AIBU to prefer when religion was the opiate of the masses

[Annabella92]

Rather than porn, drugs and videogames

Agree. None of the major conflicts of the 20th century were motivated by religion. Stalin, the Chinese Communist Party and Pol Pot didn’t need religion as an excuse to butcher their own populations either.

Gosh, that’s a bit hard on a Christingle service, surely?

There are plenty of countries where religion dominates, so you could move there. I think what you would actually find though is that the men are doing whatever the fuck they like and the 'rules' mostly apply to women. Porn may be a modern phenomenon, but prostitution has been rife since the dawn of time. Even when religion did dominate.

Orgainised religion has only ever been about the patriarchy though, it's just another mechanism to control women.

This!

Absolutely not, I would class religion as dangerous and damaging as anything youve mentioned, if not much more so.

The violence inflicted on children in schools, the sexual assault and rape of children and adults by members of the clergy, the guilt and shame placed upon people for ridiculous things like being an unwed mother, the babies that were born in mother and baby homes and subsequently sold, abused, murdered and dumped in unmarked graves and septic tanks... and that's just the tip of the iceberg of the carnage the Catholic Church have caused in in Ireland alone.

Look internationally and the way women are treated in various countries 'in the name of religion', women in Afghanistan can't even fucking speak in public anymore in the 'name of religion', the wars that have decimated and traumatised populations the world over.

I could go on and on and on...

Organised religion is no better than any other abusive cult, it should be outlawed and the Catholic Church in particular in nothing more than a glorified paedophile ring.

I was in two minds.

I can't remember religion ever being the opiate of the masses.

I'm old but at 10 I was put forward for a church grammar school. Me and 15 other 10yos went through a confirmation ceremony, got our places and never went near a church again.

Everything I've learned since about organised religion fills me with disgust.

Football, cars and Corrie keep 'the masses' happier.

And yet priests are still buggering alter boys.
Religion is an outdated concept.

All institutions are corrupt. And the corruption of the best, is the worst of all. And just because Judas turned his back on Christ, doesn't mean we must follow.

I did have primarily Christianity in mind here however - not Islam.

I think you're wrong. I think growing numbers of people are realising that without religion, positive religion, we are lost.

Institutions may be corrupt, but I can't think of any institution that has caused more damage and generational trauma in my country than the Catholic Church. It was and continues to be absolutely vile and should be illegal. Any other institution with the history or rape and sexual assault alone that the CC have would be abolished. How anyone continues to support them is beyond me.

What do you mean the corruption of the best, is the worst of all?

I'm agnostic and I don't need some holier than thou child abusing institution to tell me how to be a moral human being and even the suggestion is absurd.

Absolutely for real. i fully expect the number of people that die due to sex trafficking and drugs pales in to insignificance compared to religion world wide.

@Annabella92 and by the way, the way the CC and Islam have treated their faithful followers is not too dissimilar so don't be naive enough to believe there is some big difference between the two.

i don't know any one who thinks that. religion should be consigned to the history books.

Yeah I don't mind faith, but I do mind the dogmas

There are a number of theocracies around the world you could try living in for the purpose of comparison. Not all of them have succeeded in eliminating porn or video games, though I understand these things are difficult to come by in present-day Afghanistan.

Religion is used to keep women in their place all over the world in backwards, unenlightened countries. Just look at the USA where it's being used to justify allowing women to die when an abortion would save them.

Which religion? All of them?

No, I dream of a world free of religious oppression.

I'm sure you don't. But all the headline atheists have softened their positions. Hitchens is no longer around, I'd love to hear his take on the current landscape. We owe so much to Christianity.

There was a time when all hospitals and schools were provided by the church.

"What do you mean the corruption of the best, is the worst of all?" - I honestly can't explain it more clearly and succinctly than this, if you don't understand there's nothing I can do I'm afraid.

Ah so it's Christianity we should all want more of?
No, thank you.

But all the things that you mentioned can be demonstrably compared to organised religion, so therefore can be ultimately cited as the cause of lot of suffering and death. In the first instance all religion is patriarchal in its nature, with strong leaning misogynistic tendencies. Thus religion is always used as form of control of women. As for men wanting more power - thinking about the crusades, colonisations, missionaries, slavery all of these things, at one time or another, were about men wanting power of other people, in the name of their god. Yes, Jesus seemingly had a lovely message for humanity, but organised religion- whether it’s Christianity or any other religion, is ultimately about control, no matter how much that religion gives you a sense of „”peace” and „”community”.

We owe absolutely nothing to an outdated and oppressive religion.