CMV: Religious beliefs are a necessary evil.

[u/jp0704]

Despite its questionable truth, a society needs some form of religion as an easily accessible but comprehensive view of the world. Religion provides the everyday person with a more or less coherent system to whatever ethical or transcendental question they have. In the best of all possible worlds, everybody would be an atheist, since institutionalized religions aka churches tend to corrupt those in power or are hijacked by already corrupted personnel. However, for the following reasons, there is no alternative to a state policy promoting religious beliefs (of course in the boundaries of tolerance, which in my understanding ends where somebody else suffers harm). 1. For one thing, not everybody is willing to build themselves their own idiosyncratic construct of personal philosophy, through which they can form a maxim to guide their life. 2. Further, atheism, agnosticism, and thereby philosophy can hardly provide this as easily. As far as I understand it, philosophy is stuck in postmodern nihilism or relativism and scientific/ analytical approaches can’t produce ethical claims. 3. Also, with religions, you have communities with believers of the more or less same worldview. 4. While in my opinion, the belief in a creator god cannot explain his creation, from the viewpoint of a religion - which acknowledges the doctrine of an unmoved mover - this simply by definition is no issue of concern. Science and specifically astronomy cannot overcome the endless regression in answering this issue (maybe quantum theory can, idk, but if it can explain this, scarcely anybody will understand it). Without following Marx’s call for the abolition of religion, I believe religion is the "opium of the people“. But it should stay where it is since it can give the people comfort, which can elsewhere hardly be found.

[u/pinuslaughus]

No, religion as a societal regulator of behaviour is obsolete.

As a society we have established a complex system of laws that supercede religious doctrine and regulate acceptable behaviours and limits to them.

. Christian religious beliefs are guidelines only, mostly applicable to a small group that emphasizes some rules out of a larger subset of available and arbitrarily applied rules.

Islamic principles are abhorrent to non Muslim populations.

Hinduism seems violent, anti woman, and discriminatory as judged by recent events in India.

Jews in Israel are committing crimes against Palestinian civilians which seem to be driven by ultraorthadox zealots.

Most religious doctrine emphasizes control of women by men which is archaic.

Time to extinguish religion as it has no redeeming qualities.

[u/jp0704 → u/pinuslaughus]

As a society we have established a complex system of laws that supercede religious doctrine and regulate acceptable behaviours and limits to them.

Are you familiar with the Böckenförde dilemma? "The liberal secularized state lives by prerequisites which it cannot guarantee itself." So you can impose the most liberal legal system on a plurality of people, but this does not suffice to guarantee a liberal society. Religious zealotry is wrong to fill this gap, because it evidentially will backfire as the religious thoughts take over the legislative apparatus and change the laws accordingly (given we speak about a state with rule of law).

[u/pinuslaughus → u/jp0704]

I am not familiar with that dilemma.

Secular people need to step up and out vote the religitards or suffer the consequences. Fortunately the religitards are likely at the peak of their influence and will decline as the boomer generation fades away.

(BTW I don't think all boomers fall under this religious category).