Redpill me on religion /pol/.
I see religious people as weak minded as they rely on God for support, just like an imaginary friend. One day your God is real, the next day it's going to be mythology when a new God gets accepted, just like it happened to pagans. Prove me wrong.
I can't. You're right.
"Religion is poetry-plus, not science-minus."
-Stendhal.
Most people believe that Shakespere was great writer whose work is suffused with profound meaning and deep human truths. Yet he wrote about people who never lived and places that never existed. So what?
Imagine you walked into a classroom and half the class was yelling, "There never was a historical prince Hamlet of Denmark. Shakespere is pure lies. We need to burn this book "Hamlet" because it's just lies like believing in the Easter Bunnny."
Then the other half of the class is also yelling, "No you are wrong, Hamlet was real. We need to burn the history books of Denmark that say otherwise. Also Hamlet is the one true book. All others are false and should be burned. Shakespere is right and Tolstoy is wrong. "
Do either of these 2 opposing groups understand the value of "Hamlet" in the slightest? Of course not. But this idiocy encapsulates 99% of all arguments about religion on the Internet.
The great religions are about feeling awe, connectedness with something larger than yourself, a sense of natural dignity and eternal truth.
The Greek Myths, the Shinto Myths, the Hindu Vedas, and so on: they are full of beings that never existed but you don't have to "believe" to see the beauty of them. They speak to the archetypal layers of the deep mind/heart, and if you know how to listen to them you access these sub/supra-rational transcendent parts of yourself.
Ritual imparts dignity and makes you part of a community and culture that stretches into ancient times. This makes you more than an isolated indivdual -- it reminds you you are part of something bigger. Moral teachings are not straightjackets, they are handrails on the steep staircase of life.
>>79381436
>One day your God is real, the next day it's going to be mythology when a new God gets accepted, just like it happened to pagans. Prove me wrong.
This is a fatalistic, relativistic, and descriptive stance on truth and history
God only ceases to exist because "we kill [belief in] Him" (as the cripple superman said). He "dies" because you give up on Him in your self-fulfilling prophecy
>>79382246
What an excellent reply! You've made me think a lot more about religion now, and I thank you for that.
>>79382246
>a
>fucking
>nip
Otherwise, good shit.
>>79381436
I personally see religion as an imaginary thing (although it's sometimes fun to think it's not, you have to be careful with it, like alcohol, drugs, etc.) which helps me to be a better person in many aspects of life. It teaches humility to any form of life, teaches to value various forms of life, your land, air, light, time, forms of life. You can personify those things into gods and it becomes a little easier to separate them and make yourself a better person with better morals and so on. Though, it is always subjective, because it is a matter of emotion.
>>79382246
Religion IS anti-science. Fuck off, proxyfag.
>>79381436
Just a control system dude, everything man touches is poisoned, corrupted.
There could be a God, but everyone has it wrong, we need to embrace the control system with the best track record of success.
Life is kinda shit so looking up to a higher being is alright in my book
unless it causes you to be a dick to others then go eat a dick
I do agree that religion can be implemented on the spiritual level, but it has always interuppted humans peaceful life and has been shoved down our throats.
>>79388345
Many native religions existed in peace, the only thing shoved back then is that you couldn't damage sacred places, etc.
>>79382246
I am not sure if we are on the same page or not, but I hope we are. I consider myself Christian, and when I think about Jesus it doesn't particularly matter to my belief whether he existed, was a man, or was a god. What is important is his teachings and their validity.
I think it is a very sad thing that modern religion has almost completely ceded philosophy and intellectualism to others and fallen back on "because we say so." Churches used to be great centers of learning and culture, and they have become hollowed out. We are told to believe in something, but not shown why we should. I feel there is little that can be considered more heretical than the thought that religion must just be accepted and it cannot have a deeper wisdom.
This weakness is one of the great problems in our modern society. People will always strive to find that "connectedness, natural dignity, and eternal truth." Any number of despots have attempted to stamp out religion or hollow it out because they understand this. If we have no God, we will replace him with the state.
OP, this is the real red pill: Your choice is not between God and some enlightened truth, whether or not God is real or imaginary. Your choice is between people following God or following the government. Society will abhor the vacuum of no God and the absolute worst people will set themselves up in his stead. Who would you least like to have? God, and imaginary friend, or a despot who changes what good and evil are to suit his purposes?
>all these heretics who have never been to /x/, where proof of His existence is rampant and where one could easily obtain such proof as many have already seen
Shigging right in my digs, fampaitchis.
>>79381436
No one can prove if there is a god or not, that's a personal thing. What matters on a wider level is the culture. You look at the culture of Christianity and it has stuff like strong families and strong community, which is needed for a civilisation to work. You look at the culture of atheism, and it's degenerate as fuck. An individualist mess that makes itself ripe for the picking by marxists and Islam, which is right next door.
