Poll of the Day > How would most modern folks define religion?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I'm curious because you hear about organized religion being on a general decline all the time but census stats have yet to show dramatic changes.

Most likely the data on millennials has not been fully collected yet.

It is man made. Pretty much every civilization ever makes up a god to control others.
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Evangelicals are not a religion, they are a political party.
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I guess the third is closest to accurate, but I honestly don't believe that the original intent of most religions is bad (Scientology is evil at its root, but most aren't). They're all man-made, but most seem like they're based on either genuine beliefs (someone thought they saw something, like the followers of Jesus) or were honestly just trying to make their communities better (like Muhammad uniting tribes to end bloodshed). So I think there are some really good intentions there and I don't think answer 3 is entirely fair because of that.

We are beyond insignificant

Our deaths could be coming from magnetars in space and we wouldn't know it until our ozone layer was dissolved in an instant and our oceans, gone.

If we ever hope to become anything other then ants we have to reach beyond the light year at least in terms of imagery capabilities.
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you didnt specify a religion, so it could be any of the above
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-A set of life rules designed to keep peace, promote unity and protect from harm and diseases (common commands are don't steal/kill, common protections are don't have sex to soon, don't eat this or that), that were passed on from generation to generation and turned into dogmatic rules sometimes without any need or context in other places and other times than when they were written, and often abused by institutions for personal gain (by instilling fear or guilt) who play on superstition and threaten with punishment after (and sometimes before) death.

However the most picked poll option (if included) would be I think:
-A psychological virus transferred from person to person when they're weak and limiting their ability to think for themselves.

BUMP for science

Pretty much every civilization has believed in some kind of God. They all contradict.
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Stuff that people believe that can't be proven or disproven
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A safety blanket we're slowly getting rid of.
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A_Good_Opinion posted...

A ridiculous notion, if you consider how large the Universe really is.

Doesn't seem to correlate in the least.
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A_Good_Opinion posted...

A man-made system of control designed to produce guilt and fear.

This is the closet to my view I guess. I mean it's man-made to me and can produce those feelings. However it can improve some folks lives a lot too.
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Religion is a S P O O K
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Zeus posted...

A_Good_Opinion posted...

A ridiculous notion, if you consider how large the Universe really is.

Doesn't seem to correlate in the least.

The chances of the creator of everything actually being human-centered (humans are the focus of essentially every known religion) is mind-numbingly low when you acknowledge that the observable universe (the area of space in which our devices can reach and image) is tiny and the rest of the actual universe may be up to 150,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 times the size of it. That is 150 sextillion, to be clear.

I can provide my a list of my sources if you're interested.
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Christmas posted...

Zeus posted...

A_Good_Opinion posted...

A ridiculous notion, if you consider how large the Universe really is.

Doesn't seem to correlate in the least.

The chances of the creator of everything actually being human-centered (humans are the focus of essentially every known religion) is mind-numbingly low when you acknowledge that the observable universe (the area of space in which our devices can reach and image) is tiny and the rest of the actual universe may be up to 150,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 times the size of it. That is 150 sextillion, to be clear.

I can provide my a list of my sources if you're interested.

What exactly is the counterpoint for noting that a creator could have also created the rest? Bear in mind that one of the first verses in the Bible is something along the lines of "God created the heavens and the Earth." The heavens, of course, was the concept of the sky and outer space. Space can be infinitely vast and not conflict with the idea of it being created. And, I should mention, that almost every creation myth seems to acknowledge space in some form (primordial chaos, etc)
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Christmas posted...

Zeus posted...

A_Good_Opinion posted...

A ridiculous notion, if you consider how large the Universe really is.

Doesn't seem to correlate in the least.

The chances of the creator of everything actually being human-centered (humans are the focus of essentially every known religion) is mind-numbingly low when you acknowledge that the observable universe (the area of space in which our devices can reach and image) is tiny and the rest of the actual universe may be up to 150,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 times the size of it. That is 150 sextillion, to be clear.

I can provide my a list of my sources if you're interested.

None of that seems to discount religion as a whole or the belief in something beyond what we can observe in life

The chances of nothing transforming into everything seem just as implausible. According to some quantum physicists, nothing should exist.
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Mead posted...

Christmas posted...

Zeus posted...

A_Good_Opinion posted...

A ridiculous notion, if you consider how large the Universe really is.

Doesn't seem to correlate in the least.

The chances of the creator of everything actually being human-centered (humans are the focus of essentially every known religion) is mind-numbingly low when you acknowledge that the observable universe (the area of space in which our devices can reach and image) is tiny and the rest of the actual universe may be up to 150,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 times the size of it. That is 150 sextillion, to be clear.

I can provide my a list of my sources if you're interested.

None of that seems to discount religion as a whole or the belief in something beyond what we can observe in life

The chances of nothing transforming into everything seem just as implausible. According to some quantum physicists, nothing should exist.

I'm saying if there is an ultimate creator, there is a high chance that they consider us to be insignificant, because it would simply be illogical to interfere on one planet for any reason. I'm no expert on science fiction, but I'm pretty certain there are written instances of divine intervention in nearly every type of religion created by humans. I refuse to believe that we are the most technologically advanced species alive.

Our lives could literally be on display for entertainment or otherwise without us knowing about it, because our imagery capabilities in space are so primitive at the moment.
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