Is religion useless?

[Kerrah]

I need religion because Allah the Almighty will keep me safe from infidels and barbarians.

 

[Chikombo]

Yes there should be a not there. Lol

It means your own will. If you decide that you want to be a good person, that is more than enough.

Volition or will is the cognitive process by which an individual decides on and commits to a particular course of action

That's not how life is though, people don't just do whatever they want, they confine themselves after social pressure or laws and regulation.
People might not always want to do the right thing, but they have too.

 

[Ninjackda]

I really believe that faith is a coping mechanism for when reality disagrees our ego. It's frightening to have everything you think and know challenged, and so faith is relied on to make people feel better about what they can't control. Having faith in something can make you feel like whatever god/thing you believe in has at least a little control when things are very uncertain, like the future or so many other things that we worry about as being human.

 

[Rohan]

That's not how life is though, people don't just do whatever they want, they confine themselves after social pressure or laws and regulation.
People might not always want to do the right thing, but they have too.

But this is something positive, so in this case you can do any positive things you want.

What you are saying applies mostly to negative things.

 

[Morphorous]

No, it's not. ideally, it serves as a means of social solidarity.

 

[Juan Piece]

It gives people... hope. A chance to look forward in life.

You know, to think that your existence is actually not meaningless.

To think that there's no end and your living wasn't in vain.

In other words, no. It's not completely useless overall. But it depends now... on a lot of other factors. Like how it affects your life and how you practice it.

 

[brycec]

How is society supposed to function when the bible says sundays should be for resting?

I have not really looked at a Bible in a long time, but does it really say that? I think I remember it being mostly Sabbath day and many different religions consider the Sabbath to be on different days, especially consider they do not all use the same calendar (e.g. Russian Orthodox uses the Julian, or at least did for a while, and December 25 in the Julian Calendar falls in January in the Gregorian calendar).

Plus, we cannot really function 24/7, obviously, so rest is necessary

As for whether religion is useless, which is the topic at hand, I would say that it currently is.

While it does give some people relief about death, it feels useless because you can find a community anywhere, especially considering we have forums, applications like Discord, and even sites to help people with common interests gather together.

From my own experience, religion is just a hot bed for self loathing and the kind of apathy that you would find in cults and MLMs, which is not conducive for having good moral standards.

 

[Chikombo]

I have not really looked at a Bible in a long time, but does it really say that? I think I remember it being mostly Sabbath day and many different religions consider the Sabbath to be on different days, especially consider they do not all use the same calendar (e.g. Russian Orthodox uses the Julian, or at least did for a while, and December 25 in the Julian Calendar falls in January in the Gregorian calendar).

Plus, we cannot really function 24/7, obviously, so rest is necessary

As for whether religion is useless, which is the topic at hand, I would say that it currently is.

While it does give some people relief about death, it feels useless because you can find a community anywhere, especially considering we have forums, applications like Discord, and even sites to help people with common interests gather together.

From my own experience, religion is just a hot bed for self loathing and the kind of apathy that you would find in cults and MLMs, which is not conducive for having good moral standards.

Jewish people rest on fridays or saturdays I think and christians rests on sundays is my understanding I think Islam has the third weekend day.

I don't blame people for being religious but I see a lot of contradictions with religion and life itself, which is sad but a truth people don't seem to realize.

Because I have been going down rabbit holes of atheism I got to the conclusion that religion seemed useless but that might just be cus of my exposure to that one opinion.

I still wonder if people need religion or not.
It's a fascinating question.

One could replace it with do people need a welfare state or not?
It seems some people do while other people see it as a problem.

 

[brycec]

It definitely is an interesting question, as it gives you insight into the people themselve.

I think a lot of the contradictions come from the fact that we are flawed human beings and we have our own interpretation of things.

For example, one group of people, most of whom I encounter are religious, tend to think we are imperfect because we are flawed, while another group may acknowledge that there are benefits to our flaws and realize we are perfect entities, flaws and all.

Still, I think you and I are of the same view that it useless today.