Why Religion?

[T.G.G. Moogly]

The appeal is likely the big promise that, after a life with misfortune and injustice in it, everything will be made right in the end and you get to live forever ... not the merger one's self into a cosmic totality like in some other religions, but you get to live forever as your individual self along with your loved ones. If your life's painful then this is a promise with a lot of appeal. That there's nastiness in some verses in a book doesn't much damage that appeal, especially not for folk who aren't zeroing-in on logical contradictions or who've rationalized them.

I agree. But to believe such one has to first believe in the woo. People give up on the present to varying degrees. Most just say it's a god's will.

 

[steve_bank]

I tried to find out when Christianity was established in Africa but different sites claim very different dates.
I don't know how accurate this one is, but it might give us a little bit of information as to how and why so many enslaved people became Christians.

https://www.bartleby.com/essay/The-Religion-Of-African-Slaves-F39ZYC2L29BWQ

I found some information that said the slaves from Africa tended to be polytheist. Some colonists wanted to convert them some did not. Conversion meant treating them like fellow Christians.

The never ending selective Christian rationalizing over morality.

Christianity spread through Africa through Rome. Augustine was Roman. Pagan father and Catholic mother. How's that for diversity.

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

I tried to find out when Christianity was established in Africa but different sites claim very different dates.
I don't know how accurate this one is, but it might give us a little bit of information as to how and why so many enslaved people became Christians.

https://www.bartleby.com/essay/The-Religion-Of-African-Slaves-F39ZYC2L29BWQ

I found some information that said the slaves from Africa tended to be polytheist. Some colonists wanted to convert them some did not. Conversion meant treating them like fellow Christians.

The never ending selective Christian rationalizing over morality.

Christianity spread through Africa through Rome. Augustine was Roman. Pagan father and Catholic mother. How's that for diversity.

Religious behavior is very much a mild case of psychosis. Explains a lot, the christian version certainly.

 

[steve_bank]

I tried to find out when Christianity was established in Africa but different sites claim very different dates.
I don't know how accurate this one is, but it might give us a little bit of information as to how and why so many enslaved people became Christians.

https://www.bartleby.com/essay/The-Religion-Of-African-Slaves-F39ZYC2L29BWQ

I found some information that said the slaves from Africa tended to be polytheist. Some colonists wanted to convert them some did not. Conversion meant treating them like fellow Christians.

The never ending selective Christian rationalizing over morality.

Christianity spread through Africa through Rome. Augustine was Roman. Pagan father and Catholic mother. How's that for diversity.

Religious behavior is very much a mild case of psychosis. Explains a lot, the christian version certainly.

What about 'pop music' behavior which can be cult like, is that also a mild form of psychoses? The Ozzie Osborn and Grateful Dead zombies. To me that also explains a lot.

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

I tried to find out when Christianity was established in Africa but different sites claim very different dates.
I don't know how accurate this one is, but it might give us a little bit of information as to how and why so many enslaved people became Christians.

https://www.bartleby.com/essay/The-Religion-Of-African-Slaves-F39ZYC2L29BWQ

I found some information that said the slaves from Africa tended to be polytheist. Some colonists wanted to convert them some did not. Conversion meant treating them like fellow Christians.

The never ending selective Christian rationalizing over morality.

Christianity spread through Africa through Rome. Augustine was Roman. Pagan father and Catholic mother. How's that for diversity.

Religious behavior is very much a mild case of psychosis. Explains a lot, the christian version certainly.

What about 'pop music' behavior which can be cult like, is that also a mild form of psychoses? The Ozzie Osborn and Grateful Dead zombies. To me that also explains a lot.

What claims does pop music make? Does it claim to be in contact with a real invisible creature living in the sky who is keeping a book on how you use your sex organs? Does pop music claim that there is a ghost living inside you that is going to fly away to live with the invisible man one day?

Lots of differences I think.

 

[steve_bank]

I tried to find out when Christianity was established in Africa but different sites claim very different dates.
I don't know how accurate this one is, but it might give us a little bit of information as to how and why so many enslaved people became Christians.

https://www.bartleby.com/essay/The-Religion-Of-African-Slaves-F39ZYC2L29BWQ

I found some information that said the slaves from Africa tended to be polytheist. Some colonists wanted to convert them some did not. Conversion meant treating them like fellow Christians.

The never ending selective Christian rationalizing over morality.

Christianity spread through Africa through Rome. Augustine was Roman. Pagan father and Catholic mother. How's that for diversity.

Religious behavior is very much a mild case of psychosis. Explains a lot, the christian version certainly.

What about 'pop music' behavior which can be cult like, is that also a mild form of psychoses? The Ozzie Osborn and Grateful Dead zombies. To me that also explains a lot.

What claims does pop music make? Does it claim to be in contact with a real invisible creature living in the sky who is keeping a book on how you use your sex organs? Does pop music claim that there is a ghost living inside you that is going to fly away to live with the invisible man one day?

Lots of differences I think.

Pop culture apologetics?

A cult is not necessarily focused on the supernatural. Pop culture is about group identities IMO not much different psychologically than the Jesus identity.

Christians make the sign of the cross. A Jimi Hendrix devotee reaches communion with Jimmy by playing air guitar. People quote Hendrix and lyrics of others. People derive a life philosophy from a band or musician.

When Star Wars came out women had their hair done like Princess Leia. When John Lennon wore granny glasses devotees of Lennon wore fake granny glasses. In the early Beatle days Beatle haircuts and Beatle boots.

People took on the persona of a Beatles. It was called Beatlemania.

