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Originally Posted by Urzu 7
Of course I was quick to be defensive, too many people are too biased against religion. *snicker* 
Number one, if you say religion makes manipulation easier, that still isn't the fault of a particular religion. This isn't a failing of a religion, this is a failing of corrupt men. It only makes manipulation easier because so many people deeply value religion and/or spirituality. That is not the fault of religion and spirituality, and these things being used to manipulate people for bad agendas is indeed a very immoral thing. |
I'd say it's also the fault of the "sheep mentality". "Everyone around me is of the religion X, so I'll be, too" or "Everyone says religion X says Y, I'm of religion X, so Y is true."
Note, "sheep mentality" is a survival trait. Fosters cooperation. But it also has its drawbacks.
I'd also agree that religion has done us a lot of good, along with the bad. Even what WK would decry as an injustice, the funneling of resources toward people who've done nothing to deserve them so they can live in relative luxury, has given people the time and leisure to work on making human knowledge progress.
Quote:
Originally Posted by WanderingKnight
It's not only Christianity. Think primitive. Picture an archetypal ancient tribe. Who were the ones that held power over their peers, other than the chieftains? That's right, the elders, who acted as the religious leaders. They held "knowledge" that the rest didn't have. And that "knowledge" is what they used to hold their position of inequality.
I'm not saying they were intentionally doing so in order to take advantage of others, but that's what, objectively speaking, it boiled down to.
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Why shouldn't the ones with "knowledge" be respected? Are you saying doctors and scholars should get a dayjob instead of being paid for being doctors and scholars?