Religion is the embodiment of hate

[angrychair]

Christians. Muslims. Jews. All fighting each other to see who gets to rule over the dust and bones and the deafening sound of silence.

[SamKnause]

1. Hate and division.

[walkingman]

2. War and Suffering

[RockRaven]

3. I'm special. I have a special friend. My special friend tells me I'm special for being

a special friend. You people don't get it, but I'm special. Maybe you people could be special too but only by doing what my special friend tells me to tell you to do. Or maybe not, maybe you're never going to be special no matter what because my special friend doesn't like you the way my special friend likes me.

[canetoad]

4. Meh

Religion is for the indoctrinated. I should offer empathy for those afflicted but.....nah. Don't care.

[wcmagumba]

5. Sky Daddy for everyone...yippee!

Not quite the same but same idea...

[AZJonnie]

6. At it's most basic, I think religion is the embodiment of about 500M years of evolution

Every creature that came before us in our evolutionary chain (and this is true of all sentient creatures we see around us), as a species, its individual members wanted to SURVIVE. I consider this idea to be self-evident. If that were not the case, none of us would be here.

What do all major religions have in common? Two things:
1) Some sort of promise for adherents wherein they effectively never die. The individual, will in some sense, continue to exist, in perpetuity, even after their physical body dies.
2) Some implied protective structure for adherents via supernatural order, beings, or metaphysical law (karma and such). If you follow this belief system, you will be some sense protected from the vagaries of the universe, the things that may try to harm or kill you.

So my theory is that once intelligence evolved to the point where a creature could imagine/conceive of a mechanism by which they are magically protected from harm/danger/misfortune, and by which they could LIVE FOREVER, they constructed such mechanisms for themselves. Then they join together (pack mentality) to convince one another that these ideas are true. The more we perceive that others around us believe a thing, the easier it is for us to also believe in said thing.

Religions have tremendous allure to a great many people because all species arise from previous consecutive ancestors, all of whom had a will (and the means) to SURVIVE.

You take away the "magical protection while alive", and the "eternal life after death" parts of religion, and you will have no adherents. Religions all appeal to our most basic instincts.

[AZ8theist]

17. Interesting take.

But I think it's origins are simpler than that. I believe religions had developed to explain the world around us, since humans didn't have that capacity yet. The Romans had many gods to explain every facet of life. Ancient societies had human sacrifices to please "the gods" or to poison rival tribes. All because we lacked the ability to explain the natural world.
As humanity progressed, and science became more prevelent, there became less and less need to invoke dieties to explain the unknown. Science offered testable, repeatable solutions and answers.
Sure, religions are still pervasive because they are ingrained in the human mind to some extent. Now, your hypothesis is prevelant. But it is also fading from society as scientific understanding advances.
But religions continue to fight back. One only has to see the hostility to biological evolution as evidense of this push back. The religious are afraid of actually knowing where we came from (evolved) so they continuously indoctrinate in their belief system to attempt to explain humanity. Only their "stories" and claims are all nonsense.

So you are correct, the human desire for eternal life is very strong, because humans just can't accept the fact we are but very brief beings on a microscopic spec of dust in an unimaginably huge universe. We're lucky to be here, but in no way are we special.

[AZJonnie]

21. I agree with what you posit in broad terms for sure

I didn't mean to say this is "all there is to it".

Yes, coming up with (what we NOW know to be) supernatural explanations for why things are the way they are did happen when humans lacked the technical capabilities to explain the REAL reasons things are as they are.

There's a number of causes for this of course, like not having reasoned out the scientific method yet (at least, not through a lot of early human history), the inability to widely share knowledge, the inability to bring the best minds together for collaboration, and especially due to the lack of instruments like telescopes and microscopes and electron microscopes, not mention a periodic table or an understanding of atoms and molecules, and the other building blocks of the universe.

When you have NO idea how anything actually works, this means ANYTHING you think of could be 'the real reason'. The notion that Zeus was a supernatural being did not occur to Romans because they had no frame of reference, they simply did not know what was "natural". ANYTHING they imagined could be completely real, for all they knew. It's only in hindsight that we recognize that their explanations were supernatural ideas, i.e. things that are not actually possible per the known laws of the universe and matter and such.

So, yes, It is fact that human beings have an innate tendency to want to reckon WHY things happen/happened.

But why? I will posit that the primary utility is to predict, or more optimally, direct future outcomes.

