This being said, there needs to be made a distinction between belief and religions as an organized, directed and hierarchical structure built around exploiting belief.
This a is good observation, it's definitely a compulsivity, one which I both love & hate within myself.
This is it's own tragedy as well though, one that I don't often see talked about, the number of people rejected from their families & communities just for admitting to doubt. I couldn't imagine abandoning family members just because they have different spiritual ideas to me.
They are as real as we make them. Mercy & justice (karma if you will) may not exist 'out there' but thru out actions we can make them exist. I always thought a good line of a vigilante in a movie would be "I don't believe in karma, I AM KARMA". Belief that some otherworldly power will sort out one's affairs is a type of passivity I can't help but be disgusted by, and this is by design, all empires love religion because religion placates. You can train a dog to wait five seconds for a treat he can smell but only man can be trained to wait his whole life for an invisible reward for his meekness.
Mine as well, I'm all for people having their own spiritual ideas based on their own life experiences, whether these beliefs are 'correct' or not isn't really important, if one's belief keeps one going from one day to the day have @ it, it's the coercion that rankles me.
Rather like another form of "bread and circuses." Some people are fine with the more usual sorts, whether in ancient Rome, or in the here and now. So many people in my province are thisclose to homelessness or getting sick and too many have had to choose between utility bills and food. There are so many things that need funding, but it's "too expensive" or "we're still paying down the $$$$$$$$$ debt the NDP wracked up in the 4 years out of the last 89 years".
You do not understand karma. It is an ancient Hindu principle that has carried over into Buddhism and western pop culture. It has close ties to the idea of reincarnation and how souls accumulate bindings of good and bad actions that work themselves into and out of balance over life times. Like most religious concepts over time they change and schools of thought develop that might not always agree. The western pop culture idea of karma has very little in common with the actual religious ideas found in Eastern religions. There is no "otherworldly power" doing anything. Physics has currently settled on four primary forces: gravity, the weak force, electromagnetism, and the strong force. Within Hinduism, you can think of karma as that type of primary"force' at work. It is always there grinding away in the background as you live your lives.
For people who have to be concerned that their politicians are trying to set up a theocracy and nullify laws and rights that were hard-won and a long time coming, I'm more open about being atheist than I have been for decades. It helps cut through so much tap dancing.
Setting up any kind of repressive regime can be done without religion. A few commenters here, as well as certain post-likers, often dunk on known Communist regimes for being repressive. Religion doesn't come into it.
And you were speaking in somewhat general terms, when you were describing a very contextual use for declaring that you're an atheist which benefits discussions where you are.
Again: YOU'RE NOT HERE. You have NO idea what crazy BS is going on in provincial politics here in Alberta. STOP trying to tell me what the right-wing sociopaths would be doing here. I know for them it's all about power and money, and they'd do it even without religion, but the fact is that they're using religion, any way they can.
I can read the news, and I know Canadians who aren't on these forums. With respect, I'm not unaware. Does that make me an expert? Far from it. But I'm not saying that the things you're saying are happening aren't happening. I'm not arguing with you over what is happening.
It's more fascistic freaks than religious ones. I expanded a little on this in my reply to the original post.
??? What traditions? Where? This just comes across like the trad-cath post hoc justification for the conquistadores, or the neo-lib justifications for Western imperialism
Same here. I went through a Dawkins stage in my early twenties, but between growing up and my love of history making me realise just how much the New Atheist movement ironically promotes dogma over evidence, I got over it reasonably quickly. These days, I am still an atheist, but the only time I ever actively think about being such is when I get into an online discussion about religion....
