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I welcome the diversity on here. One division I sense is on the question of why so many are religious. Is it more imposed from above--a means of control--or does it come from within and below--fear, ignorance, a means of explaining things..Do you identify with one of these, and how would you more accurately express why you think there are so many religions and religious.

DavidDuhon 7 Nov 13
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You can also see religion as the ultimate sales pitch. You see an advert for a car, it tells you that the car has an extra overdrive which will save you fuel. ( Perhaps true.) It also shows you good looking smart happy people, going out into really beautiful country for a picnic, hint, if you buy the car it will attract good looking smart happy friends who will want to take you out. (Perhaps false.) But it does not matter to the sales person/ advert designer, whether you buy the car for a real reason or a false one, as longs as you buy the car.

With religion since god does not exist, and you don't take delivery of the main goods until after you are dead. It makes god/religion the ideal product for the seller, since it can be fitted with any feature you want, at no cost, any claims can be made for it, and if the buyers are disappointed, they certainly never ask for their money/time/effort back. Therefore what do you want? We have got it.

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I don't mean this as a cheap easy answer, but I believe it is both. Humans seem predisposed to suspect or to want to believe in supernatural things. From earliest human information we have there are indications of belief in personal gods. Earliest religion could very well have come about as a simple explanation for hearing voices, which, believe it or not, remains a common experience. Our brain wiring plays tricks on our perception of reality.

Just as soon as societies evolved to a point of having chieftans who wanted to lord it over people, they found it convenient to take people's fear of those voices in their heads, and to use it for social control. Try reading the Old Testament with that in mind, and it is clear that "God" was just one of many gods jockeying for position in society. As soon as you can convince a person to give up his or her personal god in exchange for YOUR god, with you naturally as God's spokesperson, you have just won control over that other person. Right, Pat Fucking Robertson?

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In the case of children, it is imposed or taught from “above”. As adults, many or most are comfortable with their particular faith and they enjoy a sense of belonging. Also some of them are awestruck with the sheer fact of existence and they get pleasure from joining with others in reverence and worship.

There is also that irrational fear and guilt that might have been imposed on them. Some of them think that when they die they will get into heaven because they believed.

I really don’t think that religion explains reality, and I think religious people know that. Their attitude is to accept on faith and trust that things are in the hands of God.

On the other hand science doesn’t explain reality either. Some of the most intelligent and knowledgeable people alive are deeply religious. For that reason I extend respect to all regardless of their opinions about religion.

KIP THORNE: (Nobel Prize winning physicist)

"There are large numbers of my finest colleagues who are quite devout and believe in God [...] There is no fundamental incompatibility between science and religion. I happen to not believe in God."[13]
(Wikipedia)

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Societies over the millennia have required to structure their culture. Religion as a term did not exist until the enlightenment. It’s just what people did.

And people disagree. It’s in the nature of society. In essence the differences are similar to The Judean People’s Front and The People’s Front Of Judea.

But before control, religion was about structure. A look at Bronze Age cultures will give some idea of the applications of religious social structures born of Neolithic praxis.

The externalisation of internal questing.

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