Sertorio wrote: ↑Wed Jul 01, 2020 7:08 am
cassowary wrote: ↑Wed Jul 01, 2020 6:33 am
Sertorio wrote: ↑Wed Jul 01, 2020 5:12 am
cassowary wrote: ↑Wed Jul 01, 2020 12:10 am
As what one of our Founding Fathers, Dr Goh Keng Swee advocated, you need to send in the missionaries to correct their character flaws that came from their culture. Put the fear of God into them. Convince them they will burn in hell if they mistreat their kids.
If you were a missionary and came to my village in that frame of mind, I would make sure I would stew you and feed you to my people... At least like that you would have been good for something...
That did happen sometimes. But there were those who succeeded and brought the light of Christian civilisation to savages.
As religions go, Christianity is better than most. But like all religions it tends to make people neurotic and is responsible for lots of unhappiness...
Not Christianity. I don't know about the others.
Regular churchgoers are happier, study finds.
According to a study published today (Dec. 7) in the journal American Sociological Review, religious people gain life satisfaction thanks to social networks they build by attending religious services. The results apply to Catholics and mainline and evangelical Protestants. The number of Jews, Mormons, Muslims and people of other religions interviewed was too small to draw conclusions about those populations, according to study researcher Chaeyoon Lim, a sociologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
In the case of Muslims, I suspect that regular mosque attendance tends to get you blown up. Maybe they are happy with that just before they die.
I also think that it has more to do than just social networks. A social network of Socialists, I suspect will make one angry, depressed and unhappy. The Christian faith encourages its believers to have a positive outlook in life. I know of a woman from my church suffering from cancer. Despite the chemo, which appears to be not working, she is so very cheerful.
It has been statistically proved that regular church attendance leads to greater wealth.
Wealth from Worship
Jonathan Gruber, an economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, claims that regular religious participation leads to better education, higher income and a lower chance of divorce. His results* (based on data covering non-Hispanic white Americans of several Christian denominations, other faiths and none) imply that doubling church attendance raises someone's income by almost 10%.
The idea that religion can bring material advantages has a distinguished history. A century ago Max Weber argued that the Protestant work ethic lay behind Europe's prosperity.
I like to think it was due to Divine Blessings. But since you are an atheist, I offer you alternate explanations . The Christian faith steers you away from destructive vices - drugs, alcohol, gambling, promiscuity/divorce etc which could wreck your life. It also encourages diligence, honesty, frugality and a positive way of thinking. We are always taught to thank God for our blessings.
Compare that with the negative thinking that the left encourages - you will forever be poor because you are black living in a racist society. You will always be poor because of capitalism. Leftist ideology makes you feel angry all the time with the world. You are made to think you are wronged. When wronged, the Christian teaching is forgiveness. This is liberating. It frees you to think of the future and not be bitter of the past.
I know you Socialists want to destroy religion, especially Christianity. So that is why you are toying with the idea of bringing back stoic philosophy. It does have good ethics. But beyond a small group of intellectuals, do you expect the ideas a bunch of long dead pagan philosopher can influence people to change destructive behaviors and make altruistic sacrifices. As we have seen, people like Seneca are hypocrites. Can he inspire another Mother Theresa?
No, such altruistic behavior can only be inspired by the belief in a all powerful God who can mete out divine rewards and punishments now and the hereafter. Whether He exists or not is besides the point. (I believe He does.)