Religion

[JASR]

I mean there are a couple of things here. Firstly, the little old lady isn't responsible for the historical actions of the church, but assuming she is putting money in the collection plate, she is funding their current actions. And if she's a Catholic, that includes the continuing cover-up of child abusers. Let's be honest, if the Catholic church was just a charity relying on donations, they'd have been finished a long time ago. But because they're a religion, people will continue to fund them no matter how despicable they get. And that's the problem with religion.

You see it in India all the time. Some guru is caught basically using religion as a front for widespread sexual assault. Anyone else who raped loads of people would be in police protection to avoid being strung up. A religious figure gets accused and all of their supporters are out on the street and it's the victims and the police themselves that have to be given protection. There was a similar story in (I think) Romania of a British paedophile who went there and got away with abusing kids because he was a "religious figure". When the BBC tried to confront him, they were attacked by an angry mob.

It would be fair/nice if religious entities were taxed in-line with other entities…
Especially in the US…

 

[Blue Mist]

Tune into Christian fm or any similar radio station.
It's not long before they ask you to send them money, so they can "continue to spread the message"
Fucking con artists, preying on the weak willed.

So you are calling me a con artist !!!!
You will not only be forced to watch the rags I will make sure you are sat under the leaky roof........ unless you send me £50.

 

[Grassland Blue]

I would like to know if god has saved any of our monarchs at all, despite repeated pleas?
No?
Thought not.

 

[Marklr]

I would like to know if god has saved any of our monarchs at all, despite repeated pleas?
No?
Thought not.

I don't know...they all live til they're over 100 these days.

 

[journolud]

I would like to know if god has saved any of our monarchs at all, despite repeated pleas?
No?
Thought not.

Somebody or something seems to be saving Andrew

 

[vmsuhail]

What about it?
Mental solace? You really think that a child needs mental solace? I've heard it all now. That's a made up term to rationalise indoctrination of children into the cult of religion.
Children don't need mental solace, they need educating, and less than 1% of that education needs to be about the madness of religion. The sooner we move away from fucking crackpots spouting shite, and get on with the real world, the better

Yes, there are studies done on it and proven.

Raising Kids With Religion Or Spirituality May Protect Their Mental Health: Study

A new study finds that kids and teens who are more religious or spiritual do better as they age.

www.forbes.com

 

[crublue1]

Yes, there are studies done on it and proven.

Raising Kids With Religion Or Spirituality May Protect Their Mental Health: Study

A new study finds that kids and teens who are more religious or spiritual do better as they age.

www.forbes.com

The headline says

Raising Kids With Religion Or Spirituality May Protect Their Mental Health.​

The key word here is "may"

Hardly proof is it?

 

[MellowJoe]

After that result I'm convinced, there is no God

 

[Beswick Prize Bands Big Drum]

I mean there are a couple of things here. Firstly, the little old lady isn't responsible for the historical actions of the church, but assuming she is putting money in the collection plate, she is funding their current actions. And if she's a Catholic, that includes the continuing cover-up of child abusers. Let's be honest, if the Catholic church was just a charity relying on donations, they'd have been finished a long time ago. But because they're a religion, people will continue to fund them no matter how despicable they get. And that's the problem with religion.

You see it in India all the time. Some guru is caught basically using religion as a front for widespread sexual assault. Anyone else who raped loads of people would be in police protection to avoid being strung up. A religious figure gets accused and all of their supporters are out on the street and it's the victims and the police themselves that have to be given protection. There was a similar story in (I think) Romania of a British paedophile who went there and got away with abusing kids because he was a "religious figure". When the BBC tried to confront him, they were attacked by an angry mob.

I find it hilarious that the BBC tried to find a Paedophile in Romania when their rotten organization has been turning a blind eye to them for years.

 

[I'm With Stupid]

Yes, there are studies done on it and proven.

Raising Kids With Religion Or Spirituality May Protect Their Mental Health: Study

A new study finds that kids and teens who are more religious or spiritual do better as they age.

www.forbes.com

Did you read the actual study? It's certainly relatively well-produced and in-depth research, but I doubt the authors would claim that it's "proof" of anything. If you look into it, while it's a relatively widespread (but largely white, American, middle class) study, it's entirely based on self-reporting. So it's not a surprise that someone who claims to go to church every week on a survey will also self report lower numbers of sexual partners, lower use of illegal drugs, lower consumption of alcohol, and higher levels of things like volunteering. One of the survey questions on forgiveness is as follows: "Because of my spiritual or religious beliefs, I have forgiven those who hurt me." How is that not clearly a loaded question? Someone who isn't religious who has forgiven those who have wronged them still couldn't answer yes to that question. When self-reporting, even when anonymous, people will answer what they think they should answer. There have been surveys that show that more people "go to church every week" in America than there are churches to fit them all in.

Some of the medical problems are likely to be more reliable because there's not the same religious stigma about things like cancer or obesity, but self-reporting things like "feeling depressed" isn't exactly reliable, and even diagnosis of depression could be more of an indicator of how likely someone is to seek medical help than actual levels of depression. People in a particularly close-knit church community might be more likely to go to a pastor than a doctor if they're feeling depressed, for example. Some of the questions are well-written to try and remove any religious bias, but some aren't especially successful at doing so.

Some of the indicators on the study are literally lifted straight from religious beliefs. So for example, there's absolutely no reason that "number of sexual partners" should be framed as a negative thing, and yet there it in the list of health problems along with depression, prescription drug addiction and cancer. What you're saying there is that people who self-report religious beliefs will also self-report following those religious beliefs. You might as well put "not covering your head" as a problem that needs to be surveyed and then ask a bunch of Muslim women how often they do it. Basically if you ask a person how often they attend religious services and pray, and then on the same sheet of paper ask them how often they smoke marijuana and how many people they've fucked, you're not necessarily going to get a truthful answer every time.

Which isn't to dismiss the study, just show that it's a single study of a single demographic in a single country, and therefore isn't proof of anything.