[ POLL ] Which National Religion?

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...that sounds like something you need a 12-step program for.

I’m gonna have to write that last one down. Nice!

The word religion refers to restoring the bond between a person and God. As such I don’t mind telling people that I’m religious. God Himself instituted ritualized acts of worship in the Old Testament, so there’s nothing inherently wrong with that. Many people find comfort in it. The problem is that people treat ritual as a mindless habit rather than a gesture that points to an actual God. I’m not on the ritual-is-bad bandwagon. I just think people keep in view the Who and Why of the works they do.

One of my former Catholic colleagues actually believes that catholic rituals are the “works” referred to in the context of “faith without works is dead.”

What does a Cult fly you to?

Private jets.

Wrong. Spaceships hiring in tails of comets .

And at Jonestown they serve you koolaid and I hear it's to die for.

Corporate Progressivism (in the works)
from tax avoiders (ao philantropy) meddling in states and minds, for same old cult of profit


all is the same, nothing new at the western front,

Frederick Douglass told in his book "Narrative" how his condition as a slave became worse when his master underwent a religious conversion that allowed him to justify slavery.  Mark Twain described his mother as a genuinely good person, whose soft heart pitied even Satan, but who had no doubt about the legitimacy of slavery, because in years of living in antebellum Missouri she had never heard any sermon opposing slavery, but only countless sermons preaching that slavery was "God's will".  With or without religion, good people can behave well and bad people can do evil; but for good people to do evil -- that takes religion.

Hmmm....

Are those "folks addicted to both alcohol, and methamphetamine"?

or...

are they "folks who belong to both the Catholic Church, and the Methodist church"?

Its gotta be ONE of the two!

Imagine "Breaking Bad" meets "Fargo" meets "Father Ted" meets "Men In Trees" meets "Gung Ho".

THAT is Michigan.

I'm thinking a cocktail of Methamphetamine, caffeine and alcohol.

It Really All 'Boils' Down to Which Story Someone is Gonna Worship, Someone Else wrote...

Which Poem And or Parable, Someone is Gonna Worship, Someone Else wrote...

And Who We Allow To Direct, Produce, And Slave Us to Act In Their Play
of Life as Basically Servant and or Slave to The Story They Create And

That's The Never Ending Story of Human...

There are Writers...

There Are Actors

It's All A Play;

(i realize that is
A Loose Paraphrase)

Some Folks Write, Direct,
Produce And Act Their Own Play of Life;
The Idea Behind the United States in the
Declaration of Independence; Our Right to
Free Agency this way and No Longer Captive
Audience Member or Actor of Someone else's Play of Life;

In Other Words, the Right to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness...

Which of Course includes Remaining Willing Captive Prisoner to "Other Plays/Stories of Life"...

For it doesn't Matter if that Story; Play; That Religion; That Politics;
That Philosophy; or That Team Sport of Corporation Has a God or Not Named; For Those
Held Captive; They indeed Just Worship a Different God of Story; a Religion of someone else...

A National Religion
Is An Ultimate Prison
And Domestication
of Human into
An Animal
Farm;
or 'Lovely'
Gated Zoo; With
Sure A Homeowner's
Association Religion
Dictating the Length of One's Living Grass...
Oh, the Hell of Never Seeing Dandelions Bloom At Easter Free...
Increasingly, Folks Are Willing to Join A 'New Tony Soprano
HBO Special Reality Show'; Really A Hell oF A Revised Story...

The Trump God;
The Trump Religion;
The Trump Way of Trump;
The Extreme Example of
Being Lost in one Person's Story...

But Truly An Excellent New
'Adolph/Jesus' Refresher

Course, on what not to do...

Nothing at all the United States Stands For;
No Flag Flying Free; Only 'The Color of Orange' Upon High of Low...

It's True, Mr. Fnord, The Trump Religion;

Another Choice of National Religion;

i ain't DrinKinG aS LiT Kool-Aid Either...

No; i Will Never Believe in the Trump
Tony Soprano New Reality Religion Show...

It Seems there may be less than only
A Couple of Months Left until this Year's Reality Show
is Canceled too...

And Trump's
Screen Turns to
Black And He No
Longer has the Juke
Box Religion Option of
'Don't Stop Believing'..

All that's
Left..
Just
A BLack Screen...
Sweet Orange Justice, 'Wiley'...

-Road Runner...

I don't really believe that. Humans are very complex beings and most are a mix of good and bad. Religion has nothing to do with making good people do bad things. I've met atheists in my life who were racist like my neighbor from Pensacola for example. But she was a nice person otherwise.

I think cultural norms has more to do with attitudes towards race, gender, and sexuality than religion. Even though religion plays a big part in it too.

let's just say that religion has been known to grease the skids towards tyranny and other sins.

Religion is just one paradigm that allows one to rationalize immorality or evil. If someone is socialized to believe that slavery is acceptable, they will use their religion to rationalize that. If they are not religious, they will use (pseudo)science to rationalize it.
The religious person might justify slavery by pointing to examples of slavery in the bible, or by suggesting that dark skin is a sign of the mark of Cain. Or, as was initially the case, that slavery is completely fine as long as it is non-Christians being enslaved. They had to get a bit more creative in their bs theology once their slaves started becoming Christian. Or, as Twain's mother believed, slavery existed because of God's will (ie: it is okay that it happens by virtue of the fact that it happens).
The atheist might justify slavery through any number of means. They may say that it is natural, so it is okay (ie: it is okay that it happens by virtue of the fact that it happens). They may say that blacks should be subservient to whites because of a belief in the biological inferiority of the former. They may say that slavery is or was okay because certain historical figures that they admire owned slaves (hint hint).

People are socialized to accept certain evils, and then their worldview develops in such a way that rationalizes those evils--whether that worldview is religious or not.

Any strong belief system (not just religion but also ideology, government propaganda, cults, and mental illness) can lead to "good people" doing evil. For example, "good people" committed genocide in Rwanda after propaganda referred to another ethnic group as cockroaches and later called for those cockroaches to be exterminated. The propaganda that they were cockroaches dehumanized them so it felt like they were getting rid of pests instead of people.

Christianity was never responsible for "good people" doing evil. People did evil because they distorted and twisted Christian teaching or followed someone else who did.