worship is pretty fun. gives a bunch of people something in common. plus it helps keep your ego in check.

If there was no institutionalization there would be no religion to talk about....Religion only bonds people together because of their common belief in something that doesn't exist. If everyone saw the utility in religion there would be no need for it.

...worship keeps certain ego's in check to feed other egos.

You can say that about anything, like the city you live in, on the other hand people don't use worship for that, no one really know how you worship deep inside. Worship is pretty serious. People use the peripheral things in life to bond, long before they use something how worship they God, the only thing they have in common is they show up in the same temple or chruch. Just because you show up in the same temple or church as they do, doesn't mean you know exactly how they worship God, only God knows that.

I think "institutionalized" religions are the product of cause and consequence, something that has appeared several times independently and will continue to appear and will help religions be competitive against science and other religious beliefs (wrote a lot more about this a couple of posts ago). Religions Have to adapt to their environment and these big, slow-changing religions do much worse in wealthy societies that are open and positive to science because scientific thought often replaces religion .. Their mental niches often overlap in people leading to one outcompeting wholly or partially the other.

In Norway, they've taken christianity out of school which I think is a great step. Kids still learn about christianity and other religions, but not as if they were true. "Truth" is something they're taught in their natural sciences classes.

If you're for lessening the impact of religion on society, stuff like that will likely be a major step.

I'm aware some people think that a society with too much emphasis on science means no spirituality, but I don't think so. I think the more personalized religions and spiritualisms that are more adaptive and often highly individual can thrive in such a society. They are more able to co-exist with science and they're no longer oppressed by the large religions that teach people just what to think and believe.

I'm also for teaching more philosophy personally.

My breast plate, sword and shield,
facing an enemy called negativity.
I am afraid you are mistaken,
its your unbelief that will be shaken.
Time is on my side, though yours short lived
keep ridiculing you rediculous div.

"In truth, there was only one Christian, and he died on the cross."

I most definitely want to know how this conversation ends up... if it ever ends. xD

if it could ever end this thread wouldn't have been made in the first place.

its impossible to have an ending.

think of this thread like the last episode of the Sopranos... we will be questioning and (most likely) be disappointed for eons and eons.