% muslim and would bury the US in every single crime statistic. Also what about mental health and suicide statistics increasing in western countries.

I'm not even religious in the slightest degree tbh. I just think erasing religion without replacing it with any sort of largely-agreed upon system of maintaining a healthy society and populace would be a huge net loss. Hence why people can't even agree upon basic biology in the west, and the family and community structure is basically dead at this point.

I don't know many people who would say we have a stronger societal structure in the US today than we did 20-30 years ago, despite so called crime statistics.

[ShaDynasty]

The correlation is there, it could be a coincidence but it doesn't seem likely. The more wealth and education nations have, the less they rely on religion.

Dubai has less 'crime' because its an oppressive regime that violates its citizens human rights. USA has horrible crime statistics, mostly because of the liberal gun laws. I get what you're saying though.

Recorded civilzation is a tiny fraction of human existence. Modern organized religion only spans a few thousand years. Given the human races adaptability, theres no reason to think it will stick around forever. As you said, other things will replace it over time, you can already see that atheists tend to have strong humanist ethics.

People always think things were better when they were growing up. Thats the world you prepared for. A few hundred years ago that worked, but now things change too quickly for people to be comfortable with them.

[Mumm Ra]

I disagree with every point because I think it's all unproven assumption but I will say - yes other things will replace it over time. Other religions. Call them athiestic systems of morality or whatever but it's still the same. But to think there will be a point where most humans won't believe in a higher power seems absurd to me. It's been a natural part of being the only species that recognizes it's own mortality and can communicate. We're only able to speculate about all of this because religion has got us here in the first place