The Fourteen Year Old's Enlightened Perspective.
I do not normally include such short and commentary things, so do not think of this as a sign of things to come. While this was written in response to what an anonymous other had said, I would ask you not to view it as an attack (though, it probably comes on stronger than I intended) on him. It is merely my opinions on religion which I find hard, at best, to express.
I don't think you do know why it exists (or I believe you wouldn't be lamenting its need). I think you believe it exists to fulfill other people's meaningless lives, but not your own. Combining narcissism and arrogance into a truly astounding package of sociopathism.
For reference it is called the 14 year olds perspective because that is around the age when young children grow up and realize that Santa isn't real (not that they don't figure this out before, but rather this is the age they accept it), and as a result push all of religion away and declare it an evil on society. They reference things like the crusades and inquisition without stopping to think how modern religion is no where close to what it was at those times and is no more to blame for it than I am for slavery, because I quote Tomas Jefferson.
Religion, since you ask, is the amorphous social structure which fills in the needs of our society. It brings hope because there are no social structures in place to bring hope. It takes care of the poor because the current charitable social structures are inadequate given the size of our poor community. It preaches against vice, because besides legal enforcement there is little in the way of social taboo against such things (at least where I am from). When Rome fell it took the role as government. Religion is the social structure of community organization allowing it to fit itself into society in any way society demands of it. When houses need to be built church drives rise to the occasion. When crime is intolerable it is Synagogues which organizes neighborhood watches. When racism came to height it was the mosques which protected their followers.
Religion is the ideal social structure, able to support society in any way needed. The philosophies and faith which you look down upon are nothing short of the glue that holds religion together, that make it such a powerful social structure. Any occasional determent it causes to modern society (and note once again today's religion is not the religion of the crusades) must be dealt with the understanding of how important religion truly is. I no more blame Islam for the suicide bombers than I blame trees for eco-terrorists. Anyone can claim to do things in the name of one god or another, it doesn't mean its religion that is to blame.
taken from comments on: "What Early Genesis Reveals" by Christopher Gorton. Comments by Jim Tzenes
I do not normally include such short and commentary things, so do not think of this as a sign of things to come. While this was written in response to what an anonymous other had said, I would ask you not to view it as an attack (though, it probably comes on stronger than I intended) on him. It is merely my opinions on religion which I find hard, at best, to express.
I don't think you do know why it exists (or I believe you wouldn't be lamenting its need). I think you believe it exists to fulfill other people's meaningless lives, but not your own. Combining narcissism and arrogance into a truly astounding package of sociopathism.
For reference it is called the 14 year olds perspective because that is around the age when young children grow up and realize that Santa isn't real (not that they don't figure this out before, but rather this is the age they accept it), and as a result push all of religion away and declare it an evil on society. They reference things like the crusades and inquisition without stopping to think how modern religion is no where close to what it was at those times and is no more to blame for it than I am for slavery, because I quote Tomas Jefferson.
Religion, since you ask, is the amorphous social structure which fills in the needs of our society. It brings hope because there are no social structures in place to bring hope. It takes care of the poor because the current charitable social structures are inadequate given the size of our poor community. It preaches against vice, because besides legal enforcement there is little in the way of social taboo against such things (at least where I am from). When Rome fell it took the role as government. Religion is the social structure of community organization allowing it to fit itself into society in any way society demands of it. When houses need to be built church drives rise to the occasion. When crime is intolerable it is Synagogues which organizes neighborhood watches. When racism came to height it was the mosques which protected their followers.
Religion is the ideal social structure, able to support society in any way needed. The philosophies and faith which you look down upon are nothing short of the glue that holds religion together, that make it such a powerful social structure. Any occasional determent it causes to modern society (and note once again today's religion is not the religion of the crusades) must be dealt with the understanding of how important religion truly is. I no more blame Islam for the suicide bombers than I blame trees for eco-terrorists. Anyone can claim to do things in the name of one god or another, it doesn't mean its religion that is to blame.
taken from comments on: "What Early Genesis Reveals" by Christopher Gorton. Comments by Jim Tzenes
posted by jim at 9/05/2005 11:33:00 AM
3 Comments:
"than I blame trees for eco-terrorists" I loved that - it gave me a good smile - peace
The trends that Jesse (and sophist in his responce on his blog, and btw you were lucky to get Christopher and not just Chris, don't push it) are left overs from an age where there was no social structure to provide people with support in the areas of mortality and science. As a result the church adapted to take their place. Is the church the best source for reasoning and understanding? No, but it did provide those things in an era where there was no other source. Perhaps one day the current social structures will be abandon in favor of newer ones, but does that mean we should abandon them now?
Jesse, I think what you've hit upon is one of the fundamental differences between religions. Some encourage independent thought and others don't. Its true almost all religions require some degree of faith (for the context of this argument let us assume that it is faith that defines a religion), but that doesn't mean you have to go through life with your nose in a bible.
I have always been a strong proponent of organized religion, however that doesn't mean I encourage all kinds of religion equally. To me religion is a necessary societal structure that, like many other societal structures, can be done the right way or the wrong way (to use those terms loosely to refer to religion's benefit to society).
After all if a company uses its monopoly do reek havoc, do we dismiss all of capitalism?
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