Do you like religion?

[Hedgecutter]

54 minutes ago, BigFatTabbyDave said:

a Star Wars theme seems the most likely now. The original films will have been lost centuries prior, so folk will probably tell tales of Darth Vader saving the universe from the evil Borg.

Nah, the story will remain much the same, with a birth scene, three wise men etc etc:

 

In fact, they should just change it now.

[Dee Man]

10 hours ago, banana said:

Take DMT.

After the kids have grown up and fucked off I'll be retiring to the Peruvian mountains to do just that. 

Hopefully. 

[banana]

1 hour ago, Dee Man said:

After the kids have grown up and fucked off I'll be retiring to the Peruvian mountains to do just that. 

Hopefully. 

Ha, was thinking something similar last night, boot the nippers out ASAP and announce to the wife I'm off to the Peruvian jungle for three months.

Retire there, change your name to Pablo, and set up shop for Ayahuasca tourism imo.

[banana]

Religion deals with the question of reality, consciousness, mortality, our place in nature and the universe, ways to be successful in the world as individuals and groups. Dismiss tens of thousands of years of grappling with these fundamental questions as hocus pocus at your peril.

The correct question isn't whether religion is good or not, it's whether it's better having it than not having it. Compare to the hole it leaves, what it's replaced by or what exists in its place.

[The Moonster]

9 minutes ago, banana said:

Religion deals with the question of reality

I beg to differ.

 

[The OP]

I suppose religion was an attempt to answer the big questions but was entirely based upon the proponents' imagination rather than any observable phenomena or scientific method.

 

As such, all modern religions should be filed either the bin or the fiction section alongside Greek and Norse mythology, excepting those parts which have literary or philosophical merit. 

[banana]

4 minutes ago, The OP said:

I suppose religion was an attempt to answer the big questions but was entirely based upon the proponents' imagination rather than any observable phenomena

Complete nonsense.

[The OP]

2 minutes ago, banana said:

Complete nonsense.

I would ask you to expand on this but I don't recall you ever making a substantive point when asked. 

Any observable phenomena religion has ever noted will have been incorporated into science. The rest is shite about talking burning bushes, babies going to Hell and getting a small amount of fish and turning it into a buffet. 

[banana]

Just now, The OP said:

Any observable phenomena religion has ever noted will have been incorporated into science. 

Two contradictory posts back to back, some going. Almost as if you're making it up as you go along.

Is or isn't all religion entirely void of observable phenomenon, make your mind up.

 

[williemillersmoustache]

Understandable in a developing species but inexcusable in one that makes claims to maturity. Like shitting yourself or watching love Island.

[DA Baracus]

Propaganda and maiming children.

What a lark!

[dorlomin]

1 hour ago, banana said:

Religion deals with the question of reality, consciousness, mortality, our place in nature and the universe, ways to be successful in the world as individuals and groups. Dismiss tens of thousands of years of grappling with these fundamental questions as hocus pocus at your peril.

Other than Aboriginal Dream Time stories, none of the core texts in  modern religion is anything like that old.  (A handful of stories may have some kernel in very old folk tales, but mere fragments)

Since most of the world get covered by Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism: these all struggle to push their existence in any recognisable form back much beyond the bronze age. They offer nothing that is absent in modern philosophy or science other than claims to  unprovable metaphysical truths. 

As others have noted they were observation poor, imagination rich. Occasionally great literature but by and large trailing in the wake (often adopting wholesale) more secular philisophy (see the huge input of Plato and Aristotle into  Christianity)

 

[Granny Danger]

12 hours ago, chomp my root said:

If it wasn't religion we'd find some other shitty excuse to emphasise the differences between people and use them to kick off.  There are loads of really really noble causes to kill others over, honest. 

That’s a pretty simplistic analysis.

What saddens me is how long it has taken the majority of people in developed countries like the U.K. to abandon religion and realising other developed countries are still steeped in it.

The indoctrination of children is another gripe; it’s akin to child abuse.

I find how certain religions treat apostates as being particularly shocking.  It is something going on in our towns and cities at this very moment but gets little attention.

 

 

 

[chomp my root]

14 minutes ago, Granny Danger said:

That’s a pretty simplistic analysis.

What saddens me is how long it has taken the majority of people in developed countries like the U.K. to abandon religion and realising other developed countries are still steeped in it.

The indoctrination of children is another gripe; it’s akin to child abuse.

I find how certain religions treat apostates as being particularly shocking.  It is something going on in our towns and cities at this very moment but gets little attention.

 

 

 

I'm a pretty simple soul. 

It does stand up though, when Religion was pretty much everything, ie politics, science, education and often in the ear of local Royalty then we fought our wars and lost our shit over religious stuff. As we 'evolved' and became less churchy its not like fighting over idea's has went away, we just think we're fighting for much nobler idea, the end result is the same.

There's something rotten in people that needs to have a 'them and us', its religion for some but any cause will do for others.

[The OP]

47 minutes ago, banana said:

Two contradictory posts back to back, some going. Almost as if you're making it up as you go along.

Is or isn't all religion entirely void of observable phenomenon, make your mind up.

 

Religion normally includes a set of rules for folk to abide by, generally put down thousands of years ago. Some of the books will include factual or common-sense stuff. Doesn't mean the surrounding waffle is worthwhile other than as a social document. 

Religion therefore should be in the bin. Received wisdom should not be.

[chomp my root]

1 minute ago, The OP said:

Religion is a set of rules for folk to abide by, generally put down thousands of years ago. Some of the books will include factual or common-sense stuff. Doesn't mean the surrounding waffle is worthwhile other than as a social document. 

Religion therefore should be in the bin. Received wisdom should not be.

Yup, every society has rules. To use the carrot and stick of God and the Devil to back them up might not work on us sophisticated types any more. Societies evolve and religion seems to struggle to keep up, something that religions have been pretty bad at and thankfully in the West, its biting them in the arse.

[NotThePars]

Catholic guilt adds a great bit of spice to life.

[John Lambies Doos]

I see that Sinead O'Connor has converted to Islam. Have any P&B posters ever changed religion?

https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-45987127

[Sergeant Wilson]

13 minutes ago, John Lambies Doos said:

I see that Sinead O'Connor has converted to Islam. Have any P&B posters ever changed religion?

https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-45987127

I bet they're delighted. She makes Choudary and Abu Hamza look sane.

[Herman Hessian]

On 6/19/2018 at 13:12, DA Baracus said:

Propaganda

absolutely; religion was all about governance through fear; successive regimes the world over, throughout history, have co-opted existing belief systems (or come up with new ones)  to convince their subjects that all manner of shit would happen to them  in the afterlife if they didn't behave;  if they didn't agree, all manner of shit happened to them in real time.

the psychology of religion - the need to have faith in something - is clearly an inherent human trait; it's been manipulated, very cleverly, to install people in positions of power which they have maintained by way of fear and intimidation with all manner of invidious threats on the one hand set against utterly unquantifiable "benefits" that simply never have to be demonstrated in real terms; as such, it's fucking evil.

for the most part, it would seem that we have moved on from that stage to a certain extent, but it's still used to exercise control over vast swathes of the human race to the benefit of small(ish) cadres of people who benefit massively from maintaining the status quo (leave it)

on a more individual level - there's a world of difference between faith and belief; by all mains, have whatever faith in whatever fantasies you care to nail your colours to, if it makes you feel better; when you start to believe that whatever shit it is you hang on to is actually true, then it becomes dangerous, because it means you reckon i'm wrong for not thinking the same

all in all, it's a thumbs down from me; did not like, would not use again