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[Turbo Ninja]

Indeed.  Been there, done that.

I sure hope none got on the Mayor.

[Golfhaus]

When I was just a Fast Ninja, way back in primary school, I remember making things up to confess when my CCD class went to confession.

Interesting that in doing that, you were lying to the priest, which has got to be worse than the sins you were making up in the first place.

For me, personally, the more a religion relies on faith, the less inclined I am to believe in it. Unfortunately, they all seem to do that to some degree.

[Ben-San]

For me, personally, the more a religion relies on faith, the less inclined I am to believe in it. Unfortunately, they all seem to do that to some degree.

It's almost as if religion in general exists to address issues which cannot be resolved through evidential reasoning, what with us already having science for that.

[CortJstr]

It's almost as if religion in general exists to address issues which cannot be resolved through evidential reasoning, what with us already having science for that.

Unless science could resolve these issues, if only we had more of it. I think I read that on a magnet somewhere.

[oball]

CCD class

Everytime someone mentions "CCD" in this thread I keep thinking "What do charge-coupled devices have to do with Catholicism?"

[dejavroom]

Unless science could resolve these issues, if only we had more of it. I think I read that on a magnet somewhere.

What I find funny (in a scary sort of way) is that delve deep enough in both Religion and Science and they'll ask you to believe in ludicrous shit (not even necessarily untrue shit, but you should know what I mean - concepts that go against the grain of empirical "common sense"), each in their own way.

[pmcd9]

It's almost as if religion in general exists to address issues which cannot be resolved through evidential reasoning, what with us already having science for that.

Yeah well that's a thing isn't it.  Science has a nasty habit of figuring shit out and religion wants to take issue with it.  This has been going on since day one.

Every step in scientific progress has been met with objection from the church whenever it goes against what is written in the bible. 

That's why the bible must be discounted, because science has figured out a lot of shit that was unknown back when it was written and proven it to be a ludicrous document.

[oball]

MC Hawking knows what the score is.

I'm a disciple of science
I know the universe is in full compliance
With natural laws
But many place reliance
On the psuedo-science
Of quacks and morons and fools because
Their education's deficient
They put faith in omniscient
Make-believe beings who control their fate
But the Hawk ain't with it, dig it
Their Holy writ ain't the least bit legit
It's a bunch of bullshit
They need to read a book that's not so damn old
Let reason take hold
Though truth to be told
They're probably already too far gone
Withdrawn, the conclusion foregone
But maybe there is still hope for the young
If they reject the dung being slung from the tongues
Of the ignorant fools who call themselves preachers
And listen instead to their science teachers

Upon blind faith they place reliance,
What we need more of is science!

[Doc]

Every step in scientific progress has been met with objection from the church whenever it goes against what is written in the bible. 

That's because people always try to make the morality serve the magic when it's meant to work the other way around.

If that sentence makes no sense it's because I had a long post leading up to it, but it got out of hand so I'm just keeping it simple.

[littlefallsmets]

The magic's supposed to be the spoonful of sugar that makes the medicine go down and...

Instead, the world has become fat and irrational on empty calories and cast out the medication, growing sicker by the day.

I mean, shellgiraffe and pork weren't compatible with the food-prep science three thousand years ago without fuck*ng killing people and so...

Some wise motherfuckers decided to say that a spooky ghost in the sky said it was a sin and people bought it.

I mean, it is also wise to not steal porridge from bears and I'm glad that this was explained to me as a child in a fanciful manner but... it's all just stories.

[wombat]

I mean, it is also wise to not steal porridge from bears and I'm glad that this was explained to me as a child in a fanciful manner but... it's all just stories.

This is actually the best argument in favor of religion that I have heard lately.

And hey, Ben! Don't be such a stranger!

[dejavroom]

The magic's supposed to be the spoonful of sugar that makes the medicine go down and...

This is a bit too vague for me to try and dispute, but I'd like to point out that there's more to religious discourse than "magic tales" that tell you how to avoid the dangers of the physical world (or how to behave in the best interests of the community you're part of, for instance). Actually, sometimes religious advice will go against what's perceived as the rational, scientific common sense (sometimes at the expense of one's personal health, safety, popularity, wealth etc), simply because the basic distinction of goals (which in turn influence the actions and m.o.) between Religion and Science is that Religion places its emphasis in the belief of continuation of consciousness in one form or another in an afterlife. This squares with two of the most important mystical tenets that have been voiced in many different ways throughout the ages - first that the physical world, ruled and surveyed by empirical knowledge, is a farce of the senses (degrees of malignity of this "theater of shadows" varying from religion to religion), and following from that the saying that "Man's wisdom is folly to God" (and vice-versa).

[littlefallsmets]

All I'm really saying is that religion's a mechanism that functions to turn our essential search for meaning into THE convenient means of social control.

In a much larger world that knew a lot less, such social control was a far more necessary evil.

Sometimes it was quite needed.

These days, in this set of situations, it is a crutch that prevents a healed leg from being walked upon, at best...

And at worst and far more often, the sole and self-fulfilling remaining underpinning of tyranny.

At this stage culturally, instead of disseminating knowledge to people who can't process it in full, religion suppresses knowledge to sustain the power structure that was formed out of it.

I'm not saying, of course, that we are beyond our own personal reckonings with divinity.

I genuinely hope (though largely doubt) that there is Something in charge above this level of understanding, that I might someday wrestle with it and get some fuck*ng explanations for the way things are and a full accounting on Its sins against the human race as opposed to the other way around... I shake in anticipation of such an encounter.

I would have words with this heartless bastard as it tore me to atoms and rags.

But on a cultural scale, on a world scale now that we are a world as a race whether we want to admit it or not, churches priests organized mass faith... it's a pyramid scheme by confidence men and lunatics to fulfill their agendae... social, economic, sexual, whatever. We know that the stars aren't pinpricks in the blanket Odin throws over the goddamned sun at night, we know that these are fusion reactions from before there were people just getting to our eyes.

And that's more beautiful by ten thousand than some one-eyed warlock and a secondhand bedspread.

Organized faith is just a skeleton for unessential power structures to hang their little cloak-and-dagger three-card-monte schemes upon.

We seek intercourse with divinity and end up rolled by leering pimps before the faintest glimpse of a transaction.

[dejavroom]

All I'm really saying is that religion's a mechanism that functions to turn our essential search for meaning into THE convenient means of social control.

It can be that, it is that a lot of times, but it is not only that. Is Politics always all about gulags, executions, exiles in Siberia? Is Science always all about thalidomide, Chernobyl and global warming?

[Arachno-capitalist]

Hey look, another sMets argument with a one sided cast to set up a mental strawman for beatings!

idk man, he's got me pretty convinced that religion is evil and that the protestant work ethic is really some kind of scam to make people want more things. Also, something about skeletons with daggers leading pyramid schemes. Or something.