• Pogbom@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    Ehh I dunno… I’m as atheist as anyone with an IQ above 60, but I think religion is just a convenient scapegoat for mental illness here. I’m pretty sure someone who shoots strangers on the highway would have done it in a world without religion too, and they would say it’s a different mystical force that made them do it. I don’t think Christianity actually moved this person to do this.

    • kent_eh@lemmy.ca
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      7 months ago

      I think religion is just a convenient scapegoat for mental illness here.

      It acts more as a place for mental illness to be hidden, camoflauged, or accepted as devotion or prophecy.

      When someone’s delusions overlap with what a church accepts as their ancient prophets’ experience, that illness doesn’t get proper treatment.

      • lennybird@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        Yep it muddies the waters that distinguish what is rational from irrational. Like a dark damp festering basement, it gives mold a place to fester and grow.

        Welcome to a place where you don’t need logic; you just need this magical thing called “faith.” Such mainstream religions were just the most successful cults.

        • aesthelete@lemmy.world
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          7 months ago

          Welcome to a place where you don’t need logic; you just need this magical thing called “faith.” Such mainstream religions were just the most successful cults.

          People generally aren’t all or even mostly rational or logical. It’s difficult even for people with deep science or technical backgrounds to think in a structured way for long periods of time.

          Even if you got most people off of organized religion they’d be on some other bullshit.

          Evidence for that is actually all around us too. Organized religion is seeing more and more people walk away from it, but people remain just as full of shit as they were in church.

          • lennybird@lemmy.world
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            7 months ago

            To your last point I don’t know if I see that. Most of the religious nutjobs - organized or free of association - seem predominantly concentrated among right-wing circles. See the rising Christian nationalists for instance. Those who are walking away from religious faith tend to be more on the left side of the spectrum and ironically far more adherent to the teachings of Jesus in his best of image.

            • aesthelete@lemmy.world
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              7 months ago

              It’s not one side or another of the political spectrum that’s full of shit, it’s people in general.

              I have easily encountered just as many anti vax crackpots for instance coming from the left as from the right.

              • lennybird@lemmy.world
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                7 months ago

                That is complete and total bullshit and any reputable statistics survey can prove it.

                Let’s not bOtH sIdeS this with absurd anecdotes.

                  • lennybird@lemmy.world
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                    7 months ago

                    Yep, now you’re getting it. The vast majority are definitely on the right.

                    • Nearly all conspiracy theories are peddled by right-wing mouthpieces; e.g., Alex Jones and adopted by their right-wing audience.

                    • Right-wingers, statistically on average, are less educated and more susceptible to misinformation.

                    • In the case of anti-vaxx, especially post-Covid, the vast majority are right-wing.

                    These both sides enlightened centrist false equivalence fallacies are cute and easy for the brain to process, but they aren’t grounded in reality.