Perhaps the BEST B1G Forum anywhere, here at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

You live in California right?

Yes.

A book that I HIGHLY recommend is Sapiens.

One of the most important things about people, moreso than the ability to reason, is the ability to create and sustain myths.

Religion (abstracting organized religion as an institution AWAY from the idea of whether or not there's a supreme being) is a very powerful myth. It has done tremendous good in the world, bringing people together, helping people in need, helping people cope with the absurdity of living, helping people feel like they're part of something--a community, a purpose--bigger than themselves. It has also done tremendous evil in the world, and been a major force over the centuries in war, bigotry, and division between people. (Government/nations have done the same, and people over silly divisions like race/etc have also done the same; I'm not singling out religion for this.)

I think the biggest blind spot people have about religion is the sheer volume of wasted time and money it's caused.  Take all of the hours of people praying and going to church (not the peripheral 'good works' but the plain attendance) worldwide and think of that time being put towards actively working towards goals, simply resting, or anything else.  Billions of hours just forfeited.  

Money - not just money donated or tithed, but the trillions? of dollars NOT taken in due to the tax exemption of churches.  Fuck that.  I couldn't avoid taxes by having a college football club, but if I lie and say it's a church of college football, then I can.  It's garbage.  I don't care if it's tied into the birth of this country or not, it's wrong.

I think the biggest blind spot people have about religion is the sheer volume of wasted time and money it's caused.  Take all of the hours of people praying and going to church (not the peripheral 'good works' but the plain attendance) worldwide and think of that time being put towards actively working towards goals, simply resting, or anything else.  Billions of hours just forfeited. 

Money - not just money donated or tithed, but the trillions? of dollars NOT taken in due to the tax exemption of churches.  Fuck that.  I couldn't avoid taxes by having a college football club, but if I lie and say it's a church of college football, then I can.  It's garbage.  I don't care if it's tied into the birth of this country or not, it's wrong.

Where you're failing is that you've got your own blind spot. That's why I was trying to highlight the good that religion has brought us. It gives people a sense of community. It gives people a sense of purpose. It gives bad people fear of eternal damnation if they kill or rape or steal (some people need that in order to not do bad things). 

Throughout much of history, your social safety net WAS your church community. People helped each other. People organized for members of their congregation who needed it. It gave people a community that was quite durable and strong because they organized together around the most important personal belief in their lives, that being a supreme being. 

Folks who profess that government just a substitute religion for godless liberals aren't completely wrong, either. Government is its own myth. The idea that we should help each other by sending our tax dollars to Washington DC and they'll send money back to people who need it is no different than the idea that we should donate our time and money through our church to help people in need. I could point to all the wasted time and money government has caused, too, because it's not going where *I* want it to. 

It's replacing a small local community with a giant national one, but as I said human beings can't really conceptualize more than ~150 people to be part of a social group (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunbar%27s_number). To truly extend beyond that you need myths. You need a myth of "Catholicism" to justify why my tithe should go help whatever charity the Catholic Church is part of. You need a myth of "America" to justify why my tax dollars from California should pay food stamps for someone I don't know and will never meet in Nebraska. Because we're not sending them to help feed someone in Nova Scotia or Oaxaca. 

Where you're failing is that you've got your own blind spot. That's why I was trying to highlight the good that religion has brought us. It gives people a sense of community. It gives people a sense of purpose. It gives bad people fear of eternal damnation if they kill or rape or steal (some people need that in order to not do bad things).

Throughout much of history, your social safety net WAS your church community. People helped each other. People organized for members of their congregation who needed it. It gave people a community that was quite durable and strong because they organized together around the most important personal belief in their lives, that being a supreme being.

Folks who profess that government just a substitute religion for godless liberals aren't completely wrong, either. Government is its own myth. The idea that we should help each other by sending our tax dollars to Washington DC and they'll send money back to people who need it is no different than the idea that we should donate our time and money through our church to help people in need. I could point to all the wasted time and money government has caused, too, because it's not going where *I* want it to.

It's replacing a small local community with a giant national one, but as I said human beings can't really conceptualize more than ~150 people to be part of a social group (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunbar%27s_number). To truly extend beyond that you need myths. You need a myth of "Catholicism" to justify why my tithe should go help whatever charity the Catholic Church is part of. You need a myth of "America" to justify why my tax dollars from California should pay food stamps for someone I don't know and will never meet in Nebraska. Because we're not sending them to help feed someone in Nova Scotia or Oaxaca.

All of that is well and good, and it is what has occurred with humanity, but it wasn't required to be that.  None of it required the belief in the supernatural. 

Bullshit that explains the unexplained (incorrectly) isn't required in order to have a sense of community or do good things or keep the mentally ill (those who require the threat of a hell in order to not to horrific things) in line.

"The church" was also "the power" and "the money" for much of the society that would eventually dominate the planet.  This is true because at some point, you either joined in or were killed.  Or ostracized.  Or pushed out. 

Zero gods are necessary for charity or aiding others or just giving a damn about other people.  You're citing the sample size of one and saying that's how it had to be.  And I disagree.

Yeah, I assume the inventor of gods was someone smaller and smarter than Grog.  After a number of attempts, he finally scared Grog enough to stop getting clubbed over the head.

I didnt know where else to post this but we need more of this kind of news

https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/tyler-linderbaum-iowa-offensive-lineman-donates-30k-from-nil-money-to-local-childrens-hospital/

wonder if Tyler is a religious kid?

Stop it...