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Originally Posted by PurpleWolf
I was once a hardcore christian, not a fundie but dedicated.
Up until I got into a conversation about religion with an older man.
And, despite all religions faults and problems, it gives people a sense of purpose and a set of morals and ethics to follow. It gives people friends, an external family, and a goal on how to live their lives. I would not be surprised if religious people died more content than non-religious people simply due to the fact that they feel they have accomplished something, whether that something is fake or real.
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It also gives easy answers even though those answers may be wrong and even harmful (about homosexuality, the role of women, slavery).
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When I gave up religion, one of the few things I realized was that life is pointless; you get born, live a short life (which consists of a childhood were you are controlled by your parents then 12 years of schooling, maybe higher learning followed by 40-50 years of working for our two bitches, money and society before finally becoming too old to be of any use to anyone, except verbally) and then die.
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That's just life.
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Another thing I realized is that religion makes peoples lives easier and safer.
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Tell that to anyone who's ever been stoned to death for adultery, burned as a witch, or tortured to death for heresy.
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The Western world is built on christianity and is a fairly accepting and safe society, imagine if instead it was built on the Aztec religion or Islam?
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The western world
was built on Christianity, (leading to witch burnings, the Inquisition, the repression of science, the oppression of women, etc) but now it is built on taking those things that we still agree with (thou shallt not kill, love thy neighbor, etc) and ignoring all those things that are inconvenient. Like it or not, Christianity's hold on the western world is dying.
I don't mean to misrepresent your post by ignoring the last part, but the first half of your post was what I wanted to discuss.