visMon, Jun 2, 2008 I have yet to see any positive results to come out of the "concept/theory" of religion. Giving people some belief that there is something better awaiting us just above the clouds seems, to me, a pointless endeavor. Especially when most ministers wear expensive watches, drive expensive cars, live the high life and for the most part are over weight due to their excessive gluttony.
Mankind is better served by science than religion, and to most, that is apparently obvious. Science has eradicated polio, small pox and many other diseases that afflicted so many in past centuries. No matter how much one prayed over their loved one during small pox epidemics or polio outbreaks, their loved one still was afflicted with the diseases. Nothing changed.
The concept of a god is based on superstitions passed on to generation after generation by priests, witch doctors and soothsayers. It isn't based on logic or any form of provable fact. The concept of god comes out of man's early inability to understand his place in the cosmos.
Before the invention of the electric light and its spread through out the world the night sky was a good indicator of how insignificant the human species really is. Early man was frightened by what he saw and so the process of creating "gods" began. Something "bigger" had to have their hand in what they saw. They believed that something or someone was watching over them. They began by making sacrifices to their gods urged on my those men who had claimed they were in touch with the gods. Of course there was a direct correlation between what was sacrificed and the upward mobility of the priests, witchdoctors and soothsayers in the communities they presided over. Bring something to be sacrificed to the gods, plus a little taste for the priest, evolved in to "tithing" as religion (superstition) became more and more powerful. All religion is based on money, "tithe to god" meaning his self appointed representative on earth, got you blessings, supposedly. A good question to ask your minister is, if he didn't make any money at what he does, would he still do it? I highly doubt it.
Marx was correct in writing "religion is the opiate of the masses" although I'm sure if Marx were alive today there would be an amendment to that quote. Religion, religious television and television in general is the opiate of the people.
That is painfully obvious when you see how numb people are to what is happening in the world as they sit happily in front of their TV sets either absorbing some nonsense broadcast about god or who the next american idol is going to be. Television has become the religion of the masses in all its permutations.
"We are all atheists about most of the gods that societies have ever believed in. Some of us just go one god further. " Richard Dawkins
I have yet to see any positive results to come out of the "concept/theory" of religion. Giving people some belief that there is something better awaiting us just above the clouds seems, to me, a pointless endeavor. Especially when most ministers wear expensive watches, drive expensive cars, live the high life and for the most part are over weight due to their excessive gluttony.
Mankind is better served by science than religion, and to most, that is apparently obvious. Science has eradicated polio, small pox and many other diseases that afflicted so many in past centuries. No matter how much one prayed over their loved one during small pox epidemics or polio outbreaks, their loved one still was afflicted with the diseases. Nothing changed.
The concept of a god is based on superstitions passed on to generation after generation by priests, witch doctors and soothsayers. It isn't based on logic or any form of provable fact. The concept of god comes out of man's early inability to understand his place in the cosmos.
Before the invention of the electric light and its spread through out the world the night sky was a good indicator of how insignificant the human species really is. Early man was frightened by what he saw and so the process of creating "gods" began. Something "bigger" had to have their hand in what they saw. They believed that something or someone was watching over them. They began by making sacrifices to their gods urged on my those men who had claimed they were in touch with the gods. Of course there was a direct correlation between what was sacrificed and the upward mobility of the priests, witchdoctors and soothsayers in the communities they presided over. Bring something to be sacrificed to the gods, plus a little taste for the priest, evolved in to "tithing" as religion (superstition) became more and more powerful. All religion is based on money, "tithe to god" meaning his self appointed representative on earth, got you blessings, supposedly. A good question to ask your minister is, if he didn't make any money at what he does, would he still do it? I highly doubt it.
Marx was correct in writing "religion is the opiate of the masses" although I'm sure if Marx were alive today there would be an amendment to that quote. Religion, religious television and television in general is the opiate of the people.
That is painfully obvious when you see how numb people are to what is happening in the world as they sit happily in front of their TV sets either absorbing some nonsense broadcast about god or who the next american idol is going to be. Television has become the religion of the masses in all its permutations.
"We are all atheists about most of the gods that societies have ever believed in. Some of us just go one god further. " Richard Dawkins