On Feb 27, 2007, at 7:37 AM, jrdavis wrote:
> PLus, there have been new findings in the field of neuro-psychology
> which suggest that religion may be hard wired into out brains
> (which is why even atheism takes on forms of religiousity despite
> atheists best efforts).
>
Please. Enough of this hard-wiring stuff. There are plenty of non- and anti-religious people in the world. Are we betraying our genetic inheritance?
Yeah, some people who do good things politically are religious. And some people who do bad things are too. Archbishop Romero wasn't shot for his religion; he was was shot because he was a challenge to the power structure. Most likely his shooting was ordered by at least some people who were good churchgoers. During the Central American wars of the 1980s, and the South American wars of the 1970s, elites were organized through things like Tradition Family Property that had deep ties to the Catholic hierarchy. So can we isolate any independent influence of religion from this? Or do people use religion as an expression of their predetermined politics, where the independent variables are temperament and interest?
Unlike Yoshie, I've actually gone through a couple of religious phases in my life (always Catholic). They were the product of alienation, repression, and unhappiness. Several people have mentioned the "heart of a heartless world" part of Marx's famous opiate quote. Don't stop there; recall the rest: "The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is the demand for their real happiness. To call on them to give up their illusions about their condition is to call on them to give up a condition that requires illusions. The criticism of religion is, therefore, in embryo, the criticism of that vale of tears of which religion is the halo."
Doug