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Religion: Outmoded or Not?
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[QUOTE]Originally posted by The Explorer: [QB] I am of the mindset that religion as a social institution is outmoded, and had raised the matter in another thread that turned out to be a bible study discourse with disagreements; henceforth, the need for this issue to be discussed in its own right. Posted earlier... [i]There may have been a time when religion was progressive to human evolution, and by this, I'm talking about way, way back in time, early in our biological and social evolution. But like many social forms of society, what was once a vehicle of progress, in the long run may become outmoded and become a vehicle of reaction, because such new-found social attainments were meant to serve well only as transitional developments to more developed, sustainable and stable social forms, when instead they have been kept around longer than their effective date, due to the largely conservative social nature of human beings...which paradoxically runs parallel to progressive life-changing technological innovations and scientific growth. This is what I think has become of religion. Religion has now reached a point wherein it has become more of a vehicle for social reaction, stagnation, and a problem creator than what it was in its formative years. A fresh milk will taste superb and quite healthy well within its "best by" imprinted date, but it can only retain this effect for so long, when it will no longer be fresh and no longer be a promoter of health, and hence, has to be discarded. Failure to do so, can only be a recipe for disaster ahead. Sadly, this is obvious only when it comes to commodities like milk, but much more difficult to see the wood for the trees when it comes to our complex social setups.[/i] - Ends It would be one thing if people practiced their belief in the higher one in private, and not allow it to affect public life, and so, make religion more socially tenable. But sadly, this is not the case, and so, what inevitably afflicts societies is religious nationalism. I do think that there were moments in human social evolutionary history when religion served a progressive purpose, in the sense that it allowed humans to begin asking questions of how they got here, how the planet came to be and so forth. The turn towards burying the human dead by our pre-historic ancestors testifies to this abstract thought in human development, and hence, must have marked a turning point in human thinking. This was to serve as the prelude to concept of scientific inquiry of our existence and how our world came to be. And then, perhaps religion served yet another purpose in human social development during the evolutionary move from modest family-like communities to larger communities, and with it, the move from ungoverned communities to governed societies. Against this backdrop, at times of chaos and lawlessness, there was an urge in some forward thinking observers of society to bring back lawfulness and composure to society, which inspired the need for calling on divine intervention. After all, history must have taught these observers that concept of divine intervention and stoking the spiritual sensibilities of people has proven to be a very effective means of bringing people in line. Religion, at these moments, again must have served a progressive way forward to bringing back order to society. However, it seems that religion would have served most effectively as a transitory social prelude to more mature and stable social organization in human social evolution. But now that religion has become more of a cause for social reaction and social disintegration, perhaps this is serving as a sign of times that religion has outlived its usefulness as a progressive social phenomenon, and has to give way to a new level of social development, a more advanced social maturity. Unfortunately though, societies are generally afflicted by the straitjacket of the need to protect "sanctity of tradition". I believe we can offer our disagreements on the matter with alternatives rather than flame baiting, and I hope this will be a discussion, providing it becomes one, that is focused on substance rather than circus-like spectacle of personal attacks. Have your say! [/QB][/QUOTE]
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