Comment on Check mate, atheists.
Oppopity@lemmy.ml 7 hours agoIt’s not a red herring. Religious people don’t treat god like some social concept that doesn’t physically exist but still plays a role in how we interact in our society. They claim their god literally exists.
gedaliyah@lemmy.world 6 hours ago
People claim money actually exists, too. It’s not an inherent property of human existence. It’s just an organizing principle that helps us coordinate resources.
It would be stupid if the main argument we had about money was whether on not it “exists.” By “stupid” I mean that it is counterproductive to the goals of bettering humanity. We don’t get anywhere with that discussion. Instead, we talk about how we should use use money as a tool to better organize our society. We talk about equity and advancement and poverty.
It’s the same with religion. It’s been well studied that religion offers social benefits:
Association between spirituality/religiousness and quality of life 2021
Assessing the Faith-Based Response to Homelessness in America Image
63.2% food pantries are identified as being faith-based food pantries
With this being Lemmy, I don’t have to highlight the negative consequences of religion.
The point is that we should be advancing beyond the kindergarten level discussion about what’s real and what’s make-believe. Intelligent people should instead be engaging on how we can ensure religious beliefs are fostering social trust, or how to recognize and combat religious extremism.
uienia@lemmy.world 1 hour ago
Those “social benefits” are band-aids needed because of a non-functioning government solution like a non-fath based welfare state. The reason you don’t see them as much in functioning countries, is because they are needed much less.
Oppopity@lemmy.ml 3 hours ago
But people don’t just argue that spirituality itself is a useful tool. They straight up say their religion is true. Those are not the same things.