A religious moderate is a failed fundamentalist.

[Simon Paynton]

tom sarbeck wrote:

Because a very few people “on the dark side” create religions.

That’s a good point.  But are there institutional reasons why religion can be dark?

[tom sarbeck]

Simon, please define “institutional reasons”.

Do institutions HAVE reasons? Do institutions think?

 

[Reg the Fronkey Farmer]

Religious people eventually become institutionalized. Sooner if they are fundamentalists, later if they are moderates due to the strain of the cognitive dissonance they most contend with. They can’t seem to live without their Sky Daddy and His magical spells and the dream of eternal bliss. The delusion keeps them there. The only reason they can’t get released is their inability to reason.

To paraphrase Mae West; Religion (like marriage) is an institution but not all of us are ready for an institution. :-0

[Simon Paynton]

tom sarbeck wrote:

please define “institutional reasons”.

Factors such as blind adherence to the Bible, or divergence from the ethics of human rights towards the ethics of extremism.  Reasons that are a result of the structure of religion.

For example, religion caused witches to be burnt at the stake (didn’t it?), and blessed fascist armies.

[tom sarbeck]

Robert wrote: It’s just the practice that has moderated. The fundamental beliefs are still there.

Is a moderate at the midpoint or an end of the “XX ———— fundie” spectrum?

My ethnic German parents demanded obedience. My Catholic dad sent me to Catholic  schools and I became a fundamentalist. At puberty, a hormone-fueled orgasm exploded my practice and I quickly dropped a belief. In high school I became skeptical. I questioned my beliefs and “pragmatized” some of my practices. In college I dumped Catholicism.

And so, I put a pragmatist at the left end and a moderate at the midpoint.

[Reg the Fronkey Farmer]

.…religion caused witches to be burnt at the stake…..

This would be more correct if written as : “The Christian Churches, mainly the Catholic Church, spend several centuries burning women to death. It even continued in Catholic Mexico up to 1850 (approx) around the time that Faraday discovered electricity and Darwin discovered Evolution. Then the murders stopped but the rape and abuse of little children and disrespect for women continued. It still does all these centuries later.

[Simon Paynton]

Reg the Fronkey Farmer wrote:

The Christian Churches, mainly the Catholic Church, spend several centuries burning women to death

I’m guessing that was a toxic brew of patriarchy, supernatural beliefs, the authority of the Church, and group-think.

[Reg the Fronkey Farmer]

I agree but I just use one word for “a toxic brew of patriarchy, supernatural beliefs, the authority of the Church, and group-think” and that word is “religion”.

[Author]

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