Quote:
Originally posted by bermuDa
i suppose I should've specified what I meant by "better." I meant it not so much in the material sense but as filling a void that many are trained to feel in the absense of faith. Religion helps sedate people against the harsh realities of the material world, and although many of them address the issue of existence after death, people seek comfort in faith for other reasons.
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Agreed.
Here's an anecdotal story: I have noticed that nearly every highly religious person I've meet on the corner of streets with their "Jesus Saves" signs and such who yell at passer-byers have a part of their story where they used to be alcoholics, or something like that and then suddenly they found God and everything was better. They think, because their void was filled getting rid of their maladies that they couldn't fix on their own, that everyone needs their voids fixed the same way. I never know what to think of those people. Am I glad that they aren't punch drunk, dirty, covered in piss and vomit in the gutter anymore? Or disappointed that they best they could come up with is yelling at people to be saved or ending up in hell? Not that this accounts for all corner-yellers, but I imagine most of you out there know the type. Typically, my thinking now is from a broader sociological level - there is a spectrum of people ranging from all sorts of different levels of faith and reliance on their beliefs to get them day to day. This is just a more extreme side of the spectrum, and there's nothing to be done about it as a passer-byer. I generally say "no thanks" and walk away, if I say anything at all.