[abosherid]

Religion has many positive benefits on society. We minister to those within our own congregation and are aware of individuals needs. A sense of community is fostered and people are concerned about more than themselves. Perhaps the pendulum will swing back to people discovering religion?

[kimburgess]

It also has many negative impacts. A sense of community does not need to be associated with any religion. When these two things are seen as one this provides a very exploitable relationship.

This is absolutely not true for every case - many religious organisations of all types do incredible work for communities. This does not imply the religion is the cause for that good though, it's normally just genuinely good people behind that org.

[nibbleshifter]

The same argument can be made for becoming a regular at a bar, lol.

[ajmurmann]

The strength of the religious congregations is that they have a built-in forcing function that drives a regular attendance and brings families and individuals together. You must go to avoid hell, drives more attendance than going to avoid possible, future loneliness.

I am an ardent atheist, but this aspect of religion makes me wish I too was delusional.

[starkd]

I completely understand your point. But you also have to realize that belief is also a choice, not just a factual agreement on reality. It may surprise you to learn that many of those church attendees are not 100% in agreement. They too have doubts. They choose to believe it for the community. Or the alternative is just too bleak for them.

[wwweston]

> But you also have to realize that belief is also a choice

Depends on what you mean by "belief."

I don't think "belief" as "perceived model / understood facts about the universe" is a choice any more than you decide what you see or hear or otherwise perceive. Maybe at margins where things are unclear.

"Belief" in a way-of-being / life path like "I believe that if I live this way, I'll see these results" probably involves a fair bit of choice. This is probably why the word "faith" exists and where it's most useful and may even be why it's associated with religious communities.

(There may be also be a middle ground where one decides reading only religious worldview-affirming material and avoid worldview-eroding discussion is likely to produce best outcomes and has the epistemic boundaries of all the material they take in set accordingly, and I guess that's a 2nd-to-nth order choice about belief)

[ajmurmann]

I'm not sure I understand what you are saying, but would like to. Is there a more long-form text on the topic you'd recommend? I think I can understand it for a simple question like "is there a god?", but cannot see how this arrived at believing everything in a particular passed-down book.

[mensetmanusman]

Religion looks around at everything and asks ‘is this all meaningful or not?’

Religion says ‘yes’ and the doubt is bridged by faith (as is all doubt, since most of human life has necessary doubt that can’t be proven one way or the other).

Some people say that having meaning/doubt is delusional.

[rpastuszak]

Or a volunteer. The issue with communities based on a religion is that they often tend to be exclusionary towards those who might live in the same area but not share the same beliefs. There are better ways and those don't require religion.

[stevehawk]

except at the bar I'm only pretending to hate the drunk with different opinions from me.

[the_only_law]

At least at the bar listening to someone drone on can be tolerable.

[rpastuszak]

I see where you're coming from, but I hope that we'll find many and better ways of building such communities, without the need for religion. Religion can be used as a tool of inclusion or exclusion.

Don't get me wrong, I'm glad that works for you. We need to see, feel something bigger than us.

[actualwitch]

Why can people only imagine building communities around religion and family? There are other options available that don't tend to be so hateful towards people they don't understand. For example, Epicurus proposed living in communes with friends and that seemed to work well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kg_47J6sy3A

[wwweston]

I'm part of a religious community, and while I agree that community and a sense of mutual care can arise from religious beliefs... the idea that it's the answer seems pretty iffy to me, especially considering that religious communities appear to have their own isolating failure modes. It's a bit like saying "capitalism is good at taking care of people's needs"; it's actually true in many cases, not super helpful in others. And religion isn't exactly hidden as a solution.

Society-wide I think revitalization of all kinds of half-forgotten communal institutions in the image of the bowling league or the fraternal organization could have some benefits. Churches too, but if the one I belong to is any indication, they could stand to help most by "first wash[ing] the inside of the cup and the dish" -- spend less time trying to remind people of church-relevance and affirming the worldview, and more time making their own community glow more brightly with the warmth/fruits the faith is supposed to produce.

[moffkalast]

If only we could do it in a way that doesn't involve make-believe sky deities and cult leadership going mad with power, like the average mass religion does.