Sexual Behaviour and Christian Doctrine

[Patrickmeister]

brah, to succeed in life, you need to contribute more to society than you have taken from it. The amount of contribution is measured with money. Therefore, one who has earnt a lot of money is successful. This means that celebrities are more successful in life than scientists and the like.

Also, logically thinking, how can the belief that a nonexistant being that is the reason for your very existance be anything but completely retarded? Also, it is the poorly educated or generally poor people that have the most faith in religion. Generally, rich, famous or well off people do not believe in religion. Systemized religion (churches, and ranks in the church) are simply ways to control the populus by a few people by tricking people into donating their cash so they won't go to 'hell'. It is easy to notice that almost all priests a long time ago, when there was little food were really fat when everyone else was skinny as they couldn't afford to buy a lot of food.

For example, most leaders of the world are athiest at heart. They know that even without the aid of GOD they could succeed. Whilst the poor man prays every day to win the lottery or whatever they pray for as their bad habits made them poor and they want an easy way out.

A whole congregation in a church can pray all day and achieve nothing, but a single working hand can achieve much in a single day.

[Vortex]

To your first point of success = financial wealth: Some people believe that way and others don't, i'm a little in the middle. For me, if I could cure cancer for example but didn't become wealthy on it, i would still consider my life a great success. There are many ways one can gauge the successfulness of ones life. This gets more into a philosophical area.

To your second point: Now you're getting more into the fundamental reasons of the why people believe in religion or why does it have such a strong hold on much of society even in the face of scientific advancements of the last 100 years or so. Personally I think it began as humankind became aware of its own mortality. This logically lead to questions of what happens when we die. Rather than accept or even have the ability to imagine oblivion they concluded spirits and an afterlife. This would then naturally lead to the question of "what is the afterlife like". Combined with their answers that we got here by a god, they would then mentally construct the hierarchy of the afterlife. And so on and so on, eventually forming very complex religious belief systems. Each part of religious doctrines are there to answer some question we presented or to justify another part of the doctrine. Notice this is very similar to how complex delusions are formed in the minds of the mentally ill.

This is where intelligence plays a key role. The more intelligent a person is the more elaborate, complex and believable the delusions are. Most people default to those they perceive as more intelligent than themselves. Since the more intelligent people had come to these conclusions most people would think "if they believe this then it must be true". So in effect, the more intelligent people are the ones that were actually responsible for the overall advancement of religious doctrine. Of course now the trend is turning, with the majority of intelligent people leading the masses away from the ancient belief systems since they have more valid scientific information on which to base their new understanding of the universe.

There are also many psychological reasons for religous belief even in the face of more logical and rational explanations for everything. For example, desperation. In the face of some severe traumatic circumstance, people are more likely to believe as it is their minds way of dealing with the situation and it also gives them hope. Don't underestimate the need for people to have hope. Ever watched a show on some great human perserverance? Ever wonder how they could bear such a situation and still soldier on? It's because of hope even in the face of no reasonable reason to have any hope. This I believe is the greatest value of religion regardless of it's fundamental validity.

So, in conclusion, no, it is not retarded... it is human.

[SWM]

wow! that was a long road to where you started from

[Patrickmeister]

lol yes, but, i am a human, but i do not believe in religion. Does that make me not a human?

[Vortex]

Lol, yeah, i never intended to get into the mechanics of the mind and religion but that's where it wandered to. I was merely pointing out that religous people aren't necessarily stupid.   Sheeesh, never worked so hard defending people I don't even agree with... 

[Patrickmeister]

hahaha its ok brah

[pert -5]

Sheeesh, never worked so hard defending people I don't even agree with... 

You should try visiting a religion forum sometime.  Man, it's a scene.

[Patrickmeister]

lol tru dat

[Enigma]

Are religious people necessarily stupid?  No.  Is asking existential questions stupid? No.  Is corporatized organized religion stupid?  Yes.  Does Enigma reserve the right to call out sheep followers of the aforementioned organized religions on their lack of judgment and rational thinking?  Yes.