The historical negatives are worse relative to pop culture tribal identity, but te underlying psychology IMO is the same.

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

I tried to find out when Christianity was established in Africa but different sites claim very different dates.
I don't know how accurate this one is, but it might give us a little bit of information as to how and why so many enslaved people became Christians.

https://www.bartleby.com/essay/The-Religion-Of-African-Slaves-F39ZYC2L29BWQ

I found some information that said the slaves from Africa tended to be polytheist. Some colonists wanted to convert them some did not. Conversion meant treating them like fellow Christians.

The never ending selective Christian rationalizing over morality.

Christianity spread through Africa through Rome. Augustine was Roman. Pagan father and Catholic mother. How's that for diversity.

Religious behavior is very much a mild case of psychosis. Explains a lot, the christian version certainly.

What about 'pop music' behavior which can be cult like, is that also a mild form of psychoses? The Ozzie Osborn and Grateful Dead zombies. To me that also explains a lot.

What claims does pop music make? Does it claim to be in contact with a real invisible creature living in the sky who is keeping a book on how you use your sex organs? Does pop music claim that there is a ghost living inside you that is going to fly away to live with the invisible man one day?

Lots of differences I think.

Pop culture apologetics?

A cult is not necessarily focused on the supernatural. Pop culture is about group identities IMO not much different psychologically than the Jesus identity.

Christians make the sign of the cross. A Jimi Hendrix devotee reaches communion with Jimmy by playing air guitar. People quote Hendrix and lyrics of others. People derive a life philosophy from a band or musician.

When Star Wars came out women had their hair done like Princess Leia. When John Lennon wore granny glasses devotees of Lennon wore fake granny glasses. In the early Beatle days Beatle haircuts and Beatle boots.

People took on the persona of a Beatles. It was called Beatlemania.

The historical negatives are worse relative to pop culture tribal identity, but te underlying psychology IMO is the same.

Maybe the underlying group identity thing is the same but none of those people you mention were interested in our sex organs or were going to burn us in fire or...

There's probably degrees of healthy psychology. If a person came up to you talking about invisible creatures, sex and torture you might think that wasn't terribly healthy. Why would you think a group of people spouting the same thing is healthy?

 

[lostone]

There's nothing a church can usefully do that can't be done at least as well by a secular organisation.

However, even in secular nations, church provision of social services, both formal and informal, frequently pushes out secular provision, leaving religion with a monopoly. As this automatically denies or obstructs service to those of the wrong religion, or of none, it represents a lower standard of service than should be provided.

As a result, even the best intentioned and most valuable provision of social services by religious organisations is harmful to society.

And of course, many church activities are positively harmful and corrosive to society. The good stuff isn't the norm, and isn't as good as an equivalent secular activity would be.

Funerals are a time when I feel the need for a secular organization to assist would be helpful. When we cremated my late wife, I had a small gathering in our home with a lot of pictures of Sara at various stages in her life, publicized the gathering, and invited guests, but it was all improvised by myself.

 

[Copernicus]

...
But, as I mentioned, all religious people pick and choose what they are most attracted to, when it comes right down to it. And, homosexuality is only mentioned a couple of times in the Bible. I imagine it's easy to over look that or say that it was written during a period of time when people didn't realize that a percentage of people are naturally attracted to the same sex.

Ironically, some of the mythology in the Bible came out of Semitic folklore that went back to the Akkadian epic Gilgamesh tale. Adam and Eve are said to have had Shamhat, a temple prostitute, and Enkidu, a wild animal, as their precursors. In that story, Enkidu started out as a wild beast and was tamed by Shamhat through days of sexual intercourse. She actually transformed him into a civilized human being, teaching him how to eat and dress. This relates to Original Sin, where Eve gets Adam to eat the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. Enkidu later meets Gilgamesh, who falls in love with him. So that part of the origin myth had to be edited out. When Enkidu was dying, he cursed Shamhat for making him a civilized person, which made him mortal and capable of dying, although he later relented when it was pointed out to him that he had been fed and clothed by civilization. Anyway, Enkidu dies and Gilgamesh could not be consoled. So he set out on a quest to recover immortality for human beings, which had been stolen by the gods, but that's another story. The point is that prostitutes and homosexuals weren't actually disrespected as much back then as they are by modern Abrahamic religions. Being uncivilized was equivalent to being an animal.

 

[steve_bank]

If you look at a wall map of North Africa and the Mid East you will see how small the region is where all the alleged biblical events through the gospels took place. Cairo to Jerusalem is around 300 - 400 miles.

Over the course of centuries cross pollinations of stories and myths would have been unavoidable. Add to that conquest and assimilation.


When you think about it there are only a handful of things on which to base a story. Floods, animals, hurricanes, plagues, and so on. And of course super beings in the form of humans.

Back in the 80s or 90s there was the tsunami in Indian Ocean caused by a tectonic plate shift. After I saw an interview with an island resident on an island that flooded.

He said there was an old island myth that periodically god sends a wave to cleanse the Earth, and when the water suddenly draws back from the shore run for high ground. Which he did. A case of myth originating in natural disaster.

I watched a show tat speculated on Noah. One idea was a river or coastal trader with family on board that got caught in a 100 year kind of storm. Possibly washed out to sea. Resettled somewhere else.

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

I watched a show tat speculated on Noah. One idea was a river or coastal trader with family on board that got caught in a 100 year kind of storm. Possibly washed out to sea. Resettled somewhere else.

Every writer's or storyteller's tall tale has its inspiration. Religion is obedience to only the tall tale.