<story><title>Religious fervour is migrating into politics</title><url>https://www.economist.com/united-states/2021/03/27/religious-fervour-is-migrating-into-politics</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>hallway_monitor</author><text>I&amp;#x27;m considering joining a church almost exclusively for the social aspect. Christianity does teach some good lessons and taking my kids would be a net positive.&lt;p&gt;I wonder how many people who attend church and identify as Christian hold similar views to mine: overall it&amp;#x27;s a pretty good system but very few stories in the Bible are historically accurate.</text></item><item><author>jollofricepeas</author><text>Good point.&lt;p&gt;The social aspect seems to be the biggest motivating factor for what makes people either join or leave a religion.&lt;p&gt;People often choose to stop a belief because of the failings of their parents, spiritual leader, etc without thought to their direct relationship with their deity and the belief system itself.&lt;p&gt;- In other words, if you are Catholic and your priest was a criminal does that mean the next logical step is to become an atheist?&lt;p&gt;- If you’re an atheist and science says that the inherent beauty of laws of the universe means that it is a possibility that our world was engineered by powerful being(s) does that mean you should jump your belief all the way to creationism?</text></item><item><author>slfnflctd</author><text>I studied theology for a few years before giving up religion entirely.  The most disappointing aspect of &amp;#x27;modern&amp;#x27; Christianity to me is how few of its supposed adherents have bothered to consciously choose a system and learn more about it, or even try to understand the one(s) they were brought up with.&lt;p&gt;The trend seems to be that people first decide what&amp;#x27;s most personally appealing to believe, then label themselves whatever fits with their in-group, with almost no attempt to connect the two.  From a philosophical perspective, there is a lot of reinventing the wheel (poorly) going on, and very little recognition that carefully thought out frameworks which considered every possible angle and relentlessly sought internal logical consistency have existed for hundreds of years.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>Swizec</author><text>Europe is full of atheist Catholics. It’s a pretty cool system.&lt;p&gt;You get the holidays and culture, nice set of shared stories and a shared common sense. Thinking any of it is factually accurate or that god is a thing or being that actually exists is almost considered weird.&lt;p&gt;In Slovenia (where I’m from), for example, about 70% of the population identifies as Catholic, but only 25% say there might be a god. Another 30% say there’s probably some sort of greater spirit, but not necessarily god.&lt;p&gt;The American version always seemed odd to me. Believing that stuff in the Bible is factually true, not just fables with lessons ... that’s weird.</text></comment>
<story><title>Religious fervour is migrating into politics</title><url>https://www.economist.com/united-states/2021/03/27/religious-fervour-is-migrating-into-politics</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>hallway_monitor</author><text>I&amp;#x27;m considering joining a church almost exclusively for the social aspect. Christianity does teach some good lessons and taking my kids would be a net positive.&lt;p&gt;I wonder how many people who attend church and identify as Christian hold similar views to mine: overall it&amp;#x27;s a pretty good system but very few stories in the Bible are historically accurate.</text></item><item><author>jollofricepeas</author><text>Good point.&lt;p&gt;The social aspect seems to be the biggest motivating factor for what makes people either join or leave a religion.&lt;p&gt;People often choose to stop a belief because of the failings of their parents, spiritual leader, etc without thought to their direct relationship with their deity and the belief system itself.&lt;p&gt;- In other words, if you are Catholic and your priest was a criminal does that mean the next logical step is to become an atheist?&lt;p&gt;- If you’re an atheist and science says that the inherent beauty of laws of the universe means that it is a possibility that our world was engineered by powerful being(s) does that mean you should jump your belief all the way to creationism?</text></item><item><author>slfnflctd</author><text>I studied theology for a few years before giving up religion entirely.  The most disappointing aspect of &amp;#x27;modern&amp;#x27; Christianity to me is how few of its supposed adherents have bothered to consciously choose a system and learn more about it, or even try to understand the one(s) they were brought up with.&lt;p&gt;The trend seems to be that people first decide what&amp;#x27;s most personally appealing to believe, then label themselves whatever fits with their in-group, with almost no attempt to connect the two.  From a philosophical perspective, there is a lot of reinventing the wheel (poorly) going on, and very little recognition that carefully thought out frameworks which considered every possible angle and relentlessly sought internal logical consistency have existed for hundreds of years.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>paulryanrogers</author><text>&amp;gt; ...taking my kids would be a net positive.&lt;p&gt;Being raised in the church and briefly having taught kids there, please don&amp;#x27;t do this. Even in progressive churches the lessons they risk being exposed to will teach lazy thinking: trust in authority, testimony above hard evidence, etc. At worst they may be taught to hate or despise themselves, others, or natural desires.</text></comment>