More bible reading = More liberal

[The Dharma Bum]

The whole thing hinges on whether or not you believe a guy can come back from the dead.

[eynon81]

[The Dharma Bum]

Requiring people to believe in things that are contrary to the established possibilities of the physical world seems to me to be a social dominance technique. It distinguishes between in-group and out-group and requires mental submission from individual members.

"Believers" know someone can't come back to life after dying, but psychologically they have submitted to such an outrageous premise as a profession of belonging to a larger social group or class, which is in turn directed by a internal set of protocols or philosophy, that they do believe in.

[The Comrade]

[PoS]

[eynon81]

[The Dharma Bum]

[eynon81]

[The Dharma Bum]

The god-man archetype exemplified by Christianity, like all forms of mythology, is how thousands of years of unconscious human psychology manifests itself as a cohesive social doctrine. So I think religion serves many functions, but the main one is to provide resolution to the many contradictions of human existence. Kind of like an ancient form of mental therapy.

For example, people in earlier times could look at other humans with a higher social status and see they are no different than themselves, except they can wield social power. Religion tells them that certain humans have "divine right" to wield that social power and that they should know their place in the world.

So arbitrary social situations are resolved, that would otherwise seem random or chaotic. Now that this social structure is largely gone many humans have trouble dealing with the random and chaotic nature of reality and the alienating social system that exists.

[eynon81]