Asklemmy

We've proved the popular religions wrong definitively, but the truth's turned out to be unbearably horrifying for most people.

I listened to a great podcast on the subject last week which was super helpful, https://pjvogt.substack.com/p/what-does-it-feel-like-to-believe.

For me, I just do. It's just who I am and what I feel. I don't really talk about it outside of my church friends, but I just believe. I don't think the Bible is terribly accurate and regard it much as I do Arabian Nights, a book of fantastic stories based loosely on events. I also think it has much to offer in teaching you how to treat others and live your life as a good person, and that's what I take away from it. I find Jesus honestly a touch creepy, but I never stop believing in a higher power of sorts.

Also I honestly have made the best friends I've ever made in my church life. Horrible homophobic Christians aside, there's some really excellent people who genuinely love you and do good things to meet there.

Man believes in stories. Such as religion, or money, or companies.

Ref. Yuval Noah Harari.

It’s useful to do so. It gives a person meaning and purpose in life.

I think it's comfort. That can be if different things for different people and it can be many things at once.

• Spiritual comfort that your god loves you.

• Emotional comfort that you can do no wrong.

• Community comfort that you and the people like you are the chosen people.

• Life/death comfort for what happens after death.

• Intellectual comfort to know all the answers.

• Vindictive comfort to hate the people you want to.

It can just keep going.

When you're brainwashed from birth, it's difficult to recognize you've been brainwashed.

Because we are convinced it is true.

Because they did in 2023

I mean... In my life I've gone from a (naive child that took my parents words for fact) theist, to agnostic atheist, all the way to whatever the fuck I am now. It's all a matter of perspective.

You go deep enough into metaphysics you can trip yourself the fuck out.

If anyone wants to humor me, check out this seemingly innocuous video about a comic book villain. Let's debate some metaphysics!

Because religion evolved to thrive in us.

It's like a parasite, and our mind is the host. It competes with other mind-parasites like other religions, or even scientific ideas. They compete for explanatory niches, for feeling relevant and important, and maybe most of all for attention.

Religions evolved traits which support their survival. Because all the other variants which didn't have these beneficial traits went extinct.

Like religions who have the idea of being super-important, and that it's necessary to spread your belief to others, are 'somehow' more spread out than religions who don't convey that need.

This thread is a nice collection of traits and techniques which religions have collected to support their survival.

This perspective is based on what Dawkins called memetics. It's funny that this idea is reciprocally just another mind-parasite, which attempted to replicate in this comment.

Because they're convinced it's true. Given that billions of people in the world ( I strongly expect it's the majority) would claim to be religious - perhaps the better question is: "why does anyone not believe in religion?"