NOM

We find objects and places. But we don't know what it meant to them, or what they were for. They'll often theorize religion but we don't have evidence for knowing. We're just projecting from our own behavior.

Most civilizations we have no idea what they believed, if anything. They didn't leave records. I agree that religion has been an organizing principle for humans. But the same theory you use for deciding the search for god is a necessity can be used to say that every civilization that believed in a ...

I don't think it's that binary. Mormons come in many varieties from zealots to social members.

I think if you change soul to percent money donations they each make you could score their religiosity fairly well.

To me they're all forms of in and out group thinking. It's ok, even proper to kill the out group. All the atrocities are against the out group.

Atheism doesn't address grouping at all. It's just that some use it for that purpose.

Religion is explicitly about being the in group.

The reason I disconnect atheism from the atrocity is because atheism itself isn't about any particular moral value. It's about one's belief in God. To associate atrocity to atheism but downplay it in theism is essentially a divine command theory claim, that god is the source of morality. What God ...

My point about Scandinavian Countries is that they are very low belief cultures. They don't have religion at the core the of their government and operation though they may still have state churches mostly for historic tradition, As to the atrocities places at the feet of atheistic regimes, is the ...

More modern societies based on atheism seem to be authoritarian in order to stop religious practice. I don't want to see that. I hope that we are shifting to a society that values science and inquiry as well as compassion and respect. Some days I fear that we are just becoming a set of tribes ...

Why does it need to be replaced? People can get on with other activities and organizations of interest in the freed up time and money

Spiritually, I pursue nothing.

I am refreshed from time in nature, which one might construe as spiritual. I do not but wouldn't dispute those who do.

As far as the LDS go, they lack the Temple lot and are unlikely to get it. So nothing to worry about as to JC second coming. https://churchofjesuschristtemples.org/independence-temple/ Prior to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, a magnificent edifice—the New Jerusalem Temple—will be erected on the lo ...

Scouts was the only part of my church experience I liked. And now it's gone. I get that it's very much scoutmaster roulette for if you had a good experience or not. I had a great scoutmaster and the parents supported him. I tried to emulate his practices when I was scoutmaster but I couldn't get the ...

Secrecy is the core of religion. It's special knowledge that makes you superior, in-the-know, and special above others.Chosen, select, elect. And also milk before meat. It is also the same way that conspiracy theories work playing into the same human cognitive shortcuts and in/out group thinking ...

It becomes irrelevant because it's not really scripture. Time and distance make that clearer.

That's what I expect to happen. It seems to be what the Romans thought, or at least lots of them. Their gravestones have the epitaph

NF, F, NS, NC

non fui, fui, non sum, non curo

I was not, I was, I am not, I don't care

Paleriders post illustrates part of what I meant by there's not an absolute scale. I'll be putting words in palerider's mouth so if he disagrees with what I say please correct me. I don't want to misrepresent you here. Palerider seems to be advocating that a successful relationship is permanent ...

For the question to make sense, you have to figure out the scale on which "makes sense" is measured. There is no one absolute objective scale for that in my opinion. For a given relationship, it might make sense, if you are prepared for possible outcomes of both success and failure. And have ...

I had put the bible in the allegorical category prior to my faith crisis. But it was the attestation of Noah in modern revealed scripture that triggered the collapse.

Noah is attested in all the modern revelation: book of Abraham, doctrineand covenants, book of Mormon, conference sessions... Joseph mentions having seen others in vision, including Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael, but does not detail their association (D&C 128:20-21). President John Taylor identified ...

Science: a methodology for determining which of your beliefs are false, to help you define questions that will lead you closer to truth. Science can't determine truth meaningfully in a direct way. The hard sciences are about constructing MODELS of SYSTEMS based on observation. The universe as we ...