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lindysalsagal

(20,434 posts)
Fri May 22, 2020, 11:58 AM May 2020

Proof that religion is an addiction

https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/2020/05/21/minnesota-catholic-lutheran-defy-walz-reopen-coronavirus/

Catholics and some Lutherans in Minnesota plan to buck their state’s governor and reopen churches May 26

By Michelle Boorstein May 22, 2020 at 11:13 a.m. EDT

Leaders of two of Minnesota’s largest faith groups are planning to resume indoor worship services next week in defiance of the governor’s order, saying it’s “extreme and prejudicial” to put religious gatherings in a reopening category similar to that of tattoo parlors or hair salons and subject them to limits stricter than those placed on retail stores.

In a conference-call news conference Thursday, Archbishop Bernard Hebda, Catholic leader for the state, and the Rev. Lucas Woodford, president of the Minnesota South District of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, said they were fine with restrictions earlier in the pandemic. Now that there is a reopening plan, however, they said they can’t accept gathering limits for worship that surpass those affecting places such as the Mall of America.

“Our community members are suffering from financial and social and emotional strain,” Hebda said on the call, which was organized by Becket, a religious liberties law firm representing the two groups. “It’s our sacred duty to meet the spiritual needs of the suffering.”


My take:

You've got the phone, zoom, newpapers, magazines, online message boards, online journals, the bible, and just plain faith and prayer.

Why isn't that sufficient?
22 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Proof that religion is an addiction (Original Post) lindysalsagal May 2020 OP
Why isn't that sufficient? Pantagruel May 2020 #1
I'm not so sure Major Nikon May 2020 #4
Can't pass the collection plate illegal smile May 2020 #2
The fines should be different for commercial entities. CaptYossarian May 2020 #3
They need close physical contact to spread an apocalyptic plague Bretton Garcia May 2020 #5
Addiction is an overused term. guillaumeb May 2020 #6
But religious cults seem to addict us to one idea. Bretton Garcia May 2020 #7
Political cults often seem to addict one to an idea. guillaumeb May 2020 #10
Maybe Bretton Garcia May 2020 #11
What counter-argument are you implying? hurl May 2020 #8
What evidence was presented to merit the use of the term addiction? guillaumeb May 2020 #9
The common psychological standard Bretton Garcia May 2020 #12
So if the vast majority of people in general are not destructive to others? guillaumeb May 2020 #16
Evangelicals, the evil angels, are pretty numerous Bretton Garcia May 2020 #17
Which avoids my points. guillaumeb May 2020 #20
White evangelicalism is a different religion by now. Bretton Garcia May 2020 #21
Good points. guillaumeb May 2020 #22
Seems like a perfect use of the word, by definition: NeoGreen May 2020 #13
Thanks, ng. They cling to it because the organizers lindysalsagal May 2020 #14
It's not much more than a security blanket... NeoGreen May 2020 #15
The whole "reunited" w dead loved ones is too irresistible lindysalsagal May 2020 #18
Yep. This is a 1-ride show... NeoGreen May 2020 #19

Major Nikon

(36,814 posts)
4. I'm not so sure
Fri May 22, 2020, 01:02 PM
May 2020

I suspect the bigger fear is losing business to mass flock fleecers like Copeland, et al.

CaptYossarian

(6,448 posts)
3. The fines should be different for commercial entities.
Fri May 22, 2020, 12:04 PM
May 2020

"You can open for business/worship (what's the difference?), but we get 50% of the $ you take in."

Make it $500 for an individual's first offense and keep doubling it every time thereafter. They'll $ocial distance for sure.

Bretton Garcia

(970 posts)
7. But religious cults seem to addict us to one idea.
Mon May 25, 2020, 12:02 PM
May 2020

And to blank out everything except the central focus. The drug: God.

And they say, all Christianity is a cult; having come from the older priestly "cultus" (Latin), or cultural concentration on a temple, etc.

hurl

(931 posts)
8. What counter-argument are you implying?
Mon May 25, 2020, 06:44 PM
May 2020

What do you claim as the appropriate usage level, so that the rest of us can understand how lindysalsagal's usage especially exceeds it?

guillaumeb

(42,641 posts)
9. What evidence was presented to merit the use of the term addiction?
Mon May 25, 2020, 09:02 PM
May 2020

If you vote in every election, are you addicted to voting?

guillaumeb

(42,641 posts)
16. So if the vast majority of people in general are not destructive to others?
Tue May 26, 2020, 10:00 PM
May 2020

The problem with this thread, as I see it, is that most people are not destructive or dangerous. So the term addictive does not apply.

