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Religion

trotsky

(49,533 posts)

3. Something that is "all-encompassing, absolute and infallible"...

Reply to TygrBright (Reply #1)

Mon Dec 21, 2015, 12:31 PM

Dec 2015

you mean, like a god?

Totalitarian systems fail because eventually, they have to put up or shut up. Communism in the USSR could rail against the evils of Western capitalism all day, but when your people are queuing up for toilet paper, they're gonna eventually reject your political system.

That's where religious beliefs are different. Their promises can't be verified. Do this, do that, and you'll have a reward after you die! Sweet!

http://gretachristina.typepad.com/greta_christinas_weblog/2009/11/armor-of-god.html

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I think, "belief" is a survival-technique rather than a means of revelation. [View all] DetlefK Dec 2015 OP

The problem, then, as you define it, seems to be doctrine, not belief itself. TygrBright Dec 2015 #1

Something that is "all-encompassing, absolute and infallible"... trotsky Dec 2015 #3

There was no longer-lasting totalitarian system than the Roman Empire. rug Dec 2015 #6

In Michael Shermers book The Believing Brain, this is exactly what belief is... cleanhippie Dec 2015 #2

I'll believe it when I see it. Unless it's something Inconvienent like Global Warming. MasonDreams Dec 2015 #4

If that is essentially true, why don't animals have religion? rug Dec 2015 #5