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Originally Posted by wakey
Do I hate religion? Yes and No. While I have no problem with people having faith and believing in a higher being I hate religious organisations with a passion. These are group’s setup to raise self appointed leaders into a position of power with the view of imposing their views on others through fear. These organisations aren’t anything to do with a god, they are man abusing peoples faith and insecurities. The bibles a perfect example of this, so much faith is put in this book’s accuracy because in the words of Travlers beloved Pastor Chuck...
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Righto. This is where you lose me. I'm just not sure how you justify your reaction to organised religion. It doesn't seem wholly rational to generalise in such a narrow fashion. Do you honestly believe that
every religious leader in the world is some kind of machiavellian despot? After giving it some thought, can you even be sure that the
majority of religious leaders are manipulative obligarchs? How many religious people in positions of authority do you know personally?
I'm interested: do you also, for example, think that all poor people steal? That all girls wear pink? That no politician ever has good intentions? Yahwe has already helpfully reminded us of those hazy greys that cloud our moral judgement. Do you not think that applies here?
Though I don't know anythinlg about your upbringing I've attended church all of my life. According to my experience there are quite definitely negative aspects to organised religion. There is a tendency to become unhelpfully caught up in celebrity; there is opportunity for misuse of power; and there is often a crude and distasteful obsession with numbers and aggressive evangelism. This stuff exists, clearly, but it does not warrant this bizarrely simplistic, and wholly objectionable, categorisation of a huge number of people.