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mikebrown - maybe it illustrates the importance of studying history

Seeing some of the things our fundie friends want to push down our throats in a return to a society strongly influenced by religion, it becomes apparent that they have no consideration for the rights of others. During the times in recent history when the church strongly influenced our daily lives, it was not a good period for everyone. Unless of course you were the ones applying the societal pressure.

posted by gomedome on November 15, 2005 at 8:12 PM | link to this | reply

i hadn't even thought of that

good point. what a terrible time it must've been for those people. you're right; there's things like that that don't even occur to me just because of how young i am.

posted by mikebrown on November 15, 2005 at 8:04 PM | link to this | reply

mikebrown - of the two, peer pressure is by far the biggest obstacle

In your age group and depending on where one lives, it is very likely that you missed some of the less glorious aspects of religion as it lost it's ironclad grip on society over the last several decades. As recently as the 50's and 60's people had to change their surnames to find employment or feign adherance to a particular church to simply live in a chosen community. These are but two examples.

posted by gomedome on November 15, 2005 at 7:41 PM | link to this | reply

i think that there are two huge obstacles in the way

of people realizing the folly of religion (among many smaller ones). the first is the human tendency to cling to belief that you have committed yourself to regardless of the evidence against it, just because your faith in it has become so strong. people who are actually very intelligent otherwise will completely ignore reason in favor of a faith that they have held for a long time. not sure why this is, but the studies don't lie.

the second one is the tendency to follow the pressures of their culture. it's hard for an american to not be christian. you don't fit in. just like it's hard not to be islam in saudi arabia. no one wants to be cast out of the group. they want to fit in. i think this is not only a very natural tendency, but a very evolutionarily effective one for humans.

but people don't want to believe that they are doing it just because everyone else is doing it, so cognitive dissonance takes over and they begin to believe that it must be the RIGHT thing to believe.

i know there's a lot more to it, but that's just 2 things that i thought of right now. i know...good old fashioned stupidity has played a major role in this one, too. but i'll let that one go for now.

posted by mikebrown on November 15, 2005 at 3:08 PM | link to this | reply

some prefer a comfortable past that they regard as valid
while others prefer to explore the infinite possibilities of what I prefer to call a "greater validity".