Good News: And No Religion, Too
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The figures from the 2021 census show that 37 percent declared that they had no religion:
I see that area with the least percentage of religious people was Caerphilly, where I was brought up. I might have guessed from the number of empty Bethels, Zions and other chapels there. Mind you, it hasn’t stop Welsh supporters singing the Great Jehovah at rugby internationals, but then that’s for the music and the sound of the words not the words’ literal meaning. No human should sing and mean “I am weak, but you are mighty”. It’s the other way round: We are strong but you don’t exist.
Wish it were the same with nationalism. Patriotism is the most dangerous religion of all, is more prevalent than ever, and its gods are national flags.
Maybe people still feel weak on their own and identify now with their State rather than some god and that every national anthem amounts to “O State, I am weak, but you are mighty”. Some pop psychology for you.
I seem to recall a similar survey a few years ago. I think some of the people who professed no religion still believed in angels, spirits etc. The feeling that someone or something is watching over you is quite strong. Hence, I suppose, why people still think leaders know what’s best despite all the evidence to the contrary.
It’s the same delusion as the self/soul. The fact that we think etc. creates the illusion that there is an “I” that “inhabits” our “bodies” – so that the fact that it is a part of the body thinking etc. is blurred, but also fiercely resisted.
Rodshaw- ” I think some of the people who professed no religion still believed in angels, spirits etc. ”
To my way of thinking that is not an issue, in the same way that some people think their lucky underpants will help their football team to win, or that saying hello to a magpie when you see them is not an issue.
Politically these superstitions are not the same thing at all as being part of an agreed doctrinal code that sets out the actions and reactions the individual should take, instructs through a leadership group and usually requires subservience to the invisible god (the nature of who is usually decided upon by a politically motivated church/cult leader).
Irrational thinking is very common for most human beings; most of it is pretty harmless. I for one don’t like putting new shoes on a table (my Mam used to say that). Logically that would make no sense because shoe shops often have their new shoes placed on a table and you don’t see shoes shops spontaneously combusting all over the place, but I still try and avoid it. That doesn’t mean that I would follow a religious cults instructions as to live my life.
I always say hello to magpies, and ravens, crows, chuffs, foxes etc. Not out of superstition, but respect. So did the Japanese of old.
Religion had nothing to do with belief in ancient Rome, nor does it in Hinduism, Buddhism etc. Religion meant social performance, or ritual, and represented social cohesion. In Hinduism it was interlaced with the stages of life: childhood, parenthood, vocation and old age. It could be argued that the lack of attention to the stages of life is why so many under modern capitalism are so obsessed with sex, into old age even. They have no trajectory, their lives frittered away by the wages system or by social exclusion.
The monotheistic big three are the belief-oriented cults, where one’s belief in a deity is paramount. This also explains their historical intolerance.
“It could be argued that the lack of attention to the stages of life is why so many under modern capitalism are so obsessed with sex, into old age even.”
Gee, you sound a real bundle of fun. Not an incel by any chance?
Looked them up. Just confirms what I was saying: lives distorted by the emptiness and frustrations engendered by life under modern capitalism; life without structure and worth.
All religion had a materialistic origin, and they were also attached to a particular mode of production. Karl Kaustky explained pretty well the origin of religion specially Christianity. This one also based on the materialist conception of history. There are many atheists that support capitalism, and there are some theists who hold much better political and economical stands than many atheists
https://www.marxists.org/archive/keracher/1929/how-gods-made.htm
The Christians, who held and hold a belief-based religion, were called atheists by the Romans. The Roman ruling class was what we would term today atheist, but only used the word to describe the Christian cult. This was because, for the Romans and others in the Roman world, religion meant the social etiquette of the rites. The Christians alone refused to participate in these. They also were intent on converting others, which meant discouraging others from participation in the principal forms of social etiquette and behaviour. Hence, the Christians were “atheists.”
The Jews were known, likewise, for rejecting the rites in favour of their Unknown God, but in their case it was an ethnicity phenomenon and was therefore tolerated, except in times of revolt. But the Christians were seducing good Romans and others away from the rites, so could not be tolerated. The Jews were leaving others alone. The Christians were not.
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