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"If Christianity is man made, why does everything about it go against man’s desires? Atheists can't answer this question" ...but they Can (youtu.be)
submitted 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) by ekZepp@lemmy.world to c/atheism@lemmy.world
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If Christianity is man made, why does everything about it go against man’s desires? Does Christianity go against man’s desires? If so, is that evidence for Christianity? I answer this question, discussing the history of Christianity, the cognitive science of religion, Buddhism, Jainism, Islam, and more.

The whole “atheists can’t answer this question” and “atheists can’t explain this” thing is really getting old.

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[-] CameronDev@programming.dev 62 points 6 months ago

"Thou shall not kill" - God

"What!? But that goes against my base desires!" - A "christian"

Most people have no trouble following Christianitys rules, and if you struggle without Sky Daddy watching your every move, maybe your a bad person.

[-] FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 19 points 6 months ago

i dunno. the whole glutony thing. the orgies thing. those can be kinda fun until you're fat and have more STD's than are known to medical science.

the reality is religion- including Christianity- is a form of social control. the rules were established specifically to control people. men, sure. but women especially.

[-] CaptainSpaceman@lemmy.world 11 points 6 months ago

Christianity specifically was also an amalgamation of a lot of other popular myths and religions of the time, as well as the appropriation of various popular pagan rituals like Saturnalia (Xmas), Samhain (Halloween), and Oestara (Easter). Many of the saints fall under this too.

Social control + wrangling popular myths/legends/etc = the most perfectly profitable control mechanism for roughly 2000 years

[-] CameronDev@programming.dev 4 points 6 months ago

Religion has definitely been coopted for control, but the 10 commandments, and most of Jesus teachings are not really controversial or controlling (The arent progressive in todays terms, but for their time I think they are very reasonable).

The layers of bullshit that has been built on top certainly is controlling.

[-] FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 3 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

The whole adultery thing isn’t controlling?

Marriage required recognition by a priest. All sex must happen inside the union if a marriage.

They were literally controlling who had kids with whom.

The whole theft thing protected the rich way more than it did the poor.

The “worship none one beside me” was also about keeping people from leaving.

Murder was about maintaining stability. Remember, murder is the unjustified killing of another. Who do you think was better at justifying it with a little bribe?

But all of that is besides the point that religion vastly predates the Ten Commandments. The only reason that they’re not “progressive” was because as a basic moral code, they’ve been around longer than Moses.

Oh, and forget the whole store of the exile from Egypt and stuff. That’s all justification for genociding their neighbors.

Moving beyond the 10 commandments which are far from the only religious law… ancient Judaism was extremely controlling. Off the top of my head:

  • men had to get part of their dick removed
  • women had to wear long hair, but cover it
  • you could only eat certain foods, at certain times, with certain people
  • micromanaging rest days to the extreme.
  • the kind of fabrics your clothes were made from

There’s a lot more there. And there’s a reason for that. By making it so restrictive, and threatening eternal damnation, it ensures people do what you tell them to do, and there’s plenty of people that- as ardent believers- are terrified and will do all kinds of stupid shit to stay in god’s good graces.

[-] Bubippbasbir@lemmy.world 3 points 6 months ago

You mean they have no problem following those rules that are not specific to a religion and are (in some form or another) necessary for a civilized society. But the rules that define Christianity are more or less meaningless to someone not following it, and a lot of Christians are pretty loose about them as well. "No idols"? "No other gods"? "Keep the sabbath holy"? "Don't use god's name in vain"?

The "trick" about religions is that they are part necessary rules and customs that keep society going, and then they mix in their own, and that conglomerate keeps people bound to a religion and religions around even in "enlightened" times when people should be aware that those rules are not anything divine.

[-] CameronDev@programming.dev 1 points 6 months ago

Essentially yes. The general rules are easy to follow, the more esoteric ones that actual Christians often ignore are also very easy to ignore.

No arguments on your second point either, churches absolutely use the baseline values as a gateway to get people in the door, and then begin layering more control one you are in. Eg. Evangelicals, properity gospels, scientology.

[-] Sgn@programming.dev 2 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

Sex besides and before marriage and same sex partners are not avoidable desires like killing

this post was submitted on 01 May 2024
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