Re: It was a little bit simple.
Implicitly, I think; you can't extract some new/illuminating Principle via such a broad brush, right?
Sharp? ..or just Slick?? (the perennial-Question on this Scale)
(Personally I think.. most-all of our filters are broken re [all of our collected Capital-R/Relgion vignettes] imputing general characteristics of their adherents.)
I'll take Door #4
and go with simplistic: among the 'kinds' of people are the Me-Me-Me perpetually-focussed. There are also varying degrees of the empathic {via any other name} who acknowledge their own primal Ignorance of {say} Where Me-Me-xx ends // and everyone/thing Else resides. (As re Consciousness itSelf..)
I find that if I eschew the former and try to hang with the latter 'types' ... there are more endorphins. Anyone got a better litmus test than that? (I thought not :-)
Still, via your link: another one [MurrayCampbell .net] contains
I affirm the idea that religion can make people meaner and more selfish. This idea is hardly new, Christians have understood this since its earliest days, and it conforms to what the Bible has been saying since it was first written, millennia ago.
As Tim Keller put it in The Reason for God, “Those who believe they have pleased God by the quality of their devotion and moral goodness naturally feel that they and their group deserve deference and power over others. The God of Jesus and the prophets, however, saves completely by grace. He cannot be manipulated by religious and moral performance–he can only be reached through repentance, through the giving up of power. If we are saved by sheer grace we can only become grateful, willing servants of God and of everyone around us.”
According to Roman ch.1 religion stems from suppressing what is true, and creating and then depending upon things that are not true for meaning and salvation.
Subsequently, it is unsurprising to learn that religion is largely about self-justification; it is the human attempt to persuade God and others of one’s worthiness and goodness. Religion is about doing things and saying things in order to win God’s favour. Even acts of kindness can be a cover for gaining approval and for feeling better or happier about oneself. In other words, we shouldn’t be surprised to find that religion can make people, even children, mean.
Sharp? ..or just Slick?? (the perennial-Question on this Scale)
(Personally I think.. most-all of our filters are broken re [all of our collected Capital-R/Relgion vignettes] imputing general characteristics of their adherents.)
I'll take Door #4
and go with simplistic: among the 'kinds' of people are the Me-Me-Me perpetually-focussed. There are also varying degrees of the empathic {via any other name} who acknowledge their own primal Ignorance of {say} Where Me-Me-xx ends // and everyone/thing Else resides. (As re Consciousness itSelf..)
I find that if I eschew the former and try to hang with the latter 'types' ... there are more endorphins. Anyone got a better litmus test than that? (I thought not :-)