This is deadly in politics and in normal life.
What's the saying? Oh yes: "absolute power corrupts absolutely." The core business of the catholic church is absolute power. It is absolutely corrupt to the core, as a political institution, and being labelled a club of pedophiles and pedophile lovers is a just reward and probably still too nice to them.
That doesn't mean that catholics as individuals (including most priests, presumably) are not good people, and that they do not behave in accordance with the teachings and values of the church, which, if actually followed, give a fine result. But the church as an institution is fundamentally corrupt.
Individual faith is fine. Organised religion is undistinguishable from totalitarianism. Pedophilia is one of the many natural outcomes of that. T Wind power
the fundamental problem with any organised religion is that they dabble into politics armed with absolutes (God, Good, Truth, etc...).
I don't think that's the issue. After all, when you peel away all the rationalisations, every political ideology boils down to some unchallenged axioms that are never entirely abandoned or disproved, only evolving over time.
The problem with religion dabbling in politics is that it's considered uncouth to call bullshit on religious narratives and demand to see some evidence to shore up the more explicit assumptions.
Well, if I don't get to call bullshit on your narratives without you acting all huffy about it, then you don't get to bring those narratives into substantive matters such as the governance of my country. That seems like a fair deal to me.
- Jake If you only spend 20 minutes of the rest of your life on economics, go spend them here.
After all, when you peel away all the rationalisations, every political ideology boils down to some unchallenged axioms that are never entirely abandoned or disproved, only evolving over time.
so true...
i think the biggest challenge facing those of religious persuasion is not to succumb to groupthink.
the best ideas often don't scale up well, distortion and dilution dampen enlightenment into dogma. ~"When an inner situation is not made conscious, it appears outside as fate." Karl Jung~
You think any two people in history could come up with such fantastical stories as the churches tell WITHOUT groupthink?
Religion IS groupthink. The origin of religion is authoritization of group leadership. Align culture with our nature.
your point is accurate, but humans need leaders sometimes, and to have ones ready for those times.
true? ~"When an inner situation is not made conscious, it appears outside as fate." Karl Jung~
Humans vary widely in their social relations. Yes, we were originally adapted to small groups. How much can that be modified by atomizing influences in society?
I don't know, but society seems to be limping along. Barely. Align culture with our nature.
