Understanding Religion's Relationship To Human Social Systems

    Belief in and subjection to: an unquestionable, ever-watchful, judging, insecure, fragile-masculine, wrathful, totalitarian figure … is a common form of self-crippling superstition. ---- TOTALITARIANISM Is not good for humanity. ---- Superstition is not good for the mind. ---- Even if someone says it serves them wonderfully, … That cannot be regarded as a valid justification … for them trying to spread it to others. We must stand against it, because of: The sheer proven POTENTIAL for it to wreck individuals, families, societies, and humanity.  --- It would be like handing out a homemade medicine that sometimes works GREAT! …. and “only usually” ruins people’s psychological, emotional, social, and cognitive health.  ---- That cannot be allowed; if we have any say in it. --- Even if such a being were up there watching and judging, … It’s a healthier thing to assume there isn’t. - And then be glad that such an entity … is no more likely than violently misc...

 re The claim that: Atheism is the natural state of humans.  One Christian argued: That is nothing more than an assumption otherwise we would not see sooooooooo many beliefs in a God or God's" --- In reply,  I understand the logic of that rebuttal.  ⁠ But consider various specific forms of theism as: an ever-mutating virus spread between the computers of human brains. ⁠ It's lines of code that integrate with our cognitive Operating Systems. --- ⁠ The origins were natural. I grant that. ⁠ Privative ancestors gave sentient agency to natural phenomenon. The human brain is primed for that, because we come into being ... gradually transitioning from instinct to awareness. Larger-than-life super-beings with unfathomable powers loom over us, from infancy. ⁠ Later, gradually, those figures get demystified. ⁠ We eventually recognize them as human parents. ⁠ Gradually, as we mature,  those parents become less and less mysterious, and eventually less impressive. ...

"Social equity" is a term I coined years ago. ⁠ It's like having equity in a home. ⁠ If I'm paying on a mortgage, and I pay a LOT into it over years, and then (for any reason) it's time to migrate away from that home, ... ⁠ as long as I didn't commit arson or something (in other words, as long as I didn't burn it down maliciously), .. ⁠ if I held up my end of the arrangement until it was time to move out, ⁠ I expect credit for my prior investments. --- ⁠ In terms of a relationship that lasted a while and then crashed out, or fizzled out, or whatever, ... ⁠ that means I still get Christmas cards, or birthday cards (*or at least an instant message to that effect), and occasional (even if rare) offers to meet somewhere for mid-day coffee/lunch, ... and just basic respect. ⁠ And if I ever really need a friend, they'll be there. -at least after the initial grieving and healing. If they need time to heal and reset first, that's fine. ⁠ But if they...

As a metaphor, we could listen to this moment in the movie, as: Neo being a de-converted atheist. The Frenchman, in the metaphor, would be dominant cultural mechanisms. That's the means by which ideas in the secular and religious world are able to enter each other's domains. It also accounts for migration of minds, between paradigms.  From the outside looking in, ... The artificial religious system, its narrative, and many of its characters are not real; although many of the players are real in the same sense that you and I are real.  From the inside, it's all regarded as real. But it's the sense of connection, and the emotional investments they have in those connections, which are given the greatest value.  Theists would do anything to protect their emotionally-valued connections; especially those they define themselves in "relation" to; such as a sense of relationship with a mysterious, larger-than-life parental figure, or a relationship they have with thei...