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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: RetiredNow who wrote (243743)	7/27/2005 9:38:20 PM
From: TigerPaw	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 1575728

However, another very important reason religion was created was to form a societal set of taboos and guidelines that would allow societies to function on a large scale. If that were true it would be bad for society, since those who know the taboos to be superstition would feel free to violate them (when they could) and only the saps would genuflecting. The smart would migrate to crime. TP

To: RetiredNow who wrote (243743)	7/27/2005 10:45:28 PM
From: SilentZ	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1575728

>No. I know lot's of people who are atheists who have a more solid moral character than self-professed religious people. But that is the exception, not the norm. Is it? You think a higher number of atheists are willing to kill, steal, or rape than people who believe in religion? I doubt it. >Think about it purely from a sociologist's perspective. Religion was created, in part, to explain the unknowable. However, another very important reason religion was created was to form a societal set of taboos and guidelines that would allow societies to function on a large scale. Without those guidelines, reinforced by very strong societal taboos, large scale societies simply can't function. Without taboos, no society can afford the number of policemen it would take to keep order in that society. Think about America. Think about the vast majority of people and how they follow rules and laws even though no one is looking over their shoulder. If everyone was always out for the fast buck and thought nothing of doing whatever it takes to get it, societies would crumble. It's not religion that causes that. People do lots of bad things in the name of religion. "Do unto others" is ingrained to a solid extent in most people simply because it's a smart way to live. >Taboos are stronger than laws, because taboos are those lines that 99% of people simply don't every cross in their lifetimes, because that would mean society would disown them. Most of the things that are taboo in our society are bullshit. Marijuana should not be taboo. Sex should not be taboo (right, Elroy?) Swear words should not be taboo. Religion creates stupid, false taboos. >Think about that for a little while and think about what you are doing when you secularize our society and ban expressions of religion among the elected leaders of our country. Most of our elected leaders don't express their religion very much in public, and never have. Some do -- are their constituents any better haved than those that don't? Doubtful. >Why do you think there was such a backlash against Clinton over such a seemingly stupid and private thing like a blowjob? It wasn't the blowjob. It was that he was the world's role model and he proved himself to be human and eminently fallible, and ultimately immoral. No, it's because they're idiots. -Z