In Chapter 4 of Amusing Ourselves to Death, Postman quotes from Tom Paine's book The Age of Reason. It states "All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian, or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit." As a believer in God, this quote stood out to me because in a way, it's true. On average, the bible has 66 books in it with hundreds of parables. However, the stories told in the bible would be unbelievable if they were to occur today and it makes you wonder how credible the bible is. I'm not discrediting the bible, but merely using socrates method of questioning everything.
Let's break down each section of the quote. The fragment "human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind" is referring to the ideal of a heaven and hell. We are given laws and commandments in each holy book that we must follow. If we break a rule, we are to repent for our sins for in fear that we won't go to heaven. Hell is described as a dark, fiery, and excruciatingly painful place that those who aren't believers or true followers will go to after death. Do you see how religion preys on our emotions ? To those who are believers, we believe in God not only because we love him but also because we fear what would happen if we didn't believe in him.
When Tom Paine mentioned the church is set up to "monopolize power and profit" it got me thinking. Religion, excluding the different branches of religion, has a tremendous following. The more support you have, the more power you have. Furthermore, through donations and tithes from their followers, they're able to raise enough money to make a profit. So I ask the believers in God, what are your takes on this and what is holding your belief to your religion ? To those who don't believe in God, what are your views on this and why don't you have faith in a religion ?
-Jordyn Parham
Personally, I don't know what I believe, because religion is hard thing to believe sometimes. My mom used to take me to church and I remember hearing the pastor saying you must devote yourself to God and that before anything, he must come first. I get that he brings hope to people, but if you really think about it, in a way, it really is like you're forced to be someone perfect in the eyes of God or else you're unworthy of going to heaven. I like that believing in God gives people hope for purpose and for things to get better, but personally, I feel that you could feel that way even without religion. It shocked me to hear you say that if you break the rules and don't repent for your sins, you'll go to suffer in the afterlife. Imagine devoting your life to God and still fearing if your devotion is enough.
ReplyDeleteI don't mean to cause issues with firm believers in God, I just stated my feelings on this subject in a way where maybe you guys can still understand my point of view.
I believe God because out of my whole life that's how I was raise. I heard so many stories and I also think we all come from something. so I believe that something is God. Religion is something that brings people together and gives them something to believe in. It also puts people in check so they won't break their religion laws or even governor laws. If people choose to question God then that's them. I'm going to keep believing what I want to believe which is God
ReplyDeleteI honestly don't know why more haven't commented on this. It seems like the perfect breeding ground for believers and non believers to comment. I personally can see and understand both sides of the story. I believe that religion has gone through multiple stages throught history where it has given off different vibes for lack of a better word. When religion was first being preached, I feel as if it was more embracing the salvation message. Stuff like join, become an adherent to be saved, and it was about preaching that the religion would save you. Then later on it began preaching that if you didn't join, you'd be in serious trouble in the afterlife. Not only that, but then it became stricter on it's adherents promising them the same serious consequences. However, I feel that in today's society, religion is not like that anymore, or at least in first world countries. Now people have the option to be adherents or not, whereas people did not have that option before really. And about the whole monopolize and power part, well a religion is only as strong as its adherents. Hence I think that while it might've been the case, it really is not in today's society.
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