God Used For Hope

[CCCPneubauten]

After talking with agnostics and theists alike one point they ahve brought up is the fact god brings hope to millions or billions of people, why deny them what God brings them?

Just a question that I want some possible answers to.

Thanks.

[Dooga Aetrus Blackrazor]

Well God, as a concept, can bring people hope. However, a standard Marxist view of religion (one which may come from an incorrect interpretation, I do not know, but is nonetheless valid) is that hope is uneneficial. It relies on people wanting things to happen for them rather than rely on their own capabilities. Hope may cause prayer, which wastes time, and typically involves a belief in heaven. Heaven prevents people from wanting to solve real problems and enjoy and experience the one life they have. It is a wretched concept,

[BurnTheOliveTree]

It does, but billions of people shouldn't be relying on absolute myth as a source of hope. There are other things, i'm sure, that don't require putting your hands together, closing your eyes and muttering.

-Alex

[Comrade J]

Yes, but the reason these people need 'hope' is because they are oppressed and exploited in their lives. The reason they are oppressed and exploited is because they believe in a better afterlife and cope with what they get in this one. Religion therefore inflicts more harm on people, the 'it gives hope' argument is thus flawed, as one must ask why these people need hope.

It's why religion is the 'opium of the masses,' as someone said, it makes people concentrate on attaining a better life in Heaven and cope with their poor and exploited one they have now.

As atheists, we see it that they are wasting their time, so religion can only be harmful in that case. If your friend for example, believed he had to spend 5 hours a day talking to Zeus, but claimed it provided him with comfort because his boss treats him like shit, you would probably try and make him realise his stupidity and get him to stop wasting his time on pointless tasks and confront his boss.

On a grander scale, millions waste their time and efforts on religion as they feel they need it for hope and comfort, and religion has thus always been the greatest means by which the ruling class can control the population.
This is why I support (to a degree) Liberation Theology. It's great to see that a revolutionary mindframe can come from this ridiculous belief, as religion isn't just going to disappear anytime soon.

[KC]

After talking with agnostics and theists alike one point they ahve brought up is the fact god brings hope to millions or billions of people, why deny them what God brings them?

Because they're wrong? If it felt good for me to believe that 2+2=5, would that make it acceptable for me to believe that?

[Free Left]

After talking with agnostics and theists alike one point they ahve brought up is the fact god brings hope to millions or billions of people, why deny them what God brings them?

Can you live a life on false hope? Is it healthy to just pray when you get into a difficult situation ad hope God works it out rather than dealing with it yourself?
Is it right to let your "superiors" screw you over time after time because "God must want it to be this way"? Is it okay for you to hold back advances made by science (embryos, abortions) because it "goes against God's way or teachings"?
Os it right to support a fat, corrupt and conservative church?

Religion is a shield for people who can't deal with the world.

[MrDoom]

It's an empty, false hope.

God's dictatorship has killed more than Stalin and Hitler combined.

[Sadena Meti]

I am a believer, but I also believe in the axiom "Stop praying for someone to save us and start saving ourselves."

[Rawthentic]

If you are a "believer", than you are not a communist. Communists see history through a materialist lens, religion is idealist.

[Rawthentic]

I believe Noam Chomsky was the one that said that the Bible has been the most genocidical book in the history of humanity.

And to Comrade J, Marx was the one that said, "religion is the opium of the masses"

[Eleutherios]

Originally posted by hastalavictoria+Aug 16 2006, 12:22 AM--> (hastalavictoria @ Aug 16 2006, 12:22 AM) I believe Noam Chomsky was the one that said that the Bible has been the most genocidical book in the history of humanity. [/b]
Indeed. At least it is the most genocidal book I have ever read. The Old Testament describes the story of a totalitarian dictator of the universe, who, like Hitler, has a master race that he orders to ruthlessly conquer neighboring nations, who are deemed inherently inferior and corrupt and whose land is then used as Lebensraum for the Jewish people. It's really sick and barbaric. The Bible has an amazing capacity to be completely disgusting, horrifying and offensive while being extremely boring at the same time.


1 Samuel 15:2-3
Thus saith the LORD of hosts, I remember that which Amalek did to Israel, how he laid wait for him in the way, when he came up from Egypt.

Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.

[Delta]

None one should be denied the right to believe whatever they want (as if denying could do that anyway), but religious hope is a complete waste of time and ultimately harmful to the individual because they are hiding from their problems instead of confronting them. It is simply the argument that people fall back on after their god has been argued to not even exist.

[Comrade J]

Originally posted by [email protected] 16 2006, 12:22 AM
And to Comrade J, Marx was the one that said, "religion is the opium of the masses"
At first when I read this I thought "obviously, why are you telling me this?!" then I read my sentence and can see why :D

When I said "as someone said," that was referring to what I said afterwards, as someone had previously made a similar point.

[*[email protected]*]

We like to diddydaddle with the concept that religion brings hope, and in alot of ways its true.

But when somthing can inspire that emotion, you have Capatalists that will make and sell it into a needless comodity, a 'opium for the masses' if you will, and distort it into what they see is fit.

And these people are so dossed with the pre packaged cocept of hope that their self rightous behavoir intervenes in the progress of humanity and the personal freedoms of individuals.

I suggest the only cure is with a quick bullet through their bible sucking skulls. :o
That or proper re-education.
But if you want to save time and see a head explode i recommend the other one. :D