Understanding Religion's Relationship To Human Social Systems

In yet another social media discussion group which has nothing at all to do with Christianity,  a Christian fundamentalist is going around threatening people with Hell  and pushing absurd culture-war polemics. The admins, having an unstated favoritism towards Christianity,  allow all sorts of nonsense from them; while blocking contrary threads.  Fortunately, they usually allow pushback in the comments.  -------  So now this random fundie is asking me some questions. Here are my answers to those questions: -- 1. "Then can you please tell me what is Truth?" -- Truth is whatever is subject to rational standards of falsifiability but then is rigorously tested, and is (as a result) demonstrated to be correct. This is why your religious beliefs are not true. They were tested; by the same rational standards we humans can-and-do test everything by. They failed all the tests. Thus, it is now ignorant and dishonest to call those "true". ------------------------------------ 2.

I have found for me the only way to live is by the word of God. It is for all mankind, the universal recipe for living is found in His love story to us. As for me, I tried to live by it. - But it's hard when loved ones won't do the same. I get all my morals from The Bible. But the world doesn't understand that's basically where our morality comes from. For examples: One of my daughter didn't want to be sold into life-long slavery to some really greasy middle-aged guy who offered to meet my asking price. I tried explaining that since she started menstruating the week before, that means she's a "woman" now, according to the Lord's perfect and unchanging morality. She needs to stop taking advice from her middle-school counselor. Another didn't want to be stoned to death on her wedding night after refusing to provide bloody sheets to prove I sold her as a virgin. Another daughter kept dodging every rock I threw after she refuse to marry her r__

Gavin Knight Have you ever even read the Bible even once. ---- Me: Many times. Many versions. But it's not enough to pick one up and read it. To come ~as close as we can get~ to understanding what's written there, we must take certain steps first. Acquire advanced: a.) "reading comprehension" skills; for whatever language you'll be reading it in. b.) understanding of human psychology and sociology. c.) enough self-awareness to identify our personal biases. d.) enough integrity to then set aside those biases. We must also: e.) make sure no part of our ego is attached to our conclusions about what it says. This means we can't let ANY of our sense of "self" (identity, character, and worth) be tied to our conclusions about what any of it means, who the real author(s) were, etc.. f.) 100% reject any sense of personal loyalty (or moral obligation) to any expectation, commitment, or outcome ... about what any of it means, and about what any of it is w

Joshua Barnes That’s certainly a satanic perspective. Just because (some Christian-themed cults are abusive) doesn't mean God isn’t real. James Apperson The OP has absolutely nothing to do with the issue of whether or not any gods exist. Nor does it call out any particular cult.  Also, calling the meme out (and the person who posted that meme) for "certainly Satanic" thinking is just a current cultural iteration of "The Satanic Panic".   It's a thought-stopping line of mental coding implanted into your mental-computer's Operating System, as a way to trigger an emotional-defense, in order to prevent you from being reasonable.  Joshua Barnes the OP assumes subjective morality trumps an absolute morality that stems from God. James Apperson  No.  It doesn't. -- Think about it. A religious Jew, Muslim, or any other religious person could make exactly the same statement and point as the OP; without contracting their own theistic moral narrative. How so? B