Originally posted by
[email protected] 18 2006, 09:06 PM
My question is. How do you make people turn their lives around. How do you make people who are "bad" see "the light" change things for themselves with out the typical "god will punish you" or "repent now and be save your soul"
By treating human beings like rational individuals and explaining the harm that they are causing.
Even better, of course, is to start from the begining and not allow them to become indoctrinated or socialized into accepting destructive behaviour patterns. Ironically, enough, that requires the elimination of religion just as much as it does sexism or racism.
how about he's an insecure prick who believes that men are the superior race over women? and he thinks that women are supposed to obey and do anything and everything that the man says? have sex at his orders, get smack if she talks back, cant have friends, or dress sexy.
The point you seem to be missing thought is that more often than not religion actually promotes those kind of values, rather than opposes them.
The Christian church, for most of its history, has tolerated if not outright encouraged spousal abuse. And even today, it continues to push the so-called "traditional" family in which women are instiutionaly subjugated to their husbands.
The problem with religion as social control, you see, is that by their nature, religious moral codes are stagnant. Because they profess to be "devine" and "sacred", they cannot change to meet actual social needs.
This is why religious forces are so often allied with the most reactionary social agents arouind. It's why it's the religious right that's pushing against homosexuality; it's why the patriarchal campaign against women's sexual and reproductive rights has so much traction among religious individuals.
In the short run, appealing to "God" may serve to keep order, but over time, it will inevitable cause more harm and destruction than it prevents. If it isn't anachronistic religious "morality"; it's conflicts between various "moralities" over which one best reflects the "mind" of whatever superstitious deity one is appealing to.
Again, religion is an enemy of social progress, not a means towards it. Unless we establish a rational and secular society, no amount of "forgiveness" or "repenting" will make people "toe the line".
you have some great points there comrade that's even scary! this one fool told me that it even says in the bible and when you get married that she is to obey and serve him till death due them apart... so to hims this justifies the way he treats her.