Am I missing something? Religion.

[ButterflyTable]

I will caveat this by saying there was a point in my life when I was religious. However I now just feel religion is created by men; about men for men.

I look at women around me who are friends and religious, and their religion oppresses them. Much more than men.

I want to believe in God, or a higher power. But nothing in this world leads me to think there is a God as such. Granted I think there is energy, something out there perhaps connected to our ancestors or the Earth.

Religion to me seems about control, rituals, even having spent time around people of multiple faiths, in their holy buildings - I feel something, I hear a hymn, a call to prayer, I’ve sang I a church congregation. I’ve sat in Temples, I’ve been in Muslim countries and heard the prayers, I’ve experienced and read about a number of faiths. To the extent they all say pretty much the same thing, but I cannot believe in God.

I also feel faith holds people back. I’ve seen a lot wrong done by very religious people.

I’m religious and don’t feel oppressed. I’ve definitely sat in some churches that were oppressive to women though, but I didn’t hang around in them.

Some people find a lot of comfort in control and rituals.

I agree, it's made up by man. It's a way to control and keep people under the power of others who are 'higher'. It's used as a tool and it's toxic unless you comply

It’s certainly a way of controlling women. Reproducing seems an obligation in most faiths.

I'm not religious. I don't know if I believe in a god or not. But it's kind of obvious imo that religion provides a lot of comfort to people, and a sense of community. I was brought up Catholic and never questioned it at all, it was only really when the child abuse scandals broke that it dawned on me that I wasn't associating myself with this. The older I got, the more anger I felt towards the church. I don't really think about it at all now.

Major world religions have been created by men, in patriarchal societies. It would be surprising to me if they included women in positions of authority and respect, or considered them equal to men. Religion is about power, money and control, and it says nothing of use to me as a woman in the 21st century. Even if I were to believe in some kind of deity, which I don't!

@Dogdilemma2000 but do you feel controlled? Do you think you could lead your life in a good way without god? Do you feel you need that guidance?

I am religious and a woman. I served as a chaplain and a deacon for years.
Never felt oppressed or controlled nor a focus of gender. I did train though in a non British national church allowing women into priesthood for 100 yo before I entered CofE.

@MumChp and your belief in God is absolute, you believe genuinely that 2000 years ago an entity known as God sent his son to Earth?

Why are there no real new religions? Granted I know Sikhism is the ‘newest’ of the major religions, but that was still 500 years ago.

Why has God not sent another messenger?

YANBU. Most religions are founded on a principle of fear and control. Usually men.

In the UK there is certainly a tide turn in younger generations as what has previously been taught just doesn’t resonate with most people anymore.

I went to very religious schools and nothing about it was good and in fact served to put me off religion for life. Telling children that they’ll go to hell if they don’t becomes Christian 🤮 It scared me as a young kid but now it just saddens me those adults (men 🙄) did this.

I look at women around me who are friends and religious, and their religion oppresses them. Much more than men.

Maybe they are going to the wrong places.
I've never felt oppressed in my life.

However, as a side note, you can have a strong faith and not attend mosques, synagogues, churches, temples, gudwaras etc.

Do you think that's a lot different than non-religious systems and people?

Marxism is the major alternate non-religious ideological system of the 20th century, I don't see it being particularly free of oppression, violence, etc. Nor the kind of capitalist scientific positivist perspectives of the west for that matter though they may have a better record in terms of systematic violence.

Everyone has some set of ideas about how they think reality functions, what is real, what holds things together. About 90% of people don't give it much thought, they take the general assumption around them as basically right, or just believe what seems likely to them or resonates in some way.

But considering what kind of metaphysical approaches are correct is a little more complicated than what "seems right" when you look around. No one needs to spend time thinking about it if they don't want to, but it's not much of a basis to criticize what other people think is true.

You're right there. I remember the debates during the Irish referendum on abortion and there were so many religious men lecturing women on the evils of it. I was in enraged listening to them. Genuinely enraged. You could feel their fear that they were losing control.

Why are there no real new religions? Granted I know Sikhism is the ‘newest’ of the major religions, but that was still 500 years ago.

Mormonism? Scientology? Moonies?

When you have enough people living in a community, they have to be controlled, somehow. To maintain order and longevity of the group. That’s where hierarchy and religion comes in. Now we have democracy and law, but religion, or the idea of it, is tenacious. It’s very old and therefore is deemed worthy of respect. All kinds of religions are. You can substitute the word religion for culture, really.

And yeah, when it comes to culture or religion, women got the short end of the stick, by today’s standards.

There are goddess worshiping religions too such as paganism....a great religion.

Why don’t you just create your own ‘religion’ if you feel you need that ‘base’ for things in your life - it’s what I’ve done and I teach my children according to my own set of beliefs. You can then leave all the rituals behind and focus on the day to day living by the morals and beliefs you want to incorporate into your daily life.

Religion has always reflected a patriarchal society as that's the culture it exists in

However I'm woman preacher in my local circuit, in a church that now has same sex marriage. Proud to be a liberal and fairly radical feminist.

And currently writing my sermon for Easter Sunday !

Or even Hinduism. Dozens of goddesses.

Not that I am keen on any religion.

or Buddhism. No god at all…

Religion is a mishmash of pre-scientific meaning-making attempts to explain the world, redemptive wishful thinking as regards human suffering and death, and a form of social control that worked/works in places and times where the rule of law is weak.

It’s sociologically interesting, I suppose. I mean, as regards my own country’s history, the various iterations of Catholicism and Protestantism over time, the precise stripe of both, their interrelationship in colonial times and post-independence etc. I value my own devoutly Catholic education for the knowledge it gives me for reading literary texts, but am in adulthood an atheist who has not baptised my child, who has attended secular schools.

I got to the conclusion religion was definitely not for me, aged about 11. almost 50 years later, I am so happy I did.

I am keen on the mythology, art, architecture and culture of many reliigions, which I find interesting and often beautiful. Not so much the religions themselves.

I have mostly created my own religion, though I come from a religious family.

I'm Catholic and never felt oppressed by my Faith.

I think the Church provides us with a good manual for living our lives with the Catechism.