Do ask do tell!

[poppy]

I was referring to fear of punishment.

We have the ability to feel right from wrong, but the subject matter for our conscience is learned. For most people that learned behavior is based on religion.

I've found people who grow up in a non-religious environment tend to lack good conscience, so I've always wondered what would life would be like in a society that had completely abandoned religion.

I find the opposite, fortunately I grew up next to a family that did not attend church and they were no different from the rest of the neighborhood. I credit this as the reason my young mind wasn't able to be poisoned by the argument everyone needs a religion. A religion is not needed for an orderly society.

 

[LuciferSam]

Ooookey dokie!

It's the same virus that would make a libertarian like you think that government needs to instill its citizens with a sense of fear.

 

[LuciferSam]

I find the opposite, fortunately I grew up next to a family that did not attend church and they were no different from the rest of the neighborhood. I credit this as the reason my young mind wasn't able to be poisoned by the argument everyone needs a religion. A religion is not needed for an orderly society.

I would contend that religion is only needed to help people deal with the fears, anxieties, and uncertainties that never would have existed had it not been for religious indoctrination in the first place.

 

[scooterbug44]

I would contend that religion is only needed to help people deal with the fears, anxieties, and uncertainties that never would have existed had it not been for religious indoctrination in the first place.

I believe religion is typically more helpful to the believer than to those who would use religion as a tool. (Though I admit there are many in the latter group.)

IMO religious beliefs are how many get the strength to get through and to explain things far greater than our puny selves.

 

[LuciferSam]

I believe religion is typically more helpful to the believer than to those who would use religion as a tool. (Though I admit there are many in the latter group.)

IMO religious beliefs are how many get the strength to get through and to explain things far greater than our puny selves.

To put the puny self in perspective all you have to do is look think about our massive timeless universe and realize that it will be expanding and changing long after we're gone.

 

[Gidget]

To put the puny self in perspective all you have to do is look think about our massive timeless universe and realize that it will be expanding and changing long after we're gone.

YouTube - Galaxy Song

 

[Lake View Too]

To put the puny self in perspective all you have to do is look think about our massive timeless universe and realize that it will be expanding and changing long after we're gone.

Actually, when they first came out with the Hubble photos aimed at a small quiet "starless" sector of the sky and took photos of billions of galaxies (not stars, galaxies) and estimated the number of galaxies at somewhere around 20 billion (maybe 200 billion- I'm not good at math)... about that time, I, for one, had an incredible insight (feeling?) that there is a higher power...that some incomprehensible force "caused" this reality. Maybe not the textbook definition of God, but you only have to stare out into the Limitless Sky and know this is all too much...

 

[Lake View Too]

Gidget and Monty said it a lot better than I.

 

[Douglas the Intrepid]

With the multiverse filled with infinite probabilities and beauty, I discount no possibilities...intelligent design included.

 

[30ashopper]

I still contend that the moral fabric of our nation is based largely on religious based teachings. I also fail to see how you go about replacing that with some other base and still end up with the moral code we generally uphold in the United States.