Is religion the "opium of the masses" as Marx said?

Look at the Catechism, or the writings of St. Thomas Aquinas.

And since when has the far left been steeped in being rational, rather than in pseudo- theories- Marxism, Freudism, feminism?

 

I did and continue to do the same thing for religion, I look at the evidence, the facts and make decisions on what to incorporate into my belief/values/moral structure based on that..


Where you are gettin that Marxism is a part of my beliefs, I dunno..

 

I have no clue what the Josh Baskin technique is.

 

Didn't mean to say you were Marxist, that was more of a general comment to the thread. But your idea about religion is classic Marxism- i.e. the powerful oppress the weak.

Why don't you think that people who are religious do the same thing? In my experience, people who are more religious tend to get into more intellectual arguments about religion. People who aren't religious sometimes have a "who cares" attitude and don't think about it.

 

It appears you are highly dependant on labeling people and ideas in order for them to make sense to you and for you to be able to judge their worthyness..

 

Before you guys get into a name calling match, I think you need to more carefully define what you’re talking about. I think you may be talking about apples and oranges. Are you taking about the abuses of religion, or the ideal practice of religion? I think Baked might be thinking about the abuses while the others are talking about the ideal practice.

 

Why does that have to do with religion being used to control populace? I swear you could turn a discussion on Jello pudding pops into a left/right thing.

 

It is my experience that highly religious people have no interest in having an "intellectual" arguments about religion..

they only want you to agree with them, reason and logic never enter the picture

me, i could care less if anyone agrees with me

my life is my own to do with as I see fit

 

Again, my point is that you could argue that something is "controlling the masses" for just about anything you want!

Republican party- family values, pro-business- capitalism. They want to control the masses through that!
Enviornmentalists- restrictions on business, a lot of regulations, same thing!
Communists- obvious

I don't see how people criticize religion for doing this, then you guys are following your own "ideologies" and don't explain why you are any different.

 

Well, they may be very argumentative but that shows they think about it.

 

It was a joke. I think if you examine history it's clear that religion has been used as a mechanism of control. The self-imposed divinity of royalty and the close ties between government and the church over time has been a relationship forged to keep control. Fortunately in our country there is a separation even if some continue to try to blur the lines to again use religion as a mechanism of control, ie, the church says this and now it's government policy.

 

That's if you take a Marxist view of history, not everyone does.

 

That is a statement loaded with meanings and would need a fairly good understanding of the context he was writing it in to really understand it to any high degree. But, in more simplistic terms, he was saying that religion kept the oppressed from rising up in rebellion against their oppressors in violent revolt, correct? And this for him was something that inhibited the natural evolution and democratisation of society. I’m going out on a limb here, but I suspect that this was largely a response to the state of organised religion of the day. In later history organises non-violent protest based on a strong set of principles (we can quibble about whether or not this constitutes religion if you like), was a powerful force for social change, i.e., Ghandi, King, and various social gospel movements.

 

Religion is based on faith and thus can't use logic in a manner consistent with the beliefs of capitalists or environmentalists. If the church says the world is flat it's because they said so, not because it's been found to be flat.

 

haha, gee, i guess the wacky idea of no destroying the only planet we have NEVER would be a reason to endorse environmentalist agendas..

what a goofy idea...having clean air and water..

 

Well, now you are just showing that you don't necessarily use reason much yourself.

A big part of religion is indeed faith, but to say that you can't use logic is wrong. Some people believe in having faith, some don't. Both have reasons for doings so.

It is not true that the Church can just state the world is flat. If you knew more about the Catholic Church, you would know that they limit such rulings to areas of "faith and morals." And of course you should know the "Church" represents only Catholics and not all Christians.

And since when did political parties support their ideas on 100% reason? Ideologies cannot be proven scientifically, can they?

 

No, I'm talking about the supernuts who think we sould be driving around in air powered cars and letting dogs have legal rights.

 

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OMG, could you be any more blind?

The Catholic Church and secular government were one and the same throughout Europe for a thousand years!

 

What does that have to do with my point? Marxism views everything in terms of the powerful oppressing the weak. Not everyone views history in those terms. I'm not saying people were never oppressed by the Church.