Has religion served its purpose?

@fmf said
Since you disappeared from the forums and stopped playing chess four and a half years ago, all of us here heard the news - from one of his relatives - that Grampy Bobby had passed away after a long illness. You were perhaps unaware of this.

I was well aware of it because it wasn't as long ago that I "disappeared" as you think.

And I didn't disappear. I just stopped posting.

@josephw said
Frankly, I think you're confusing what I know with what you think I know.You think I believe what you think I believe.

Sounds a lot like the act of confirmation bias.

"Confirmation bias" would be if I DIDN'T talk to Christians like you and ONLY [or mostly] talked to agnostic atheists like myself.

@josephw said
The next thing you know someone will accuse me of being Grampy Bobby.

I don't see why they would.

@fmf said
"Confirmation bias" would be if I DIDN'T talk to Christians like you and ONLY [or mostly] talked to agnostic atheists like myself.

Maybe you are just talking to yourself, or may as well be, since every point I make is met with the rhetoric you repeatedly employ to ward off responding to those points.

Like a kind of self induced confirmation bias. 😂

@josephw said
Maybe you are just talking to yourself, or may as well be, since every point I make is met with the rhetoric you repeatedly employ to ward off responding to those points.

I am engaging the "points" you are making, head-on, post after post.

@fmf said
I don't see why they would.

Dang! I thought you might have caught the humor in it.

@josephw said
Dang! I thought you might have caught the humor in it.

The guy passed away after a long illness. I found your comment fatuous rather than funny.

@fmf said
"Religion has served its purpose of uniting people, setting up structures in society, developing trust and cooperation."

~ Syed Saleem Ali

"What we need now are morality and spirituality. Morality is about reducing suffering in the world. And spirituality is about questioning and looking for answers. Religions provide us just with answers and no scope of questions.”

~ Y ...[text shortened]... uniting people, supporting structures in society, and developing trust and cooperation.

Thoughts?

Where I live, I'd say the six religions enshrined in the constitution still serve a purpose in uniting people, supporting structures in society, and developing trust and cooperation.

Yes.
So long as that is all they do.
As soon as one religion seeks to convert, evangelicise, take the moral high ground and try to score points against other religions then the sickness begins.
Everybody should feel to practise his own religion - it is society’s favourite toy and it will remain so for a very long time. I’m perfectly happy for people to have these toys and to play with them at home, but don’t to say my children that they must play with these toys. (Apologies to Christopher Hitchens for misquoting him)

@fmf said
I am engaging the "points" you are making, head-on, post after post.

You just keep telling yourself that.

You'll change your mind sooner than you think.

@fmf said
"Religion has served its purpose of uniting people, setting up structures in society, developing trust and cooperation."

~ Syed Saleem Ali

"What we need now are morality and spirituality. Morality is about reducing suffering in the world. And spirituality is about questioning and looking for answers. Religions provide us just with answers and no scope of questions.”

~ Y ...[text shortened]... uniting people, supporting structures in society, and developing trust and cooperation.

Thoughts?

Well, purposes require intents; if the only ones we concern ourselves are our own, then there are millions of different reasons for religion, some successful others not. If we take in God, all purposes are going as planned.

@kellyjay said
Well, purposes require intents; if the only ones we concern ourselves are our own, then there are millions of different reasons for religion, some successful others not. If we take in God, all purposes are going as planned.

The OP is not specifically about your God figure, it should perhaps be noted. It's about religions and societies in general.

@kellyjay said
Well, purposes require intents; if the only ones we concern ourselves are our own, then there are millions of different reasons for religion

Let's reiterate the societal context of the "purpose" referred to in the OP, which had someone asserting this: ""Religion has served its purpose of uniting people, setting up structures in society, developing trust and cooperation."

In this context, are you suggesting that there are "millions of different reasons" why a society would adopt a religion?

@josephw said
You are profoundly mistaken. I am not "religious", nor are my "claims" regarding the supernatural derived from any "religious beliefs".

So you’re not a Christian, you don’t believe in the Christian god, you don’t go to a Christian church.

Right.

@josephw said
Sorry, but I am clueless as to what you mean by the above.

Believe it or not I am guileless. Even though it may "appear" otherwise.

That’s because either you aren’t here enough to engage with the wider community of this forum, or you are dishonestly pretending that you don’t know that “public masturbation” is suzianne’s latest buzz phrase for smearing her detractors .

@josephw said
No. "Religion" is the effort of man based on man's performance.

Your logic is flawed. If God were "controlling", then there would be no need for "religion".

It’s not a question of “logic” and even if it were you lack the intellectual tools to create a logic framework within which you could articulate your ideas.

No, you are a typical dyed-in-the-wool, smalltown right-wing American church goer.