And in turn, ability to predict or direct outcomes confers a survival advantage to the group, and the individual. The ancient supernatural explanations you're alluding to being religions were just people making shit up, in hopes of increasing their chances of living and reproduction. Banding together and believing the in same explanations helped them make these explanations SEEM more real/reliable. This process formed the "roots" of primitive/early religions. Eventually individuals realized that if you graft the ideas of magical protection and eternal life onto this framework, you can really draw the suckers in, and make them work for YOUR benefit, control societies, get people to go to war for you (after all, you don't REALLY die when you die for your Lord on the battlefield! HEAVEN AWAITS!).

Hence my supposition that the most basic part of religion, whether its people who worshipped the god of the trees and the rain and the sun, or Zeus or Rah, or Yahweh, or Allah? It all fundamentally arose from our survival instincts.

Religions that continue to exist now in large numbers, these are the ones that hold onto ideas of protection during life, and eternal life afterward.

[mopinko]

20. i think it's an evolutionary vestige of the big ape days.

the og leader. like politics, it’s about who gets to eat, mate, and sleep in a cozy spot. a tribe.
that’s y churches r full of sexual abuse.

i suspect that govt has gotten so large and complex, it doesnt feel personal, so folks need a smaller tribe. i dont think it cd have evolved w/o art. those paintings and statues and songs and costumes bypass logic and reason.
and yeah, the promise that u arent dead when u die is a huge part of it;

[AZJonnie]

22. Yes, a "God as Ultimate Alpha" DEFINITELY arose from our animal ancestors being tournament species

With established social hierarchies. This aspect definitely plays into it!

But again, why did those social structures evolve? Survival advantage. Optimized breeding patterns, passing along the strongest genes to the offspring. Joining together as a pack to protect each other, esp. one's mate(s) and offspring.

IOW, we are kinda saying the same thing ms. mo

BTW, the big ape days are not over. Homo Sapiens are in the Great Ape family. We sorta "come from apes", true, but also, we ARE apes. Still

[mopinko]

23. mostly but

the sex thing is and always has been a much bigger factor than we’re willing to admit.
passing down that dna packet is our prime directive. the rest is just preening.

[AZJonnie]

25. Well, yeah, of course. Every living creature's purpose is passing their DNA packet.

Each individual is a bridge to the next generation (or so each one hopes). Overall, the process is "species survival".

But you have to SURVIVE to reproduce, at least for awhile, and the longer you do, the more chances you get at 'eternal life' via your offspring. Your own survival must come first, so you CAN reproduce. Thus, our prime directive is LIVE, and our secondary directive is REPRODUCE. It must go in that order.

Religion's promise of eternal life for YOU (the adherent) plays on your prime directive as an animal. Live. Then also reproduce. And protect your vulnerable offspring so they will also reproduce. That is the only REAL form of eternal life. We have an innate desire to survive, and reproduction is part of continuing to survive.

[BadgerKid]

26. However, said survival does not require

actual belief. Going with the flow by following the rules and customs of a given community can go a long way.

[yaesu]

8. If religion were to disappear overnight peace on earth would be a real possibility

but we would still have to deal with tribalism.

[harumph]

35. No, I doubt that very much -

tribalism is more basic trait of human existence that religion. Don't see how you would deal with that.
The "football fans" vs the "gardeners" promises to be horrific in the 22nd century. Then there's resource scarcity.

[John1956PA]

9. Psychological enslavement.

[betsuni]

10. Fiddlesticks, it's a human thing like anything else. Humans love stories.

When the sweet showers of April have pierced
The drought of March, and pierced it to the root,
And every vein is bathed in moisture
Whose quickening force will engender the flower;
And when the west wind too with its sweet breath
Has given life in every wood and field
To tender shoots, and when the stripling sun
Has run his half-course in Aries, the Ram,
And when small birds are making melodies,
That sleep all the night long with open eyes,
(Nature so prompts them, and encourages);
Then people long to go on pilgrimages

[jfz9580m]

16. In a mild private form

But that isn’t useful to warmongers. They like the militant variation.

[Skittles]

18. not all of us believe in nonsense

especially those of us who weren't indoctrinated into it as children

[Ilikepurple]

12. Looks like Christians are overrepresented. Not sure what the point is?

Better join a religion so you can get representation?

