“Fifty thousand years ago there were these three guys spread out across the plain and they each heard something rustling in the grass. The first one thought it was a tiger, and he ran like hell, and it was a tiger but the guy got away. The second one thought the rustling was a tiger and he ran like hell, but it was only the wind and his friends all laughed at him for being such a chickenshit. But the third guy thought it was only the wind, so he shrugged it off and the tiger had him for dinner. And the same thing happened a million times across ten thousand generations - and after a while everyone was seeing tigers in the grass even when there were`t any tigers, because even chickenshits have more kids than corpses do. And from those humble beginnings we learn to see faces in the clouds and portents in the stars, to see agency in randomness, because natural selection favours the paranoid. Even here in the 21st century we can make people more honest just by scribbling a pair of eyes on the wall with a Sharpie. Even now we are wired to believe that unseen things are watching us.”
No, it is directly a problem. Believing in bullshit because someone in a higher position than you said it with zero fucking evidence is how MANY of humanity’s ills have come about and persist. Religion feeds that idiocy.
No, it’s not the only route, but it is a HUGE component of people believing things without evidence. That is, unequivocally, an actual, literal, direct problem.
All religion is baseless bullshit, so yes, it is problematic in itself.
It is divisive by nature/design.
And it is made worse by people abusing it for power over others or discrimination.
Religion
Easy to say, but I’d argue it’s baked in.
“Fifty thousand years ago there were these three guys spread out across the plain and they each heard something rustling in the grass. The first one thought it was a tiger, and he ran like hell, and it was a tiger but the guy got away. The second one thought the rustling was a tiger and he ran like hell, but it was only the wind and his friends all laughed at him for being such a chickenshit. But the third guy thought it was only the wind, so he shrugged it off and the tiger had him for dinner. And the same thing happened a million times across ten thousand generations - and after a while everyone was seeing tigers in the grass even when there were`t any tigers, because even chickenshits have more kids than corpses do. And from those humble beginnings we learn to see faces in the clouds and portents in the stars, to see agency in randomness, because natural selection favours the paranoid. Even here in the 21st century we can make people more honest just by scribbling a pair of eyes on the wall with a Sharpie. Even now we are wired to believe that unseen things are watching us.”
― Peter Watts, Echopraxia
I kinda get it. Everyone needs something to look forwards too. Sadly, for some, there’s only the idea of afterlife for that.
Religion isn’t necessarily the problem, people (as usual) are.
No, it is directly a problem. Believing in bullshit because someone in a higher position than you said it with zero fucking evidence is how MANY of humanity’s ills have come about and persist. Religion feeds that idiocy.
No, it’s not the only route, but it is a HUGE component of people believing things without evidence. That is, unequivocally, an actual, literal, direct problem.
All religion is baseless bullshit, so yes, it is problematic in itself.
It is divisive by nature/design.
And it is made worse by people abusing it for power over others or discrimination.
at best its a waste of human energy and maybe good for those that require that emotional crutch
your argument is the same for guns, which we as a species should also mature out of