Does organised religion have a useful social function?

I cannot remember you ever breaching point 4 of posting guidelines.

 

Hey @Bilby what sort of religion are you on about mate?
If it's in a school as well i think you can opt not to attend it.

 

Where do I find the posting guidelines? Can you link it?

 

I got this but it's not numbered..

Forum Posting Guidelines / Terms Of Service

 

It's the one to do with trolling i think. (hope i'm correct)

 

thanks. must be a combination of luck and good manners, since i don't remember seeing the posting guidelines anytime recently.

 

Organized religion seems to fill a void in some people's lives. IMO, organized religion's purpose is to line the coffers with the tithings of it's parishioners. Also, I believe organized religion is it's own worst enemy.

 

CONTROL.....

Keep people from thinking and using their minds.

 

Definitely!

I guess everything we experience changes our thoughts, but religion is especially effective in the control area...
Groupthink - Wikipedia

 

As for social function, my dear friend now deceased and a jewish woman, loved her Unitarian Universalist community...so many helped her get thru her long life, lived to 93, and her children were not around. She actually left some $$$ to the UU church. Good on her.

This lady was a traditional jew, but a non god believer....very much an activist a lot of her life....she was a great teacher in my life...

 

Keeps those that are afraid of authority figures in line. And kickin' them-there clams into the pot.

 

Could, although the track record is not good.

 

Sure. I think it can, but most religions evolved a long time ago and don't serve today's society well.
It is useful to have ethical standards which allow for diversity, community spaces, and rituals.

 

People end up in jail because they lack a moral compass. In Australia the incarceration rate for Aborigines is 20 times that of that of the rest of the population. Maybe if they got involved in organized religion there would be lower incarceration rate.

 

Maybe not that far. But would you agree that a lack of a moral compass has a bearing i incarceration rates? Do you have a better idea?

 

Aboriginals get treated the same as anyone else. Problem for many of them in court is that English is not their first language. In some cases it is their 3rd or 4th language.
If you think that organized religion has no useful social function, that is ok.

 

This is an anecdote I heard from a devout atheist.
A man when he was at school was always in trouble with the teachers. When he left school he was frequently in trouble with the police. Then one day he became a Jehovah Witness. Then he started behaving himself and no longer got in trouble with the police.

 

Looks like this topic hasn't been active for awhile, but it's salient for me and maybe somebody else will be interested. "Does religion have a useful social function?" For me, it's the center of my social life. I attend Church (Methodist) and Sunday School on Sunday, travel to another town for a similar gathering (Disciples of Christ) on Sunday evening, and attend Bible study sessions at the Catholic, Episcopal, Presbyterian and Baptist churches during the week. I even fit in an atheist study group from time to time. Covid has put a crimp in these activities. I miss the lunches and dinners with the groups but have been otherwise able to get by with Zoom. I've found that the Zoom sessions tend to be more intimate. People look like they just rolled out of bed, and are more informal in their home surroundings. I think religion is multi-functional socially. We have the benefit of reinforcement of our own ideas from others in the group, in addition to a sense of community. These are people who share my basic beliefs and values, and it's nice to know I'm not alone. Of course there are also folks outside the group who don't share the beliefs and values. The Methodist church in particular, has a Sunday school class that meets one floor down from ours and is essentially a different religion--ours being progressive, that one being traditionalist and fundamentalist. The gay issue has been traumatic for the church, and has already led some of my Sunday school to leave for fear the Church is getting more conservative on the matter. But generally, I think the experience is good for us, not only in providing good company, but in promoting good values and a conduit for altruistic endeavors. But I thing it depends a lot on the churches. Some are downright hateful--breeding grounds for toxic faith syndrome.

I've taken a Catholic friend with me to the atheist dinners and have enjoyed seeing him interact with the others. They're just people, for the most part good people, and the conversations aren't too different from what we encounter at Christian dinners. Some bring their kids, and my friend has commented approvingly on their parenting. No detectable horns or cloven hooves. We also checked out the local Mosque until Covid got in the way, but I plan to get back to that if we ever get through the virus crisis. Nice folks

I have lots of friends who would meet that description. Many have turned religious in recovery programs--the twelve steps of AA and NA. The ones I know are strong Christians--not particularly into the fine points but grateful for delivery from booze and drugs. From a pragmatic perspective, it tend to think they're better off.

 

The dominant religions spreading today all incorporate Aristotelian logic, and encourage people to organize along the lines of a flock of chickens. Before the industrial revolution, almost everyone was illiterate, and lived in extended families and small tribes and towns, and were lucky if they traveled 200 miles from home over their lifetime. Organizing like chickens, meant they could stay organized even when the lights were on and nobody was home. Today, using the same logic empowers people to organize by the millions, and religions have all evolved right along with modern science. Militant atheists have moved into academia, and use the same approach as their fundamentalist counterparts, of arguing over the definition of stupid, ensuring they poison the middle-ground and suppress any genuine salt-of-the-earth politics, which don't favor the wealthy. In other words, religion and science combined are responsible for the rapid pace of technological development, while communism is dead, and oppressive religious states are backwards.

 

Behold--I beseech thee to inform me as to the state of religion / faith of 10 million years ago. Thank you.