Have you read this...

originally posted by: Klassified
a reply to: scojak
If I'm understanding what is being said properly, the speaker or writer is saying that religion as a whole is man made, and not a creation of a god/goddess. I can agree that all religions espouse some "truths", but I think the quote is aiming at the root of religion, rather than its philosophy. The last line of course, being tongue in cheek.

even if all religion is a lie, that doesn't mean that there is not a true religion and a true god out there, tho we don't know about it yet. A true atheist even could have this belief. The world's religions have contradictions and that is what causes many to move to atheism.

originally posted by: CharlieSpeirs
Here's how I read it...


Religion levels the field from 7.7billion out for themselves into 2 groups, believers and non believers and around 10 subgroups (Jew, Muslim, Christian, Agnostic, Atheist, Buddhist, Zora, Tao, Pagan, Hindu) and then about 30 subsects (Sunni, Shia, Catholic, Protestant, JW, Antitheist, Shivaites, Vishnuites etc)...


Now imagine that havoc with just 30 out for themselves, try billions out for themselves...
ie the nut jobs have bandied together, it minimises wreckage...
Of course this relies on the notion that without religion it would be uproar in the billions, arguable either way really.

That's what I got from it anyways.


TL;DR: Religion pacifies.



I don't endorse such a message.

"opiate for the masses"

not gonna deny it, I need my opiates

originally posted by: HorusChrist

originally posted by: Klassified
a reply to: scojak
If I'm understanding what is being said properly, the speaker or writer is saying that religion as a whole is man made, and not a creation of a god/goddess. I can agree that all religions espouse some "truths", but I think the quote is aiming at the root of religion, rather than its philosophy. The last line of course, being tongue in cheek.

even if all religion is a lie, that doesn't mean that there is not a true religion and a true god out there, tho we don't know about it yet. A true atheist even could have this belief. The world's religions have contradictions and that is what causes many to move to atheism.

Im gonna change your quote to; That doesnt mean we cannot be humane and show the goodness in our hearts

originally posted by: rajas

originally posted by: HorusChrist

originally posted by: Klassified
a reply to: scojak
If I'm understanding what is being said properly, the speaker or writer is saying that religion as a whole is man made, and not a creation of a god/goddess. I can agree that all religions espouse some "truths", but I think the quote is aiming at the root of religion, rather than its philosophy. The last line of course, being tongue in cheek.

even if all religion is a lie, that doesn't mean that there is not a true religion and a true god out there, tho we don't know about it yet. A true atheist even could have this belief. The world's religions have contradictions and that is what causes many to move to atheism.

Im gonna change your quote to; That doesnt mean we cannot be humane and show the goodness in our hearts

that's true

Something similar from Rousseau...

“To discover the rules of society that are best suited to nations, there would need to exist a superior intelligence, who could understand the passions of men without feeling any of them, who had no affinity with our nature but knew it to the full, whose happiness was independent of ours, but who would nevertheless make our happiness his concern, who would be content to wait in the fullness of time for a distant glory, and to labour in one age to enjoy the fruits in another. Gods would be needed to give men laws.”
― Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract

One of the major mistakes people make is that they think manners are only the expression of happy ideas. There's a whole range of behavior that can be expressed in a mannerly way. That's what civilization is all about - doing it in a mannerly and not an antagonistic way. One of the places we went wrong was the naturalistic Rousseauean movement of the Sixties in which people said, "Why can't you just say what's on your mind?" In civilization
there have to be some restraints. If we followed every impulse, we'd be killing one another.

Miss Manners (Judith Martin)

"We who are tasked with the survival of our species, perpetuate religion, not because it is the truth, but because the alternative, that which we know, that which we do not speak of, even among ourselves, would destroy humanity. Religion and its various texts must be maintained in perpetuity"


This part sounds familiar but as I read on it becomes more foreign and virgin. The first half could be made to stand on it's own....... It has a certain Deja Vu to it, makes you think you remember it in some obscure...

a reply to: dunemister1

Welcome, trying to get more philosophers in here, cause im very bad at it.