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Religion
In reply to the discussion: Reza Aslan Made the Worst Case For Religion On The Daily Show [View all]gcomeau
(5,764 posts)46. Actually... he's not entirely wrong.
The thing about religion that people have to understand is that its far more a matter of identity than it is just a matter of beliefs and practices. I mean, those things are important, but when you say, Im a Jew, Im a Muslim, Im a Christian, youre making an identity statement far more so than a statement of the things that you believe.
Let's face it, a large number of people in this country who call themselves Christians do so for social reasons without actually taking seriously all the superstitious magical bullshit associated with that label. I mean, if you cornered the average Catholic on the street and asked them if they *really* believed they were committing literal ritualistic cannibalism of their messiah in church I don't think you'd get a lot of yes answers.
Of course he probably didn't intend to argue that large numbers of "believers" don't actually believe in God and are really just paying the concept lip service because it's socially expedient... but it's still true.
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Equating criticism of religion with bigotry is common on both the left and right.
beam me up scottie
May 2015
#7
religion is learned cultural behavior. believers go along with their culture even tho they may
msongs
May 2015
#5
Isn't he they guy who claimed to be a religious scholar, but it turns out he lied about it?
Lordquinton
May 2015
#8
Lol, no I compared your lame caricature to one that is significantly more accurate.
rug
May 2015
#35
which is of course meaningless if you had been using QED correctly to begin with,
Warren Stupidity
May 2015
#70
Warren, do you really think you're in a position to lecture anyone on the proper use of words?
rug
May 2015
#72
Wait. You are demanding "credentials" for responses on an internet message board?
Warren Stupidity
May 2015
#76
Agreed. I like what he said about giving credit to religion when it does good.
hrmjustin
May 2015
#21
Reducing religions to mere labels with no necessary beliefs behind them renders...
Humanist_Activist
May 2015
#50
Probably because there is no "objection" - it's funny that in his desperation to absolve religion...
trotsky
May 2015
#58
I'm familiar with Aslan. I think he's generally rather superficial in his analyses.
LTX
May 2015
#73
Its not an objection, but an observation, if belief is no longer necessary for...
Humanist_Activist
May 2015
#78