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The Science of the Benefits of Religion

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Re: The Science of the Benefits of Religion

#121

Post by dang »

ecpottinger wrote: post #21

I am one of Jehovah's Witnesses - Please read on before you just dismiss what I have experienced. Going door to door I have meet plenty of people who say "I don't believe in God, we got here thru evolution!". So I ask the simple question which theory of evolution do they think is probably has the right idea. Too often I hear, "Survival of the strongest." or "What? There is more than one theory about how evolution wor…

We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28656023.

Re: The Science of the Benefits of Religion

#122

Post by dang »

hota_mazi wrote: post #74

Right on. I challenge anyone who disagrees to come up with a benefit that religion offers that cannot be offered by a secular organization.

Please don't take HN threads into religious flamewar. The unsubstantiveness of this comment, combined with its argumentativeness, pretty well guaranteed that. We want the needle to say in the thoughtful/curious range here.

You perpetuated it too (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28657137). That's not cool.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

(We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28655948.)

Re: The Science of the Benefits of Religion

#123

Post by dang »

truetraveller wrote: post #101
hota_mazi wrote: post #74

Right on. I challenge anyone who disagrees to come up with a benefit that religion offers that cannot be offered by a secular organization.

The motivation to do good, and stay away from evil. The idea that a person if being watched. You can never get that with atheism. Atheism is just ruthless "survival of the fittest", when push comes to shove.

Please do not take HN threads further into religious flamewar. It's not what this site is for.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: The Science of the Benefits of Religion

#125

Post by lisper »

dqv wrote: post #76
lisper wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There is no effort we can put in. Well, that's not quite true. I'm an atheist, and I run a weekly Bible study (which has lately morphed into more of a general theological/philosophical study and discussion group) [1]. Religious traditions are worth studying even if you don't believe in them, if for no other reason, than as a way of better understanding the thought processes of people who do believe in them. [1] htt…

Is this going to eventually be meeting in person or will it be online from here on out?

It started as an in-person meetup and moved on-line because covid. We now have more out-of-town members than in-town so it will probably be on-line forever. We may have the occasional in-person get-together, but I doubt it will ever go back to being regularly in-person.

Re: The Science of the Benefits of Religion

#126

Post by dang »

truetraveller wrote: post #100
woodpanel wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Religion has been a major source of soothing and a major source of suffering for all of humanity's past The idea that religion is such a big source of suffering throughout all of our history is one I stopped believing once I took a closer look at the actual nature of war, particulary how a country's elite is moving closer to war and how "religious" said elite actually is. IMO the amounts of blood shed over millenia…

Thank you. For anyone in doubt, look at despicable acts that governments have committed. Like how they massacred thousands, in the name of Imperialism / "Freedom".

You've posted a ton of flamewar comments to this thread—not just religious flamewar but nationalistic flamewar too. This is badly breaking the site guidelines and we ban such accounts.

If you'd please review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and stick to the rules when posting here, we'd appreciate it. And please, no more flamewar comments of any kind and certainly not these kinds!

Re: The Science of the Benefits of Religion

#127

Post by dang »

jhgb wrote: post #109
truetraveller wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The motivation to do good, and stay away from evil. The idea that a person if being watched. You can never get that with atheism. Atheism is just ruthless "survival of the fittest", when push comes to shove.

[flagged]

Please do not take HN threads further into flamewar. It's not what HN is for.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: The Science of the Benefits of Religion

#128

Post by rpmisms »

mensetmanusman wrote: post #4

Religion clearly has mental health benefits, especially in terms of robustness. The interesting question is whether it is a transcendent ‘supra-rational’ belief system, e.g. a cheat code at life, because even assuming nothing matters, it makes sense to believe if you want to ‘be statistically more joyful’ (of course, some don’t want joy in their lives, so maybe it wouldn’t make sense for them?).

I grew up strongly religious, and I still believe strongly, but left the organization due to the people in it. I did have an atheist phase, but that depressed me so severely that I almost had no choice but to reconsider my belief.

Without a religious structure, life has no set purpose. Sure, you can make a purpose for yourself, but it feels empty compared to a created, beautiful universe by a benevolent being who got lonely.

Re: The Science of the Benefits of Religion

#129

Post by dang »

jhgb wrote: post #7

What benefits could possibly outweigh abuse of children by forcing them to not commit imaginary thoughtcrimes?

Please do not take HN threads into religious flamewar hell. We don't want it here and we ban accounts that do it. This post was particularly flamebaity.

If you'd please review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and stick to the rules when posting to HN, we'd appreciate it.

Re: The Science of the Benefits of Religion

#130

Post by dang »

tus89 wrote: post #2

Mass rape of little kids?

We've banned this account for repeatedly posting flamebait and unsubstantive comments, including religious flamewar comments, which we specifically asked you to stop: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28378449.

If you would please not create accounts to break HN's guidelines with, we'd be grateful. We're trying for something a bit different than internet default here.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

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