Comment on Throw the baby out with the bathwater
hoshikarakitaridia@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Science is for things we can prove, religion is for things we want to believe.
Why not use science when possible and religion when needed?
Everyone is free to believe in the funny old man controlling us and still accept that atoms exist.
These things are not mutually exclusive. And if they are to you, that’s probably because you’re a dick about it.
petrol_sniff_king@lemmy.blahaj.zone 12 hours ago
Not to get too reddit athiest about it, but the main problem I’d have with even innocent spiritualism is that it’s a bad habit, basically. If somebody believes something that isn’t empirical, you can’t use empiricism to bring them out of that pit. And the more they train that muscle, the stronger it is, you know?
It creates a bunch of mental sweater-snags that either prevent people from believing obviously true things, or that allow them to be yoinked by snake oil salesmen into wackier and wackier positions.
hoshikarakitaridia@lemmy.world 11 hours ago
I empathize with that argument because it is reminiscent of family, but I still think some people need spirituality for their mental health. Turns out, when you think the world is less chaotic and more sorted out, it’s less exhausting to think about.
I get that it’s dangerous but especially in territories stricken with poverty you get swaths of people turning to religion, and I genuinely believe that’s because everyone wants to cling to something. And at some point I really do believe to live and let live. Specifically, when we don’t know for certain, why not let people speculate?
petrol_sniff_king@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 hours ago
I think that’s a little bit like flirting with cigarettes because they can help you deal with stress. Which, I agree people will do, and quitting cold turkey isn’t a simple matter either, but should they do it? Like, morally? I still think it’s an unambiguous no.
That said, some friend of mine being really into horoscopes or whatever isn’t really at the top of my world problems to-do list. So long as they’re not getting sucked into any flat earth alt-right pipelines, it’s probably not worth the effort.
Oh actually, one more thing. This here:
This is true, and it’s one of the main factors that drives MAGA. Outside of the psycho-sexual one, anyway.
Anxiety will drive people toward simple, actionable answers, whether they’re correct or not, because there’s comfort in thinking you know why your life sucks. It could be God’s plan, it could be that brown people are ruining the country; it’s magical thinking that doesn’t need to make any sense, it just needs to soothe—not unlike a cigarette.
Not to imply that all religious people are MAGA. I know there are some good natured folks out there.