"Religion ... is nothing more than insanity ratified by consensus."
~ Tavian Oladapo
We could get into a discussion about semantics with Oladapo's claim.
I do not think that a voluntarily chosen delusion that satisfies a human psycholgical need is the same as insanity. Sure enough there are a gazillion humans who need some sort of assurance that there is an afterlife. Gullible? Delusional? Irrational? ....I hesitate to suggest: stupid . Well alright the deep end ones are clearly off their rockers but the majority of them are perfectly functional, even admirably intelligent in ways other than their commitment to fantasy.
Quote from: Icarus on March 06, 2019, 01:04:51 AM
We could get into a discussion about semantics with Oladapo's claim.
I do not think that a voluntarily chosen delusion that satisfies a human psycholgical need is the same as insanity. Sure enough there are a gazillion humans who need some sort of assurance that there is an afterlife. Gullible? Delusional? Irrational? ....I hesitate to suggest: stupid . Well alright the deep end ones are clearly off their rockers but the majority of them are perfectly functional, even admirably intelligent in ways other than their commitment to fantasy.
Good point.
And as a matter of context Tavian is a chap on Facebook that I have been following and been friends with for a few years now. He originates from Nigeria and now lives in London where he works at Imperial College as a lab tech. He was deeply religious but read the Bible and revised his world view.