To go further, and I have done so many times here, the real problem is with authoritarians who operate in every hierarchy. No matter the organization, there will invariably be some members who wish to control others. And these members will generally claim to be acting in the best interests of the organization, and its members. Some of these authoritarians might truly believe that they are acting for the best.

We see this tendency everywhere, in theistic societies, the majority, and the few atheistic societies. The authoritarians will always try to divide and control.

guillaumeb

(42,641 posts)
20. Which avoids my points.
Wed May 27, 2020, 07:54 PM
May 2020

If black Evangelicals did not vote for Trump, could the problem be racism? Trump is an open racist.

If Evangelicals of every color supported Trump, I might agree that Evangelism is the root cause, but if mainly white Evangelicals are supportive of Trump, my view is that racism is the key.

Bretton Garcia

(970 posts)
21. White evangelicalism is a different religion by now.
Thu May 28, 2020, 02:40 AM
May 2020

From black evangelicalism.

They started together. But began to diverge decades ago. If you listen to their services, clearly one is rather liberal, the other is conservative. Like the split in say, Presbyterians, the split is deep enough to change formal doctrinal emphasis. Within these religions, themselves.

Religions split all the time. The way Protestantism split from Catholicism.

To the extent that they are both stll religions, they both emphasize magical thinking, to be sure. But then the differences soon appear.

guillaumeb

(42,641 posts)
22. Good points.
Thu May 28, 2020, 04:11 PM
May 2020

In my view, racism is foundational to the white experience in this country. Which is not to say that white people as a group are racist, just that racism is so embedded in the white experience that it distorts everything.

NeoGreen

(4,030 posts)
13. Seems like a perfect use of the word, by definition:
Tue May 26, 2020, 10:21 AM
May 2020
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/addiction


Addiction
1 : a compulsive, chronic, physiological or psychological need for a habit-forming substance, behavior, or activity having harmful physical, psychological, or social effects and typically causing well-defined symptoms (such as anxiety, irritability, tremors, or nausea) upon withdrawal or abstinence : the state of being addicted


Emphasis added.

lindysalsagal

(20,434 posts)
14. Thanks, ng. They cling to it because the organizers
Tue May 26, 2020, 07:00 PM
May 2020

Have accessed their vulnerabilities by promising relief from common causes of suffering. Its calculated and malicious. And it personally serves those who can harness the inherent powers. Humans were bred to adapt, and by adapting to the entrance expectations, they become enslaved to it, unable to see the damage religion causes.

NeoGreen

(4,030 posts)
15. It's not much more than a security blanket...
Tue May 26, 2020, 07:15 PM
May 2020

...they steadfastly refuse to take responsibility for their life, and death. They want to live forever, so they willfully embrace whatever narrative gives them that comfort, regardless of the fact the narrative does not comport with reality.

It's willful, purposed, ignorance, nothing more.

All so they may 'believe' and have 'faith' in the magic story they have been sold: that they will live forever.

lindysalsagal

(20,434 posts)
18. The whole "reunited" w dead loved ones is too irresistible
Wed May 27, 2020, 01:19 PM
May 2020

No, guys. You've gotta get it right while you're on earth. No 2nd chances.

NeoGreen

(4,030 posts)
19. Yep. This is a 1-ride show...
Wed May 27, 2020, 02:02 PM
May 2020

...and who do you meet in the great beyond?

Alzheimers grandma? 20-yo grandma?

Are people who died as infants always infants?

Do people with cognitive disabilities keep their disability with them? If not, are they still who they were?

Is there a difference between someone born blind verses someone who could see and lost their eyesight in life? Do they both get equal vision in heaven?

And the one that kills it for me.
How could you ever be in a state of bliss, knowing that there are good people in hell?
Burning in 'conscious torment for eternity'.
People you knew, people you loved.
What kind of rat-bastard would you have to be to exist in a state of 'bliss' while you look down and see your grandmother, your best friend, or your child burning forever.

And if it is some magical hand wave that excuses this paradox, how is that 'you', then?

Magic and wishful dreams, that all it is, with no more substance than the tooth fairy or the green tiger-striped wickernacker, with purple boots covered in pink-polka dots and an ermine hat topped with one big silver tassel, I just conjured up in my imagination.

It's all pretend.

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