[Skittles]

13. it is sickening

bickering over delusions

[JI7]

14. It's Christians and Muslims that have a history of violence and forced conversions

They can't even stand the Jews being in a small part of an area they came from while they were wiped out the rest of the place.

[Skittles]

19. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

[jfz9580m]

15. It is all about profits in the end

War profiteers..

[HariSeldon]

24. And then, one Thursday...

And then, one Thursday, nearly two thousand years after one man had been nailed to a tree for saying how great it would be to be nice to people for a change, a girl sitting on her own in a small café in Rickmansworth suddenly realized what it was that had been going wrong all this time, and she finally knew how the world could be made a good and happy place. This time it was right, it would work, and no one would have to get nailed to anything.

- Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

(Of course, the Vogons destroyed the Earth before she could tell anyone.)

It's really amazing how institutions or traditions can twist the fundamental message. I mean, there might be a really appealing, original, central idea, but it seems that whoever is given authority to keep people pointed in that direction eventually goes power-mad.

Adams, himself, was an atheist; I've never been entirely sure whether he wrote this as an observation of the futility of trying to get people to be nice to one another, a recognition that Jesus (as related by the Bible) recommended a laudable position his followers failed to practice consistently, that he (Adams) didn't see the outcome of Jesus's ministry as necessary or likely consistent with Roman practices, or just black irony. But then, I somewhat enjoy this kind of ambiguity and generally love Adams's writing style.

[malaise]

27. Hmmmmmmm

It’s a mask to cover up their view of their superiority and their lust for money power and control over others.

[QueerDuck]

28. No it isn't.

[no_hypocrisy]

29. It can be, depending upon the believer.

In the 1950s, my parents had the son of the sister of my father (nephew) visiting them when they were just married. They welcomed him and invited some of their new friends over for dinner. But my cousin/their nephew was suspicious about them. Taking my parents aside, he asked them discreetly whether they were "one of us", meaning were they Jewish. IOW, he had to be told whether the guests were "safe" and could be trusted because they also were Jews.

My mother never stopped talking about that. She was thoroughly offended.

It starts off in the home and in some cases, it ends up with outright bigotry and hatred.

BTW, the same guy (nephew/cousin) ended up marrying in a Presbyterian church and during the ceremony had to kiss the cross. (They're still married.)

[mike_c]

30. it's a mass delusion...

...for which humans have an evolutionary predisposition. It's the evil twin of survival instincts appropriate for conditions a million years ago, but horribly gone awry in settled human societies.

[Torchlight]

31. I tend to believe people are.

Any mechanism available is a mechanism people will exploit. Craven greed by any other name...

[Jacson6]

32. That is Okay. Atheist communists & Nazi's have killed many religious people.

Human's killing Human's has been going on for centuries.

[angrychair]

34. Combining

Atheists, communists and Nazis into a single group is wild.
While communists or nazis may be atheists, that doesn't mean atheists are killers.

While, generally speaking, any group actively hoping, praying, for the end of the world is concerning.
People literally hoping that, simply based on the fact you don't want to follow their religious beliefs, they openly hope you get tortured for all of eternity, is pretty disturbing.

Any religion that feels justified in the misery and suffering of others simply because they are not the same religion as you, that is disgusting.

Don't get me wrong, I don't care what religion you are but when you try to impose/project your religious beliefs on others that do not share your beliefs, that I will fight against until my dying days.

[EdmondDantes_]

33. That's not religion, it's people

Capitalism is also trending towards leaving the planet devoid of life tomorrow in exchange for money today. The communists in the Soviet Union and China were fine killing people for not believing in the authority of the state.

It's something in our species, but maybe not even there as we see conflicts in other species over territory. Hate is easy. It's been religion, it's been skin color, it's been gender, it's been "I want this land and you live here". Everyone has their reasons why their violence is okay.

[summer_in_TX]

36. Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Just saying, religion is far more complex than the OP said. We are in a wave of fundamentalism in many corners of religion, where rigidness and judgmentalism are just some of the common traits. And no doubt religion attracts those who are motivated by power or money, because they are able to prey on people of faith. That is a toxic religion.

But for all those problems, then there are those like MLK whose faith fueled his work in uplifting people. Many found positive transformation through their faith and that it empowers them to do things for others that they would never have attempted without their faith encouraging them to take risks for others. There's other religion that is healing and liberating, where justice and kindness matter and can be seen in everything they do.